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Quattro violini a Venezia

CD cover of Quattro violini a Venezia Clematis

Clematis
64:35
Ricercar RIC404
Buonamente, Castello, Cavalli, Fontana, Giovanni Gabrieli, Biagio Marini, Salomone Rossi & Uccellini

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Having already recorded some sonatas for four violins and continuo by Legrenzi on a previous Ricercar recording, it makes sense that Clematis would follow up with an exploration of earlier repertoire for the same line up. All of the “usual suspects” are there and aural variety is afforded by the inclusion of some sonatas for one, two or “only” three violins. The continuo varies across the duration of the disc and includes harp, organ, harpsichord, guitar, theorbo, bassoon and bass viol. As elsewhere, I’m afraid I find the harp an imposter, especially when the player is weaving treble lines through the polyphony of the violins (indeed, I was aggravated by it in the Gabrieli sonata for three violins – it is not a “concerto for harp with the accompaniment of three violins”! Do I want to hear Gabrieli or the harpist? Is the role of the continuo not to provide harmonic support? If the instrument is incapable of doing so without drawing attention to itself (just liste to the flurry of inappropriateness during the final chord!), perhaps it should not be used for continuo playing.

Apart from my reservations about the involvement of harpists, the playing is mostly excellent, the recording is typical Ricercar excellence and the booklet notes are very thorough, though an absolute pleasure to read.

Brian Clark

 

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Finger: Music for European Courts and Concerts

Finger: Music for European Courts CD cover

The Harmonious Society of Tickle-fiddle Gentlemen, Robert Rawson
66:47
Ramée RAM1802

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The most striking aspect of this fabulous recording is the amazing diversity of Finger’s music. Having previously only known his sonatas for two pairs of treble instruments and continuo, it was a revelation to hear him move from almost Purcellian in the opening vocal exhortation into a Schmelzer-like sonata for three choirs, then a much more modern sounding Sonata a5 with Handelian counterpoint, a Lullian Chaconne a4, some French-inspired but English-sounding music for The Mourning Bride, and so on. His Sonata 9 is a re-working of “How happy the Lover” from Purcell’s King Arthur. The final track, “Morpheus, gentle god”, is scored for four voices with recorder consort and continuo, and reveals how effective Finger was at setting English – no wonder he was shocked at coming fourth (of four!) in the competition based on The Judgement of Paris.

Throughout the recording, the Tickle -Fiddlers are in very fine form, vocally and instrumentally. The speeds seem ideal, the recording bright, and the booklet notes are informative without bcoming stodgy. All in all, a most enjoyable experience – I hope Rawson & Co. will seek out more gems and share them with us!

Brian Clark

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Awesome Organ

Cover of Awesome Organ CD

Best loved classical organ music
74:57
Naxos 8.578179

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This CD is a compilation of recordings dating back as far as 1988 of some organ favourites (there’s a movement from a Handel organ concerto (originally conceived for the harp!), two from Poulenc’s organ concerto and – inevitably – some Widor) alongside Baroque “hits” like Bach’s celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D minor (rather ironically, given its heritage) and some less familiar stuff like a Prelude in F by Buxtehude, a Toccata in E minor by Pachelbel and a Prelude and Fugue by Böhm. So it’s a nice selection of works for the instrument, albeit probably not (in the strictest sense) for our readers – especially since the “comprehensive booklet notes” promised on the back of the CD are typical Naxos fare.

Brian Clark

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Immortal Beloved

Chen Reiss Beethoven Immortal Beloved CD cover

Beethoven Arias
Chen Reiss soprano, Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr, Oliver Wass harp
58:52
Onyx 4218

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The Israeli soprano Chen Reiss starts an interesting note by addressing the much aired question of Beethoven’s writing for the voice. Is it awkward and unidiomatic or, as she writes, does it feature ‘sequences that are uncomfortable to sing, that don’t sit where the voice (or the audience) would like them to sit’? I think there are elements of truth in both viewpoints and there are surely also reservations to be made regarding Beethoven’s handling of larger scale vocal forms in his earlier works. Both in the case of the aria ‘Fliesse, Wonnezähre, fliesse’, set to an embarrassingly banal text as a part of an unperformed Cantata for the Accession of Leopold II, WoO 88 in 1790 and the large scale scena ‘Primo amore’ WoO 92 (1790-92), possibly associated with Beethoven’s own ‘first love’ (Reiss and the notes by Andrew Stewart disagree on the identity of the lady in question) show Beethoven producing overblown settings that display all the indiscipline of talented, over-reaching youth. It is perhaps not without significance that the most impressive aspect of ‘Fliesse’ is the concertante writing for flute and cello.

