Categories
Recording

The Lully Effect

Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Barthold Kuijken
62:47
Naxos 8.573867

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen one sees one of the Kuijken brothers at the helm of an orchestra, a kind of comfortable assurance sweeps over any major drifting worries about interpretation; he certainly knows his musical “onions”!

It seems this was a long-held wish to perform/record these chosen works by these three important composers, showing the transmission of the overture-suite (suite de danses) from the early operatic epicentre of Paris, through Amsterdam’s publishers, and out into the wider Germanic realm, and then back. One of the very first works to make such a musical journey was Lully’s opera, Cadmus and Hermione  of 1673, published in 1682 in Amsterdam as “Ouverture avec tous les airs…fait a Paris par Monsr Jean Baptiste Lully”. Two of the early (first wave of Lullistes) were P. H. Erlebach (1657-1714) and J. S. Kusser (1660-1727) the latter maybe even a pupil of the famous French master? Their fine Lully-influenced works featured on a similar concept CD, “Lully in Deutschland” on Amati, with L’Arpa Festante München under Michi Gaigg. On this disc we have an overture-suite by one of the Baroque’s dynamic masters, a gifted “fusionist” of styles, who was no sluggard in producing a profusion of overtures, alongside their following movements, some being direct extracts from operas, some much more idiomatic readings of tasteful and witty insights, plus topographic, nationalistic and mythological depictions; at times with elemental and fanciful themes – Telemann. The work chosen to represent him here, TWV55: e3, from ca. 1716, incorporates some of these elements mentioned. There are some delightfully eccentric qualities and dynamic twists that make it perfect for inclusion. Finally, we have a return to Paris, with Rameau’s fabulously orchestrated Dardanus  (1739/44) suite; truly captivating music that just seeps and sighs with delicious “finesse” and “tendresse” – every single serious Baroquophile will recall the very first encounter with this ravishing, fantastical music which casts a potent, lasting spell. I wouldn’t like to guess how many versions there are out there… Amusingly, peeping out from the CD tray, I espy the EUBO under Roy Goodman doing: Dardanus!

The playing here is refined, never pushed to excess, yet might have had a touch more vim and pepper in the Telemann, and boisterous fun with the Rameau. The overall effect is steady and elegant at the helm! The Lully itself, a few extracts from Armide, could have been longer… and possibly selected movements from elsewhere (the afore-mentioned Cadmus and Hermione?) This is a fine recap for all those not already in the know.

David Bellinger

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Categories
Recording

Vivaldi’s Recorder Concertos

Vincent Lauzer recorders, Arion Orchestre Baroque, dir. Alexander Weimann
65:12
ATMA ACD2 2760

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ancy a glide down the Grand Canal with some wonderful Venetian sunshine glinting off the water in shimmering reflections, then this marvellous recording will not disappoint; even the familiar works are played with poise and fine articulation without any blistering speeds that boggle the mind and defy one’s ears, or vice versa! The impeccable balance between the soloist and superbly responsive orchestra is felt at every step, along with the unforced excellence in capturing Vivaldi’s splendid virtuosic contours for both alto and sopranino recorders. The concerto transposed in F (Track 9-11) RV312R is an arrangement of the G major Violin concerto RV312 by Jean Cassignol, and it works especially well, so too the wonderfully atmospheric “La Notte” on alto recorder, which loses nothing of that spectral feel. It is particularly pleasing to have these works gathered together for comparison and variation. RV441 (circa 1728) is a real tour de force  with unfurling ritornelli and incredibly challenging solo passages, which can go easily astray or be over-played! RV442 in F major written a little earlier, between 1724-1729, the later date reflecting the date of publication of the closely related RV434 (with Largo e cantabile  in G minor), the fifth work from the Op. 10 set of concerti, finds a more tender, subdued mood, again beautifully captured by the mellifluence of soloist Vincent Lauzer, and the closely supportive Arion orchestre baroque; the recorded sound is as radiant as the music… bathing in that bright Venetian sunshine!

