Categories
Recording

Boccherini: Stabat Mater, String Quartet op. 41/1

Francesca Boncompagni soprano, Ensemble Symposium
57:52
Brilliant Classics 95356

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his delightful all-Boccherini CD is a little gem. The Ensemble Symposium give a charming and thoughtful account of the first of Boccherini’s opus 41 string quartets before being joined by the sweet-voiced Francesca Boncompagni and the additional cellist Nicola Brovelli for an utterly beguiling account of his G532 Stabat Mater. The strings master completely the two very different roles of chamber music ensemble and accompanying mini-orchestra, while Ms Boncompagni negotiates beautifully the fine line between vocal precision and mere elegance.

The addition of a second cello and a slightly bigger acoustic establishes a wider canvas for what is a masterly contribution to the rich and varied world of settings of the Stabat Mater. There is beauty and profundity in Ms Boncompagni’s singing, although she never loses sight of Boccherini’s delicately engaging idiom. There is also more depth than I remembered in the op 41/1 quartet, a work which shares some material with the Stabat Mater  and which occasionally skirts the same dark musical world. The recording is crystal clear and the acoustic pleasingly generous without being over-resonant. Having thoroughly enjoyed the wonderfully expressive playing and singing here, I am also grateful to the performers for reminding me that there is more to Boccherini’s music than a superficial elegance.

D. James Ross

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Categories
DVD Recording

Llibre vermell de Montserrat

La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Hespérion XXI, Jordi Savall
71:46, DVD 73:45
AliaVox AVSA9919

[dropcap]J[/dropcap]ordi Savall’s musical forces and the music of the Llibre Vermell seem like a marriage made in heaven, and indeed his 1979 recording of this music with Hesperion XX was a ground-breaking and highly influential contribution to our understanding of the performance possibilities for this repertoire. There was an improvisatory dimension in the EMI Reflexe recording (CDM 763071 2) which was something quite new in the early music revival, and a genuine understanding of the original context of the music which made these recordings unforgettable. Touchingly Savall is revisiting the material as a homage to his late wife, Montserrat Figueras, who featured prominently in the 1979 recording and whose name of course invokes the monastery of Montserrat where the Libre Vermell survived. This recording of the material is of a live performance which takes the form of a continuous sequence of the songs, linked by short instrumental meditations built upon the musical material we have just heard. This is a winning formula, which allows the largely cyclical material to unfold to maximum effect, and with musicians of the standard of Savall and his players, truly exquisite improvisations can be relied upon. Hesperion XXI are playing a galaxy of wind, stringed and percussion instruments, and if some people might feel this simple, almost folk music has been rather heavily ‘orchestrated’ by Savall, the effects are generally fascinating, although I did feel that the inclusion of the ravishing sounds of duduk and kanun may have played into Savall’s philosophy of a pan-Mediterranean sound rather than having any genuine authenticity. There are problems relating to the live recording, too, some of which are unavoidable, but others of which could have been dealt with. In listening to the CD, I was very aware of intrusive shufflings and clunkings during the instrumental improvisations, and it emerged on watching the DVD that these episodes provided cover for the singers to rearrange themselves on their creaky wooden staging. However, on some occasions the distractions are provided by carelessly noisy page-turning and unnecessary movements, a surprising lapse from musicians who must be used to studio recording etiquette. These were less distracting in the DVD, where at least we could see the source of the noises, although the DVD had its own visual distractions – singers who folded their black covered music over, ruining the visual effect, while the splendidly bearded Pedro Esteban distractingly flapped a single sheet of music in one hand while playing percussion with the other. Stage management is important in concerts, particularly if you are filming them! The sound was being recorded on two centrally placed microphones, capturing the lavish acoustic of Santa Maria del Pi in Barcelona, but making some musicians sound rather distant and sometimes slightly out of touch. So what has Savall learned about this music in the intervening 38 years? Maybe that isn’t the point – he is revisiting much-loved material, and the fact that his once so radical approach now seems rather mainstream is due almost entirely to his remarkable career. And if the ravishing Mariam matrem virginem misses the idiosyncratic and exquisite voice of Montserrat Figueras at her very best, maybe that makes its own point. It hardly needs said that the overall standard of this lavish Alia vox package is superb in every respect, packed with scholarly information with bibliography and pictures, and printed to the very highest standards. A bonus track featuring a Catalan song, which the musicians performed as a concert encore, rounds the programme off to perfection.