Far superior is the more modestly proportioned (and therefore more effective) scena ‘No, non turbati’, WoO 92a, one of several texts by Metastasio that Beethoven set or worked on while he was studying vocal composition with Salieri around the turn of the century. Here Beethoven responds to the lover’s turmoil in the stormy recitative, while finding Mozartian eloquence in the succeeding aria. Mozart – in the form of Die Entführung’s Blondchen – also comes to mind in the delightful aria ‘Soll ein Schuh’, an insert in the Singspiel Die schöne Schusterin by Umlauf. And talk of Blondchen leads to Marzelline in Fidelio, whose ‘O wär’ ich schon’ finds her daydreaming of an imagined future life with ‘Fidelio’.

In addition to the works mentioned above Reiss includes another rarity in the shape of the Romanza, WoO 96, one of four pieces of incidental music Beethoven wrote for the Johann Duncker’s tragedy Leonora Prohaska in 1815, in addition to better known fare in the shape of Clärchen’s songs from the incidental music to Egmont and the great scena ‘Ah, perfido’, op 65.

Chen Reiss has built up a considerable reputation in Europe in recent years, where she is currently a member of the Vienna State Opera. Her vocal quality is unusual in that it has a warm, burnished beauty that has made her an admired interpreter of Richard Strauss, while equally owning a tonal security, purity and flexibility that allows her to sing earlier music (I heard her as a sensitive Ginevra in Handel’s Ariodante in Vienna at the end of 2019). This applies particularly to a middle register that is sumptuous yet also refined, though the upper register can have a tendency to become shrill when pushed. Her singing of all the music on the present CD is extremely rewarding, with considerable sensitivity brought to ‘Ma tu tremi’, the aria from WoO 92a, the humour of the Singspiel aria about the pleasures of a new pair of shoes nicely caught. Above all Reiss rises splendidly to the greater challenges of ‘Ah, perfido’, the words ‘Ah no!, ah no! fermate’ in the recitative inflected with real meaning, while in the succeeding aria the mezza voce at the words ‘io d’affano morirò’, the last carrying a hint of portamento, is deeply touching.

The Academy of Ancient Music under Richard Egarr provide unfailingly sympathetic support, as does Oliver Wass’ solo harp in the song from Leonora Prohaska, to which Reiss appropriately gives a more intimate feel.

With its unusual repertoire and excellent performances this bids fair to become one of the more attractive offerings of the Beethoven anniversary.

Brian Robins

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Bach: The Well-Tempered Consort – I

Cover of Phantasm CD of Bach transcriptions

Phantasm
66:55
Linn CKD 618

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Not since I was captivated by Fretwork’s Art of Fugue, have I so enjoyed Bach on a viol consort. The playing on this CD is quite excellent and the music chosen translates well into playing by a consort. This medium for Bach’s polyphony seems in entirely natural succession to the great English consorts of Jenkins, Lawes and Purcell as the style and techniques developed by Byrd and Gibbons move into the heart of the Baroque.

The disc starts and concludes with Ricercars from the Musical Offering and in between there are a number of transcriptions mainly, though not entirely – there are some versions of fugues for organ and some chorale preludes – from Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier, hinting that a companion volume will appear. For a taster listen to track 12 (Fugue No 24 from Book I, BWV 869 in B minor), and the clarity and innate reciprocity of the fugal movements (in particular) will demonstrate how apt this medium is for giving us both a domestic-scaled and yet rich and sensuous performance.

Their take on the great E flat fugue from the end of the Clavier-Übung III is interesting: the final section goes at the lick its time signature implies, and they play it in D so to those used to hearing it at 415 aren’t too thrown. It is a long way from a rumbling performance on a cathedral organ – and as invigorating as the C major fugue BWV547, which is light and faster than I had ever conceived it on the organ. These performances will make you look at music you thought you knew well through new eyes. But it is also music-making of the highest quality; I found the five-part chorale prelude An Wasserflüßen Babylon (BWV 653b) with its double pedal scoring particularly satisfying on viols as the interplay between the parts develops, in spite of this being a chorale prelude with a very distinctive ‘solo’ feel to the chorale melody as the topmost part.

Perhaps this is because the reverse principle of sourcing material for chorale preludes is already well-established by Bach himself who most obviously transcribed movements from his cantatas into the Schübler Chorales for organ, published late in his life.

