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Recording

Barrière / De Bury: Sonates et suites pour le clavecin

Luca Quintaville harpsichord
159:19 (2 CDs in a case)
Brilliant Classics 95428
Barrière Book 6 + six character pieces; De Bury Four suites

[dropcap]J[/dropcap]ean-Baptiste Barrière (1707-1747) was a basse d’orchestre  at the Paris Opéra and the first French composer to write idiomatically for the cello (four books of Italianate sonatas 1733-40). His fifth published volume was of six sonatas for the pardessus de viole, the first five of which he transcribed for harpsichord and published, together with an entirely new sonata and six single pieces, as his Book 6. These thus became the first keyboard sonatas to be published by a French composer. And pretty spectacular they are, combining string figurations with elaborate broken octaves and sweeping scale and arpeggio patterns. Imagine an amalgam of Royer, Rameau and Scarlatti on their headier days: this is virtuosic stuff. Luca Quintavalle is more than up for the challenge and even manages to sound as if he is enjoying himself. He sounds equally happy on the second disc, this time in the more obviously French ordres  of Bernard de Bury  (1720-85). His career was spent entirely at the Versailles court: son of an ordinaire de la musique du roi; keyboard player to the chambre du roi  (1744); maître de chapelle  (1744); and successor to Rebel as surintendant de la musique du roi  (1751). The music of his Premiere Livre  (1736/7) clearly shows the influence of Couperin (hardly surprising since Bury was still in his teens) both in musical details and in the titles of the pieces. Very occasionally the ornament playing is a little deliberate but the tremendous surge of the final Chaconne persuades me that I should bring out the rarely deployed 5* for the performance. The booklet identifies the instrument (a very good 2015 copy of Donzelague 1711), includes an informative essay about the music and an artist biography but is in English only.

David Hansell

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Recording

Concerto: Works for one & two harpsichords

Guillermo Brachetta, Menno van Delft
56:24
resonus RES10189
J S Bach: BWV971, 1061a; W F Bach: Concerto in G; C H Graun: Concerto in A

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or me, this doesn’t get off to the greatest start with an Italian Concert o first movement that is perhaps just a shade slow and longer on rhetoric than rhythm. This general style of interpretation seems better suited to the rococo frills of Graun and W. F. Bach, whose music is both charming and charmingly played. The highlight of the programme is the exuberant and no-holds-barred performance of J. S. B.’s C major double concerto in which the players both inspire and steady each other, making sensible use of their instruments’ resources to enhance the inbuilt contrasts still further. For what it’s worth, I enjoyed the programme most in the order Graun, J. S. B. in F, W.F.B, J.S.B. in C. The booklet tells you what you need to know, but only in English.

David Hansell

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Performance 4*
Recorded Sound 4.5*
Booklet Notes 3*
Overall Presentation 4*

Categories
Recording

Couperin: L’Apothéose de Lully, Leçons de ténèbres

Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen
70:35
Hyperion CDA68093

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the general context of current programming styles it feels odd to have a disc which offers two quite unconnected groups of pieces. I must say that I would have preferred to hear L’Apothéose  in the context of other instrumental music and, especially, the famous Leçons  in the company of other petits motets  by Couperin. There are some brilliant examples out there which really are too little sung. Anyway, back to what actually happens. The concert instrumental  is most beautifully played by the strings, with loving attention given to every detail but with no sense of tip-toeing from note to note. I liked having the movements’ titles spoken though they could have been very slightly slower and at a very slightly higher level. The only element that jars is the combination of lute and harpsichord on the continuo. This is just too much and is at times an over-active distraction from the simple nobility of the upper parts. I’m afraid that I did not enjoy the Leçons  quite as much. Others may not be as disturbed by the singers’ vibrato: I would have liked less so that the ornaments, especially the trills, were clearer and more special adornments to the line. In the booklet, Graham Sadler’s elegant note appears in English, French and German though artists’ biographies are in English only, as are the translations of the sung Latin texts.

