Tag: Chamber music

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Prussian Blue

CD cover Prussian Blue Passacaglia Barn Cottage Records

C. P. E. Bach: Sonatas for flute, viola da gamba and harpsichord
Passacaglia
67:25
Barn Cottage Records BCR025

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All of the sonatas in this attractive selection date from the first half of the composer’s life and as the excellent programme note by flautist Annabel Knight points out, they demonstrate ‘the composer’s youthful spirit and distinctively emerging musical voice’. When we think what a characterful contribution he would go on to make at a crucial transitional phase in musical style, his individuality is already clearly on display here. There are three flute sonatas with BC, a sonata for unaccompanied solo flute, a gamba sonata with BC, and one of the ‘Prussian’ sonatas for solo keyboard. The Sonata for solo flute Wq 132 printed in 1747 is the latest work on the disc and is a wonderfully exploratory and other-worldly piece, reminiscent of the more famous music by Telemann for solo flute. It is played with immense sensitivity and technical assurance by Annabel Knight, whose reading of the more conventional Sonatas Wq 131, 124 and 125 is also delightfully musical and utterly engaging. Reiko Ichise steps into the spotlight for the Wq 136 Sonata for Gamba and BC, a curious work written for the virtuoso Ludwig Hesse in 1745 at a time when the gamba’s popularity was on the wane, indeed already almost entirely eclipsed by the cello, but when Hesse’s skills and French style of playing were still admired at the Berlin Court. Bach cleverly plays to Hesse’s strengths with music, which allows for technical display as well as evoking a charming French galant flavour. Reiko Ichise presents this demanding music with flair and panache, enjoying the technical challenges of this striking gamba swansong. Finally, it is keyboard player Robin Bigwood’s turn for the solo spotlight with the fourth of Bach’s Wq 48 ‘Prussian’ sonatas. Composing for his own instrument, Bach allows his harmonic and melodic imagination to run free to a degree unusual in the early 1740s. While I occasionally found myself yearning for the dynamic gradations possible on an early piano, it would have been an odd decision to introduce a different keyboard for this one item, and the harpsichord has the advantage of making the daring clashing harmonies all the more uncompromising. This is a thoroughly enjoyable CD, with all three members of Passacaglia demonstrating their individual musicality and technical prowess, as well as coming together with an admirably impressive sense of ensemble.

D. James Ross

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Prussian Blue

CD cover Prussian Blue Sophia Aretz Alexander von Heißen

Flute music at the court of Frederick the Great
Sophia Aretz flute, Alexander von Heißen harpsichord
56:17
hänssler classics CD HC22024

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Frederick the Great’s association with the flute is well known. Although his love of music and the arts in general caused problems with his father, he persisted in establishing his own ensemble, acquiring all the latest music and studying with Quantz, one of the earliest virtuosi on the relatively new instrument. Once head of state, his Kapelle grew and included many of the biggest names of the day, including C P E Bach,* who is often portrayed as being unhappy in his role as a “mere” accompanist rather than the court composer. Perhaps there was some melancholy among the musicians – four out of the five pieces on this extremely impressive CD are in minor keys. The recital is bookended by a pair of three-movement sonatas by the king himself; while they are clearly the product of the age, these are no mechanical, half-hearted efforts – from the very first notes of the E minor sonata, we are drawn into a dreamy world of reflection; in the faster movement, his catchy melodies and clever passagework mean interest never wanes.  Also on the programme are a four-movement trio sonata attributed to Quantz (in which von Heißen takes the second “treble” with his right hand – hold on to your hat for one chord sequence in the second movement!), a charming sonata by Frederick’s sister, Anna Amalia, and – of course! – C P E Bach’s D minor sonata H569.

Aretz and von Heißen are perfect companions in this music. While she gracefully shapes the slower movements with a warmly caressing tone, she is utterly undaunted in the faster pieces – I had to re-listen to two passages several times to work out how she had managed to fit all of the notes into the time available! Like poor old Bach, von Heißen plays a mostly subservient role but, in crafting the harmonic background for the “star”, he is the master of slightly holding back or pressing on to keep the music alive – and the ability to play unequally between his hands is outstanding. For the perfect demonstration of these features, just listen to the opening of Track 8 (the opening Adagio of Anna Amalia’s sonata) – it is simply gorgeous!