Hearing the reverse transcriptions is somehow neither surprising nor improper. Phantasm’s new recording home in Berlin has fine acoustics, and this CD is beautifully recorded, so we can look forward to the companion volumes eagerly.

David Stancliffe

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Recording

Back to Bach

Kei Koito CD cover

Famous Organ Works
Kei Koito (Arp Schnitger Organ (1691/92, Martinikerk, Groningen)
70:45
deutsche harmonia mundi 1 90759 15582 0

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This is the next CD in the series of recordings released by Kei Koito on finely conserved period organs. This time it is the turn of the Arp Schnitger organ in the Martinikirk in Groningen in the Netherlands. The booklet has the organ’s specification, but you need to download the registration chosen for each work from Koito’s website. This is a small inconvenience for something that not only enhances the listener’s experience of the works played but gives an insight into the kind of tone-colours available of one of the most spectacular surviving organs of the period.

The instrument has a complex history: a gothic organ of 1450 was altered in 1482, and then altered in Renaissance style in 1542, added to in 1564 and 1627-8, altered in 1685-90, then substantially rebuilt and enlarged with enormous 32’ Principal pedal towers by Arp Schnitger in 1691-2 after various disasters. In 1728-30 it was given a new Rugpositief by Schnitger’s son and Hinz, and again repaired and enlarged by Hinz in 1740 after subsidence. Then between 1808 and 1939, when the action was electrified, it was altered and substantially re-voiced, so that the historic origins of the organ became scarcely discernable. A major work of restoration was then executed over more than an eight-year period between 1976 and 1984 by Jürgen Ahrend to bring it back to its supposed 1740 shape and sound, with the advice of Cornelius Edskes. The result is very fine, but it has none of those slight variations between notes that make many organs surviving in more or less their original form so melodically fluent, and is a characteristic of – for example – a careful reproduction of a 1720s Denner oboe.

I have not had the opportunity to examine the organ in detail myself, but the photographs on the website make it clear that the frame and action are entirely new and much of the pipework has been re-voiced (again). Of the 53 stops, 20 are in origin Schnitger or earlier, 14 are from the eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries and 19 are entirely new. 

Koito plays a good mixture of pieces opening with the Dorian Toccata and Fugue (BVW 538) and finishing with that in D major (BWV 532). In the middle there is the early G minor Prelude and Fugue (BWV 535) and the G major (BWV 550). Among the interesting other pieces are the trio on Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan – only recently added to the canon – and the trio on Wo gehest du hin after Cantata 166ii, while there are choral preludes on An Wasserflüßen Babylon (BWV 653), Nun danket alle Gott (BWV 657), Komm Gott Schöpfer Heilige Geist (BWV 667), O Lamm Gottes unschuldig (BWV 656) and Herzlich tut mich verlangen (BWV 727). Two Fantasias complete the programme – super Jesu, meine Freude (BWV 713a, 1&2) and Ein fest Burg ist unser Gott (BWV 720) with the rare hints in the autograph for registration. Together they make a varied recital and show off the organ splendidly. As with her previous CDs, the playing is neat and the recording excellent.

As far as her playing is concerned, Koito can be utterly focussed on the rhythmic clarity like in the Dorian Toccata and Fugue, or very subtle – listen to how she phrases the opening of the fugue in the G major (BWV 550), where later she negotiates the tricky passagework in measures 140-143 without missing a trick. And the registration with the Hinz Hobo of 1740 and its tremulant in BWV 584 contrasts elegantly with the opening of the Fantasia super Jesu, meine Freude, where the 2’ Octaaf on the pedal for the choral balances the Rugpositief 4’ Speelfluit beautifully. And the build-up through the verses of O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig (BWV 656) is beautifully registered, and the shading possible on an organ like this with seven manual and five pedal reeds allows for an almost infinite variety of tone as well as subtle changes in volume.

One other feature that makes this such a good recording is of course the acoustic and the way this is handled by the recording engineer. When I first heard the surviving organs in the Netherlands in the late 1950s, I was astonished at the reverberation in many of the churches and wondered at the clarity that seemed to be possible. The amazing blendability of numerous ranks of upperwork, voiced on what seemed then to be astonishingly low wind pressure, seemed to be a gift of many of the barn-like buildings and so very unlike the screaming upperwork that the advanced classical merchants were pedalling as “Baroque” in England.  These days we are lucky to have creative artists working painstakingly at the conservation of these extraordinary survivals, and the Martinikerk organ in Groningen has no fewer than nine known organ builders responsible for the instrument over the years, even if we think of it mainly as the creation of Arp Schnitger. Would it sound so stunning if it were relocated to a dry concert hall acoustic?