D. James Ross

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Categories
Uncategorized

Beethoven, Ries: Cello Works

Juris Teichmanis cello, Hansjacob Staemmler fortepiano
67:22
Ars Produktion ARS 38 533
Ries: Sonata op. 20, Trois Airs Russes Variés, op. 72
Beethoven: Sonata op. 5/1

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ome comparisons are fairer than others. The coupling of the name of Ferdinand Ries with that of Beethoven is justified on a number of counts: like Beethoven he was born in Bonn (in 1784, 14 years after Beethoven), like Beethoven Ries sought to further his career in Vienna, where their paths crossed. After his arrival in the Austrian capital in 1801 Beethoven behaved with considerable generosity toward him, not only giving the impecunious young man piano lessons but also even financial assistance, in return for which Ries acted as secretary and copyist to Beethoven.

There are links, too, between the two major works on this CD, Beethoven Cello Sonata in F, op. 5, no. 1 and Ries’ Cello Sonata in C, op. 20. Both were the work of young men of similar age, the Beethoven dating from 1798, while the Ries was composed during the composer’s sojourn in Paris in 1808. Without explaining why or how, the notes claim that Ries modelled his sonata on Beethoven’s, although it is difficult to see the connection. And it’s worth mentioning here that the notes are long on the kind of biographical and historical detail you find anywhere, but provide no description or analysis of the works included.

In any event, this is where any valid comparison between the two ends abruptly. Although Ries opens his first movement with strong, Beethovenian gestures, he seems more interested in the gentler arpeggiated passage that follows. The development is also much concerned with strong rhetoric, but to my ears to no great purpose, there being much empty passage work for the cello, whose part (termed as obbligato on the title page) seems less rewarding than that of the pianist. The brief Adagio that follows starts with a vigorous tramping motif that promises more than it delivers, the movement subsequently lapsing into a pleasant Romantic reverie. The final movement is a Polonaise in rondo form with an attractive main theme, but in truth the movement amounts to little more than salon music. That applies even more in the case of the Trois Aires Russes Variés, op. 72 of 1818, a mélange woven together to create a colourful if inconsequential mosaic of lyrical and vigorous themes. Beethoven’s F-major Sonata, cuts a totally different figure, of course, a work bursting with a young man’s passion and burgeoning genius. As I said at the outset, some comparisons are fairer than others.

And that might equally well be said for the performances. Juris Teichmanis and Hansjacob Staemmler are both fine musicians who bring a vital, energetic approach to the music, though Teichmanis is often more effective in cantabile passages than more dynamic music, where the nervous intensity of his wiry tone is not always pretty. I suspect – despite the use of period instruments – he is probably happier in later music. Likewise Staemmler, whose playing of more lyrical passages has an agreeable fluency, but who has a tendency to be heavy handed in assertive writing. Anyone seeking the Beethoven will want to look elsewhere; this might serve if you have an urge to investigate Ries.

Brian Robins

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Categories
Recording

Pleyel: String Quartets, op. 41–42, Nos. 1–2

Authentic Quartet
62:04
Hungaroton HCD 32783

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]everal months ago I gave high praise to a CD of Pleyel’s piano trios, part of an extensive series issued under the auspices of the Internationale Ignaz Pleyel Gesellschaft (IPG) (anyone interested will find it in the September 2016 listing). This new disc is not from the same stable, rather presenting four works listed on the disc as string quartets.

As many readers will know, the usual listing for Pleyel’s works is under their Ben number (after their cataloguer Rita Benton). I was puzzled by the lack of any such identification on the present CD, leading me to further investigation. That opened up something of a can of worms, for it transpires that these ‘quartets’ are not in fact quartets at all, but rather keyboard trios whose correct listing should read Ben 443 in A (op. 41/1, Ben 444 in F (op. 41/2), Ben 446 in G (op. 42/1), and Ben 447 in B flat (op. 42/2), almost certainly composed around 1792, the year Pleyel came to London at the invitation of the Professional Concerts. The adaptation was probably made not by Pleyel himself, but the publisher of the quartets, Johann Andre, who issued them in 1793/4. Astonishingly, you will learn nothing of this from Hungaroton’s booklet notes and I’m indebted for an extensive anonymous Amazon review and its attendant comment for this information, apparently based on Benton’s Thematic Catalogue. There seems no reason to doubt its accuracy.

A notable feature of the ‘quartets’ is that apart from an opening allegro in standard Classical sonata form, the remaining movements (one in Ben 443 & Ben 446, two in the others) all feature Scottish airs. The original trios are indeed included in books designated as such, being the result of a commission from the Edinburgh publisher George Thompson for Pleyel to produce a series of introductions and arrangements of Scottish melodies for keyboard trio (there appear to be six books in all), a provenance seemingly unknown to either the assiduous Amazon reviewer or the rather less than assiduous Hungaroton note-writer. It will be recalled that both Haydn and Beethoven received similar commissions from Thompson.

