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Recording

Bach: Actus Tragicus

Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier
84:55
Alpha Classics Alpha 258
BWV 12, 106, 131, 150

[dropcap[]I[/dropcap] had known the Belgium-based group Vox Luminis as a very carefully balanced small choral group who specialised primarily in the repertoire of the seventeenth century. And now, following CDs of Schütz and Scheidt, the older Bachs, Fux, Kerll and Scarlatti, they are tackling Bach Cantatas. This CD is of four early cantatas with a gradated increase in scoring from the two recorders and viola da gambas of BWV 106, with four single voices and organ, through to the more recognisably ‘Italian’ style of BWV 12, with its distinct choruses, recitatives and arias that uses a full complement of strings with two viola parts, and has not only an oboe and bassoon, but a trumpet as well. With a more substantial score goes an increase in the number of singers from four in 106 to eight in parts of 150, and divided into solo and tutti very sensitively and effectively in 131 and using that full complement again in the distinct opening chorus and concluding chorale of 12.

With the increase in vocal scoring goes a fuller registration on the quite substantial organ, built for the church in Bornem in Belgium (where the recording took place in 2013) by Dominique Thomas after the style of Gottfried Silbermann. The organ continuo is based on a Principal chorus rather than a stopped flute, and this gives a clarity and firmness to the bass line. In 106 no 8’ string bass is employed, let alone a 16’. If a 16’ was used by Bach in the pre-Leipzig cantatas, I suspect it was most likely supplied by the organ, as here – rather sparingly but effectively – in the closing bars of 131, for example. The sound of the final chorale in 12, Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, where the descant line is entrusted to the slide trumpet and the first violin and a full chorus to mixture with a 16’ pedal are employed on the organ provides a thrilling climax to the recording. This organ is a fine instrument by an excellent builder (I have played a number of his instruments and rate him highly) and plays at 440 rather than the 460+ of the Chorton in Weimar, so there are some complexities in matching wind instruments to the pitch of the organ and strings. For example, the recorders of 106 must be playing in F on A=392hz instruments, and the oboe and bassoon in 131 must play in A at 392 as well. But how does the bassoon play so beautifully in 150? Bach wrote the fagotto part in D, but the strings play in B at 440; does the bassoonist play a 415 French-style instrument in C – it certainly sounds a fine bottom B! And what do they do in 12? There is no information on the instruments and pitches other than the (full) documentation of the organ, and liner-notes really should give us these basic and important – to practitioners – details. There are full texts and French and English translations, and the essay by Gilles Cantagrel, like for the A Nocte Temporis  CD reviewed in December, is engaging for its insights on the interplay between theology, musicology and performance practice.

But it is the firm, robust and yet flexible sound of the singers, especially when singing together, that characterises these performances. For once, singers are approaching Bach cantatas with a sense of understanding where they have come from, what is the hinterland behind the cantatas and the performance style required. Often we hear Bach cantatas performed by singers who have reached back behind their 21st-century formation as singers and have more or less learned to discard some of their singing teachers’ conception of what solo singers ought to sound like. When this happens, the results are more or less successful as singers try to make a living and adapt to singing in a historically informed way as well as doing what most conductors still expect of a ‘soloist’. I valued the fine recordings of these early cantatas by the Purcell Quartet with Emma Kirkby, Michael Chance, Charles Daniels and Peter Harvey greatly when they came out in the early 2000s, but that was still a coro made up of four distinct ‘solo’ voices, that has remained the one-to-a-part standard in this country.

But Vox Luminis have approached these early Bach cantatas from the style of ensemble singing they have created for Bach’s 17th-century predecessors. This means that the ensemble sound, like that of the organ, is robust, but open voiced rather than ‘produced’. Not everyone will like it, but (to me) it offers an unrivalled blend and clarity. You can get a glimpse of how it is achieved on the useful Youtube video that Lionel Meunier has produced to accompany this venture.

