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Recording

Marais: Pièces de viole

La Rêveuse (Florence Bolton, Benjamin Perrot, Robin Pharo, Carsten Lohff)
64:00
Mirare MIR 386

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here is some marvellously idiomatic playing of marvellously idiomatic music here – the voice of the French Baroque in all its pathos and nobility, though not without lighter moments. The Marais movements are from his last two publications (1717 & 1725). Two skilful arrangements of Couperin for theorbo provide contrast: the barricades have seldom sounded so mystérieuses, though in an entirely good way, I hasten to add. My one reservation concerns the instrumentation of the continuo. The exquisite delicacy of the viol does not need the competition of two plucked accompanists: just one, preferably the theorbo, would have been fine as those pieces in which this is indeed the case demonstrate. The essay is very informative and interesting, even in this slightly lumpy translation, and the general packaging quite robust.

David Hansell

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Couperin: Les muses naissantes

Brice Sailly harpsichord, Emanuelle De Negri soprano, La chambre claire
67:30
Ricercar RIC 387

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a carefully compiled anthology that draws on Couperin’s keyboard, instrumental chamber and secular vocal music to depict the Arcadian pastoral world of which so much French music is an idealised reflection. As such it also serves as a good introduction to the breadth of the composer’s achievement in this, his anniversary year. I have to say that I particularly enjoyed the singing of Emmauelle De Negri in the various airs. Her vibrato seldom feels intrusive and her ornamentation is neatly sung. Not that there’s anything wrong with the playing of the instrumentalists (viol, flute, oboe, bassoon, violin as well as harpsichord), though as usual I wonder if they really should vary instrumentation within movements. The harpsichord is a copy of a famous Ruckers and does sound really lovely. Supporting the performances is a slightly eccentric essay which if nothing else conveys the emotional commitment of the artists and offers some interesting ideas about the music and composer. Overall this is an unusual release in these days of ‘completist’ projects, and very welcome.

David Hansell

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French Sonatas for Harpsichord and Violin

Philippe Grisvard, Johannes Pramsohler
110:23 (2 CDs in a hardbacked booklet)
Audax Records ADX13710
Music by Balbastre, Clément, Corrette, Duphly, Guillemain, Marchand & Mondonville

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his recital gets off to a absolute flyer with Mondonville’s outstanding op. 3/1 in G minor, with both players comfortably equal to both the technical and musical challenges. And note the overall title: this is a collection of Pièces de clavecin en sonates avec accompagnement de violon. Mondonville blazed this trail with his op. 3 (published 1740, though very probably circulating in m/s before that) and his pioneering work was most assiduously developed by Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (1705-70). Three of his op. 13 sonates  receive world premiere recordings here and the notes rightly draw attention to the virtuosic writing for both instruments and the difficulty of creating a duo performance as opposed to a competition. They succeed with great flair, even though both they and their instruments are on the limit of the period’s demands. Most of these sonates  speak with an Italianate (if not fully Italian) accent, though Duphly retains his native language in both the music and his movement titles and these subtleties, too, can be heard in the playing. There’s also some thoroughly enjoyable wackiness (Luc Marchand).

The overall presentation is quite lavish, with the two CDs enclosed in the endpapers of a small (jewel-case size) hardback book and notes in five languages. It is a small irritant that these deal with the music in chronological rather than performance order but I will be forgiving as it is such a relief to read English notes from a foreign source that are idiomatic in their expression. Finally, the recording offers as good a balance of the instruments as I have ever heard in this combination. I rarely give five stars across the board, but see below!

David Hansell

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Schütz: Kleine geistliche Konzerte II

Complete recording vol. 17
Gerlinde Sämann, Isabel Schicketanz, Maria Stosiek, David Erler, Georg Poplutz, Tobias Mäthger, Tobias Berndt, Felix Schwandtle, Stefan Maass, Matthias Müller, Ludger Rémy
116:35 (2 CDs in a box)
Carus 83.271

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he two collections of Kleine geistliche Konzerte published by Schütz in 1636 and 1639 respectively are not only a product of wartime but also productions directly influenced by the exigencies of war. By the time the second set was published the Thirty Years War had already been raging for over 20 years, devastating large tracts of Europe and having a disastrous effect on cultural activity. Schütz’s Dresden suffered greatly, the Kapellmeister having witnessed a radical reduction in the musical forces at his disposal.