Brian Clark

*Bach shared the position with Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch (son of the perhaps more famous Zerbst Kapellmeister, Johann Friedrich Fasch, who (coincidentally?) wrote at least one sonata for two flutes, whose source material is in Berlin…). The younger Fasch was recommended to the king by one of his leading violinists, Franz Benda, as “the most gifted of accompanists”.

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Schütz: Historia Nativitatis

CD cover Schütz Historia nativitatis

Ensemble Polyharmonique
84:25 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
cpo 555 432-2

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Ensemble Polyharmonique, led by their primus inter pares and alto Alexander Schneider, have embarked on an interesting project: Schütz published the narrative of his Historia without the rich and characterful intermedii scored for the richly furnished Dresden court orchestra, with the comment that these additional parts could be hired for a small fee. He was clearly trying to make the Evangelista’s narrative widely available as the framework for a Christmas reflection and encouraged prospective performers to compose or gather their own material for intermedii to be inserted in his narrative. This is what Schneider’s Ensemble have done, and the result – performed by the six singers, two violins and a basso continuo of organ, theorbo and harp, with gamba/violone and dulzian/flauto – makes a good programme, bringing the outline of the work within reach of those who do not have the extensive resources of Schütz’s Kapelle in Dresden. A note says that the score and parts of the entire programme are available online at www.polyharmonique.eu , but I think you would have to ask them for it.

The narrative is divided into three parts: there is a Marian/Advent section (tracks 1-5) featuring Hammerschmidt, Michael, Schütz, Eccard and Frank’s fine Hosianna dem Sohne David before we reach the Birth of Jesus itself and the message alerting the Shepherds, where Schütz’s narrative based on Luke’s gospel forms the storyline. The intermedii include just one from Schütz’s Weihnachtsoratorium – Ehre sei Gott, with its scoring of six voices, two violins and fagotto with bc fitting the available resources exactly. Otherwise, the material includes interesting versions – usually more richly set than we hear in our carol services – of well-known German Christmas music like Ein Kind ist uns geboren, Joseph lieber Joseph mein, Es ist ein Ros entsprungen and Psallite unigenito.

On CD 2, we move to Herod, the visit of the Three Kings and the Flight into Egypt. Here there are more treasures: a version by Schein of Nikolaus Herman’s chorale associated with Christmas, Lobt Gott, ihr Christen allzugleich, that features at the end of BWV 151 and 195; a setting by Hammerschmidt based on the Kings’ enquiry to Herod, scored for voices and two violins; and music by Carl, Gesius and Briegel setting the Matthean texts that intersperse the narrative before Schütz’s setting of John 1.14 from his Geistliche Chor-musik (1648) and Scheidt’s triumphal setting of In dulci jubilo conclude this well-crafted Historia.

And the performances as usual with this group are excellent. OVPP singing, with a handful of instruments and a well-tuned basso continuo group in a flattering but clean acoustic make this a welcome addition to their discs of 17th-century German music. Let’s hope many will that up their – and Schütz’s – offer to plan an inventive and tuneful Historia next Christmastide.

David Stancliffe

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Master & Pupil

CD cover Master & Pupil Sestina Music Mark Chambers

Exploring the influences and legacy of Claudio Monteverdi
Sestina Music, Mark Chambers
71:18
resonus Inventa INV1007

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This is an interesting CD, exploring both the influences on and the legacy of Claudio Monteverdi. So, as well as music from Scherzi Musicali of 1607 and Selva morale of 1640/1, it contains music by Josquin, Mouton, de Rore, Ingegneri, Andrea Gabrieli and de Wert from among those who influenced him and by Rossi, Rigatti and Giovanni Gabrieli whom he may, in turn, have influenced himself.

