Categories
Recording

Vanhal: Concertos for clarinet, oboe & bassoons

Luc Loubry & François Baptiste bassoon, Michel Lethiec clarinet, Piet Van Bockstal oboe, The Prussian Chamber Orchestra, Hans Rotman
68:00
Et’cetera KTC 1603

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]egular readers will know that I am a fan of Vanhal’s music, and his affinity with woodwind instruments; even modern players seem to share my enthusiasm, and while clarinet and bassoon somehow manage not to offend my HIP-sensitive ears, I’m afraid oboe and unchallenged (?) string players don’t (that is in no way meant as criticism of the oboist, who plays beautifully!); so, while the solo episodes with their lighter accompaniments of violins and violas work, tuttis are uninspired and lacking in air that isn’t produced by some artificial dynamic or other. To be fair to The Prussian Chamber Orchestra, some of the slower movements are rather more successful, but the approach is generally neither inspired or inspiring. So some outstanding solo playing of some honest music, but it could have been so much better.

Brian Clark

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Recording

Danican Philidor: Six Parisian Quartets

L’Art de la modulation
Ars Antiqua with Elizabeth Wallfisch
65:07
Nimbus Alliance NI 6347

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hese six delightful “Quatuors pour un Hautboy, 2 Violons, et Basse” were published in 1755. Gambist Mark Kramer’s notes say relatively little of the music (in all honesty, there is not much he could have said, since these are the composer’s only surviving chamber works) but they do a marvellous job of setting the scene, describing the transition of taste and artistic and musical styles as the strict order of Louis XIV’s France gave way to the Age of Enlightenment. Philidor was better known in his own day as a master chess player, capable of playing three games simultaneously while blindfolded; thus, writing music in four parts in ever-varying combinations was no complex task for him. These are enjoyable pieces, very nicely played, but they are less contrapuntally complex than Telemann’s of three decades earlier, and – in terms of the rococo filigree that Kramer highlights – they scarcely rival the many quartets produced by Janitsch, his Berlin-based contemporary. Ars Antiqua perform sinfonie  3, 4 and 6 with flute instead of oboe. Their inclusion of a harp is probably justified on the basis of the instrument’s popularity in French music tooms of the period, and I suppose the original gamba player might have read over the keyboard player’s shoulder. Yes, these are quartets for six! And thoroughly entertaining they are, too.

Brian Clark

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Recording

Mozart: The complete works for violin and orchestra

Zsolt Kalló, Capella Savaria, Nicholas McGegan
127:49 (2 CDs in a jewel case)
Hungaroton HCD 32761-62

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s a violinist (of sorts), I have always loved the concertos that Mozart wrote for the instrument; for many a year, my favourite recording has been the now-20-year-old AAM/Simon Standage set. In his review of that set, Richard Wigmore wrote in Gramophone:

“By the side of most modern-instrument performances Standage may initially seem cool and reserved, with a relatively narrow dynamic range. But his pure, slender tone (with vibrato reserved only for specific expressive effect), delicate, precise articulation and rhythmic subtlety make for fresh and inspiriting performances of music that has so often been drenched in an excess of opulence and sophistication.”

The present set is (to my ears, at least) a re-visiting of precisely those values, and the essence of HIP. Kalló’s style is very much in the Standage mould, albeit with a far wider dynamic range, while Capella Savaria’s larger, rounder tone reflects the advances that have been made in the intervening years with regards (particularly) to wind instruments. Of course, both sets are marvellous achievements. The new one is brightly recorded with a more generous acoustic than the earlier engineers managed; some of Kalló’s cadenzas are especially inventive, played with captivating precision and poise; the whole enterprise is infused with youthful excitement, and I have enjoyed listening to the two discs for hour after hour (when I ought perhaps to have listened to some other disks for review…) – when the music (and the music-making!) is this beautiful, it’s difficult to stop.