David Hansell

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Recording

Fux: Ave Regina

Hana Blažíková soprano, Accentus Austria, Thomas Wimmer
57:18
deutsche harmonia mundi 8 89854 11892 1

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]lassy programme, classy music, very classy performances – pretty much ideal, in fact. Hana Blažíková controls her vibrato so that we hear clearly the perfectly pitched core of her tone, which thus becomes both an apt companion and a contrast to the cleanly played violins. And the music is very attractive: Fux could really do it, not just write about it. The only disappointment is that all the vocal items are accompanied by chamber-scaled forces: it would have nice to have at least one with the larger forces which were deployed on important occasions in the imperial chapels. The booklet (Ger/Eng) essay would have benefited from a fiercer copy editor – the English does occasionally read like a translation – though the content is good. I’m quite surprised that our editor passed this on!

David Hansell

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Recording

Mozart: Piano Concertos

Arthur Schoonderwoerd, Cristofori
69:57
ACC 24323
KV 271, 413, 414

[dropcap]J[/dropcap]udging from the back cover of the booklet, this would seem to be the sixth in a series of the Mozart piano concertos played by the Dutch fortepianist Arthur Schoonderwoerd, who also directs the Besançon-based ensemble, Cristofori. He plays a copy of Anton Walter piano of 1782. The cycle seems to have attracted little critical attention, this being the first CD I have encountered.

Of the three concertos on the latest disc it can be claimed without resorting to hyperbole that KV 271, the Piano Concerto No 9 in E flat, is not only the first great Mozart piano concerto, but the first great piano concerto in history, a work therefore of huge significance. Composed at the start of 1777, it was written for Louise Victoire Jenamy, daughter of the famous ballet master Noverre, when she visited Salzburg. Mozart did the noted young pianist proud, evidently taking considerable pains to provide her with a work that in scale and ambition comfortably exceeds the modest proportions that formed the norm in the mid 1770s. Its very opening announces something dramatic and innovative, a single bar’s flourish answered by two bars from the soloist. The gesture is then repeated, the traditional opening ritornello thus swept away at a stroke. The Andantino, with sighing muted strings, is the first of many of Mozart’s central concerto movements that will breathe the spirit of Romanticism, while the exquisitely lovely slow minuet Mozart inserts into the final Rondeau is an idea – the interruption of a quick movement with a period of reflection – he will return to only once again in his piano concertos, in the finale of the C-major Concerto, KV503. The other concertos were composed for a series of subscription concerts Mozart gave in Vienna in the winter of 1782/3. Both are more modest works than KV 271, their slighter character underlined by the fact that they can be played by single strings, the parts for oboes, horns and (in the case of KV 413) bassoons being optional.

I have mixed feelings about the performances. On a level of practical choice it seems a little perverse legitimately to adopt single strings – employed throughout the series, I understand – but then also include the wind parts. The ‘orchestral’ playing is throughout of questionable quality, with too many examples of sour oboe tone, and poor string intonation and ensemble. Dynamics, too, are far from being observed with anything like the attention they should be. Listen, for example, to the opening of the central Larghetto of KV 413, marked sotto voce. Here the winds’ piano interjection in bar 2 hits the listener with all the force and subtlety of a sledgehammer. Yet these are not performances to write off entirely. Schoonderwoerd is a musical, fluent and often sensitive player, and he frequently achieves a sensitive rapport with his musicians, phrasing with point or affection. The minuet passage in KV 271 mentioned above is a good case in point, the playing here achieving an affecting delicacy and poise that is most engaging. Moreover the single string accompaniment, although not really working for the bigger-boned KV 271, does at times throw up some interesting perspectives on balance.

So, while these performances are never going to reach the status of mainstream recommendation, they are not without merit, though that merit is not boosted by the churchy, over-reverberant acoustic.