David Bellinger

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Recording

Steffani: O barbaro Amore

Duetti da camera
66:07
Musica Omnia mo0711
(Booklet notes by Colin Timms)

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he duets of Agostino Steffani play an important role in the development of vocal chamber music, reflected both in their own intrinsic merit and the influence they had on succeeding composers, not least Handel. Justly, their importance has started to be reflected on CD, the most recent issue emanating from the Boston Early Music Festival reviewed by David Hansell on EMR earlier in the month (August 2018), while my review of a disc by the Spanish Forma Antiqua ensemble can be found in the listings for July 2016. Since it included a fairly comprehensive introduction to Steffani’s chamber duets interested readers are referred to that review. Now those recordings are joined by this newcomer, which also emanates from the USA.

It is probably a measure of the challenges these duets present to their performers when I conclude that none of these recordings is truly satisfactory. A major difficulty is the communication of texts that deal with many aspects of love, not infrequently in ironic terms. As Steffani scholar Colin Timms perceptively writes in his valuable notes for the new issue (he also wrote the essay for the Boston issue), the ‘vocal writing […] reflects the rhythm, sound and meaning of the words, arousing a variety of affective responses…’ The problem is nowhere on these performances does it do so beyond generalised emotional gestures; it is surely not without significance that not one of the eleven singers featured across the three CDs has Italian as their native language. It shows.

The new disc features no fewer than five singers, of whom Canadian soprano Andréanne Brisson Paquin and mezzo Céline Ricci, the best-known name, have the lions share. Both they and their male companions, countertenor José Lemos, Steven Soph (tenor) and Mischa Bouvier (baritone) turn in good honest performances that in the final analysis fall some way short of ideal. Italian diction, Ricci excepted, is poor, while Paquin’s bright soprano has considerable character but the voice is too ill-focussed at times for this repertoire, though she and Ricci turn in a satisfyingly affecting performance of the more straightforward and exquisitely wrought ‘Lontananza crudele’. But one needs listen only to the searing chromatic lines of the opening ‘Occhi, perché piangete’ in the rival Spanish version, itself not ideal, to be aware of what is missing here. The continuo support on the new disc is unexceptionable, if at times somewhat stolid. It remains only to add that anyone who wants to investigate Steffani’s chamber duets – and that should include anyone interested in Baroque vocal music – the present recording involves no duplications with the Boston CD. But what we really need are interpretations by some of the fine present crop of Italian early music singers.

Brian Robins

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Recording

Weiss & Hasse

Jadran Duncumb baroque lute
57:19
Audax Records ADX13713

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or his first solo CD Jadran Duncumb has recorded music by Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783) and Silvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750), composers who were good friends, and worked together as musicians in Dresden. Tracks 1-2 are from a manuscript (Leipzig, Musikbibliothek der Stadt, Becker III.11.46b) of four keyboard sonatas by Hasse intabulated for the lute (https://digital.slub-dresden.de/werkansicht/dlf/198727/6/0/): “IV Suonate di Hasse accommodate per il Liuto fatte per La Real Delfina di Francia”. The dedicatee was Maria Josepha of Saxony, daughter of Frederick Augustus II, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. In 1747 she married the French Dauphin Louis Ferdinand and became mother to three kings of France: Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, and Charles X. The original keyboard setting for some of the sonatas is given towards the end of the manuscript, but there is none for the fourth Sonata, the one recorded as a world premiere by Jadran Duncumb. However, the keyboard setting can be found on IMSLP (search for “Hasse, Johann Adolf” and “2 Sonate da camera per cembalo solo”). Duncomb sticks closely to the 18th-century intabulation for the Allegretto, adding his own tasteful decorations for repeated sections, which includes re-instating two answering phrases in the bass, which the intabulator had omitted to make the piece easier to play. Duncumb re-instates much that was left out of the Allegro, in particular pairs of thirds, turning it into a particularly difficult piece, which he plays with panache. Maria Josepha would have been impressed.