Brian Clark

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Sheet music

The Works of Henry Purcell: Volume 13

Sacred Music: Part I: Nine anthems with strings
Edited by Margaret Laurie, Lionel Pike and Bruce Wood
Stainer & Bell, 2016.
ISMN 979 0 2202 2347 1; ISBN 978 0 85249 932 0
xxxiii+253 pp.
£75

The anthems in question are:

    Behold, I bring you glad tidings
    Behold, now praise the Lord
    Blessed are they that fear the Lord (John Blow’s organ part is in the appendix)
    I will give thanks unto the Lord
    My beloved spake (two versions!)
    My song shall be alway
    O Lord, grant the King a long life
    They that go down to the sea in ships
    Thy way, O God, is holy

This volume is the last of the revisions of the Purcell Society’s early editions of Purcell’s “symphony anthems”, taking into account new sources and re-assessing all of the old ones. In so doing, the slightly bewildering decision to modernise all of the time signatures has been retained; are we not yet sophisticated enough to deal with the originals? If the editors concede that there is some value in them (perhaps in indicating relative tempi), why confine them to the (added) keyboard part? Similarly contrary is the decision to place the later version of My beloved spake after the original. Less contentious is the lack of any means of showing which text was extrapolated from the sources’ idem marks – some publishers use italics, while others bracket added text. Essentially, anyone seriously wanting to know what Purcell’s manuscripts actually looked like will have to seek them out (easily enough done by using the British Library’s online manuscript pages), but surely a revision of this nature ought to have addressed such issues? To be honest, I’m also slightly disappointed that the line about taking into account new sources seems not entirely to be the case, since the accompanying notes for each anthem list those that were collated and those that weren’t… Nonetheless, this is a beautiful book containing much fine music (of course!), and detailed lists of editorial changes. My overall feeling, though, is similar to how I feel about many infrastructure projects in the UK – why cause so many people inconvenience by adding an extra lane to an arterial road when projections show that in 20 years another will be needed? Will the Purcell Society have to fund someone else to produce another revised version of these anthems to address issues such as I have raised? Or is everyone else happy with such unnecessary modernisation of sources?

Brian Clark

Categories
Sheet music

Early English Church Music

English Thirteenth-century Polyphony
A Facsimile Edition by William J. Summers & Peter M. Lefferts
Stainer & Bell, 2016. Early English Church Music, 57
53pp+349 plates.
ISMN 979 0 2202 2405 8; ISBN 978 0 85249 940 5
£180

This extraordinarily opulent volume (approx. 12 inches by 17 and weighing more than seven pounds – apologies for the old school measurements!) is a marvel to behold. The publisher has had to use glossy paper in order to give the best possible colour reproductions of many valuable manuscripts. The textual part of the volume gives detailed physical descriptions of each, with individual historical and bibliographical information, followed by transcriptions of the (often fragmented) texts. Most are from British libraries, but some are from Germany, Italy, France and the United States. Though much of the material is accessible online, the publishers hope that a physical reproduction can help researchers and stimulate new interest in the repertory. It will certainly make an eye-catching centrepiece for an exhibition! In addition to giving scholars direct access to these invaluable source without having to sit, staring at a computer screen for hours. For all of these reasons, this apparent luxury will readily justify its price tag.

Fifteenth-century Liturgical Music, IX
Mass Music by Bedingham and his Contemporaries
Transcribed by Timothy Symonds, edited by Gareth Curtis and David Fallows
Stainer & Bell, 2017. Early English Church Music, 58
xviii+189pp.
ISMN 979 0 2202 2510 9; ISBN 978 0 85249 951 1
£70