This style of intimate attention to each others voice production as well as to the phrasing and diction is well illustrated, and makes for a style of music-making that has more in common with a viol consort playing to each other.

Some of the individual singers offer moments of great insight too: Vox Luminis have drawn in Reinoud van Mechelen, the singer/director of A Nocte Temporis  (CD Alpha 252, reviewed in December) to sing with them in 131 and 12, and that sets a new standard for Vox Luminis’ solo contributions, which are always musical, clear as a bell and beautifully phrased. I particularly like the alto as well, Daniel Elgersma, who has the particularly strong lower notes of a true haute-contre, which you rarely get with an English cathedral-style male alto. For me, as so often the only vocal query I have is with the soprano line. Excellent though the singers of Vox Luminis are, they do not have quite the edge of boy trebles like Leopold Lampelsdorfer singing in Eichorn’s Weihnachtsoratorium  I – III (VKJK 1238) or Jonty Ward in Higginbottom’s Mozart Requiem (NCR 1383), for example.

You can tell that in spite of the lack of some basic information in the liner notes, I rate the approach of Vox Luminis both vocally and instrumentally highly. This is great music-making, and the ease with which the sensible tempi changes are managed without any overt conducting as well as the cohesion and coherence of the style that make the texts the focus of the performances sets a new benchmark in the way we are learning to approach Bach Cantatas.

David Stancliffe

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Recording

Bach: St John Passion

Nicholas Phan Evangelist, Jesse Blumberg Jesus, Jeffrey Strauss Pilate, Amanda Forsythe, Terry Wey, Christian Immler ScTBar, Apollo’s Singers, Apollo’s Fire, Jeannette Sorrell
107:42 (2 CDs)
AV2369

[dropcap]J[/dropcap]eanette Sorrell performed the John Passion  repeatedly in Passiontide 2016 in the Cleveland area of the USA, and this recording captures her style. Described as a dramatic presentation in the notes, some videos are being released on the Apollo’s Fire website which help this reviewer at least understand where Sorrell is coming from.

She conducts the performance, plays the continuo (with the narrative at least) and directs the staged dialogue, which took place on a well-lit platform among the players in the live performances. All members of the ‘cast’ seem to be drawn from the excellently prepared coro; but this is emphatically not an SATB quartet plus ripienists, but chorus of some twenty-something voices, who apparently stepped – or some of them – into the audience to perform some of the turba  interjections. All the ‘characters’ sing off-copy with gesture, and the dialogue is so fast and furious that it sometimes seems a bit of a scramble. It also has the curious effect of making the Evangelist – at his best I think in the more reflective arias, which he also sings – over-dramatize some pretty unimportant passages like, Pilate said unto him, which should surely be delivered pretty sotto voce. It also has the downside of not really valuing the subtle pacing and changes in tonality in Bach’s setting of the text of John 18 & 19 when you follow the text pretty deliberately.

The chorus here in the turba  sections is wonderful: crisp and bright, while able to give a subtly different character to the changing emotions of the crowd. But I am less sure about the imposed dramatic performance in the outer choruses and the chorales. In the opening chorus, there are substantial rallentandi at the end of each section, and the heavy accentuation of the four beats in a bar make for a plodding start. In the chorales, each line tends to be shaped as a unit on its own, so there is a loss of the liturgical quality of the whole, and the dynamic shading too is often exaggerated. In the final chorus the momentum almost grinds to a halt at the end of each section, and in the last chorale, the ‘dramatic’ pianissimo start – are the instruments playing at all? – builds to a huge fortissimo.

Despite these reservations, the arias are beautifully done, and apparently were performed with singers out front to engage the audience in reflection. Amanda Forsythe has a clear, bell-like voice ideal for this music: her Zerfließe  is sublime; and Terry Wey is an experienced singer who makes the most of his rich timbre in the middle section of Es ist vollbracht  – every note is beautifully articulated, though I could have done without his Handelian-style cadenza in Von den Stricken . Christian Immler is a wonderful bass (as is Jesse Blumberg, the Jesus), and his Eilt, eilt  is perfect – as is the (?semi) SAT chorus. They are joined by excellent obbligato instrumentalists, and the balance and tempi in these arias are as good as it gets.