Tracks 10-12 are another keyboard sonata by Hasse in an arrangement for baroque lute. Both settings are in the same manuscript, Becker III.11.46c. The arranger intabulates the melody down an octave, which takes it as low as the 7th course on the lute. Many of the bass notes are intabulated down an octave too, resulting in a low tessitura, with the low, unstopped diapasons very much in evidence. Duncumb does well to maintain clarity at this end of the lute’s range, but he cannot prevent long open strings ringing on, muddying the water, particularly in fast passages. (A little Blu-Tack on the strings at the bridge might have helped.) Triplet semiquavers race effortlessly up and down the neck, and there are pleasing contrasts of loud and soft passages. His Allegro is spot on – fast, exciting, with lots of impetus to please a foot-tapping audience, yet far from mechanical, with subtle give and take between delicate well-shaped phrases, and somehow he manages to squeeze in some slick ornaments. Towards the end are three extraordinary bars of arpeggiated demisemiquavers, followed by a final flourish to top f”. As with all treble notes, the 18th-century arranger intabulates these last notes down an octave, but Duncumb will have none of it. He restores the original keyboard pitch, and shoots up to the 12th fret of his lute, where he waits with a dramatic pause before descending for the final cadence. It is a stunning performance. The Moderato is characterised by a succession of Scottish snaps, some of which he converts into triplets, together with a variety of extra notes, ornaments and fast little runs, to enhance the repeats. The Presto proceeds at a good pace, although at that speed many of the low, unstopped strings are a blur.

There are three items by Silvius Leopold Weiss. The first is the Sonata in D minor (SW35), noticeably different in texture from the Hasse pieces, because it was composed for the lute, not adapted from keyboard music. There is a welcome freshness and clarity of line, enhanced by Duncumb’s 13-course lute built by Tony Johnson, as Weiss exploits the full range of the instrument. This Sonata is one of Weiss’s mature works, with some extraordinary shifts of harmony in the Allemande, Adagio, followed by a lengthy Courante. it is a fine Sonata full of surprises and imaginative changes of direction. Duncumb gives the final Allegro the passion of Beethoven at his fieriest. The other Weiss pieces are the well-known Passacaglia in D major (SW 18/6) and the Prelude in C minor (SW 27/1). The latter is listed correctly in the liner notes, but incorrectly on the back cover.
.
Unfortunately there is a downside to this recording. I admire Duncumb’s skill, his impeccable technique, and his mature understanding of the music he plays. He really is a fine player, playing with sensitivity and vitality, yet his performance is marred by his loud, heavy breathing. Even before the first note sounds, he starts frantically gasping for air as if he were in danger of drowning, and the noise continues unabated up to the last note. When the music is over, the gasping stops, and he returns to normal. I don’t suppose he gasps like that when he plays football, so why do it playing the lute? It is an unwelcome distraction, and I sincerely hope he can do something to curtail it.

Stewart McCoy

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Festival-conference

Early Nights in Edinburgh

D James Ross at the Edinburgh International Festival 2018

A Pair of Period Pianos

To be able to host two of the four ‘big beasts’ of the early piano world within four days of one another is the prerogative of an international festival, and we were uniquely privileged to be able to compare recitals by Ronald Brautigam and Robert Levin at Edinburgh’s attractive Queen’s Hall. Brautigam was playing a beautiful Erard piano of 1837 from the collection of Edwin Beunk, an instrument which was a feast for the eyes much admired by the audience before the recital even started. It turned out to be an equal aural treat, when Brautigan opened his performance with Mendelssohn’s Rondo capriccioso. A full tone in the middle register, with an added edge in the bottom range and a delightfully light upper register allowed the instrument to reveal the innermost secrets of the works by Mendelssohn and Chopin which made up the programmne, while Brautigam’s stunning technique and deft pedalling provided further revelations. Chopin’s B flat minor Scherzo  op. 31 provided a brilliant introduction to the two Nocturnes  of opus 27, where I have never heard the distinctive undulating arpeggios performed with more clarity and eloquence. Mendelssohn’s impressive Variations sérieuses  op 54 brought the first half to a spectacularly virtuosic conclusion.