There are thirteen works in the present volume. The first two are masses by John Bedingham, while the others are anonymous mass movements (either single or somehow related). Previous titles in the series have been reviewed by Clifford Bartlett, and I confess this is the first time I have looked at repertory from this period since I studied Du Fay at university! At that time I also sang quite a lot of (slightly later) English music, so I am not completely unfamiliar with it. I was immediately struck by the rhythmic complexity and delighted to see that the editions preserve the original note values and avoids bar lines – one might expect this to complicate matters with ligatures and coloration to contend with, but actually it is laid out in such a beautiful way that everything miraculously makes perfect sense. Most of the pieces are in two or three parts (a fourth part – called “Tenor bassus” – is added to the Credo of Bedingham’s Mass Dueil angoisseux  in only one of the sources). Each is preceded by a list of sources, a note of any previous edition(s), general remarks about the piece, specific notes on texting issues (most interestingly where the editors have chosen to include several syllables or words under long notes), and then musical discrepancies. All in all an exemplary work of scholarship, beautifully presented, and just waiting for someone to take up the challenge of recording this intriguing and beautiful music.

Brian Clark

Categories
Sheet music

New from Musica Britannica

Arne: Judith
Edited by Simon McVeigh and Peter Lynan
Musica Britannica C, 2016. xlviii+254.
ISMN 979 0 2202 2488 1; ISBN 978 0 85249 947 4
£130

Thomas Arne’s fine oratorio is deserving of so opulent an edition. The editors’ splendidly detailed introduction sets the scene and gives a wonderful account of the work’s genesis and performance history. Most peculiarly, we learn that the various original soloists took on various roles (some both male and female!). A very useful table in the closing notes (with accounts of variations in the musical sources and the libretti) suggests how modern performers might re-allocate the various airs and duets. Arne’s music looks splendid. After a commanding overture, the opening chorus is introduced by a pair of bassoons; a pair of cellos accompany a duet towards the work’s conclusion; in between, there are secco recitatives and accompagnati, coloratura arias, dramatic choruses and much besides. English sacred dramas by Handel are rarely performed; hopefully this excellent edition will inspire choirs to consider adding Arne’s work to their repertoire.

Philips and Dering: Consort Music
Edited by David J. Smith
Musica Britannica CI, 2016. xlv+216.
ISMN 979 0 2202 2489 8; ISBN 978 0 85249 948 1
£115

A volume devoted to these two composers is particularly sensible since, not only were both Catholic converts who lived for a time in Belgium (Philips until his death, Dering returned to England when Charles I married Henrietta Maria), but they may well have known one another. The music is organised firstly by composer (the older Philips first) then broadly in the sequence dances followed by fantasias in ascending size, and finished off by two anonymous In nomine  settings in six parts, attributed to Dering. Smith (or the MB board?) sensibly includes the Viola da Gamba Society numbers as part of each heading. In several Dering pieces, Smith has had to provide one or more of the parts; I had a closer look (randomly!) at no. 26 and found octaves between bass and part II in Bar 12 – the rest looks perfectly likely! With 38 pages of detailed critical notes, this volume is worthy of its predecessors in the MB series.

Richard Turbet reviews a new recording here.

Keyboard Music from the Fitzwilliam Manuscripts
Edited by Christopher Hogwood and Alan Brown
Musica Britannica CII, 2017. xliv+202.
ISMN 979 0 2202 2512 3; ISBN 978 0 85249 952 8
£105

Containing 85 works (six consisting of a pair of movements, one of two movements each with a variation), this volume had been in Christopher Hogwood’s mind for decades, and was first offered by Musica Britannica  in 1992. By the time of his death in 2014, proofs of the musical portion of the volume had been prepared but some editorial choices remained to be made, and brief notes had been left for a preface and introduction; enter Alan Brown who, as far as I can tell, has done a fabulous job in finishing off such a monumental task. 28 pages of critical notes follow the music, including a most useful table that lists the entire contents of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book  (which makes up the bulk of this MB volume), detailing where in Musica Britannica  each piece can be found. I fear the editors’ concern that a larger book might have been a serious damage to an early keyboard is more than justified; even this tome is far heavier than the Dover edition of My Ladye Nevell’s Booke  which I had at university! Additional material from “Tisdale’s Virginal Book” is also included (though only if there is a valid reason, since a complete edition was issued in 1966). Where possible, pieces are laid out on a single page or opening, so performers as well as scholars will welcome this volume.

