Year: 2018

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Recording

Mozart: Sonatas for fortepiano & violin

Pink chrysanthemum

vol. 1/K. 304, 306 & 526
Isabelle Faust (“Sleeping Beauty” Stradivarius) violin, Alexander Melnikov fortepiano (after Walter 1795)
65:50
harmonia mundi musique HMM 902360

This is not the first series devoted to Mozart’s music for this combination of instruments but I would stick my neck out and say it will be one of the best – top of my pile to date are the witty and lively renditions by Rachel Podger and Gary Clarke, but (even on this early evidence) Faust and Melnikov will give them a run for their money and I will certainly have to make space on my shelves for the volumes that are yet to come.

Volume one combines two sonatas from his first published set (Sieber in Paris, 1778) and his A major sonata of 1787 (when he was working on Don Giovanni). This partnership (whose catalogue covers everything from Mozart to Chausson, including a complete set of Beethoven) clearly understand one another, and – acknowledging Andreas Staier as a guiding hand – they have clearly found their way into Mozart’s head, giving crystalline readings of great authority, beautifully captured by the recording team. I cannot wait for volume 2!

Brian Clark

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Recording

Corelli: Concerti Grossi, Sinfonia Santa Beatrice d’Este

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Freiburger Barockorchester, Gottfried von der Goltz
70:36
Aparté AP190

It’s Corelli, but not as we know it! Everyone who knows anything about Baroque music knows that the written note is only the starting point of a performance; singers and players must adorn it in their own style while respecting the composer’s original thoughts. It is equally well known that various writers described how concerti grossi could be embellished (and the harmony made richer) by the doubling of parts and, in certain circumstances, the addition of instruments not specified, such as oboes and bassoons, and “other instruments”.

So, you will know what is coming next. The 66423 strings (more basses than cellos?) are joined by oboes, bassoon, trumpets, trombones, lutes (yes, plural!), harp and one harpsichordist/organist (whose presence you will certainly notice). Anything in D with arpeggio themes is taken over by trumpets (except, obviously enough, in the passages where modulation makes their participation impossible). The two solo violinists “improvise” a very neat introduction to one concerto. It’s all great fun, and a novel way to hear Corelli’s music, but is it HIP? In fact, I would argue that actually the arrangements (because that is what they are) do not go far enough; rather than giving the brass players music and telling them to play whatever they can of a violin part, why not sit down and compose a brass part that is fully participatory – that is, after all, what musicians of the time would have done; the Dresden music collection is full of parts for instruments the composer did not intend which were composed by the copyists according to the style of the court musical establishment – and frequently these parts do not feature in surviving contemporary scores. While I initially warmed to the extra colours in Corelli’s music, ultimately I found the overall result a little disappointing from an intellectual perspective. The playing, as you would imagine, is wonderful!

Brian Clark

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Recording

Heironymus Praetorius: Missa in Festo Sanctissimae Trinitatis

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Volker Jänig (organ), Weser-Renaissance, Manfred Cordes
70:27
cpo 777 954-2

As usual with these performers, this recording is so much more than just a recital. This time, in conjunction with Frederick K. Gable (an Emeritus Professor from California), they offer us some idea of what high mass on Trinity Sunday might have sounded like. But it comes with a caveat: “Since little archival information has survived about singing the mass in Hamburg, it is impossible precisely to determine how these works were performed during Praetorius’s time.” Now that’s what I call a “get out” clause! At its heart is Praetorius’s Missa Benedicam Dominum, whose Credo is replaced by Jacob Praetorius’s setting of its German reincarnation, Wir gläuben all an einen Gott. The programme also includes settings of the introit and offertory for Trinity Sunday, and substitutes for the other mass propers. The tri-partite scheme of the Kyries, the Christe and the Agnus Dei sections are created using chorale and organ versions, giving a range of styles and sounds that probably (in my opinion) was not a feature of period performances, but I think it both valuable and informative to hear the differing approaches. The singing and playing, as always with Cordes, is very finely crafted – with a total of six singers (SSATTB) and seven players (violin, cornetto, viola, two trombones, dulcian and continuo orgen – not played by Volker Jänig!) he creates a rich and warm soundworld. The instrumental substitutions for voices in the larger pieces (as would surely have happened at the time) are judiciously selected, and no one voice is ever allowed to dominate the texture – in other words, this is in many ways an ideal exposition of Hieronymus Praetorius’s church music.