But Bach’s theological drama is somewhat masked by Sorrell. Her ‘visionary concept of a dramatic production’ divides the work into five ‘scenes’, and this division cuts across Bach own palindromic central section, which places the chorale Durch dein Gefängnis  at the centre. And the imposition of her own characterization of the voice parts, means that she misses the theological point that it is the same leading bass voice who sings the words of Jesus who immediately after his death also sings the lilting 12/8 Mein teurer Heiland  in the key of D major – a key associated with the trumpets of resurrection!

I am sure that the live performances were thrilling, and certainly the musicians – both instrumental and vocal – are really well prepared, and were carefully chosen; but people hoping that this performance will give them greater insights into how Bach understood the Passion according to St John might do better to stick with John Butt’s Dunedin performance or Pierre Pierlot’s with Ricercar.

But the quality of the recording is superb, and for those who need a modern dramatic take to get into Bach, this performance would be a serious contender.

David Stancliffe

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Recording

Handel: Alexander’s Feast

Mariam Feuersinger, Daniel Johannsen, Matthias Helm STBar, Kammerchor Feldkirch, Concerto Stella matutina, Banjamin Lack
(2 CDs in a jewel case)
fra bernardo fb 1615566

[dropcap]A[/dropcap] straightforwardly enjoyable live recording of Handel’s sparkling setting of Dryden’s ode on the Power of Music. The whole of Dryden’s poem is given, but unfortunately the integral harp and organ concerti (one apiece for Timotheus and St Cecelia) are omitted, which rather weakens the final recitative’s implied competition between the two of them! The original closing duet and chorus (to additional text by Newburgh Hamilton) are also omitted.

No matter – this is a fine achievement.

Daniel Johannsen is a splendidly dramatic narrator. I particularly enjoyed the accompagnato which opens Part 2, with its meticulously specified orchestral crescendo, and the energy of his later ‘Give the Vengeance due’ recitative and ensuing aria. Matthias Helm is a sonorous Bacchus (with splendidly rasping horns) in Part 1, and an equally sonorous Timotheus (with eerily cavernous multiple bassoons) in Part 2. Miriam Feuersinger produces lovely tone, but sometimes at the expense of verbal clarity.

The chorus respond well to Benjamin Lack’s committed direction, bringing out Handel’s rich scoring (in up to seven parts) and resourceful counterpoint – try the grand ground bass of ‘The Many rend the Skies’ in Part 1, or the glorious quadruple fugue at the end of Part 2 (slightly oddly, here, three of the four themes are given out by the soloists, while the fourth is sung by the chorus altos). The many instrumental obbligati are well (though often anonymously) done, with finely poised solo cello in ‘Softly sweet in Lydian measure’ and rousing trumpet in the A section of ‘Revenge Timotheus cries’ (dramatically contrasting with the aforementioned multiplicity of bassoons in the B section). Stefan Greussing is suitably energetic in the driving drum ostinato of ‘Break the Bands of Sleep asunder’. The magical ‘distancing’ effect of the cool recorder thirds in ‘Thus Long ago’ is beautifully captured.

The acoustic of the Monforthaus in Feldkirch is slightly dry, but probably not unlike that of the theatres in which Handel first performed the ode.

A fine achievement!