These ‘little sacred concertos’ therefore ostensibly represent a classic example of the old saying, ‘needs must …’. In practice, despite Schütz’s own misgivings about such small-scale works, the 31 works that constitute the second collection represent an astonishingly diverse compendium of Schütz’s style as it stood at this point in his career. Consisting of vocal concertos divided between Latin and German texts and scored for anything between one and five parts and continuo, these miniature masterpieces range between solos in the stile recitative, virtuoso writing in the Venetian style of Monteverdi, complex madrigalian pieces for 4 or 5 voices and pieces in the simpler, more homophonic Lutheran tradition, though it is important to observe that Lutheran chorales play no part. Texts also cover a diverse range that naturally includes the Bible, in particular the Psalms, in addition to hymns and other Lutheran texts, and the writings of St Augustine. The last named, which include the 5-part ‘Quemadmodum desiderat’ and ‘O misericordissime Jesu’, a tenor solo in stile rappresentativo, are among the most striking settings. But everywhere the listener is constantly aware of Schütz’s unrivalled ability to colour mimetic text with an unostentatious, yet vividly deployed palette. Take as an example the duet for soprano and bass, ‘Wann unsre Augen schlafen ein’ (E’en though our weary eye-lids fall), with its falling chromatic line illustrating the gradual descent into sleep contrasted dramatically with the diatonic exhortation of the second half, ‘Above us stretch thy sheltering hand …’ Four lines of text for a setting lasting under three minutes. Yet what a wealth of expression, of meaning is contained within that tiny framework!

The present recording does not present the contents in published order, but perhaps wisely has chosen to group them under topic, thus an opening group devoted to texts associated with Christmas and so on. This provides greater contrast of texture for continuous listening, avoiding the gradual build up of forces from one to five voices, the option chosen by the principal rival, a cpo recording by Weser-Renaissance under Manfred Cordes. Eight singers, mostly little known outside Germany, are used, along with a continuo group of theorbo, gamba and keyboard (organ or virginals). If I may be allowed to introduce a personal note, I was shocked to learn from an introductory note of the death in June 2017 of the outstanding keyboard player and director of these performances, Ludger Rémy. Some years ago I had a fair amount of contact with him and indeed interviewed him for the now-defunct Goldberg Early Music Magazine. Although I believe he suffered from ill health for some years I found Rémy, both in person and in his performances, to be a man of great integrity and modesty. Fortunately he leaves a considerable recorded legacy that testifies to his substantial qualities.

It is the total integrity of these performances that is their greatest merit. All the singers are considerably more than capable, with voices that blend well in the madrigalian concerted pieces. What I would have preferred is a greater sense of the rhetorical qualities inherent in so many of the concertos. This applies especially to the several texts laid out in question and answer format or as dialogues, of which ‘Sei gegrüsset, Maria’, a dramatisation of the Annunciation, is a particularly beautiful example. In that respect I might perhaps have a leaning to the cpo, with its more familiar and experienced singers. Nonetheless, I would certainly not wish to deter anyone from these rewardingly authentic – in the true sense of the word – performances.

Brian Robins

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Songs of Orpheus

Karim Sulayman (ten)
Apollo’s Fire, Jeannette Sorrell (dir)
63:21
Avie AV 2383

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his debut CD from the Lebanese-American tenor Karim Sulayman  is centred around the solos for Orfeo in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, a role he has been taking in a US tour of semi-staged performances with Apollo’s Fire under Jeanette Sorrell during the month in which this review was written (April 2018). They include ‘Rosa del ciel’ and ‘Tu se’morta’ (both from act 1), ‘Vi ricorda’ from act 2, and ‘Qual honor’, the recitative from act 4 that leads into the dramatic climax of the opera, the fatal moment at which Orfeo turns to look at Euridice. The ostensibly surprising omission of ‘Possente spirto’ can probably be accounted for by the fact that Sorrell uses only a string ensemble for the recording and that virtuoso song of course demands other obbligato instruments.