David Stancliffe

We have received a second review of this disc.

Don’t be put off by the populist title of this CD. Although some of its contents are well known, there are less famous pieces too and the whole makes a highly satisfactory recital on the historic organ in Groningen’s Martinikerk, one of the largest survivals of the baroque period. Dating originally from the 15th century – and retaining some of those pipes – it was rebuilt many times, most famously by Arp Schnitger and his son in the period 1692-1729. Subsequently neglected, it was restored to its 1740 state by Jürgen Ahrend in the early 1980s and is once again a splendid instrument. Koito is not phased by its history, or its size, and produces a varied palette of registrations which shows it off to advantage, helped by the sound engineers who have successfully dealt with the challenge of reproducing it with both resonance and clarity. She plays four big Preludes/Toccatas and Fugues (including the Dorian), two Fantasias and five Chorale Preludes, plus a couple of charming Trios. I particularly enjoyed An Wasserflüssen Babylon BWV 653 which showcases a beautiful sesquialtera and a flute, and the Fantasia on Ein feste Burg BWV 720 which exploits the reeds. The big pieces on full organ are impressive too, especially the final Buxtehudian Prelude and Fugue BWV 532. Tiner notes are informative about the music though, strangely, not about the organ. Indeed, one has to search quite hard to find a mention of the instrument at all, only in very small print on the back cover, which seems odd given its importance. We are directed to Koito’s own website for further information and reflections, including a full list of registrations for each piece. Overall, this is a very satisfying recording.

Noel O’Regan

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Kuhnau: Complete Sacred Works Vol. 5

Cover of Kuhnau CD

Opella Musica, camerata lipsiensis, Gregor Meyer
67:33
cpo 555 260-2
Erschrick mein Herz vor dir, Gott sei mir gnädig, Ich habe Lust abzuscheiden, Singet dem Herrn, Weicht ihr Sorgen

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This CD continues this outstanding series in which all of Kuhnau’s surviving choral music is presented. The booklet promises that Breitkopf & Härtel will publish the material, which is good news for performers. Their counter tenor, David Erler, is working on editing the material for Breitkopf.

In many ways, the first cantata Gott sei mir gnädig nach deiner Güte – a setting of Luther’s translation of Psalm 51, Miserere mei Domine – is the richest. The texture is enhanced by 5-part strings and the dense chromatic word painting marks it out as one of Kuhnau’s masterpieces. The singers sing equally well as a group and individually, and the emerging arioso/recitative gives an indication of where expressive text-setting in the period before discrete recitative. By contrast the jolly Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied seems less exciting: it is an ingenious composition, but the trumpets and drums stray little beyond the tonic/dominant fanfare style, and certainly there is no hint here of the amazing melodic trumpet parts that were to transform Bach’s more celebratory cantatas.

But all the music here is well worth hearing, and there is much to learn from the way in which these cantatas are performed. There is a single choro of singers, one-to-a-part; and the same of strings. Behind this edifice of sound rises the rich voice of the organ – again the Silbermann organ in the Georgenkirche in Rötha (where the recording was made) which Kuhnau inspected in 1721, the year before he died. Other voices – an oboe, a traverso and the pair of trumpets – add colour, and the fagotto as a bass instrument with the string choir as well as the lute hark back to the favoured bass line of Schütz before the violoncello assumed such a dominant role in the developing Baroque orchestra and the 16’ violone became a sine qua non.

But the attention of the players and singers to each other – the way phrases are tossed between singers and players – gives the music both the intimacy and the clarity that is a hallmark of their style.

I reviewed Vol III of this project in March 2018, and I think that the soprano tone is better than it was – less 20th century in style. That’s a plus in my book.

David Stancliffe

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Bach: Metamorphose

Cover of Neobarock Bach CD Metamorphose

NeoBarock
55:55
ambitus amb 95 606

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This CD is one of those many available in recent years that give us the supposed original of works by J. S. Bach that are known from later parodies, versions or arrangements by the composer. They increase the availability to – in this case – string players of works that might only be known to us in fuller or more varied combinations of instruments. In this case all four reconstructions are for two violins and basso continuo, the classic trio sonata combination for which Bach seems to have written nothing in spite of the fact that his obituary declared that he left ‘a large amount of other instrumental pieces’.