There are 18 singers – frequently singing several to a part, while the instrumentalists are two violins/violas, violone, two cornetti, two sackbuts and a dulcian, with chitarrone/guitar, harp and organo di legno. In music like the Dixit secondo from 1641, the scoring is enriched by sackbuts, and the dulcian is given characterful obbligato lines to play. The scoring is modest, and elegant, and is played by our best practitioners: Oliver Webber and Theresa Caudle, violins, Peter McCarthy, violone; Gawain Glenton and Conor Hastings, cornetti, Emily White and Martyn Sanderson, sackbuts; William Lyons, dulcian, with Paula Chateauneuf, theorbo and guitar, Aileen Henry, harp and Jan Waterfield playing Walter Chinaglia’s organo di legno from the English Organ School at Milburne Port. Details of all the instruments are in the booklet, and for the Chinaglia organ, see the review of his project that I wrote for EMR in 2019.

The choice of this particular organ is significant, as the singing quality of the open wooden principal pipes is important in encouraging singers to create the right sounds for the music of the first half of the 17th century. And that is the key to this CD. When I heard the first track, I thought: ‘ Oh, no: here we go again,’ as, after an elegant string sinfonia, multiple voices burst in with a rumbustious balletto – De la bellezza from Scherzi Musicali – in the beer-cellar style. I should have had more faith in Mark Chambers, since this balletto was followed at once by some ravishing singing from the upper voices of Josquin’s Recordare Virgo Mater in quite a different style. Trained upper voices do not always find it easy to eschew their singerly tendency to use vibrato on unexpected notes, but there is a genuine and interesting attempt here to match vocal timbre to instrumental, even if I am rarely convinced by the vocal doubling Chambers uses.

The two Rossi instrumental pieces are exquisitely played, but the most instructive part of the disc for me was the juxtaposition of the sections of the extraordinarily rich and colourful Mass by Giovanni Rigatti (written at the age of 27 and antedating the publication of Monteverdi’s Selva morale by six months or so) with Giovanni Gabrieli’s 10-part Maria Virgo from 1597. Rigatti has an interesting comment on instrumental doubling, which I’d like to see in context – and in Italian (I suspect ‘gentle’ is a mistranslation):

… the gentle musician who finds himself with the proportionate
number of voices and instruments is advised to double the parts …
so that they will be more melodious and harmonious 

This is a well-prepared and meticulously researched CD. But it is much more: these are really good performances and should help practitioners to understand more about how to balance voices and instruments in this period. I recommend both the scholarship and the performance to as wide a range of listeners and performers as possible.

David Stancliffe

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Bach: Two-Part Inventions | Sinfonias

CD cover of Bach arrangements by incantati

incantati (Emma Murphy recorders, Rachel Stott viola d’amore, Asako Morikawa viola da gamba)
59:57
First Hand Records FHR122

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This delightful CD of duets and trios by Bach was recorded in May last year, and so is a fruit of the liberation from lockdown. While the chosen instruments all have associations with each other in some of Bach’s early scoring (like BWV 152, for example), hearing three friends playing together spontaneously is a delight, and reminds me of many occasions when groups like this would look in the cupboard for some Bach that would work on the instruments that happened to be at hand and set to, armed with sonatas, concertos, the Art of Fugue and chorale preludes.

One of the great delights of Bach is that you can play his music on almost any combination and it will sound terrific. Bach was an inveterate arranger and parodist of his own music as well as that of others, and his trio chamber music versions of concerto movements or the Schübler organ preludes, transcribing movements from cantatas for organ, show the way. In this selection, where keyboard music, including one of the six trio sonatas for organ, is played on instruments, the clarity and distinctness of the instrumental lines is always preserved, which makes these copy-book examples of Bach’s endlessly inventive skill in canonic and polyphonic composition a delight. I find myself smiling at each fresh take as I re-discover hidden treasures. And how much better this is in the hands of such delightful musicians than the other way round, when complex polyphonic compositions are reduced to endless percussive piano arrangements.

I enjoyed this venture, and continue to play the CD with pleasure.