Brian Robins

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Recording

Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’ isola di Alcina

[Elena Biscuola Alcina, Mauro Borgioni Ruggiero, Gabriella Martellacci Melissa, Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli Sirene/Una Damigella, Emmanuela Galli La Nunzia Oreste/La dama disincantata, Raffaele Giordani Nettuno/Un Pastore/Una Pianta incantata, Yiannis Vassilakis Fiume Vistola/Astolfo,] Allabastrina, La Pifarescha, Elena Sartori
79:10
Glossa GCD 923902

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]efore I write my review of the recording, a disclaimer: the edition used in the performance is my own. It never ceases to amaze me that working on a piece of music for several years (as I have with revisions and corrections of the score of Caccini’s work, after performances and workshops have cast new light on it), no matter how many times one listens to it in Sibelius, and no matter how good the sound of digitally sampled instruments has become (even the wordless “singers” are quite convincing), there is no way a computer can ever compensate for human performance. Starting with the different colours instruments and voices can produce at the whim of the performers, obviously. So, hearing this short opera for the very first time has been an utter revelation. This is a lavish co-production between two ensembles with violins, recorders, viols, cornetti, sackbuts, theorboes, “arciviolata lyra” (as the score requires), harpsichord and organ; sometimes the score is very specific in its demands, while at others unlabelled instrumental staves leave the choice of colours to the musicians themselves. Elena Sartori has made some judicious choices (including allocating two voice parts to recorders in a coro di damigelle), and similarly shrewd alterations to the running order, as well as supplying music by other composers to accompany the balli referred to in the source. The singing – solo and ensemble – is excellent throughout with some characterful renditions of the parts, which help the listener to follow the action. Despite a relatively large number of continuo players, there is none of the kaleidoscopic approach which has dogged many a HIP production of late; each section (and often sequence of sections) maintains the same soundscape. They also relish Caccini’s occasional harmonic boldness, without it becoming the centre of attention. Ultimately this is a very fine performance (and recording) of a work that really does deserve to be more widely known.

Brian Clark

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Recording

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis

Carolyn Sampson, Marianne Beate Kielland, Thomas Walker, David Wilson-Johnson SATB, Cappella Amsterdam, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Daniel Reuss
75:03
Glossa GCD 921124

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n an ideal world, I would not have had to review this recording. The Missa Solemnis was a set work in first year at university and, frankly, as an 18 year old, I just was not ready to appreciate such a monumental piece of art, from any perspective. Now in my fifties and almost a regular listener to Radio 4, I find myself better able to cope with the challenge and, having worked my way through the Haydn and Hummel masses courtesy of the excellent Chandos series, then the Beethoven C major mass  (which I had once sight-read in a concert in Glasgow, which was very much a white-knuckle ride!), now the epic and once-daunting creation seems not only manageable and more easily understood, it is also a pleasure to sit back and enjoy. Everything about this disc guarantees intellectual satisfaction, too – the choral work is excellent, with unanimity of declamation and crispness of fugal entries, and the orchestra produces some glorious sounds (I feel I must highlight the sparkling contributions of solo flautist and violinist, but they are in splendid company throughout – the list of wind players reads like a Who’s Who? of HIP giants!), but then above them the four soloists rise heroically, not in a “listen to me; I can sing much louder than all of you put together” sort of way, but rather in a “didn’t Beethoven build this structure with such absolute mastery?” sort of way, allowing them to project their all-important contributions to so many massive moments in a single work. There are not many large choral works that bring me pleasure; I have learned to love Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, and I do enjoy listening to Eliot Gardiner’s recording of the Verdi Requiem; it seems now as if I have no choice but to add Reuss’ Missa Solemnis  to that list, as I will be enjoying this recording for a long, long time!

Brian Clark

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Recording

Beethoven: Violin Concerto

Anton Steck violin, L’arpa festante, Matthew Halls
62:01
Accent ACC 24320
+ Pössinger: Violin Concerto in G, op. 9