Brian Clark

Categories
Recording

Monteverdi: Vespers 1610

Dunedin Consort, His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, John Butt
94:00
Linn Records CKD569

We were fortunate enough to receive two copies of this recording, so asked Brian Robins and  David Stancliffe to share their impressions. They are given below in the order we received them. The star review at the foot is an amalgamation – whereas Brian gave the performance four stars, David awarded six! In the other categories, there were unanimous with fives across the board.

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s an admirer of John Butt’s performances of Bach’s choral works, I approached his new recording of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers settings with considerable interest and anticipation. That the results seem to me less satisfying than his Bach is probably down to my conclusions falling mostly into the realms of subjective observations rather than outright criticism.

Readers familiar with Butt’s one-per-part Bach will not be surprised to learn that he adopts a similar policy with Vespers. That is to say a single voice is allotted to each of Monteverdi’s two 5-part vocal choirs, making a total of ten singers, all of whom are employed in the works marked for voices and substantial instrument forces such as the opening 6-part ‘Deus in adiutorium’ or all ten voices like ‘Nisi Dominus’, scored for two 5-part choirs and continuo. Given the outstandingly tuned singing and ensemble, the result is to expose Monteverdi’s often dazzling counterpoint in rare detail and clarity, especially given some slower than usual tempos, a topic to which I’ll return. There are, however, some unconvincing solutions, in particular Butt’s odd decision to allot both his sopranos (Joanne Lunn and Esther Brazil) to the ‘Sonata sopra Sancta Maria’, which is clearly marked Cantus in the King’s Music score he employs and obviously intended for a solo soprano. It doesn’t work with two singers, especially given that the diction is poor.

Other practical points. Given that there is no record of a complete performance in Monteverdi’s time Butt has not attempted to place the Monteverdi’s psalm settings in a liturgical context. Although considerable controversy surrounds questions of performance practice in relation to the 1610 Vespers, it now seems generally accepted that the pitch should be something in excess of standard modern pitch A=440, Butt choosing A=466, a semi-tone above. That works well with the high clefs (‘chiavette’) of ‘Lauda Jerusalem’ and Magnificat, their 4th downward transposition now accepted by most scholars. Perhaps more controversial will be Butt’s use of proportional tempos within the larger two-part tactus beat, especially as it appears to account for some of the slow tempos mentioned above. I felt especially aware of this in ‘Audi coelum’ (over which Butt takes 9:17 as against the 7:30 of Andrew Parrott in his path-breaking 1984 EMI recording) and hymn setting ‘Ave Maris Stella’, which to my mind drags. Elsewhere Butt’s use of tactus allows a flexibility that can work extremely well, as in ‘Nigra sum’, splendidly sung by Nicholas Mulroy with great intensity, and ‘Duo Seraphim’ for three tenors (Matthew Long, Joshua Ellicott and Mulroy), where the sense of wonder in the Trinity is most effectively evoked. It is in fact in the vocal concertos featuring male voices that the performance is for me at its most effective, since while the pure voices of sopranos in, say, ‘Pulchra es’ are beautifully produced, it is a virginal purity lacking any hint of the erotic that seems too Anglo-Saxon for this colourful Mediterranean music. This applies, too, to the larger-scale pieces, which sound just that touch too polite, too lacking that feeling of being on the edge that should be conveyed by this at times outrageously experimental music. The singing itself is invariably good, with ornamentation mostly capably executed, while the instrumental playing, which features the excellent His Majesties Sagbutts and Cornetts in addition to the Dunedin Consort is first rate. Although this is music that allows for considerable choice when it comes to continuo instruments, I’m not at all convinced by the harp in ‘Laetatus sum’.

To summarize it would be fair to say that I admire the performance more than I am excited by it. Others will surely disagree and no one should be in any doubt that it is a finely conceived and splendidly executed achievement.