It would have been interesting to see the live performance, since on the evidence of the present CD Sulayman seems likely to have been a highly personable Orfeo. His tenor is a pleasing lyric instrument, perhaps a little grainy in the lower baritonal part of the voice, but capable of a range of colour. His greatest asset is an acute awareness of text, an asset so essential in this music. Sulayman uses this awareness to effect with, fluid musical shaping that obeys the demands of the text, while never being slave to the rigidity of the bar line. He has, too, the technique to open ‘Rosa del ciel’ with a true messa di voce  and the intelligence to bring, for example, delicious shaping and a sense of the joy of awakening love at the words ‘Fu ben felice …’ etc (Happy was the day, my love, when first I saw you). If I have a reservation (and this of course applies equally to other items on the CD) it concerns the singer’s reticence regarding ornamentation, especially at cadences, and a tentative approach to some of the more elaborate gorgie  that are such a hallmark of the early baroque. This is especially damaging in strophic songs, of which there are a number here, which surely demand subtle variation if they are to maintain the listener’s full attention.

The Orfeo  extracts, which include several sinfonias, are by no means the whole story and in addition to instrumental pieces by Castello and Cima, Sulayman sings an extract from Giulio Caccini’s Euridice  and songs by Caccini, D’India, Landi, Antonio Brunelli, and the achingly lovely ‘Folle è ben’ by Merula, sung to wonderfully expressive effect.

The dreaded words arr. J. Sorrell (and in a couple of cases R. Schiffer) appended to some items raised alarm bells that were soon stilled, since apart from a couple of questionable moments there is little to upset even the most fastidious of listeners. I do, however, have a problem with the contribution of Jeanette Sorrell’s Apollo’s Fire, not because of the quality of the playing, which is as excellent as ever, but with the resolutely 18th (rather than 17th) century sound of the strings, which – at least in the bass line – tends to sound thick-textured and even at times turgid, possibly at least in part a result of the unsuitable church acoustic. Notwithstanding, the splendid playing of Castello’s Sonata in D minor (from his Sonate concertate in stil moderno  of 1629) by violinist Julie Andrijeski deserves special mention, not least for its sprezzatura.

I’ve seen only an advance copy, but was sent texts and notes by both the singer and Sorrell, those of the former being interestingly personal, of the latter at times somewhat naïve; do we really need reference in 2018 to ‘the great Monteverdi’?

Brian Robins

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Book

RECERCARE XXVIII/1-2 2016

Journal for the study and practice of early music
LIM Editrice [2016]. 260 pp, €24 (€29 outside of Italy)
ISSN 1120-5741 ISBN 978 88 70 96 8996
recercare@libero.it; lim@lim.it – www.lim.it

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he latest issue of Ricercare has two studies in English and four in Italian, counting the shorter report by Francesco Zimei Ars nova disvelata. Sulla restituzione digitale del palinsesto San Lorenzo 2211 alla luce di due studi recentemente pubblicati. At the end there are book reviews of: Raffaele Mellace’s Johann Adolf Hasse  (Simone Caputo), Barbara Sparti’s Dance, dancers and dance masters in Renaissance and Baroque Italy  (Wendy Heller), and Roberto Lasagni’s L’arte tipografica in Parma  (Federica Dallasta).

The principal studies are, as usual, in chronological order by subject matter, this time ranging from the early 1500s to the beginning of the 1700s.

Musica profana a Napoli agli inizi del Cinquecento: i villancicos della Cuestión de amor. Alfonso Colella’s study may be a difficult read at first if the historical context is not familiar. During the Aragonese reign Naples Spanish polyphony and secular song thrived. With the fall of the Aragonesi in 1502 the music changed. The anonymous Neapolitan poetic chronicle, La Cuestión de amor (Valencia, 1513), was probably by Velásquez de Ávila, a poet and musician active in Valencia, Palermo and Naples, and indeed one of the characters in this sentimental historical novel. Parts of the poetic text date back to the 14th century, whereas the descriptions of musical performances, villancicos  and canciónes  for two and three voices, refer to ones performed in a pastoral play, Egloga di Torino, which was public entertainment. The voices alternated in strophes (coplas), singing together in refrains (estribillos). The music was not important to the court, with its emphasis on war and chivalrous values, nor to the love story, the events, or the problem it tackled: who suffers more, one who loses a beloved or one whose love is unrequited. Not surprisingly, then, none of the music has survived. But links between the written Italian frottola  and the less refined unwritten musical tradition of the Spanish villancico  are illustrated, and the interest in la Cuestión  is therefore also musicological.

