early music review

cellini consort
65:44
Ramée RAM1911

For the most part, these transcriptions for three viols are reworkings of keyboard pieces and so are going in ‘a direction which is consciously the opposite of what was typical for Bach as an arranger’. The expert players, based in Switzerland, note that ‘many of Bach’s viola da gamba pieces are in fact rearrangements of his own works.’

They are mindful of the fact that at Weimar Bach wrote extensively for low concertante instruments, and the fugal writing of e. g. the Fantasia and Fugue BWV 905, the organ trio on Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland BWV 660 and the eponymous Wo soll ich fliehen hin (BWV 646) suits the low pitch and sonorous clarity of the viols really well. I was frequently reminded of my favourite version of the Art of Fugue by Fretwork. I find these versions more plausible than for example the Italian Concerto.

What cannot be faulted is the technical and musical skills of the three players, Tore Eketorp, Brian Franklin and Thomas Goetschel. This CD is another example of how Bach can be played in a great variety of ways on many combinations of instruments. No-one who knows the way English chamber music developed from Orlando Gibbons through to Purcell will regret hearing these dedicated players enjoying appropriating Bach’s keyboard music for their own education and enjoyment. The recording is first class and the result is a delight.

David Stancliffe

Rachel Podger violin
127:38 (2 CDs in a card triptych)
Channel Classics CCS SA 41119

The able and delightful Rachel Podger has recorded the six Cello Suites with a dancing fluency and an ease of manner which meant that never for a moment did I question her appropriation of this set of dance suites for the violin.

She describes how she grew up with them as part of her aural landscape, and had never entirely appreciated those classic performances we used to hear until she heard a performance on a Baroque ‘cello with its lighter bow. And began to appreciate that they were sets of dances. Later, when coaching cello players, she often found herself playing along with them. And then one day she decided to borrow them and play them properly, and has never regretted it. Nor do I: they sound fresh and light as the higher pitch and smaller instrument aids her characteristic fluency. She had wondered, she says, about the Sarabandes – would they have enough weight? I found them perfectly acceptable in this medium, and think that these performances are bewitching. Bach was an inveterate borrower and arranger of his own works, and – like Rachel – I can’t see anything wrong when (except for the Sixth Suite) they fit so perfectly.

She plays them, as you would expect from the tuning of a violin with G as the bottom note, up an octave and a fifth, which works perfectly for the first five. But what to do about the Sixth, written for a 5 string ‘cello? After various experiments with five-stringed viola and violin, she settled for playing it up an octave on her own violin, and getting her recording engineers to piece in the lower passages played on her viola. I cannot tell any break in the seamless result.

You may not approve, but I think they are splendid, and have listened to them a lot.

David Stancliffe

Le Consort
61:45
Alpha Classics Alpha 542

If, like me, you’ve only ever heard keyboard music by Jean-François Dandrieu, you are in for a treat – especially if you are a fan of the baroque trio sonata! Le Consort (2 violins, viola da gamba, cello and keyboard) play all six of his op. 1 (hence the CD’s title), alongside three trios by Corelli (op. 2/8 & 12, op. 4/1) and an instrumental version of the French composer’s “La Corelli”.

Published almost 20 years before Couperin’s Les goûts ré-unis, Dandrieu’s trios are so Italianate that honestly, if I didn’t know the Corelli pieces from two years of keyboard harmony classes at university, I should have had trouble knowing who wrote what. Walking bass lines, chains of suspensions, clever counterpoint – they are all here in abundance, but they are not mere imitation; rather, it is as if Dandrieu has turned off his “Frenchness”, preferring to simplify the range of harmonies in order to achieve Corellian “perfection”, and it is quite wonderful to listen to. (Geek alert!)

The five players of Le Consort produce a lush sound – suave violins with lithe bow work and a sensuous approach to dissonance, supported by an unobtrusive continuo team whose string players drive the music forward as required. The recorded sound is first class (as you’d expect from Alpha!). Essentially there is absolutely no reason why you wouldn’t want this fabulous disc in your collection.