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hile there will be a great deal of interest shown in this recording purely by virtue of its claim to be a world premiere recording after the original autograph score, and the fact that the “filler” (who I detest this disparaging description!) was written by a violinist with a very close personal link to Beethoven, for me the disc is a tremendous success simply because it offers beautifully recorded, accomplished performances. Anton Steck is a first-class violinist and his accounts of these two very different works are honest and engaging. Yes, of course, there are moments when the subconscious inner ear is surprised by the unexpected, but these are rarely disturbing; even the early published editions of the concerto offer variant readings – Beethoven’s score offers violinists up to four different versions of some bars! L’arpa festante (76543 strings) support Steck with some ravishing playing, and enjoy the tunefulness of Pössinger’s relatively light work (with a far smaller orchestra and lasting just under 18 minutes, compared to Beethoven’s 44!) There is some evidence that Pössinger was the violinist to whom Beethoven turned for technical advice, so the pairing of the two works is appropriate. An especial delight of the recording are Steck’s cadenzas for the Beethoven! Perhaps this line-up could be persuaded to follow up the booklet’s title: “Viewed in a completely different light” – let’s have another couple of contemporary concertos and Beethoven’s Romances?

Brian Clark

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Recording

Telemann: Trumpet & Horn Concertos

Jean-François & Pierre-Yves Madeuf, La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken
58:20
Accent ACC24318
TWV 44: D1+, 51: D1, D7, D8, 55: D7

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]nother recording of Telemann’s trumpet concertos? I hear you cry. Well yes, but not as we know them, Jim! There are two aspects of the current disc that set it apart from anything you are likely to have heard before. In the first place, the brass instruments are played “au naturel”, i. e., without any finger holes or hand stopping; secondly, rather than being soloist versus orchestra, these are – as the composer undoubtedly expected – played as chamber music with one instrumentalist per part. This of itself would be reason enough to acquire this disc, but there is the obvious additional attraction of getting HIP guru Sigiswald Kuijken’s way-too-infrequent interpretations of Telemann’s fabulous music and in this, as in every other respect, this listener was not disappointed. For all their typical associations with royalty and the military, the five pieces on the disc dispel once and for all the notion that you cannot build a thoroughly enjoyable recital in a single key. The wide range of sounds and textures in Telemann’s music, and these performances of it (which include two bonus tracks without the trumpet!) continually delight the ear in ever-changing ways, and although the boisterous faster movements with their often fruity brass tuning resounded triumphantly in whichever machine I happened to be listening to them in at the time, I actually derived a lot of pleasure from the quieter oases, where Kuijken & Co. took time to relish equally the composer’s richer harmonic writing or his delight in much simpler fare. This is one for early brass fans, Telemanniacs and HIPsters alike.

Brian Clark

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Categories
Recording

Vivaldi: Les orphelines de Venise

Les cris de Paris, Geoffroy Jourdain
65:05
Ambronay AMY047
Concerto Madrigalesco RV129, Sinfonia al Santo Sepolcro RV169, Kyrie RV587, Gloria RV589, Credo RV591, Magnificat RV610a

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his disc revisits the “How was Vivaldi’s church music performed without men?” debate. Before I comment on Jourdain’s approach to it, I must first of all simply commend the performances; both singing and playing are absolutely first rate, with a glorious choral sound, agile and stylish soloists and very fine instrumental contributions from all concerned. The programme is built around a Venetian “messa intiera” (Kyrie, Gloria and Credo; apparently the Sanctus and Agnus Dei would have been recited by priests during instrumental music), and the rich variety of styles employed by Vivaldi is notable – I was struck by accented bass notes of the Crucifixus, for example. Jourdain has spent a long time researching and thinking about Vivaldi’s SATB church music, and come to the conclusion that the surviving scores are notated in that format to make it more available to performers outside the ospedale network; he thinks the normal modus operandi&nbsp where he directed the choir was that the upper three voices were performed as writ, with the bass sung an octave higher by a second group of altos (more often that not in unison with col basso violas!) All of this sounds reasonable, but my eyebrow arched at his contention that when the tenor part is “more interesting” than the soprano line, it should be transposed up an octave (with the happy consequence that doing so sometimes corrects Vivaldi’s naughty consecutive fifths). Who defines “more interesting”? And I worry about choral conductors who seem to think that “Joe Public” only listens to the soprano line (I’ve worked for and with a few!) This need not put anyone off acquiring the disc – as I said at the beginning, it’s a wonderfully accomplished recording that deserves to be widely enjoyed.

Brian Clark

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