Worth the price of the Musurgia universalis: Athanasius Kircher on the secret of the ‘metabolic style’. Jeffrey Levenberg, in the title of his study, is citing Kircher’s plug, or teaser, to attract potential buyers of his treatise. Translated from his Latin ‘Truly, if I include examples of this secret … metabolic style… known only to the most skilled … I will make my book worth its price …’ His study (in English) of Kircher’s, is also more than worth the price of Recercare XXVIII, long to be remembered, and possibly commented on. Spoiler alert: Levenberg analyzes the accepted and controversial theoretical components of the ‘metabolic’ style (combining mutations of the modes, transpositions of their finals, and the use of diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic species) and not only compares the exact effects of competing contemporary and modern theories in the notoriously difficult problem of chromatic and enharmonic species, but shows Kircher to emerge on the side of practical musicians playing normal keyboards with mean-tone tunings. Despite the difficulty of interpreting Kircher (whether to defend him or otherwise), this verdict will excite players and encourage the performance of this esoteric repertoire, and of other pieces not as yet considered to belong to it. For the question of tuning, Levenberg’s explanations are clarified by several exemplary tables. In one he goes beyond Kircher to compare Mazzocchi’s division of the whole tone by chromatic, diatonic, and enharmonic semitones with Kircher’s.

John Whenham’s The Messa a Quattro voci et salmi (1650) and Monteverdi’s Venetian Church music  reveals how Vincenti probably acquired this little-known mass and psalms, considered alongside the Selva morale  of 1641, which he published shortly after Monteverdi’s death. Comparison shows how Monteverdi modified previously published works in order to produce others on commission. As maestro di cappella  at St. Mark’s, he was allowed to accept work for other churches, and also to keep his manuscripts in his personal library, for his personal professional use. Whenham shows how the composer would change their beginnings to hide the borrowing, though of course he also revised and altered their length. This would not have been discovered were it not for the 1650 edition. In his defence it should be noted that masses and psalms were generally elaborations of ‘borrowed’ liturgical chants to begin with, and perhaps Monteverdi did precisely what was expected of him. He was also paid significantly, the demand for new polyphonic versions of psalms being high. This glimpse into his compositional process is indeed a rare finding.

Giovanni Rovetta, ‘uno spirito quasi divino, […] tutto lume in nere et acute note espresso’. Paolo Alberto Rismondo‘s study is more about the composer’s life (1597?-1668), family relations, background, and especially his career in Venice, than about his compositions’. Rismondo includes whatever he could into his account as much as possible about the figures with whom he interacted, including Monteverdi (who was maestro di cappella  to the Doge in San Marco when Rovetta was vicemaestro), Cavalli, and others. By subtracting Rovetta’s stated age from the known date of his death he opts for 1597 for his date of birth. Lost church registers from June 1596 to May 1599 make it otherwise unascertainable, even though the index to the baptismal records almost certainly identifies Giovanni as “Zuan Alberto de messer Giacomo sonador barbier”; in fact, his father, Giacomo, was a violinist and barber.

In the title of the article Rismondo quotes from the dedication to a 1668 collection of music by Bonifacio Graziani written by Graziani’s brother, with words of praise for Rovetta espressed by an allusive pun on his name: ‘Who doesn’t admire in you, Giovanni Rovetta an almost divine spirit, like the famous [burning] bush [roveto] of Moses all light expressed in quick and high notes’. The biography continues with Rovetta’s nephew, Giovanni Battista Volpe, who became maestro della cappella ducale  in 1690, and with the considerable diffusion of Rovetta’s music outside Italy. The article gives the impression of reporting everything knowable now from documents or reasonable hypotheses.

Eleonora Simi Bonini  and Arnaldo Morelli  collaborated on the six sections, Appendix, and index of names in Gli inventari dei ‘libri di musica’ di Giovan Battista Vulpio (1705-1706). Nuova luce sulla ‘original Stradella collection’. G. B. Vulpio (c. 1631-1705) compiled and left an immense collection of more than 200 manuscript compilations, which is shown to include the largest collection of Stradella’s works. The article is about Vulpio (a singer in the papal chapel and composer) and his relations with others. The Appendix to the article offers the entire inventory of his collection, as it was organized. It sometimes contains the names of librettists and poets as well as the composers, and usually a description of the bindings, number of pages, etc. The number of works by Stradella includes cantatas, serenatas, arias, operas, many of which autographs. Equally important are those by Luigi Rossi, Carissimi, and Pasquini. One finds Simonelli, Scarlatti, Mazzocchi, Tenaglia, Cazzati, Melani, Bononcini, Gratiani, Carlo del Violino, Carlo Rossi, and others. Only 13 of these volumes are now known for certain to be conserved in various libraries. The search for a couple of hundred of the other volumes must be accelerated: the inventory lists 387 items.