Alastair Harper

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Recording

Vulpius: Cantiones Sacrae 1

Volume 1: 6-7 voice motets
Capella Daleminzia, René Michael Röder
133:22 (2 CDs in a card wallet)
Querstand VKJK 1523

Volume 2: 9-13 voice motets
Capella Daleminzia, Vocalconsort Waldheim, Singschule Waldheim, René Michael Röder
67:30
Querstand VKJK 1524

[dropcap]Y[/dropcap]ou know how it is – you wait years for one Vulpius CD and then three come along at once! Part of the Capella Daleminzia’s complete recording of Vulpius’ Cantione Sacrae  I-III, these CDs suggest that in Vulpius we have a very prolific composer whose compositions are nonetheless worthy of attention. These are fine performances with passionate and musically pleasing singing ably supported by organ, and with cornets and sackbuts in one motet in the first volume. This is a splendid moment after so much music for voices and organ, but I felt that more varied instrumentation throughout the programme might have relieved the threatening onset of ‘boxed-set-itis’! The second volume suffers less from this uniformity of sound with a wider range of instruments employed throughout the larger motets. Vulpius’ music is pretty standard 17th-century fare – post-Gabrieli polychoral effects grafted to a post-Lassus germanic stock in the manner of Schein and Praetorius, but the fact that he can even be mentioned in the same breath as these latter master polyphonists is a testimony to his skills as a composer. His works seem to grow in status as they accumulate vocal lines in the second volume, and his huge 13-part Multae filiae congregaverunt divitias  is given an epic Praetorius-style rendition by the augmented Daleminzia forces. In recording all of Vulpius’ extant choral works, the performers clearly wish to restore him to his rightful place in the pantheon of prominent 17th-century church composers, and on the evidence of these CDs the mantle more than fits.

D. James Ross

All of these links are to the volume of 6- and 7-voice motets:

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Recording

Mater ora filium – Music for Epiphany

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Graham Ross
72:44
harmonia mundi HMU 907653
Music by Byrd, Clemens, Lassus, Mouton, Palestrina, Sheppard, etc.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his eclectic collection of choral music for Epiphany ranges from the director’s own arrangement of traditional material through the music of English and Continental composers to 20th-century masters. Focusing on the Renaissance music, we have full-blooded accounts of Lassus’ eight-part Omnes de Saba  and Sheppard’s six-part Reges Tharsis, both beautifully nuanced. Byrd’s four-part Ecce advenit dominator Dominus  and Palestrina’s Tribus miraculis  both exploit the choir’s more lyrical side, while Clemens non Papa’s Magi veniunt ab oriente  and Mouton’s Nesciens mater  show this versatile choir’s approach to Franco-Flemish polyphony.

The performances of what boils down to some twenty minutes of early music are all accomplished, with neat clarity and impeccable intonation throughout. Their selection of more modern music is also discerning, leaving as the only slightly disappointing aspect Graham Ross’s own rather hackneyed ‘cathedrally’ arrangements of tradition melodies. Aimed at the American market, this CD provides a very pleasing overview of the celebration of Epiphany in a modern College Chapel with all the many virtues of an accomplished College Choir fully on display.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Josquin: Masses Di Dadi, Une mousse de Biscaye

The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips
71:13
Gimell CDGIM 048

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]nother winner! This latest Josquin offering from the Tallis Scholars brings together two of the early masses. The opening Missa Di Dadi  is particularly interesting, both for its use of gaming symbols in the notation of the tenor cantus firmus (though, fascinatingly, these disappear after the ‘Pleni sunt caeli’, possibly reflecting the concomitant Elevation of the Host) and for its echoes of the late, great Missa Pange Lingua  – for example, at the end of the Gloria, with its typically Josquinian close-wrought driving sequential ostinati.

The Missa ‘Une mousse de Biscaye’ (mousse being not culinary, but derived from the Castilian ‘Moza’ for girl) is more loosely structured, but no less musically satisfying.
Performances are, as usual, meticulously crafted. Tempi are relatively relaxed, allowing the music’s textural complexities full breathing space. Tuning, ensemble and overall shaping are as good as it gets.

The accompanying notes are models of scholarly precision; a generous bonus is the inclusion of the complete score of the Missa Di Dadi  as a PDF download, ideal for following and revelling in Josquin’s compositional genius.