Having settled the background, what of the music itself? Well, it is characterised by the high level of compositional skill I noted in the earlier CD. Opening allegros are pleasing, well-constructed movements with considerable melodic and contrapuntal interest and some effective modulation in development sections. Although the first violin is given occasional passages of bravura writing, there are no real difficulties for the performers, the works doubtless originally having been intended for the burgeoning dilettante market. The Scottish airs are mostly lively, good-humoured music, although the wistful Andante of the Ben 444 – perhaps the most appealing movement of all – and the central Adagio espressivo of the B-flat quartet introduce a more pensive note. The performances on period instruments by the Hungarian-based Authentic Quartet are very capable, being well tuned and balanced. They manage to capture convincingly the wit and general spirit of conviviality that informs these highly agreeable works.

Brian Robins

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Categories
Recording

Bach: [Cantatas for solo alto]

Iestyn Davies countertenor, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen
64:52
Hyperion CDA68111
BWV52, 54, 82, 170 & 174 (sinfonia)

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his CD contains three of the solo Bach cantatas that can be sung by the alto voice, interspersed with a couple of Sinfonias that the composer reworked from the Brandenburg concertos as substitutes for choral opening movements to cantatas 52 and 174. These are beautifully played, and with their horns provide a cheerful counterpart to the main meat of the CD where all three of the cantatas provide a fine showcase for the talents of the countertenor Iestyn Davies. As in previous partnerships between Iestyn Davies and Jonathan Cohen’s Archangelo, this is a very polished CD.

Davies’ voice is a far cry from the hooty altos of cathedral choirs in the mid twentieth century, but neither is it the voice for which Bach wrote: as the liner notes say, ‘‘alto for Bach meant a teenaged boy on the cusp of adolescence’’ and just occasionally you can hear that virile, sinewy sound in some of the iconic Harnoncourt/Leonhardt recordings from the 1970s, though when Leonhardt recorded 170 and 54 he used Paul Esswood, their regular countertenor soloist.

That apart, these are very compelling performances. The opening aria of 170, with its warm strings and oboe d’amore in 12/8, is a beautifully caressing lullaby. Much more difficult to bring off effectively is the central aria, where over a sighing bass of the unison upper strings, the organist’s two hands play a jagged canon on the two manuals of the organ – here a stopped flute in the right hand and a principal in the left. This is a really awkward aria to perform as its basic pulse moves so slowly, and there is a momentary unsteadiness in the first half of measure 20. But the tuning is excellent with a forest of chromatics with double sharps abounding, and must originally have sounded – and been meant to sound – pretty jangly. The last aria too has a virtuoso organ obbligato, and the opening interval (D to G sharp), the renowned diabolus in musica, in the ritornello signals the believer greeting ‘death-in-Christ almost jauntily while registering his disgust with this earthly life’, says the liner notes.

BWV 54 presents different challenges. Probably originally performed in Weimar on the Third Sunday in Lent in 1715, it was recycled for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity perhaps after 1731 when Bach returned to the material to quarry a parody aria for his St Mark Passion. This brief three-movement work is an exercise in resolving the opening agitated dominant 7th chords over the insistent bass in the first movement by the spirited four-voice fugato in the final aria. Though notatated in E flat, when played in Chorton it sounds in F, which makes it not so very low in the alto’s tessitura, but it was good to be able to admire Davies’ bottom notes, after hearing his upper range in 170. It was also a happy idea to acknowledge the early-feeling five-part string ensemble by using single violins to match to single viola parts, but I do wonder about the use of a theorbo as well as a harpsichord and organ.

BWV 82, probably as well-known as any Bach cantata, has at least three performing versions. Originally for bass in the 1727 version, Bach made a soprano version in 1730/31, transposing it up into E and substituting a transverse flute for the oboe; and then revised it again in 1735 for an alto/mezzo voice and reverting to the original oboe, but with a more articulated organ part, before a final version in 1746/7 which was again for a bass. Like Bach’s other Candlemas cantatas, the theme of old Simeon’s letting go of this life dominates the libretto, and the surrender of the central lullaby aria has few rivals in the Bach oeuvre. Even Iestyn Davies shows a few moments of strain in some of the higher passages here, when a mezzo might be more comfortable: was this version made for Anna Magdalena? Extracts of it were copied into her second Clavierbüchlein. After bidding the world goodnight, the last movement with its concerto-like aria (where the harpsichord continuo seems entirely right) makes a fine conclusion to this CD and reminds the listeners to attend not only to the fine singing, but to enjoy the excellent playing – Jonathan Cohen has assembled a very spirited as well as harmonious band of players for his Archangelo.

This is a thoroughly accomplished CD, and would grace any collection; and it’s a must for aspiring countertenors, who will learn masses from the way Davies articulates and phrases individual notes as well as lines.

David Stancliffe

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