The Six Songs without Words  op 19 proved a wonderfully melodic opening to the second half, with the venerable Erard fairly singing out Mendelssohn’s lyrical melodies, while Chopin’s op 60 Barcarolle  and op 57 Berceuse  continued in a similarly gentle vein. Brautigam’s wonderfully compelling and flamboyantly executed performance concluded appropriately with Chopin’s showy Polonaise-fantaisie  op 61 – a compositional and performance tour de force. A further delightful Barcarolle  provided a suitably calming encore.

The Queen’s Hall also hosted an all-Mozart recital by Robert Levin, this time on a modern copy by Paul McNulty of an 1805 fortepiano by Anton Walter & Sohn. The contrast in sound between this instrument and the 1837 Erard was striking, as Robert Levin conjured wonderfully silvery tones from an instrument which turned out to have a wonderfully percussive bass register and a charmingly rapid decay. In his witty verbal introduction, Levin cited a keyboard tutor by CPE Bach in which he advocates lavish ornamentation of repeats and valuably provides examples, which prove to be radical departures from the originals. Levin pithily explained why he was playing from printed music – ‘I need to know what not to play in the repeats!’ With improvisation high on the agenda, Levin had compiled an ingenious programme juxtaposing three Mozart sonatas with the composer’s flamboyant Four Preludes K284a. The recital opened a short piece reconstructed by Levin from a liminal fragment notated in a manuscript of the composer’s Grabmusik. The cascades of scales and arpeggios in the Preludes seemed to prefigure the keyboard fireworks of Chopin, and surely provide us with a rare window on Mozart’s much-admired skills as an improviser. Levin’s own stunning powers of improvisation in the repeat sections of the Sonatas were nothing less than breathtaking, surely showing the way for future performances of these concert staples. Mozart’s own piano arrangement of the overture to Die Entführung aus dem Serail gave full rein to the clashing bass register, seeming almost to beg for one of the pianos of the time which featured Turkish percussion effects! If Levin’s laudable decision to group the pieces together and his slightly annoying mannerism of rushing to cadences led to a slightly breathless impression, this was a recital which was never less than exciting and frequently absolutely thrilling. An enthusiastic ovation elicited an unusual encore – Levin had transcribed the music from the famous portrait of the boy Mozart in red livery and looking hauntingly straight at the viewer. It turned out to be a youthful showpiece, surely designed to advertise the boy’s precocious compositional skills.

A Biblical Epic

If you will forgive the innuendo, Samson  uncut is surprisingly huge. This became apparent as we sat down to the Dunedin Consort’s performance of Handel’s oratorio, which was projected to last no less than four hours. Written around the same time as Messiah, Samson has never enjoyed the success it deserves, and with the exception of the last two numbers, the spectacular show-aria Let the Bright Seraphim  and the ensuing chorus Let their Celestial Consorts all unite  little of the music has entered the standard repertoire. As I sat through a series of very fine arias and choruses I found myself musing upon why this vintage Handel isn’t more mainstream. One problem is that all the drama happens off-stage – Samson is already blinded and defeated when we first encounter him, and the concluding destruction of the temple is reduced to ‘noises off’. The unrelentingly melancholy subject, only very latterly transformed to triumph, also makes for painful listening. I found myself tearing up as Samson considered his blindness, singing heartrending words by blind Milton to moving music by Handel, already losing his sight, and who also would be blind within a few years. Paul Appleby’s account of the air Total Eclipse, as indeed his interpretation of the complex character of Samson, was immensely powerful, while his vocal technique in a long and demanding role was stunning. Sophie Bevan in the dramatically thankless role of Delila was simply superb as she purred, trilled and cooed her way through her seduction aria With plaintive notes, earning her the only individual ovation of the evening. Matthew Brook’s well-gauged Manoa, Samson’s father, was a powerful presence. Alice Coote, by contrast, seemed less comfortable in the role of Micah, composed by Handel for Mrs Cibber, although she did grow into the part as the piece advanced. Mhairi Lawson was an excellent stand-in second Philistine/Israelite Woman, and Hugo Hymas was vocally well cast as Israelite/Philistine Man. Of course, Louise Alder gets the best music in the show, Let the Bright Seraphim, a wonderfully sparkling show-stopper of an aria with obligato clarino trumpet, which is a gift to a soprano with the technique to enjoy it to the full. Wisely employing the Harry Christophers solution of segueing from the b-section of the aria straight into the concluding chorus ensured that the piece came to a terrific climax, and a deafening and extended ovation from the Usher Hall audience