Brian Clark

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Recording

Vivaldi: Il Giustino

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Delphine Galou Giustino, Emőke Baráth Arianna, Silke Gäng Anastasio, Verónica Cangemi Leocasta, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro Vitaliano, Arianna Vendittelli Amanzio, Alessandro Giangrande Andronico (alto) & Polidarte (tenor), Rahel Maas Fortuna, Accademia Bizantina, Ottavio Dantone
No total timing shown (3 CDs in a jewel box with booklet in card sleeve)
Naïve OP 30571

HOW AMAZING to think that naïve’s vivaldi edition has reached volume 58! This is the 17th complete opera to be recorded and – like its predecessors – it is packed with fantastic music. The plot is typically complicated (and its denouement typically contrived) and I must confess that the more baroque opera I listen to the better I understand a friend’s insistence that Handel is quite in a class of his own when it comes to getting under the skins of his characters; it is true that Vivaldi writes happy arias, and sad ones, angry and love-dazed ones, too, but they are two dimensional representations of those emotions – his characters somehow lack personality.

In this well-paced and beautifully recorded set, the singing of the arias and ensembles (Arianna and Anastasio sing two gorgeous duetti) is mostly first rate and the playing often outstanding – I especially enjoyed the contributions of the horns. Try as I might to put it out of my mind, though, I could not avoided being irked by the fact that the repeated A sections were not so much ornamented as re-written (occasionally, frankly, beyond the abilities of the singers). Similarly the secco recitative for the most part lack any dynamism and any attempts to liven it up (such as the scene protraying the slaying of the bear) descended into the aural equivalent of ham acting…

So a mixed bag, to be honest. I think I’d probably just programme the player to omit the recit and enjoy a recital of very fine arias.

Brian Clark

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Recording

Songs without words

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Torchsongs Transformed
Les Délices
(No timing available)
Navona Records nv6195

If you’ve ever wondered what choice French Baroque airs would sound like interwoven with jazz and pop standards played by the same ensemble (oboe, gamba and harpsichord) here’s your chance to find out. It’s a bit surreal but, with this quality of playing, works weirdly well though I’d have gone for Yesterday rather than Michelle to follow Rameau’s Tristes apprêtsand I can’t believe I’ve just written that in a review for EMR! This is definitely a disc for the mellower stages of the evening to which it is hard to apply our usual criteria so I haven’t given any stars, but I will say that I smiled a lot while listening and that the gamba could have a future as a jazz instrument! I’m just off to Ronnie Scott’s for a bit of Couperin.

David Hansell

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Uncategorized

Antegnati: 12 Ricercari

Federico Del Sordo organ and harpsichord
58:08
Brilliant Classics 95628

I must say that the prospect of 12 Ricercari (all that is mentioned on the front of the booklet) by even one as distinguished as Constanzo Antegnati was rather daunting but I need not have worried! The counterpoint flows suavely, enlivened by some athletic ornamentation, and the historic organ is a constant delight. Furthermore, contrasting music by other composers is interspersed among the ricercari and played on stringed keyboard instruments: modern copies of an early 17th-century harpsichord and fretted clavichord, this last a rare treat. Here and there, the keen-eared will detect a few inconsistencies of articulation but there is far more to enjoy than to carp at. The booklet is informative and interesting about the music, its context and the organ (though in English only) and detailed organ registrations are available online, though it wouldn’t have been difficult to include them. Recommended especially for early keyboard buffs.
David Hansell
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Recording

Hotteterre: Complete Chamber Music Vol. 3

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Camerata Köln
133:51 (2 CDs in a jewel case)
cpo 555 038-2
Suites opp. 4, 5, & 6

I gave warm welcomes to the first two releases of Camerata Köln’s series and I am delighted to say that this is more of the same. The music is delightful and the various scorings (flute + bc, two ‘trebles’ without bass, flute solo, recorder solo, recorder +bc, two gambas, and gamba + bc) keep the ear engaged even when the two discs are played straight through. Other aspects of the performance contribute to this as well, of course. The low pitch (390) produces rich sonorities, the playing is infallibly stylish and the general approach to performance practice is exploratory yet restrained. Thus the ‘recorder’ music is produced by transposing a flute original up a minor third and the ‘gamba’ sonata is a flute original down a perfect fourth. No Baroque musician would have taken exception to this: the transpositions simply involve reading the music in a different clef and imagining a new key signature. The booklet (German/English) is concise but still manages to tell us what we need to know about composer, music and performances. Overall, a most enjoyable package, though I would have welcomed full details of the instruments.

