Categories
Sheet music

Canzoni francese libro primo

Ottaviano Scotto’s 1535 Collection of Twenty-Three Chansons for Four Voices
Edited by Paul Walker
Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance, 170
xxiii+109pp.
ISBN 978-1-9872-0018-8
A-R Editions, Inc. $200.00

Paul Walker’s edition of Scotto’s collection of Parisian chansons presents the music at the printed pitch for a regular four-voice choir. Nine of them have a baritone clef for the lowest voice (of which six also have the modern treble clef for the uppermost), while another has tenor on the bottom and treble on the top, and the penultimate piece is for C1, C2, C3 and C4 – there must be some reason for these different combinations, but perhaps Walker is right to present the music thus and leave it to performers to make their own decisions about what pitch they will sing the music at.

Eight of the 23 pages of introduction are devoted to presenting the texts as poetry along with translations, variant textual readings, and notes on the contents of the texts. Walker explains the background to the print (for which there is no surviving soprano part, obliging him to use that from a reprint of 1536), and expresses surprise at Scotto’s seemingly random choices and omissions – not all of the works have been identified, and some of Scotto’s attributions have been shown to be inaccurate.

Walker’s edition is exemplary; prefatory clefs and ranges allow performers to see at a glance whether a particular song will fit their group. Each song begins on a new page and is laid out generously without being overly spacious. There is little in the way of ficta, and none of that is controversial. I did find the use of bold brackets and bars full of triplets a little over-kill to represent coloration, but that is an editorial choice that we all have to make. All in all, this is probably one of the most user-friendly volume I’ve reviewed recently from this publisher – and I hope that will encourage vocal groups to explore the repertoire contained within it.

Brian Clark

Categories
Sheet music

William McGibbon: Complete Sonatas

Edited by Elizabeth C. Ford
Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, 205
xvi+3+186pp
ISBN 978-1-9872-0057-7
A-R Editions, Inc. $180.00

This volume contains two sets of Six Sonatas for Two German Flutes, or Two Violins and a Bass (1729 & 1734), the sole surviving Traverso Primo of third set (1745), as well as Six Sonatas or Solos for a German Flute or Violin and a Bass (1740) and Six Sonatas for Two German Flutes (1748), arranged (apart from the fragment, which is consigned to an appendix) in chronological order.

As one would expect with music designed for the flute, sharp keys predominate; G minor appears twice and C minor only once. The sonatas have either three movements (a slower movement followed by two quicker ones) or four (broadly in the da chiesa form, though with some stylised dance movements thrown in for variety).

Ford’s introduction features a nice biography of the composer then deals with his music in general before discussing each of the original prints in turn. The edition is clean and clear; as usual with this series, the focus is on the music, not the presentation – a single system of a movement is printed after a page turn; a movement that would fit on two pages spreads over three (despite the fact that there is space on the last page) meaning anyone playing continuo has unnecessary turns. It puzzles me why, when these volumes can scarcely be called cheap, more care is not given to the aesthetics and practicality of actually performing the music. Surely a major reason for producing modern editions in the first place (in an age where more and more people are downloading facsimiles from free sites) is to make it accessible?

Brian Clark

Categories
Sheet music

English Keyboard music 1650-1695: Perspectives on Purcell

Purcell Society Edition, volume 6 PC6
Edited by Andrew Woolley
xlii+190pp, linen bound. £85
Stainer & Bell ISBN 979 0 2202 2345 7; ISMN 978 0 85249 930 6

This volume will be welcomed by anyone interested in 17th-century English keyboard music. With typical Purcell Society thoroughness and equally typical Stainer & Bell beautiful book publishing, it comprises 32 pages of introduction and facsimiles, then 126 movements (plus variants), divided into sections:

  • Organ music from Restoration Oxford (six works, mostly anonymous)
  • John Cobb (including two dubious and four anonyma)
  • Commonwealth and early Restoration suites (Mell, Locke, two dubious, two anonyma)
  • Pieces by or associated with Frnacis Forcer (including Blow, Farmer and Lully)
  • John Blow and his milieu (three dubious, seven anonyma, Lully & Lebègue)
  • Pieces collected by Charles Babel
  • Giovanni Battista Draghi (four suites)

There follow two appendices, the first an Almain in D minor by John Cobb, the second a suite in F by Davis Mell, then a thoroughly detailed Textual Commentary giving all the variants of the multiplicity of sources. Just this description of the layout of the contents gives some impression of just what a massive undertaking the project was, and what an achievement its realisation is. Woolley and co. (and Stainer & Bell!) have produced a book that is both unparalleled in its informative value and inclusive scope, and in the presentation of that which is most important, i. e., the music itself, in a performable format. Where variants are too complicated to describe in detail (or are, perhaps, deemed of equal value?), third and (especially in the music by Draghi) fourth staves are very cleverly added to allow musicians to have both versions available in a single score.