As always with the Dunedin forces it seems, the orchestral playing was consistently superb under the detailed direction of John Butt, with wonderfully expressive string playing and fine contributions from bassoon, oboes, trumpets and a pair of wonderfully rumbustious horns, not always pinpoint accurate but infectiously energetic. Thomas Pitt and Stephen Farr provided unerringly supportive continuo playing, while the latter was also the organ soloist in the movements from Handel’s organ concertos that graced the intervals. This was a fascinating Dunedin experiment, copying Handel in filling intermissions with instrumental works, on this occasion on a copy by Goetz and Gwynn of an organ owned by Handel’s librettist Jennens, during which the audience was encouraged to walk around and chat. You will be pleased to hear that your reviewer selflessly eschewed a visit to the bar to move to the front to hear the organ more clearly! Perhaps the ultimate jewel in the crown of this superb performance was the singing of the Dunedin Consort chorus, twenty-four young singers who produced an impeccably accurate and wonderfully gleaming sound throughout. This was a lot of Handel to take in at one go, but it was very good Handel and wonderfully performed by Edinburgh’s local Baroque heroes, the Dunedin Consort.

A Beggar’s Opera for our times?

As the late great Nikolaus Harnoncourt said in a verbal introduction to a period performance of Haydn’s Surprise Symphony, ‘What would musicians have to do to surprise an audience to the same degree as an audience of the time was surprised by a loud chord?’. Leaving the question hanging, he started the piece, letting off a loud indoor firework at the relevant moment in the slow movement, smiling conspiratorially as the audience, aware of the recent terrorist bombings, screamed in shock. In many ways it is depressing how easily Gay and Rich’s social satire, The Beggar’s Opera  transfers to our own times. However the version performed in the King’s Theatre by the instrumentalists of Les Arts Florissants and the actors of Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord used a modernised edition by Ian Burton and Robert Carson in which much ‘f-ing and blinding’, street dancing, drugs deals, texting and social networking sought to place the piece in the same shocking relationship with a modern audience as the original work had enjoyed with the 18th-century public. And I think with a few reservations that it succeeded very well.

The stage was filled with a sheer cliff face of cardboard boxes at the foot of which slept a beggar, and through the action the boxes provided a very serviceable set of props and settings for the action. An onstage band of period instrumentalists sat at boxes with tablets propped up on them with their music, and provided beautifully energetic accounts of the ballad airs and dances. The singing actors of the cast coped generally very well with the musical aspects of the show, although just once or twice the geography of the set led to timing or tuning going a little adrift. Evoking a mixture of Eastenders  and TOWIE  (Google it…), Robert Burt as Peachum and Beverley Klein as his wife provided wonderfully sleazy central characters, always teetering on the edge of violence. Kate Batter’s vulnerable but equally sleazy Polly and Benjamin Purkiss’s dashingly macho Macheath were strongly characterised, while the host of whores, gangsters and corrupt officials that seethe around them were vividly brought to life by a gifted and versatile cast. The athletic street dancing of the behoodied gang was particularly effective.

To my mind, it was a mistake to cut the Beggar and his prologue, as the lack of framework left a problem at the end, not convincingly solved by a change of government and all the beggars becoming cabinet ministers – ironically not as preposterous a conclusion as Gay and Rich’s original cynically contrived ending. Indeed the wit and cynicism of the 18th-century original shone through this performance, which remained almost entirely true to the narrative and many of the resonances of the text, while retaining the original song texts with just a few minor tweaks. As promised in the promotion, the musical dimension did have a fine improvisatory quality, in which the two Baroque violins, viola, cello and double bass joined by a recorder, an oboe, an archlute and percussion all directed from the harpsichord by Florian Carré sounded wonderfully spontaneous and energetic. If the band occasionally came across as a little underpowered against the ‘mic’d up’ voices in the theatre acoustic, the playing was always wonderfully expressive and imaginative, with very effective elaborations and ornamentation.