David Stancliffe

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J. S. Bach – Works for Flute and Keyboard

CD cover Toshiyuki Shibata Anthony Romaniuk Bachadriati

Sonatas, Fantasias, Improvisations
Toshiyuki Shibata flute, Anthony Romaniuk fortepiano
58:30
Fuga Libera FUG 792

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These two artists met in the summer gap in the 2020 lockdown in Antwerp, and agreed to get playing together. Both were baroque musicians and also jazz players, used to improvising. The result is this CD centred on Bach’s Flute Sonatas in E, E minor and B minor, for which Shibata commissioned a flute after Quantz as well as one after Eichentopf from around 1720. The harpsichord used by Romaniuk is by Detmer Hungerberg while the fortepiano after Silbermann used in the B minor sonata is by Kerstin Schwartz-Damm and has an intriguing variety of stops and makes an ideal partner to the Quantz flute. The pitch they play at is 402Hz after Quantz, which gives a lovely relaxed and unhurried feel to their playing.

In addition to their Bach sonatas, they introduce their improvisations, observing that often a piece was preluded in the 18th century, and that a baroque score was often more akin to jazz lead-sheets, where not only was a degree of ornamentation expected but in realising the basso continuo sometimes an additional melodic line was contrived more in the style of the right hand part in BWV 1030.

Before the purists sniff at this performing style, I urge them to listen to the results of this collaboration and decide whether this style of music-making does not have a good deal to teach the most HIP of practitioners, even if we might do it slightly differently. Bach was celebrated for being able to improvise an extra voice to a complex polyphonic structure whether in the right hand of a keyboard continuo instrument playing in a sonata or a violin descant to a chorale, as in many of the Weimar period cantatas. I have learned a lot about his compositional style by watching him at work in these modes as he crafted the organ chorale preludes, which, like the solo keyboard compositions, most likely had their origins in improvisations in preluding a chorale for Lutheran worship.

So while I put this CD aside while I made room for other more obviously attractive discs I had been sent, I am grateful for having heard it, and glad of the stimulus as well as the opportunity to eavesdrop on two able and thoughtful musicians at work as they ponder the place of what is now called improvisation in the performance of the high baroque.

David Stancliffe

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Vivaldi: 12 Concerti Di Parigi

CD cover Vivaldi 12 Concerti Di ParigiStefan Plewniak Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal

Venise – Vivaldi – Versailles No. 3
Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal, Stefan Plewniak
60:21
Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS065

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Ten of the twelve concerti in this Paris manuscript are known from other sources, suggesting that the manuscript was drawn up at relatively short notice as a presentation piece for a potential patron. The set is associated with a visit to Trieste by the Austrian Emperor Charles VI, in whose retinue was the keen amateur violinist Franz Stephan, who seems to have acquired the set. This perhaps explains why they are all ‘ripieni’ concerti, spotlighting the whole ensemble rather than a soloist. The subsequent enormous popularity of Vivaldi’s music in France can hardly be put down to these concerti, as they lack the sparkle and originality of several of the master’s other manuscripts and publications. Plewniak and his orchestral forces seem determined to make up for the risk of any musical mundanity with the sheer energy of their performance – however, this seems frequently to err on the side of aggression. Each energetic track is preceded by what sounds like a sharp intake of breath from all concerned, while the percussive attack on the stringed instruments is given further edge by some very choppy guitar playing. It is a pity that this element of aggression is allowed to creep into these performances, as many of the more relaxed movements are lyrically and tastefully presented. I don’t want to sound too unenthusiastic about this latest in a series of thought-provoking recordings to emanate from the Palace of Versailles, but at the same time it seems part of a fashion of ‘overplaying’ Vivaldi, when often his music should be allowed to speak more for itself.