Brian Clark

Johannes Pramsohler, Roldán Bernabé
63:04
Audax Records ADX13714
Guignon, Guillemain, Leclair & Mangean

Any new release on the Audax label is going to be more than worth hearing – the level of performance and recording engineering are astonishing. For this recent recording, the two violinists of the “house band” (Ensemble Diderot) enjoyed some continuo-free time in a programme of frankly daunting duet sonatas. The “usual suspects” are there – Leclair (op 12/6), Guillemain (op 4/2) and Guignon (Les sauvages et La Furstemberg, a worled premiere recording, and his Folies d’Espagne), as well as the little-known Etienne Mangean (op 3/6, also a first outing on CD). Pramsohler and Bernabé are perfectly matched – for proof, listen to Track 13, where the bow strokes of their détaché chords sound as if they’re played by the same person, then marvel as they toss phrases back and forth, swapping roles absolutely effortlessly. Of course, it is anything but effortless – these guys must have invested hours, practising this until they agreed on how each passage should be and then there’s the remarkable feat of pulling off such captivating performances. This is a disc I have enjoyed for months and am only now able to put into words how gorgeous it all is! If you haven’t already acquired it, or you worried that a whole disc of duets might not be your thing, please do your ears and soul a favour…

Brian Clark

Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset
109:01 (2 CDs)
Aparté AP197

Although first published in 1726, Les Nations largely consists of music conceived some years earlier. An example of François Couperin’s pre-occupation with les goûts reunis (the combination of French and Italian styles), it contains four instrumental works that each open with a trio sonata in the Corellian style before continuing with a sequence of dances familiar from the French suite. Couperin provided a charming explanation of how his motivation stemmed from the works of Corelli and Lully, ‘both of whose compositions I shall love as long as I live’. Amusingly, he goes on to explain how knowing that the French are averse to foreign innovation he passed off the first of the sonatas (which he termed ‘sonades’) as being the work of an obscure Italian composer, in fact an anagram of his name. It was, Couperin relates, greeted with such acclaim that he felt encouraged to go on and write the remaining sonatas. Although three of the works are named after nations – France, Spain and Piedmont – there are no specific national characteristics other than the stylistic elements mentioned.

The score makes no indication as to the instrumentation of Les Nations, but it is usual for strings to be employed, as, for example, in the fine recording by the Purcell Quartet (Chandos) involving just five performers. By contrast, Christophe Rousset gives us a sumptuous version with no fewer than ten players, including pairs of violins, flutes, oboes, bassoon, viola da gamba and theorbo, directed by Rousset from the harpsichord. In the wrong hands such a venture might have become a vulgar exhibition of brash daubing of instrumental colours, but so sensitive to the music is Rousset, so deftly handled and musical are the alternations that the results are utterly enchanting. Obviously types of movement suggest a particular instrumentation: slower movements such as those marked ‘gravement’ in the sonatas or dances such as the sarabandes, obviously work better with cool, sensually drooping flutes or expressive violins, while ‘vivement’ movements are well suited to the classic trio combination of piquant oboes and bassoon. To a considerable extent Rousset’s choice conforms to expectations, but it is by no means hidebound and occasionally springs a surprise, as in the noble Allemande of the Suite in the 4me Ordre, ‘La Piemontaise’, which is given to the wind trio. In some bigger movements like chaconnes or passacailles, Rousset parades a riot of colour and texture where the constant tossing of material from one instrumental group to another resembles nothing so much as jazz riffs. The results are exhilarating, spontaneous-sounding music making.

One or two memorable individual moments. The Allemande that opens the suite of ‘La Française’ (1er Ordre) features elegant interweaving between flute and violin, the balance between instruments (which is exceptional throughout) and rhythmic flow perfectly caught in playing that somehow distils the very essence of French Baroque music into this one movement. Later there is a Sarabande in which the two flutes caress in a kind of idealized reverie. The 2me Ordre (‘L’Espagnole’) finds the Allemande allotted to oboe/bassoon trio, where the wonderful modulation to the minor in the second half is handled with loving care. The Sonata of the 3me Ordre (‘L’Impériale’) was composed later than much of the music of Les Nations and is remarkable throughout. The most Corellian of all the sonatas, it opens with the violins weaving imitative sequential chains of gracious nobility, before proceeding to a brief Vivement given to the oboe/bassoon trio, a contrapuntal dotted Gravement for strings, a gently undulating Légèrement for the flutes, another quick section for the wind trio and a complex concluding fugal movement for the strings.