This riotous outing at the end of my Festival visit seemed a million miles away from the world of the elegant period piano recitals with which I have begun, but this has got to be the chief joy of an international festival, which can offer such variety even within the realm of early music. And bear in mind that while I was attending events in the ‘official’ Festival, on the Fringe elsewhere in town the Edinburgh Renaissance Band were wowing the crowds with innovative early programmes, and Cappella Nova were filling Greyfriars Kirk with the distinctive tones of Robert Carver!

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

Venice 1629

The Gonzaga Band
Resonus RES 10218
68:27
Music by Carrone, Castello, Donati, Grandi, Biagio Marini, Monteverdi, Pesenti, Rè, Schütz & Tarditi

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a splendid CD exploring the annus mirabilis*nbsp; of 1629 in Venice, when Schütz made a second visit when his Symphoniae Sacrae I  were published there. But his was not the only publication in Venice that year, and this programme of music published there in 1629 was prepared by Jamie Savan and is performed by the talented musicians of the Gonzaga Band under his direction.

There are three reasons why it is so good: chiefly because of the exquisite singing of Faye Newton, the soprano, whose resonant yet crystal clear voice is just right for projecting the words as well as balancing the instruments – both cornetto and violin – perfectly; partly because the pieces chosen are all for treble instruments (cornetti and violins) and soprano with organ or harpsichord, and that brings an immediate clarity to the textures; and partly because the performances have an energy and vitality that frequently escapes the serious and worthy attempts at perfection which so often involve many takes and much editorial snipping and piecing. This CD, recorded in the generous acoustics of the chapel in Oscott, feels spontaneous, musical and is a pleasure to listen to from beginning to end.

There is one piece by Monteverdi, the towering genius of the period, but most are by his contemporaries: Schütz, Marini, Grandi, Pesenti and Castello, and then a number of less familiar names – Tarditi, Carrone, Donati and Rè. Motets for a single voice are mingled with canzonas and sonatas for several instruments, and some motets have rich instrumental textures weaving around the vocal line. These are a particular delight.

Schütz’s later settings reflect the changed world he found since his earlier visit. The large-scale polychoral splendours of Giovanni Gabrieli that he had imitated then in his Psalmen Davids  were no longer fashionable. It was the smaller scaled chamber works like the motets of Alessandro Grandi, scored for a single voice and a couple of treble instruments, that were the model he took back to the court at a Dresden in the middle of the Thirty Years’ War. More typically Italian are the sonatas by the virtuoso wind player Dario Castello – his Sonata decima settima, in ecco  (the final track) is an exquisite tour de force.

The notes by Jamie Savan set the context of 1629 and are full of historical interest, and the Resonus website has an even fuller version with footnotes and references. The instruments and their makers are listed, and there is a substantial section on how the digital Hauptwerk organ, using pipework sampled from the organ in St Mario d’Alieto in Izola on the Adriatic coast of Slovenia, was set up. The original sources of the music are given as well as the editors of the pieces chosen. The Latin texts and their English translations are in the centre of the liner notes: this detailed information is a model of good practice.

But this CD would be a treat even if the whole apparatus that surrounds the recording has been less satisfactory: it is top of the range in every respect.

David Stancliffe

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J. S. Bach: Partitas (Clavier-Übung I) BWV 825-830

Menno van Delft clavichord
Resonus RES10212
74:01

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his two-CD recording of Bach’s Partitas was made on the Christian Gotthelf Hoffmann clavichord made in 1784 in Roneburg and now in the Cobbe collection at Hatchlands Park in Surrey. This is a substantial unfretted instrument, and the admirable liner notes include an essay on the Partitas and their construction and numerology with a persuasive advocacy of the clavichord as the most suitable instrument on which to play them by van Delft and in addition a note on the Hoffmann clavichord by Peter Bravington who restored it in 1998.