Barbara Sachs

Categories
Recording

François Campion: Music for Baroque Guitar

Bernhard Hofstetter 17th-century guitar
60:10
Brilliant Classics 95276

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he guitar music of François Campion (c. 1685-1747) represented here, comes from the copy of his Nouvelles découvertes sur la Guitarre (Paris, 1705), which contains extra pieces copied by hand. In 1748 the book was donated by Campion’s nephew to the Bibliothèque Royale, now the Bibliothèque Nationale, with the shelfmark Vm7 6221. A facsimile was published by Minkoff in 1977. The stringing is typical for French guitar music in the latter part of the 17th century, with a bourdon (low octave string) on the 4th course, but no bourdon on the 5th. This means that both strings of the 5th course are tuned at the higher octave, which is useful for campanellas, but it reduces the overall range of the instrument by a fourth. Campion’s collection is unusual, because there are eight different tunings, including l’accord ordinaire, or standard tuning (a a, d’ d, g g, b b, e’). Hofstötter uses l’accord ordinaire  for tracks 10-12 and 15-20, and one other tuning (a a, c’# c#, f# f#, b b, e’) for tracks 1-9 and 13-14.

The first track, Gavotte en Rondeau, is typical of Campion’s polyphonic style: a clear two-part texture, with strummed chords used sparingly – just three in this piece. The first section is characterised by a descending chromatic scale in the bass, which is very much in evidence in bars 3-5, since the two strings of the fourth course (tuned an octave apart) cause that bass line to sound above and below the other melodic line. Hofstötter plays the notes cleanly, and brings out the interplay between the two voices. In contrast is the Prelude (track 2), which consists of nice arpeggiated chord progressions and a few strummed chords. Campion is careful not to lose sight of his melodic lines, so some chords are marked with dots to show which strings should not be struck. Hofstötter’s interpretation involves a certain amount of rhythmic freedom. Where chords are arpeggiated as four quavers, he often clips the fourth quaver, jerking prematurely into the next chord. The intention may be to create a feeling of intensity and forward movement, but for me it creates a feeling of unease and undue haste. La Montléon is in the style of a gavotte, and has an extraordinary augmented sixth in bar 4. Hofstötter plays the quavers inégales, but often reverts to égales for isolated pairs.

The pieces in accord ordinaire  include three fugues. The first one (track 10) is unusually long, covering five and a half pages of the manuscript, and lasting close on six minutes. Campion develops the opening theme in a variety of ways, adding interest to the harmony with little chromatic inflections. Hofstötter sustains it well, adding excitement when the music soars up to the 12th fret.

Les Ramages is puzzling. In the first bar, after a strummed chord, the rhythm is shown as crotchet + quaver three times. From bar 3 the rhythm is notated as continual quavers. At the end of the piece, apparently as an afterthought, is written “Cette piéce doit être harpégée continuellement”, followed by the first bar re-written to show how chords should be arpeggiated into semiquavers. Hofstötter plays the whole of the first section the first time through with the crotchet + quaver rhythm, and plays arpeggiated semiquavers for the repeat. This seems odd, if only because he plays semiquavers both times through the second section. I think the instruction about arpeggiation is the composer changing his mind, and that one should ignore the crotchet + quaver rhythm signs in the first bar, and play semiquavers “continuellement” for the whole piece.

The CD ends with an extraordinary and very beautiful Passacaille lasting nearly ten minutes. The 4-bar phrases are numbered in a haphazard order in the manuscript, as if the composer keeps changing his mind over which phrase should come next. Hofstötter varies his interpretation of the rhythm – neat semiquavers played in time, some inégales  quavers, and quavers accelerating in an arrhythmic way. Phrase 17 is crossed out in the manuscript, but Hofstötter plays it anyway. The neatly played hemidemisemiquavers in phrase 19 are a spectacular show of Hofstötter’s virtuosity.