Highly recommended!

Alastair Harper

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Recording

Campra: Messe de Requiem

Salomé Haller, Sarah Gendrot, Rolf Ehlers, Benoît Haller, Philip Niederberger SSATB, ensemble3 vocal et instrumental, Hans Michael Beuerle
59:35
Carus 83.391

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]arus has become quite a force in the vocal/choral music world, publishing excellent editions at sensible prices and a very useful series of companion recordings, some of epic proportions (anyone for 10 CDs of Rheinberger’s sacred vocal music?). They publish both the works on this recording and I for one will be buying and performing them. Campra’s Requiem  may be mysterious in origin and have an unorthodox tonal scheme but it is nevertheless a really fine work, well served by this recording in which the forces are conspicuously all on the same side. The integration of choral, instrumental and solo elements is consistently neat. There are a few intonation issues in the Sanctus  for the baritone soloist and solo ensembles in general do not always meet perfectly on unisons at cadences but none of this prevented my enjoying either the mass or the accompanying De profundis, also a very strong work. The booklet (Ger/Eng/Fre) is not immune from minor translation oddities but is both thorough and complete (essay, biograghies, Latin translated into all the modern languages used elsewhere).
David Hansell

David Hansell

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Recording

Morales: The Seven Lamentations

Utopia Belgian handmade polyphony
TT
Et’cetera KTC 1538

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]n uncommonly interesting issue; the first, as far as I am aware, to bring all Morales’ surviving lamentations together on one disc.

The complex musicological issues surrounding their recent publication are discussed in Eugeen Schreurs’ scholarly sleeve notes; further detail can be found in Cristobal de Morales, Sources, Influences, Reception, edited by Owen Rees and Bernadette Nelson (Boydell Press 2007) and in Michael Noone’s excellent notes to Ensemble Plus Ultra’s disc Morales en Toledo  (Glossa GCD 922001, 2005). The story behind Noone’s discovery and reconstruction of the first Lamentation (track 9 on this recording) is particularly notable, involving the collation of a poorly preserved (and modified to suit later liturgical changes from the Toledan to the Roman rite) manuscript of Morales’ time from Toledo Cathedral, a copy in Puebla Cathedral in Mexico and a contemporary lute and voice intabulation by Miguel de Fuenllana.

Performances are exemplary; Utopia perform with crystalline clarity, bringing Morales’ austere and sublimely beautiful polyphony to darkly glowing life. They have taken the sensible decision to structure their programme on purely musical, rather than liturgically correct, grounds, and include a couple of appropriate pieces of Toledan plainchant, elsewhere discernable as cantus firmus material, which helps to place the polyphony in its musical context.

The notes are well-written, but I would have liked a little more detail on the individual pieces (e. g., vocal scoring, cantus firmus usage, provenance); they are sometimes also confusing in referring to the Lamentations by their liturgical placing, rather than by the order in which they are sung on the recording.

No matter – the music and the performances are what count here, and both are absolutely first class. I particularly enjoyed Morales’ kaleidoscopically varied settings of the Hebrew initial letters which introduce each verse of the Lamentations. In short, this is a lovely disc.

Alastair Harper

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Categories
Recording

Re-releases from Glossa

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]e have had another batch of “previously loved” recordings from the extensive Glossa catalogue. The first, Concerti, Sinfonie [and] Ouverture  by Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello (GCD C82506, 64:33) features La Cetra Barockorchester Basel in two sinfonias for four-part strings, concertos for violin & oboe, violin solo and violin & bassoon, as well as a G minor ouverture with oboes and a gorgeous chaconne in A for five-part strings. I was thrilled by the recording when it first came out and have absolutely no hesitation in recommending this reincarnation.