Finally a few words on the sound, which is exceptional by any standard That is doubtless in large part as a result of the recording having been made in the extraordinary acoustic of the magnificently lavish Galerie dorée of the Banque de France, once the home of the comte de Toulouse. I note too that the Banque was one of the sponsors of the recording. I wonder when the Bank of England last sponsored a recording of, say, Purcell? Mid-summer is rather early to start talking of best recordings of the year, but something remarkable is going to have to happen if this delectable issue is not right in the forefront of claimants.

Brian Robins

Telemann and his subscribers
Tabea Debus recorders, Claudia Norz & Henry Tong violins, Jordan Brown viola, Jonathan Rees violincello & viola da gamba, Tom Foster harpsichord
TT= 66:34
TYXart CD TXA18107

This is a very cleverly conceived recording which has several threads woven into it. The interspersing of works by G. P. Telemann within the time frame of 1728-9, using a selection of Handel’s and Telemann’s operatic arias to compile instrumental Sonatas, (Tracks 5-9, 13-16) a Blavet-Telemann Suite (Tracks 17-22) and some familiar Bach Sinfonias (BWV35, 156) whilst acknowledging the known self-publishing impetus of one of the baroque’s most prolific composers, with two Sonatas from Der getreue Music-Meister. Equally, it links the music to his esteemed and numerous subscribers. There’s also a most salient Bach link to BWV156/1056! Often overlooked!

Telemann took over as impresario of Hamburg’s Gänsemarkt opera house in 1722, right up until its fading appeal and final decline in 1738. The actual number of operas written during his Hamburg, Frankfurt and Leipzig years is still being defined, especially the “Etliche und Zwanzig” 20 odd for Leipzig! During his Hamburg years, there were often performances of his long-standing creative friend Handel’s operas, often a mere year or two after their London premieres. In some cases, the Hamburg “arrangements” were tailoured for the local tastes, with German arias and recitatives at selected moments. Occasionally, a few comic characters were added for a “Buffa” effect. The opera house was in full swing by 1727 through to 1729, with Telemann’s own works appearing, alongside these re-workings of Handel’s original: the original Riccardo Primo Re d’Inghilterra HWV23 (London 1727) became Der mißlungene Brautwechsel/Richardus I König von England (Hamburg 1729), TWV22:8(The thwarted mix-up of brides).

It should be noted that Track 5 ought to read HWV23, for ALL the Italian Arias in the 1729 Hamburg version are lifted from Handel! The 1729 opera Flavius Bertaridus TWV21:27, defined as Telemann’s sole opera seria, did have Italian arias of various contrasting nuances (times martial, times regal) with usual emotive content. Bracketing these instrumental versions of operatic arias, we have two fairly well-known recorder works from Der Getreue Music-Meister (1728-9), the serial publication of multifarious musical pieces, including some of Telemann’s own operatic arias. Perhaps a missed opportunity on this CD to have played the apt “Introduzione” Trio (Suite) a due Flauti, from the same publication?

The playing itself, is alert and crisp. Just occasionally the recorder comes across a tad blasé, sometimes over- strident, yet never without articulation, revealing some quite fascinating insights into these life-long musical friends within a “quid pro quo” of exchanged transformative ideas of the time, devoid of any plagiarism, moreover of happy fusions, hybrids and pasticcios.

Finally, to the Bach and Blavet chosen here, the former being perhaps the least operatic, back to the church style, but not without its salient link to Telemann! Professors I. Payne* (Severinus Press**) and S. Zohn* thrashed out the extremely detailed analysis of Bach’s borrowings from the family friend, with some inescapable conclusions! One being that the original motif found in Bach’s BWV156/1056 actually stems from the opening “Andante” of TWV51:G2, an oboe (or flute) concerto (SUTE 95**).

( * In The Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, Baldwin-Wallace College, Vol.XXX. No1., Spring-Summer 1999)

Blavet’s Le jaloux corrige (1752) offers a pertinent French connection in a musical confection or Assemblage compiled by Tabea Debus, with a dusting of extracts from Flavius Bertaridus TWV21:27 of 1729.

This recordings draws interesting connections to the influential and respected maestro and cantor, who ran a most successful “self-publishing” service, disseminating music to all those who were openly receptive to it, far and wide.

(Addendum)

Track listings: 1-4 TWV41:C2 , 5-9 Sonata of Handel & Telemann’s Arias, 10-12 Sinfonias BWV35 and 156, 13-16 Sonata of Handel & Telemann’s arias, 17-22 M.Blavet/Telemann Suite 23-26= TWV51:F1

Daivd Bellinger