Stewart McCoy

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Bach Magnificats

[Joélle Harvey, Olivia Vermuelen, Iestyn Davies, Thomas Walker, Thomas Bauer SmScTTBar], Arcangelo, Jonathan Choen
76:48
Hyperion CDA68157
Magnificats by J. S., J. C. & C. P. E. Bach

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f you like your J. S. Bach Magnificat performed by a 19-voice chorus, almost any one of whom could have sung the solo numbers in the same musical style, but with five other singers who sing in a more declamatory and operatic style singing the solo numbers, both accompanied by an excellent period band who are clearly regarded as accompanists rather than equal partners, then you may be wooed by this CD. I don’t find the JSB part very persuasive. The soloists over-sing – perhaps the result of some live takes at the Tetbury Festival where the recording was made? – and the choir seems to have volume as their chief aim. As a result the substantial band (4.4.3.3.2 strings) of skilled players seem to be also-rans, in a definitely subservient role: for example, the oboes in the Suscepit Israel  are definitely more distant than the three voices. As far as the solo voices are concerned, the upper voices are too wobbly for me, and the tenor and bass too histrionic. Only Iestyn Davies seems to be in control of his instrument, and we only hear him once in the CPE Bach Magnificat that takes up more than half the disc. Thomas Walker, the tenor, has a noticeable change of gear mid range and while the higher register is attractive and clear the lower range sounds bottled up and makes for an unsettling experience for the listener.

But the JSB Magnificat  is only a third of the CD, and the other Magnificats make an interesting comparison. Both of them are in the new, pre-Classical style, and indeed both soloists and chorus seem more at home here. The choir/soloist division seems to make more sense in this music as do the more operatic voices and the sense of an independent ‘orchestra’.

I am left thinking that though it sounds a good idea to unite three Magnificats by different members of the Bach family on one CD, to do so in one recording session is a mistake. Johann Sebastian’s high Baroque demands such a different style of singing and playing from Johann Christian’s and C. P. E’s pre-Mozartian music of a generation or more later. Perhaps this confusion about where we are, and whether one style fits all is what is signalled by using a Botticelli image on the cover, an artist working more than two centuries earlier than the earliest composer represented here.

This is not a performance of the JSB Magnificat  to which I shall return, with more stylish performances by Vox Luminis and the Monteverdi Choir under Gardiner recently released. The interest here lies in the other works, well-performed in a more ‘modern’ style, even if they use exactly the same instruments – and indeed the same style of singing – for both Johann Sebastian and for the later Bachs.

David Stancliffe

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Bach: Mass in B minor

[Katherine Watson, Helen Charlston, Iestyn Davies, Gwilym Bowen, Neal Davies SScTTB], The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Stephen Layton
107:43 (2 CDs in a case)
hyperion CDA68181/2

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]tephen Layton is lucky to have inherited  the first mixed voice Chapel choir of real distinction in Oxbridge, but he has honed it into a fine and responsive group of singers. Trinity’s choir has the great advantage that it never grows old, as the singers change every three or four years. For a bright, clear and clean sound, the combination of the 40 plus present and former members of Trinity’s choir with the substantial OAE band (8.6.3.3.2 strings) could hardly be bettered.

This makes it a big performance with the corollary of ‘needing’ big soloists. But does it? Given the way what we now call the Mass in B minor was assembled over the years, I have never been convinced that the traditional vocal scoring – singing the ‘chorus’ numbers full throughout while leaving a different group of single voices to sing the ‘solos’ – is either historically or musically defensible.

Surely the place to start is with a choir of five singers, adding one or more groups of ripienists when the instrumental scoring demands it rather than the romantic division into a choir singing all the ‘choruses’ ff to pp in the nineteenth to twentieth century style and getting in – even if a number are Trinity alumni – additional soloists who are not part of the choir to sing the single voice numbers.

That said, the choir is wonderful. Have you ever heard 11 basses sing Et iterum venturus est  in the Et resurrexit  with such unanimity of tone and clarity of diction? And which large choir has the agility to sing Et expecto resurrectionem  so neatly at that cracking pace? This is seriously good choral singing and Stephen Layton an inspiring conductor.
The playing matches the singing. The massed violins play Et incarnatus est  to perfection as the choir sings a controlled piano, and manage the same velvety tone with the quality performance by Iestyn Davies in the Agnus Dei, but the superlative quality of Lisa Beznosiuk’s flute playing in the Benedictus is not matched by Gwilym Bowen’s slightly wayward accentuation. The question mark about the sound/style of the soloists though is not raised by them but by the splendid mezzo Helen Charleston – a choral scholar from 2011-2014 – who can sing as cleanly as the rest, but ups her vibrato to match that of Katherine Watson who was in the choir rather earlier, in the Christe. Some phrases by both of them were limpid and lovely, but not a pure as I would have liked. Presumably it was a conscious decision by Layton to use contrasting singing styles to accentuate the distinction between choir and soloists, but this allies his recording firmly with the traditional performance style, as does the very Italianate rather than German pronunciation of the Latin.