Probably the best-known work to receive this treatment is BWV 1043, the double violin concerto in D minor. In a substantial essay, the moving spirit of NeoBarock, Maren Ries, makes the case for the concerto version being a later adaptation, where nothing substantial is added to the doubling violin parts in the tuttis, and the viola adds only such harmonies as are implied by the bass, and indeed nothing is lost in their trio sonata version.

The playing is neat and spirited, and I never found myself wishing for the large backing group. In terms of the clarity of the composition and the engagement of the players, this opening movement version sounds much like the ritornelli in the tenor aria in Part IV.6 of the Christmas Oratorio, Ich will nur dir zu Ehren leben. Nor does the second movement with its minimal string chords lose anything. I found some of the sudden ritardandi surprising, but elegantly managed, otherwise I think the most ardent HIP purist will find nothing except delight in this version.

The same goes for me in the adaptation of the violin sonata in A (BWV 1015). While playing this, I never found it possible to balance the violin part with the right hand of the harpsichord as I am sure it should be. In those trio sonatas that are so many of the arias for voice and a single obbligato instrument in the cantatas, I have been keen to explore similarity in dynamic range with distinctiveness in tone colour. So I welcome a version that puts the two melodic lines on instruments of similar dynamic range, but wonder about tonal contrast. Would an oboe d’amore or a traverso be worth a try here? Series VII Band 7 of the NBA gives us five reconstructions of presumed solo concerti: might the editors consider the reverse process and be ready to include the reconstructions of supposed original chamber works?

The other works here are versions of BWV 1029 and 1028. We already have Bach’s own version of 1027 for two traversi and continuo in BWV 1039, and there is good circumstantial evidence that the others have earlier versions along the lines of those offered here. The essay is wholly plausible, and I hope that some of the other material in the Bach-Archiv will find varied life in chamber music versions. I enjoyed La Tempesta di Mare’s versions of the trio sonatas for organ when they came out, and hope that other groups will take up the challenge.

David Stancliffe

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Ockeghem: Complete Songs volume 1

Cover of Blue Heron Ockeghem CD

Blue Heron, Scott Metcalfe
76:49
Blue Heron BHCD 1010 (6 45312 49963 2)

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This is the first of two CDs which will include all Ockeghem’s surviving chansons. Following hard on the heels of their fine recording of Rore’s first book of madrigals (see my review in EMR November 10, 2019), and ever mindful of their series of discs containing music from the Peterhouse partbooks,  the final one of which won the prestigious Gramophone early music prize, expectations could not be higher: will Blue Heron’s performances complement the greatness of Ockeghem’s music?

Two of the thirteen songs are not attributed to him. The anonymous rondeau En atendant vostre venue is included because it quotes from his Quant de vous seul which is sensibly placed to precede it on the disc; and Au travail suis is attributed to both Ockeghem and Barbingant in different sources, but because it similarly quotes Ma maitresse it is attributed here to Barbingant and likewise included after the work it quotes. Two other works survive anonymously but in circumstances that point to Ockeghem as their likely composer. All this is explained in scrupulous detail by Sean Gallagher in the excellent accompanying booklet, which also contains a fine essay by Scott Metcalfe about performing the songs, with sections on instruments, interpretation of surviving underlay, and pronunciation.

Those of us listening to or performing Ockeghem’s music have the benefit of perspective. Specifically: his contemporaries could hear his songs simply as the music itself and/or as it had been influenced by the work of his predecessors. They would also have noticed elements that were original, and perhaps some that reflected a personal style. From the 21st century we have the additional benefit of hearing how his music influenced and affected subsequent musical developments, not only among his disciples, but also over the centuries up to the 20th and 21st. While we have expectations of what late mediaeval or early Renaissance composers’ music will sound like, we could not reasonably expect Ockeghem’s songs to sound in some places so remarkably prophetic, even modern. Admittedly the listener has to rely on the editor to have reproduced accurately what Ockeghem intended to be heard 500 years ago but, taking this on trust, many passages in these songs reach effortlessly across the centuries. Even as soon as the first three words of the opening track Ockeghem is shaking hands with later generations and there is another striking passage in Fors seullement contre ce qu’ay promis at “une belle aliance”. (Philip A. Cooke’s recent book about James MacMillan mentions his subject’s assimilation of Ockeghem’s technique.) While such passages might not be unparalleled in music of this period, their placing by Ockeghem is so assured as to seem that he is, so to speak, setting an agenda for musicians of the future. Like all the greatest composers he is able to combine exquisite melodies with the highest technical accomplishment, so that however many verses a song possesses, each one is welcomed anew by the listener, who at the conclusion is left wanting more.