I did find it rather tiresome to see the editor credited on every page of music, likewise the Purcell Society Trust asserting their copyright similarly but in this age of digital reproduction it is quite right of them to ensure that everyone knows who has invested so much time, effort and money into producing such a monumental and excellent contribution to our understanding and appreciation of this repertoire.

Brian Clark

Categories
Recording

Schütz: Madrigale & Hochzeitsmusiekn

Dorothee Mields, Isabel Schicketanz, David Erler, Georg Poplutz, Tobias Mäthger, Feliz Schwandtke SSATTB, Dresdner Kammerchor, Hans-Christoph Rademann
78:42
Carus 83.277

Volume 19 of Carus’s complete recording of Schütz’s music is an absolute cracker! From the cover, I had expected to hear the set of Italian madrigals that resulted after his first visit to Venice; instead, I got 15 German-language pieces ranging from two duets for alto and tenor with continuo, to more lavishly scored pieces like the glorious Ich beschwöre euch for SSSSATB and continuo, or Haus und Güter erbet man von Eltern which contrasts a group of SSB with three trombones and a tenor with three cornetti, and another tenor with TBB chorus! The disc opens with the composer’s contribution to his brother Georg’s wedding in 1619, Siehe, wie fein und lieblich ist’s, which must have pleased everyone concerned; scored for SSATB, violin, cornetto muto and dulcian, it was reworked for inclusion in the third volume of Symphoniae Sacrae of 1650 (with very good reason!) This is the first volume of this series I have reviewed in a long time, and I must say that the standard is incredibly high; Rademann has gathered a group of singers and instrumentalists who make every work stand out. The recording is crisp and bright, like the execution of the music – everything about this disc is excellent!

Brian Clark

Categories
Recording

The Trio Sonata through Two Centuries

London Baroque
568:25 (8 CDs in a box)
BIS-9050

This boxed set of 8 CDs is so much more than the sum of its parts. Over forty years, London Baroque has accrued experience at playing Baroque trio sonatas which is probably without parallel. This set could so easily have been a celebration of this substantial back catalogue, incorporating their greatest hits, but it isn’t. It is something much more ambitious and much more important. By the careful choice of recordings, pairs of CDs chart the history and development of the Trio Sonata in England, France, Germany and Italy. As far as possible, the tracks on each CD, recorded during the decade between 2002 and 2012, are arranged chronologically by date of composition so the process of evolution is plainly audible, and the comprehensive nature of London Baroque recordings and the sheer authority and musicality of their playing makes this set seem satisfyingly definitive. The English CDs start in the fascinating world of Lawes, Jenkins, Coprario, Locke, Simpson, Blow, and Purcell when the concept of the Trio Sonata was still emerging from the viol consort and bring us gradually step by step through the music of Ravenscroft, Handel, Avison, Boyce, Arne and Abel to a Trio Sonata by Thomas Erskine, Earl of Kelly (actually a Scot) in which the very concept of the Trio Sonata teeters on the edge of string quartet. It is fascinating to listen to the broad arc of development demonstrated here from the quintessential ‘English’ sound, quirkily traditional in the manner Playford’s Dancing Master tunes and reaching back to the Elizabethan era, through the arrival of influences from Europe, chiefly Italy and arriving at the Germanic pre-classical idiom demonstrated by the Stamitz-trained Kelly. Similar journeys of discovery await in the other three pairs of CDs, which also draw in composers whose music is hardly familiar, but who play a vital role in the development of this genre. The playing of London Baroque is wonderfully expressive throughout, capturing perfectly every nuance of the gradually evolving musical styles, while forty years of rapport is apparent in their perfect coordination. Ornamentation, dynamic variation and subtleties of tempo are thoroughly organic, and the rich, full sound of the ensemble is vividly captured by the BIS engineers. This boxed set is an absolute delight – buy it and indulge!