So while I think the Layton/Trinity/OAE recording is quite excellent of its kind, it won’t displace the recording by Concerto Copenhagen directed by Lars Ulrik Mortensen and his ten singers as my favourite.

David Stancliffe

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Sweelinck: The complete Keyboard Works

Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam, Harry van der Kamp
442:00 (6 CDs in a cardboard box)
Glossa GCD 922410

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hese six CDs of keyboard music form the fourth part of a monumental undertaking to record all of Sweelinck’s surviving works – 23 CDs in all. The whole project, entitled ‘The Sweelinck Monument’, is organised by Harry van der Kamp whose Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam has already recorded all the vocal music. Four members of that Consort appear on these keyboard music CDs to sing the secular songs and Lutheran chorale melodies before the sets of variations based on them; oddly the same is not done with the Calvinist psalms in Dutch. Apart from one fugal track which goes a bit awry, the singing is good and it is useful to be reminded of the tune before each of the many variation sets.

A total of ten keyboard players are involved – eleven if one counts a couple of tracks recorded by the late Gustav Leonhardt in 1971, added at the end to make up for the fact that his death in 2012 deprived the project of his intended contribution. All of the music, apart from Leonhardt’s two tracks, has been recorded on original instruments from Sweelinck’s time, a total of seven organs and five string keyboard instruments. These include some of The Netherlands’ finest old organs (Amsterdam’s Oude Kerk, Alkmaar, Kantens and Leiden) as well as three in Germany (Lemgo, Osteel and Uttum). Harpsichords and Virginals are all by members of the Ruckers family, apart from an Artus Gheerdinck virginal of 1605 and the modern Ruckers copy on which Leonhart plays. All instruments are matched effectively to the repertoire performed on them. The opening Fantasia  SWWV 273 (coincidentally on the B.A.C.H. theme) played by Bernard Winsemius on the brash swallow-nest organ at Lemgo, is one highlight, as are the challenging Fantasia Crommatica  SWWV 258 played by Pieter-Jan Belder on a Iohannes Ruckers harpsichord of 1639, and Bob van Asperen’s Toccata  SWWV 282 on the same instrument.

Too much to detail here, all of the playing is of a high standard and is impeccably recorded. There is an inevitable sense of setting down definitive versions of these works, rather than indulging too much in flights of fancy, though these do at times emerge. The whole project is as much a tribute to the Netherlands modern early music movement which has spawned so many fine keyboard players and sponsored the restoration of old instruments, as it is to Sweelinck. The players include Pieter Dirksen, whose editions of Sweelinck are used, and van Asperen who contributes seven tracks delivered with his customary panache. It is interesting to compare the latter’s performance of Sweelinck’s version of Dowland’s Pavana Lachrymae  with that recorded over forty years ago by Leonhardt: the latter is much slower (6½ minutes as opposed to van Asperen’s 5) and, while typically magisterial, tends to lose connectedness over long-drawn-out phrases. Leonhardt’s other contribution, the Esce Mars  variations, are also recorded here by Marieke Spaans: there is less difference, with Spaans’ version slightly faster and a bit less reserved than Leonhardt’s. It is certainly good to have two versions of these well-known pieces.

What comes through very clearly is how inventive Sweelinck was. There is a marvellous diversity of imitations and figurations in the many variations on psalm melodies and secular tunes played here. He never continues the same figuration for too long so that player and listener do not get bored. The influence of English virginal music is clear, with the sort of figuration used by John Bull always in the background. A set of variations on De lustelijcke mey  by Bull is played here by Pieter Dirksen as a substitute for Sweelinck’s improvised set which has not survived. There is also a fantasia by Bull on a theme by Sweelinck and various other tributes and re-workings which emphasise the closeness of the circle which included Bull, Dowland and Philips. As well as variation sets there are toccatas in Italian, mainly Venetian, style and a number of very substantial Fantasias which show Sweelinck’s, and these organists’, ability to spin out material over time-spans up to 12 minutes. There is a very informative booklet, though a double numbering system used for the individual CDs is confusing. Altogether this is a fitting monument to a great composer.

Noel O’Regan

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