Brian Robins


[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a first-rate recording, and I should say at the start that the questions I raise have nothing to do with the quality of the performers or their fine musicianship. This recording joins the groundbreaking one of Andrew Parrott and the Taverner Consort in 1983, the burstingly, zingy one of Christine Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata from 2010 and the utterly different recent version by La Compagnia del Madrigale under Giuseppe Maletto released this year by Glossa as those in the superlative bracket.

The first thing you need to come to grips with in preparing a performance of the Monteverdi Vespers is to decide what sort of a work it is; and despite there being no evidence of any performance of the complete ‘Vespers’ in Monteverdi’s lifetime, the series of movements that make up what we are nowadays used to hearing, with its extraordinary variety of treatment of the Gregorian psalm chants interspersed with the concerti for a growing number of voices, makes compelling hearing in its own right. I first heard the Vespers live in a performance in Westminster Abbey in October 1959, given by Walter Goehr with a large choir and modern ‘orchestra’ of substantial proportions, and was bowled over. But I have gradually – partly as a result of Parrott’s 1983 recording – changed my own performance practice towards single voices and now find myself in almost complete agreement with what John Butt writes in his perceptive and illuminating notes – especially about using a full complement of ten singers in different combinations, rather than tying each one to a particular part-book.

Interestingly, and unlike his liturgical reconstructions of the Bach Johannespassion  or the Christmas Vespers, Butt eschews others’ attempts to make the movements in Monteverdi’s publication fit some kind of historically reconstructed liturgical frame, and is content to explore the musical inventiveness of the publication as it stands, but without either the In illo tempore  Mass or the six-part Magnificat. His concern for the sonorities means that he never doubles the voices unless Monteverdi’s parts specifically call for it, so, for example, he relies entirely on the colours of each voice to articulate the contrasts between odd and even numbered verses in Dixit Dominus  and Laetatus sum. As a related issue, I am not sure on what principles he has decided to deploy his bassus generalis  players. I sometimes detect a discreet 16’ when I wouldn’t expect it, but there is no doubt that the principale  chorus of the Hauptwerk-generated Italian/Dalmatian organ (and there’s a useful reference to their website in the notes) helps keep the singers’ sound open and clean. When they play, the sounds of the Dunedin’s strings and His Majestys Sagbuts and Cornetts are exceptionally well-blended and beautifully captured in this intelligent and well-produced recording.

So with an instrumental sound formed in the manner of Giovanni Gabrieli’s basic church band in Venice, what kind of sound is John Butt asking for from his singers? In spite of owing a lot in its simplicity of scoring to Parrott’s 1983 recording, Butt’s performance is hugely focussed on the individuality of his singers. They are recorded pretty close up, so we are never allowed to forget that these singers are soloists; however well they are balanced and sing together, the sense of friendly competition frequently seems to trump absolute clarity, as in Lauda Jerusalem, so rich and exciting at (properly) down a fourth but at A=466. This style of singing may be justified by the ecstatic, volatile and highly charged nature of much of the music – it is Italian, after all – but these are singers at the top of their game who can do anything. For example, I was disappointed that the two sopranos didn’t hold their notes entirely still in the opening bars of their Et Misericordia: they ‘improved’ vastly later on and were almost perfect in the sustained Gloria as a foil to Nicholas Mulroy’s (properly here) dramatic roulades. Per contra, Amy Lyddon and Rory McCleery seemed to judge it exactly right in Esurientes, and the sustained lines of chant all through the Magnificat  are splendidly controlled.

Could more have been done to give the concerti  a greater sense of intimacy in contrast to the Psalm settings? I listened hard to see if the singers were consciously changing their style to match the difference in these pieces and I thought that Nicholas Mulroy did that splendidly in Nigra sum; the tenors Matthew Long and Joshua Ellicot gave us a wonderfully nuanced and controlled start to Duo Seraphim, and all three sustained Et hi tres unum sunt without a breath. The chamber style was certainly helped by the absence in these movements (till Audi cœlum) of the Italian organ and the discrete sustaining of a string bass along with the pluckers in Duo Seraphim.