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

Schubert: Die Nacht

Anja Lechner violoncello, Pablo Márquez guitar
56:51
ECM New Series ECM 2555

This CD presents a selection of music by Schubert arranged for cello and guitar framed by three Nocturnes actually composed for cello and guitar by Schubert’s contemporary Friedrich Burgmüller. As Schubert himself played the guitar and there was a degree of flexibility about instrumentation at this time, it is perfectly conceivable that Schubert’s songs might have been presented in this way. The arrangement of the ‘Arpeggione Sonata’ is also very effective, and Anna Lechner’s cello fairly sings the lyrical Adagio as it does the Romanze from Schubert’s Rosamunde. The ECM New Series recordings are famous for their clarity and for making listeners rethink standard classics, but in my experience they are also notorious for their rather nebulous programme notes – a note which begins ‘Franz Schubert never felt inwardly secure’ is always going to tell you more about the writer than about the composer or the music. Here we could have done with more background about the prominence of the guitar in Viennese chamber music of this period rather than a lot of psychobabble. Notwithstanding, this is a very pleasant CD providing genuine insights into the music of Schubert, and providing a rare platform for the charming music of Friedrich Burgmüller.

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

Soler: Obra vocal en latín

La Grande Chapelle, Albert Recasens
76:26
Lauda LAU018

This CD came as a real surprise to me. I had been familiar with the fine harpsichord music of the Catalan Padre Soler, which includes some flamboyant Fandangos and other distinctly Iberian dances. I should have guessed that he would also have written church music, but could hardly have anticipated the sort of music recorded here. Squarely-phrased and pre-classical in style, with full orchestral accompaniments including string orchestra, oboes, horns and flutes, and sections for solo voices alternating with episodes for full choir. Once I had got over my surprise, it gradually became apparent that this music was actually rather dull and predictable – somewhere between Vivaldi and early Haydn in style and lacking all the flair and élan of his keyboard music. La Grande Chapelle perform it very expressively, in a generous acoustic and with plenty of drama and musicality, so I’m afraid the shortcomings are all to be laid at the door of Padre Soler. The more I listened to the CD, the more the music sounded like painting by numbers, stock phrases stuck together with other stock phrases – the result is pleasant and blandly harmless but never profound or individual. This is the classic case of a CD which receives four sets of five stars for performance, recorded sound, booklet note and overall presentation but is sadly just dull.

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

Le cor melodique

Mélodies, Vocalises & Chants by Gounod, Meifred & Gallay
Anneke Scott horn, Steven Devine piano
75:57
resonus RES10228
(Also Bordogni and Panseron)

With this CD and its very readable notes by Anneke Scott, we are dropped into the midst of the mid-19th-century Parisian debate about the relative merits of the natural and valved horn. Active as horn teachers in Paris were Joseph-Emile Meifred and Jaques-Francois Gallay, the former represented here by a set of vocalises from his horn method arranged from the works of Panseron and Bordogni and the latter by a series of very familiar Schubert songs arranged for horn and piano. The CD opens with music by Gounod, who also surprisingly wrote his own horn method, and who writes beautifully for the instrument. Anneke Scott plays natural horn and two- and three-valved piston horns, while her accompanist Steven Devine plays a lovely Erard grand piano. The authentic sounds of both instruments, played by these accomplished specialists, are very evocative and, if some of the music occasionally tends on the trite side, it is never less than beautifully played. The Schubert selection, arrangements by Gallay of lieder for his Horn Method, more than makes up for the musical shortcomings of the rest of the programme. Anneke Scott clarifies which horn she was using for which pieces on the CD, and it was interesting to read that Gounod seems to have recommended a degree of handstopping for certain notes, even when using a valve horn. This seemed to encapsulate the debate for and against valves as advocates of the natural horn felt that it had a unique tone, lost when valves were introduced. Also, listeners had become familiar with the different colours achieved by hand-stopping, so interesting to see that Gounod occupied the middle ground, enjoying the flexibility of the valved horn but retaining the character of the natural horn. A fine illustration of the distinctive effect of handstopping on the natural horn is to be heard in Schubert’s Marguerite (track 22), which turns out to be a particularly desperate-sounding account of Gretchen am Spinnrade. This enjoyable CD usefully illustrates an area of musicological research which is very popular at the moment and which marks an important turning point in the development of a key orchestral instrument.

