Category: Recording

Nahuel Di Pierro, Johannes Pramsohler, Andrea Hill, Jorge Navarro Colorado, Christopher Purves, Ensemble Diderot
77:40
Audax ADX 13715

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his programme of cantatas in Latin and German featuring parts for obbligato virtuoso violin opens and closes with the music of Heinrich Biber and visits the output of Johann Christoph Bach (first cousin of J. S. Bach), Nicholas Bruhns, Daniel Eberlin and Johann Pachelbel in the course of a varied and intriguing selection of works. Although I am sure I will have heard cantatas with obbligato violin parts before, I was unaware that there is a mini-genre in German music. The opening Biber piece is an interesting case in point as the showy violin part, possibly written by Biber for himself to play, seems to force the voice into an almost subservient role, reduced in its virtuosity by comparison with, for example, the showy vocal solos in Biber’s settings of the Mass. In the music by Johann Christoph Bach, the voice and violin share the limelight to a much greater extent, and it is always good to hear some fine original music by Pachelbel as a tonic to the ubiquitous Canon, where once again the solo violin and the voice take it in turns to shine. Andrea Hill, who sings the soprano part in the Pachelbel as well as the contralto part in Bach’s Ach dass ich Wassers genug hätte, sounds a little uncomfortable in the upper end of the soprano range, or perhaps she is just slightly wrong-footed by Pachelbel’s quirky vocal lines. This attractive programme, shining a spotlight on an unexpected genre of music, culminates in an impressive duet cantata for two basses and obbligato violin, which like most of the rest of the fine repertoire performed here would rarely have seen the light of day.

D. James Ross

Francesca Boncompagni, Accademia Ottoboni, Marco Ceccato
54:16
Alpha Classics 406

5455

[dropcap]G[/dropcap]iovanni Lorenzo Lulier flourished in the burgeoning music scene of late 17th-century Rome, moved in the privileged musical circle surrounding Cardinal Ottoboni, and undoubtedly rubbed shoulders with the likes of Corelli and Sir John Clerk of Penicuik. His secular cantatas and sonatas would be pretty unexceptional early Baroque fare, except for the unusual prominence given to the cello, for which he writes with genuine vision and striking originality. In the Sonata in D major for violin, cello and basso continuo, for example, the cello very much duets on equal terms with the violin, while in the cantatas it steps forward from its continuo role to interact dynamically with the voice. In the Accademia Ottoboni, the cellist Marco Ceccato is also significantly the director of the ensemble, and his plangent cello tone is a constant presence in this programme. The playing of the instrumental ensemble is wonderfully idiomatic and delicately ornamented, while the vocal contribution of Francesca Boncompagni is technically impressive and beautifully dramatized. I found the recorded sound a little ‘toppy’ and brittle, but nothing to disturb the enjoyment of this interesting repertoire. This revelatory CD emphasizes the point that in Italy at the turn of the 17th century, there were dozens of musical circles similar to Cardinal Ottoboni’s each boasting several fine composers contributing to a truly vast body of fine instrumental and vocal music.

D. James Ross

Music of French masters
{oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna, Martyna Pastuszka
64:57
DUX 1382
Music by F. Campra, Corrette, Couperin, Lully & Marais

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] think on reflection the Warsaw Castle bit of the title denotes a series of recordings as no attempt is made to show that any of this music was performed in Warsaw Castle. The burgeoning world of HIP early music performance in Poland is fully in evidence in these energetic and engaging performances of music by Lully, Couperin, Marais, Corrette and Campra. The recording is live and there is a degree of background noise although nothing intrusive, mainly in fact sounds generated by the orchestra, but there is also a pleasing resonance to the acoustic of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Chamber Hall which enhances the music, if just occasionally we lose a little detail. There is some delicate and appropriate ornamentation and some dramatic operatic sound effects such as a thunder sheet. There is familiar music here, such as Lully’s Suite from Armide and Marais’ Suite from Ariane et Bacchus but also music which was new to me such as Couperin’s Quartet Sonata, La Sultane, and Corrette’s D major Concerto, Le Phénix. The programme is a cleverly constructed concert programme with tutti Suites alternating with the quartet and the gamba concerto in which the considerable skills of Krzysztof Firlus are on dramatic display. What is delightful about all the performances is the freedom with the scores and a fizzing spontaneity which is infectious.

D. James Ross