Some small points: I like the relaxed tripla  Butt goes for – it makes sense of the proportions and time changes in the Sonata in particular, but in the Gloria of Laudate pueri, each choir in the tripla  section fails to sing bars 3 and 4 of the six bar phrase as a hemiola, producing an unmusical accent on ‘et’. The decision to follow some existing organs of the period and voice tessiturae and play at A=466 is confirmed by the more relaxed sonorities in Lauda  and the Magnificat, the movements where almost everyone now accepts the scholarly arguments for downward transposition. And ornaments. We know that cornetto players as well as violinists can turn every passage into a display of personal virtuosity, but is it right to do it so constantly? It seemed to affect the singers too in the verses of the hymn as well as in every ritornello. In big acoustics, I find it confusing as well as distracting.

The double page photo of the Dunedin Consort on pages 54/55 of the booklet doesn’t belong here: it is an earlier picture of players gathered for some Baroque concert – so no singers are visible, and it’s all the wrong instruments. If we need an overall photo with everyone there, it does need to relate to this recording, and could be part – like understanding the way the singers and players stand in relation to each other – of our appreciating the performance practice decisions. As always, there is good information about the pitch and tuning, but, except for the keyboard instruments, little information about the instruments themselves.

What I like most about this performance is that John Butt thinks long and hard about the music and how it works as a whole, chooses his singers and players with care, but then trusts them to deliver the music and so doesn’t feel the need to micro-manage them. This is what delivers committed and gracious music-making of the kind that is captured here.

David Stancliffe

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Categories
Recording

Sonya Bach plays J. S. Bach

Keyboard Concertos, Italian Concerto
Sonya Bach piano, English Chamber Orchestra, [John Mills]
103:02 (2 CDs in a standard jewel case)
BWV971, 1052-56, 1058

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hese are rather exaggerated performances, recorded on two occasions – March 2014 and February 2015 – in St John’s Smith Square. Sonya Bach is a young Korean pianist who plays a Steinway and is photographed for the cover draped over it.

She is clearly in love with it, and has been playing since the age of two; and also with J. S. Bach, whose contrapuntal writing she had mastered by the age of 10. Her performances are mostly in the vigorous style, with heightened dramatic accents and rather exaggerated dynamics, including some pretty extreme crescendos and diminuendos. The ECO strings play neatly, but neither they nor she are as aware of HPP as – for example – Sebastian Knauer, playing concertos in Bach & Sons 2, with the Zürcher Kammerorchester reviewed above.
If you like your Bach Klavier concerti with this scoring and style, you may be seduced by these sounds, but I’m not very keen on this approach. 2422

David Stancliffe

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Categories
Recording

J. S. Bach: Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord

Pauliina Fred, Aapo Häkkinen
70:17
Naxos 8.573376
BWV 1030-35

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a very good recording, and stands up well to all the others I know in quality of tone, the clarity of the recording and the sense of partnership between the two players, both well-known in the Finnish period instrument world.

Fred plays most of the sonatas on a full-toned and crystal-clear Wenner copy of a Palanca flute, but switches for BWV 1035 to a lighter-voiced copy of a Rottenburg by Claire Soubeyran. In this sonata she is accompanied – the right word here for the sonatas where the keyboard is a continuo instrument rather than a sparring partner – by a clavichord, whose arpeggios in the final Allegro assai seem especially plausible. For BWV 1033, which may have had its origins in a sonata for unaccompanied flute dating from Bach’s time in Köthen, Häkkinen plays a lute-harpsichord by Knif & Ollikka (2014). This certainly suits the rhapsodic nature of this sonata well, while in BWV 1032 he plays an Italian-style instrument, where the single 8’ used in the slow movement is a singing alternative to the lute stops used in the slow movements of 1030, 1031 and 1034. These multiple possibilities of registration illustrate the quality of preparation that has gone into the choices the players make about tone, phrasing and tempi, especially the easing of the tempo where it seems right. In the other sonatas, registration – including the use of the lute stop – seems well-judged, and softens the edge of the somewhat hard-toned flute (so good for balancing with other instruments in a larger band, I imagine) a bit.