D. James Ross

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Vivaldi: Flute concertos [op. 10]

CD cover Vivaldi Op 10 Flute Concertos Carlo Ipata auser musici

Carlo Ipata, auser musici
47:30
Glossa GCD 923530

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This account of Vivaldi’s six flute concertos op10 (1729) takes the subtitle of the French publication literally, using single players on each of the four string parts, but adds considerable weight in the form of a double bass, while replacing the stipulated organ with a harpsichord and theorbo – it might have been interesting to hear what a difference an organ continuo might have made. However, the forces used here and the wonderfully rich Glossa recorded sound add a textural opulence to this music, which is most enjoyable and impressive. The opus 10 includes three famous ‘programmatic’ concerti, La Notte, Il Gardellino and La Tempesta di Mare, as well as three further concerti, two of which are reworkings of pieces for ‘third flute’ and the third of which was composed specially to make up the numbers. This publication was hugely popular, and if Vivaldi’s public didn’t feel short-changed by being presented with largely non-original material, neither should we at the relative brevity of this CD. The main reason for this is Carlo Ipata’s expressive flute playing, which it has to be said is more effective in the more dynamic movements than in the contemplative sections, where I occasionally felt he could have made more of Vivaldi’s simple lines. Overall, though, these are engaging and technically assured performances, and Ipata’s warm-toned flute is always in perfect balance with the orchestral forces. We hear so many exaggerated and otherwise ‘souped-up’ performances of Vivaldi these days, that something more restrained and tasteful, such as we have here, is a genuine treat.

D. James Ross

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Giuseppe Sammartini: Sonatas for recorder and basso continuo vol. 2

CD cover Giuseppe Sammartini Sonatas for recorder and basso continuo vol. 2

Andreas Böhlen, Michael Hell, Daniel Rosin, Pietro Prosser
73:20
AEOLUS AE-10306

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Older brother of the better-known Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Giuseppe has come to be somewhat eclipsed from the days when his name was mentioned in the same breath as Corelli and Geminiani. After training in Milan with his oboist father, Giuseppe took the well-worn route to London where he advanced from jobbing musician to entering the employment of Frederick Prince of Wales. By the time of his death in 1750 at the age of 55, he was rated as ‘the finest performer on the hautboy in Europe’. His 32 surviving works for alto recorder suggest an intimate knowledge of this instrument too, and indeed it was common at the time for musicians to double on several woodwind instruments. While Sammartini’s sonatas may not have quite the technical demands of Vivaldi’s recorder writing, they are to my mind much more idiomatic, reflecting the lively professional and amateur interest in the instrument. Andreas Böhlen’s accounts are strikingly musical and deftly ornamented, while the rapid passage-work is stunningly well executed. He plays a set of four alto recorders in F modelled on originals by Steenbergen, Bressan and J Denner, as well as an instrument in G by J C Denner, each with a distinctive and engaging voice. His continuo ensemble of lute, harpsichord and cello is superbly supportive and responsive, and used in various permutations to imaginatively vary the textures. As an ensemble, they are clearly all immersed in the chamber music of this period, and their performances are wonderfully expressive and evocative, as is David Lasocki’s comprehensive and stylishly written programme note. I enjoyed enormously volume one of Sammartini’s Sonatas by these performers, and this second volume has more than lived up to its promise. We look forward to further volumes exploring the rest of this gifted composer’s output.

D. James Ross

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Dominico Mazzocchi: Prima le Parole

CD cover of Dominico Mazzocchi Prima le Parole Madrigale a 5

Madrigali a Cinque Voci, Roma 1638
Les Traversees Baroques, directed by Etienne Meyer
52:47
ACC 24384

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Over-petalled garlands of lyric poetry by Tasso, Ciampoli and others are responded to in the most extraordinary ways by Domenico Mazzocchi. This Roman composer is less known than his older contemporary, Monteverdi, whose influence can be heard, extended by later developments and by Mazzochi’s own fecund imagination. We need not hear the words to know that here we are descending a staircase of sleep or despair, there on a mountain top, open to breezes or distant echoing valleys. Particularly vivid are the tumbling mountain streams, swathes of swaying flowers and rumbles of bad weather – and all symbolic of course of the one universal topic. These effects are wonderfully enhanced by the imaginative choices of instrumentation in the continuo mix and concerted instrumental parts. A remarkably flowing and lyrical cornett sound, along with truly breath-inspired recorder playing, judicious use of dulcian and a varying spectrum of continuo sounds provides appropriate background canvasses for the vivid vocal parts. These vary from dramatic dialogues to rich quintets, sung with not a little ebullience. Another illuminating recording from this creative ensemble.

Stephen Cassidy