The performances are superb, serving this music with the perfect balance of restraint and commitment. Just occasionally, as in the taxing discantus part of Fors seullement contre ce qu’ay promis, there is just a hint of insecure intonation, but Blue Heron live up to their reputation as among the finest interpreters of early music on the planet. There are recordings of Ockeghem’s music which are as good – one thinks of the masses sung by The Clerks’ Group under Edward Wickham – but this is only to be demanded when performing music of this quality.

Instrumental participation, so often the Achilles heel of this sort of recording, is limited, capable, judicious and discreet. Conductor Scott Metcalfe plays the contratenor parts on the harp on four of the thirteen tracks, the vielle on another (Au travail suis attributed to Barbingant) and duets on the vielle with Laura Jeppesen on the setting of O rosa bella a2 with a discantus attributed to each of Bedyngham and Ockeghem.

A second disc of Ockeghem’s songs, again sung by Blue Heron, is in place. And in the case of Ockeghem, more of the same means more of his wonderful difference.

Richard Turbet

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Haydn 2032 No. 8 – La Roxolana

Haydn 2032 vol. 8 La roxolana CD cover

Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini
Symphonies 28, 43, 63 + Anonymous (Sonata jucunda), Bartók (Romanian folk dances)

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Not the least of the pleasures of this exhilarating series has been the works supplementing the Haydn symphonies, invariably to some (at times tenuous) thematic purpose. This time we are given perhaps the most surprising to date, the set of Bartók’s seven tiny Romanian folk dances originally for piano, but orchestrated by the composer in 1917. So if you’ve ever wondered what Bartók sounds like on period instruments, now’s your chance. The results are nothing less than electrifying, given the virtuosity and verve of Antonini’s superlative players, whether in the scrunchy chords of no. 1, the rubato brought to no. 2, the wistful no. 4, with its plangent violin solo, or the extraordinary sound of Giovanni Antonini’s Renaissance flute in no. 3. All is explained in his notes, devoted to what Antonini describes as ‘the birth of crossover’, or music from traditions other than so-called ‘classical music’.

Also falling into this category is the anonymous Sonata Jucunda (‘cheerful sonata’), a manuscript from the important collection housed in Kromĕříž Castle in Moravia, which also includes the manuscripts of a number of Haydn’s works. Composed in the style of Biber, it includes eleven brief connected movements that evolve from a solemn opening adagio to incorporate traditional music from the Haná region of Moravia, some sections given a delightfully quirky character.

The earliest of the three Haydn symphonies is No. 28 in A, a modestly scored work that dates from 1765. H. C. Robbins Landon conjectured that it originated as incidental music for a play presented at Eisenstadt in that year, an idea expanded by the notes for the present CD, which suggests the comedy Die Insel der gesunden Vernunft (The Isle of Common Sense) as the source. The opening Allegro certainly has a feel of barely suppressed excitement before eventually breaking out in the full orchestra, while the Poco Adagio suggests a nocturnal walk. Robbins Landon believes it could have served as an entr’acte. Symphony No. 43 in E-flat, nicknamed ‘The Mercury’ in the 19th century for no discernable reason, dates from 1770. It opens with a strongly announced chord, answered by sotto voce strings before proceeding to an animated Allegro bristling with tremolandi. The Adagio is wonderfully atmospheric, a lyrical musing that in its second half moves to a world of introspection. If No. 28 can conjecturally be linked to a stage work, no such doubts arise with Symphony No. 63 in C, the work that gives this volume its name. Composed around 1779/80, it is one of several composite symphonies from that period. The affable opening Allegro is taken from the overture to the comic opera Il mondo della luna, composed in 1777, while the nocturnal theme of the succeeding set of variations, ‘La Roxelana’ comes from incidental music for a play given at Ezsterháza in which the French lady of the title wins the favour of the Turkish emperor Suliman in the face of competition from two other ladies. The bustling Presto finale again has the feel of theatre.

All this music is played with dynamic panache, along with the sensitivity and delicacy all noted as characteristics of earlier issues. With well-judged tempos and acute balance enabling part-writing to be revealed in translucent textures, these are performance that convey a spirit of fresh spontaneity, while at the same time giving full value to every single bar.

Brian Robins