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Pièces de viole avec la basse continuë  by Forqueray père & fils (GCD C80412, 146:36, two CDs in a cardboard wallet) features the fabulous playing of Paolo Pandolfo with an impressive continuo line-up (a second gamba, two pluckers and harpsichord). The recordings from 1994/5 sound fresh and lively. I had never explored much of the solo viol repertoire, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to these discs.

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The featured musician in Chamber music with flute  by Telemann is Wilbert Hazelzet; he is partnered in an interesting array of the composer’s smaller-scaled music by Jaap ter Linden, Konrad Junghänel and Jacques Ogg (GCD C80803, 63:45). The works range from two of the solo Fantasias to two “concertos” for all four members of the ensemble. Again, this was a pleasant hour’s listening.

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Two Mozart releases follow. The first, Music for basset horn trio  (GCD C80603, 58:23) by Wolfgang and his contemporaries (Druschetzky, Martín y Soler, the little-known – to me, at least – Vojtech Nudera, the much-maligned Salieri, and Stadler) explores something of a niche market from the turn of the 19th century, and I must confess it did not overstay its welcome, as I had feared (with the best of intentions!) it might.

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Frans Brüggen directs the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and the Netherlands Chamber Choir (with soloists Mona Julsrud, Wilke te Brummelstroete, Zeger Vandersteene and Jelle Draijer) in Mozart’s Requiem, paired with the Mauerische Trauermusik KV 477 and an adagio for single reeds KV 411 (GCD C81111, 65:01). This is a live recording from 1998, and always has something interesting to say.

Brian Clark

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The final CD in the set Duets for violin & viola  by Alessandro Rolla (GCD C80011, 64:42) was another unexpected treat. His is a name to string players around the world, but – like me? – most will never have played a note of his music. Famed in his own lifetime as a viola player, the five duets (from four different sets – anyone interested should check out the extensive lists on imslp!) on the disc reflect that; while many duets for this line-up tend to favour the more agile violin, Rolla makes no concessions to those who dare to play his instrument… That said, technical difficulty is not what this music is all about; if it had been, I would never have been able to listen to the whole disc once, let alone several times!

Brian Clark

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Categories
Sheet music

Telemann: Gott der Hoffnung erfülle euch

Cantata for Whit Sunday, TVWV 1:634
Edited by Maik Richter
Bärenreiter BA 5898 (Full score) v+30pp, £15
BA 5898-90 vocal score vi+22pp, £9
Winds £12, Organ £9, Strings £3.50 each

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his cantata was once attributed to Bach (though there is no mention of that anywhere in the present volume), and consists of a chorus (setting a Biblical text), arias for soprano and alto separated by a recitative in which all four voices participate and rounded off with a chorale setting. The edition seems to be an extract from a volume in the on-going Telemann edition, which explains why much of the introductory material is about the cantata cycle from which this work comes, though the chronology of its history and the various authors involved and performing centres is way too complicated and might have been better expressed as a table; I’m also not sure, given that there are footnote references to two excellent monographs on such issues, why it was felt necessary to give such a wealth of detail. Conversely the discussion of this particular piece is minimal and there is no editorial commentary. I don’t live within a couple of hundred miles of a library that has even the old volumes of the Telemann edition, so goodness knows where I could see the volume this piece comes from; but that is the only way I would be able to work out how the solo Tenor is supposed to start – does he sing with the Tutti and then go his own way (halfway through a word!) in Bar 18? Or is he silent up to that point? Should some marking indicate the answer? There are a couple of slips in the English introduction (“generell” for general in a footnote and “successfull”…) As you would expect, the edition is clear and attractive. I’m not sure why quavers at the opening of no. 4 are beamed in pairs at the opening but subsequently in sixes (as per modern notation); again, this is something that a paragraph on editorial methods could have shone some light on, perhaps. The music is lovely and it is always nice to have a cantata with a pair of horns that is not too taxing for the choir; the alto will need an agile throat, though. I’m fairly certain there should be some mention of a bassoon in the score…

Brian Clark