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

the ear of theodoor van loon

il primo caravaggisto fiammingo
huelgas ensemble, paul van nevel
66:39
cypres CYP1679
Music by Anerio, de Ghersem, a Kempis, Marenzio, Mazzocchi, Philips, Quagliati, Rimonte, Soriano & Zamponi

This is one of those CD programmes which seek to use a visual artist as a hook for music of the period – this concept has always struck me as rather strange, as the visual, literary and musical arts tend to be at relatively different stages of development at different periods, and in my experience have little to say to one another – think of contemporary artists, writers and composers. Anyway, Theodoor van Loon, a practically unknown Flemish follower of Caravaggio, did at least travel between Brussels and Rome, where he could conceivably have heard all of the music on this CD. And quite honestly I would accept any excuse, however far-fetched, to hear the excellent Huelgas Ensemble singing and playing the music of this period. Among the sacred music which could have charmed the ear of van Loon are works by the two Palestrina students, Francesco Soriano and Felice Anerio, both of whom deserve more attention than they currently get. From the former we get the Agnus Dei from a ‘souped-up’ eight voice version of his master’s Missa Papae Marcelli, while from each we have an equally showy and sonorous motet, all of which obviously shows the influence of Palestrina, but also how music in Rome had moved in the direction of ever-increasing opulence as the 17thh-century progressed. From Gery de Ghersem we have the superb Agnus Dei from his seven-part Mass Ave virgo sanctissima, this productive composer’s only complete surviving work, all the rest having heartbreakingly perished in the Lisbon earthquake and fire of 1755. The CD concludes with sacred music by Giuseppe Zamponi and Peter Philips. As ever, the Huelgas Ensemble provide wonderfully balanced and exquisitely musical accounts of this opulent repertoire, gradually introducing instruments into the choral textures until we reach the beautifully rich and full concluding account of Philips’ Hodie nobis de caelo, where the voices are joined to luminous effect by violins and recorders. In among the largescale sacred music we have more intimate secular vernacular works by Philips, but also by Paolo Quagliati, Luca Marenzio, Domenico Mazzochi, Pedro Rimonte and instrumental music by Nicolaus a Kempis, where various mixtures of solo voices and instruments devised by the ever-imaginative Paul van Nevel provide beautifully animated performances. I think I could listen to the Huelgas Ensemble perform their way through the phone book, but with this CD their unique performance talents are applied to very worthwhile material, much of which, like their painterly inspiration van Loon, is nowadays virtually unknown.

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

Handel’s finest arias for base voice II

Christopher Purves, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen
77:11
hyperion CDA68152

Less celebrated than Handel’s succession of castrato singers were a string of equally talented basses who animated a series of Handel’s most memorable characters from his early operas to his late oratorios, and there is even an early Italian Cantata for Bass voice performed here with considerable flair by Purves. This latter work is one of those showpieces for a singer with an extended range from pedal bass notes to high baritone, and Purves copes admirably with the extreme demands. I was unfamiliar with this piece, but also with many of the other arias here. If asked to anticipate what music would have been included, off the top of my head I would have suggested ‘O Ruddier than the Cherry’, ‘The Trumpet shall sound’ and ‘Revenge, Timotheus cries’ and then I would have been floundering. In fact, the present performers had already included two of my suggestions in the widely acclaimed volume I, of which this is the excellent follow-up, and this time they range far and wide among the less familiar operas and the oratorios, coming up with some superb music. Christopher Purves has a wonderfully expressive voice bringing a wide range of lamenting, revenging and wooing characters vividly to life against the wonderfully responsive backdrop of the orchestral forces of Arcangelo directed by Jonathan Cohen. This impressive and entertaining collection has sent me back to oratorios such as Joshua and Esther, and brings home (yet again) how much fine Handel vocal music there is. Christopher Purves’s powerful artistry emphasizes how much of it is for bass voice – and they haven’t even touched upon Samson yet. I sense a volume III coming on!

D. James Ross