The performances are a delight, and the limpid clarity of the music-making makes the choice of a clavichord seem entirely right. Van Delft quotes Johann Friedrich Agricola as saying that Bach played his six violin solos often on the clavichord, and added as much harmony as he thought necessary. That is the effect of some of these delightful performances – listen to the Gigue in the D major Partita (CD 2.7) for example.

This is an elegant, well-prepared and finely presented recording, and I hope it will establish its performer, well-known in Holland where he teaches in Amsterdam, as a preeminent performer of Bach on the clavichord. I recommend it without reservation.

David Stancliffe

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Bach: The mono tapes

[Friedrich] Gulda clavichord
60:17
Berlin Classics 0301063BC

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is an extraordinary CD, re-mastered from some old and very decayed mono tapes, of the classical/jazz pianist Friderich Gulda playing Bach on two highly amplified clavichords in the late 1970s. You can see a number of Gulda’s clavichord performances on Youtube, where the sound is more ‘normal’. But in the performances of a number of Preludes and Fugues for Das Wohltemperierte Clavier, Zweiter Teil numbers 5, 23 and 17 on a Widmayer clavichord and numbers 10, 20 and 24 on a Neupert an extraordinary sound world is conjured up. Sometime – as in the opening Prelude and Fugue in D – the sound is so brittle and the playing so fast that the performance sounds just like a digital soundtrack – which of course it is! In other pieces, like the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue (BWV 903) Gulda brings out the rhapsodic nature of the music, and his digital fluency seems less distracting.

As it is, his thumping performances – he apparently used to practise on a clavichord in his hotel rooms before concerts to improve his technique – and his incessant use of the clavichord’s vibrato on longer notes (even in fugue subjects) and cadences give me little pleasure. Although I can see that these tapes reveal interesting material about one performer’s preparation of Bach, there is little awareness of any historically informed techniques in the performances or choice of instruments.

David Stancliffe

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Lübeck: Complete harpsichord and organ music

Manuel Tomadin (Van Hagerbeer/Schnitger organ 1646/1725)
146:04 (2 CDs)
Brilliant Classics 95453

[dropcap]V[/dropcap]incent Lübeck (1654-1740) was a well-known teacher and trusted advisor on organ design in the generation of organists in North Germany before J. S. Bach. By 1675 he had become organist of St Cosmae et Damiani in Stade, near Hamburg, where there was an organ by Arp Schnitger. In 1702, Lübeck moved into Hamburg and became organist at St Nikolai, where there was a four-manual Schnitger organ of 67 stops.

Bach was certainly influenced by Lübeck, but remarkably little of his music survives: five cantatas, a suite for harpsichord and some pieces for organ that show an imaginative and technically advanced player. His rhapsodic Preludes, with a number of fugal sections and some recitative-like episodes, have unusual features like virtuoso two-pedal parts. They sound and feel like the kind of improvisations that one might devise for putting an organ through its paces – indeed I remember using them for just that purpose when I first found myself exploring some of the organs in Holland in the late 1950s.

These two CDs from Brilliant Classics contain all Lübeck’s keyboard music that survives, ably played on three instruments by Manuel Tomadin. The majority of the larger scale organ music is played on the large Van Hagerbeer 1646 organ in Grote Sint-Laurenskerk in Alkmaar which was rebuilt in 1725 by Frans Casper Schnitger, much of which survived to be carefully conserved and restored by Flentrop in 1986. The specification is given, and for detailed registration of each piece you are referred in the liner notes to the Brilliant Classics website where they are said to be given, though frustratingly I could not find them. The harpsichord pieces – a prelude and fugue and a short suite – are played on a copy by William Horn after a Michael Mietke of Berlin original dated c.1700, but some of the smaller pieces from the ‘S.M.G. 1691’ manuscript are played on a small positive organ of four ranks, including a regal, made in 2012 by Francesco Zanin of Udine, and heard effectively in the Trompeter Stück  and the following March  (CDII, nos 31 and 32).