David Hansell

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Recording

Ballet Royal de la Nuit

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Ensemble Correspondances, Sébastien Daucé
196:46 (3 CDs and a DVD in a book)
harmonia mundi musique HMM 902603.606

‘Edition Intégrale et Définitive’ it proclaims, not to mention ‘Deluxe Edition’ and ‘Edition Spéciale – Version Définitive’.

This is an updated expansion – a completion, really – of a project whose first incarnation I reviewed here –https://earlymusicreview.com/le-concert-royal-de-la-nuit/.I haven’t changed my general views.

What has changed is that those dances that were not re-constructed for the 2015 recording have now been added and in 2017 the whole show was lavishly staged and filmed. My struggles with aspects of the musical performance practice extended to the staging, I’m afraid. It’s certainly striking but there’s nothing HIP or even ‘generally in keeping with the period’ about either the choreography or the costumes and I actually thought the rushing around during the overture was rather silly. But I will acknowledge that if you think that a Baroque Spectacular is best staged as a Modern Spectacular you’ll find it thrilling. It’s simply that I found the conflict between what I was seeing and what I was hearing too great. A marvellous show, but perhaps a missed opportunity.

David Hansell

Categories
Recording

Vandini: Sonate per violoncello e continuo

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Bologna Baroque (Antonio Mostacci violoncello piccolo a 5 corde, Antonello Manzo violoncello, Paolo Potì clavicembalo)
56:31
Tactus TC 692202

If – like me – you had never heard of Vandini, please do not feel ashamed; although he was one of the leading cellists of his day (as these six sonatas amply prove) and a close friend and colleague of Tartini (to the extent of the latter living with him after the loss of his wife until his own death in 1770), he remains something of a footnote in musical history books. Which is common territory for Tactus, of course – their valiant crusade to rescue the music of their countrymen and women goes on apace, and this is certainly one of their true successes. Bologna Baroque give excellent performances of five three-movement sonatas and a solitary two-movement work. They were not intended as a set and only one of them seems to be dated (1717, so the composer would have been in his mid 20s); only one is in a minor key. They are all, however, lyrical and technically demanding in equal measure. I listened to the performances initially not realising that Mostacci used a violoncello piccolo and was very impressed by the playing in high registers; the additional top string in no way undermines his achievements, though! The continuo accompaniment is just that, and (in my humble opinion!) just as it should be; I’m growing ever wearier of harpsichordists who go out of their way to draw attention to themselves rather than to enhance the music the composer wrote. But I refuse to end on a negative note – well done, Bologna Baroque! Well done, Tactus!

Brian Clark

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Recording

harmonia mundi boxed sets

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Last minute Christmas gift ideas for fans of HIP performances of early music? Don’t worry – harmonia mundi have stacks of bumper sets that will please everyone.

For medievalists, there is an 11-CD set (!) entitled “Die grossen Minnesänger” (Christophorus CHR 77432, over 11 hours of music) covers recordings from 1985 to 2015 and almost every imaginable top source of music from that period, featruing the ensemble für frühe musik augsburg, Per-Sonat, Ensemble Leones, I Ciarlatani and a solo disc of Konrad von Würzburg’s music by the doyenne of the repertoire, Andrea von Ramm (which also contains PDFs of all of the complete booklets from the other sets).

For lovers of baroque and classical music, Accent have released two awesome boxes called “Sigiswald Kuijken – The Concertos” (10 CDs lasting nearly 11 hours, ACC 24352) and “Sigiswald Kuijken – The Chamber Music” (20 CDs lasting over 19 hours, ACC 24351). The former devotes two discs each to Vivaldi, Telemann and Joseph Haydn, three to Bach and the 10th disc to Mozart, while the latter runs from English Viol Music via Rameau and Couperin, through three discs of Haydn to two more discs of Mozart.

Finally in the HIP selection, opera lovers will be in seventh heaven to discover René Jacobs’ Mozart/Da Ponte set in a single box (HMX 2908801.09, 9 CDs of music lasting a little under nine hours, plus a 10th CD with PDFs of the libretti and translations). Though personally I have never been much of a fan of his recordings, after listening to several alternative new releases over recent months, I found these nicely paced accounts impressive and dramatically engaging. The singers (and again, as far as I am concerned – and I stress that I am not much of an opera fan!) are not “singing down” in the name of being “more authentic”; it struck me more that they were singing as part of a larger ensemble (i. e., the orchestra) than project as stars over it. Bravo to all concerned.

Brian Clark