The quality of attention one to the other in these sonatas is very high, and makes for chamber music making of the highest order. I can’t believe that there could be a better recording of these characterful and diverse works. I entirely recommend this CD.

David Stancliffe

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Categories
Recording

Bach and before

The Bach players
62:43
Hyphen Press Music 012
BWV75 + music by Kuhnau, Schelle & Schein

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Bach Players’ latest CD continues their imaginative pairings and leads to Cantata 75 by way of some of Bach’s predecessors as Kantor of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.

Johann Hermann Schein, who died young, was born in the same year as Schütz (1586) and is represented by the Geistliches Konzert Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, a short motet with a figured bass part for organ, and Suite no. 20 in E minor from Banchetto Musicale. The five-part string playing here is a delight, and the cool, zingy chords are well tuned. Would a theorbo have been a nice addition in this piece?

From Johann Schelle, Kantor from 1677 to 1701, we have an instrumental canon on Nun komm der Heiden Heiland  and a cantata Aus der Tiefen; and from Johann Kuhnau, Bach’s immediate predecessor, there is a more substantial cantata setting each of the six verse of the chorale Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan.

The Bach Players play and sing one-to-a-part, and their booklets, while listing the musicians, the timings, and the texts in German and English give most of the space to an essay by their excellent keyboard player, Silas Woolston. This one is typical, and by way of introducing the planning of the programme, manages to be both scholarly and informative: a pleasure to read.
The performances are good, and when I began to listen to the Schein motet, I was impressed by the increased clarity and blend of the singers since I heard them last. The accurate chording in the homophonic sections felt like an improvement on some of their more recent CDs and made me think how sensible it is to approach Bach from behind, as it were. Then the virtues of relatively clean singing can be carried through to the Bach, even if the plosive final consonant in ‘bestellt’ was surely not the best of which they are capable.

But that is not altogether the case. I notice that Rachel Elliott’s poise and accuracy in verse 4 of the Kuhnau is splendid, but she sometimes introduces a wobble on the final note of a phrase: I could understand this on the strong, penultimate note but surely not on the weak final note? It makes it sound as if she is running out of breath. This happens in the aria in BWV 75 as well, where this may – understandably – be the case at the end of the florid cantilenas! Nor is the rich-voiced Sally Bruce-Payne immune: in verse 5 of the Kuhnau, she allows what today’s singers are taught is expressive singing to win over the purity of the line. Balance and clarity are restored with a decent weight of organ tone and elegant but simple oboe playing in the final verse, but vibrato is an ornament in this period.

In the Bach, his first cantata after arrival in Leipzig, his hearers were treated to an extended two-part exposition of the where the opening verse of the Chorale Was Gott tut in an extended setting concludes each part, and the same chorale on the trumpet is the cantus firmus  for a string sinfonia that opens Part 2. The trumpeter, Adrian Woodward, is splendid here and in the C major aria with the bass that follows, shading off his top C beautifully (singers take note!). However, in the opening chorus the singing style adopted in the Schein is abandoned from the first alto entry in favour of a more soloistic approach; even the nimble fugato has the singers of the upper lines pushing through their held notes in the 20th century style, though tenor and bass do better. I suspect that people find Bach so demanding that best intentions give way under the pressure of getting the notes, the text and matching the instruments’ sound into place. This is where the exacting preparation and leisurely rehearsal timetables of groups on the continent win over our under-financed system in this country.

I make these comments not in any carping sense, because I admire this group’s music-making; but I would like them to gain that fluency and unanimity of which I hope and believe they are capable, and especially the integration of their singing style with the instrumental character of their music-making.

David Stancliffe

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