The ‘S.M.G. 1691’ manuscript is a collection of 45 short pieces for keyboard, many of which remain anonymous while some are attributable to Vincent Lübeck senior, but others may be by the younger Vincent, his son. And given their p and f dynamic marks in some cases may have been intended for the clavichord, the preferred instrument on which to learn keyboard technique.

As always in these Brilliant CDs, lesser-known composers are treated with seriousness and receive scholarly and well-researched performances by impressive artists whose technique is flawless and whose ability to bring minor masterpieces to life is winsome. I particularly enjoyed his inégales in some of the harpsichord performances. This double CD album, recorded in Alkmaar and in Silvelle in Udine, the region where Manuel Tomadin is based, is a fine example and will be invaluable to all those who want to understand North German pedagogy at the end of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries better.

David Stancliffe

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Buxtehude: Abendmusiken

Ensemble Masques, Olivier Fortin; Vox Luminis, Lionel Menier
85:17
Alpha Classics ALPHA 287
BuxWV10, 34, 41, 60, 62, 255, 267, 272

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his latest CD from Vox Luminis indicates the attractiveness of their style. The winsome group Ensemble Masques directed by Olivier Fortin shares the disc’s title billing on equal term with Lionel Meunier and Vox Luminis: they are partners, not accompanists. This indicates how the quality of ensemble for which Vox Luminis is so justly renowned is achieved: there are no maestros or prima donnas in these performances, only first-rate musicians whose supreme gift is the ability to listen – to listen to each other and to the composer. It is Buxtehude who is centre stage.

This CD has five vocal works interspersed with three trio sonatas for slightly unusual combinations of instruments and illustrates the variety of Buxtehude’s music that might have been heard at his Abendmusiken – the evening concerts which he established in the Marienkirche in Lübeck, held in the extended season of Advent.

The vocal works range from a substantial setting of Gott hilf mir, a section of Psalm 69 (perhaps the model for J. S. Bach’s Aus der Tiefe, BWV 131) via a simple evening prayer setting Befiehl dem Engel with its pre-echos of Bach’s BWV 150 to an extended cantata on the chorale, Jesu, meine Freude. Herzlich lieb hab ich dich  is a developed chorale setting while Jesu, meines Lebens Leben  is set as a ciacona after an instrumental sinfonia that includes a recorder that largely doubles the first violin as well as the five-part string group. These vocal pieces move from the arioso passages for single voice through small vocal ensembles to a ten-voice ensemble, letting us marvel at the quality and blendability of the individual voices, whether combined with strings of sustaining a single line.

In the instrumental sonatas, the texture of the gamba with the violin makes an interesting sonority when much of the music is in canonic imitation, especially in the extended ciacona-type movements as in the Bb trio’s opening section (track 16), preparing us for Jesu, meines Lebens Leben.

In these performances, the clarity of each line – vocal and instrumental – is beautifully balanced with the sonority of the whole sound. The feeling of the darkened, expectant church full of listeners waiting for the revelation, for deliverance from the present gloom is palpable. As they attend to each others lines, the singers and players alike manage to convey a palpable sense of urgency. There are the underlying models for what was to become some of J. S. Bach’s earliest cantatas, but I was chiefly struck by how pervasive the ciacona model is – vocally and instrumentally – where the quiet insistence on the repeated motif in the bass line forms the bedrock for the ever more frenetic and insistent lines above. How powerful this is, and how much of the fine music of this period depends on this. I was sent back not only to Johann Christoph Bach’s Meine Freundin, du bist schön  from the Altbachisches Archiv and to the concluding ciacona in BWV 150, Meine Tage in dem Leide  but also to Buxtehude’s ciaconas for the organ and to the great Passacaglia in C minor by Bach.

This is a fine, atmospheric CD and would serve as a splendid introduction to anyone who thinks of Buxtehude simply as the father or the North German school of organists. There is a wealth of choral music there, which many people hardly know and these are alpha class performances.

David Stancliffe

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