Month: November 2015

Telemann, Pisendel, Schaffrath, Reichenauer, [Dieupart, Brescianello]
Radio Antiqua
59:28
Ambronay AMY305

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]adio Antiqua seem to have created a niche market for themselves. Consisting of violin, bassoon (or recorder/voice flute) and continuo, the five-strong line-up can cover lots of bases. Here they have opted for 18th-century music, including three works for the core line-up, one work each for the two “soloists” (Pisendel’s devlish C minor violin sonata and a Dieupart suite in D played on voice flute), and a “concerto” by Antonin Reichenauer in which the cello is liberated from its continuo role.

The final work on the disc, another chamber concerto, this time by Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello, is by far the most taxing. It is interesting, though, how complementary the timbres of the violin and bassoon are – the central movement of the Brescianello sees them in close imitative dialogue very much in the style of Zelenka’s trios, and is such a delight I had to listen to it quite a few times! Could this be that elusive “perfect Christmas present” for your early music friend?

Brian Clark

RossoPorpora, Walter Testolin
65:56
Stradivarius STR 37004

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] have known this work since the early 1980s and I have yet to find a recording of it that is utterly satisfying on all levels. This disc, alas, also fails to deliver the perfection which the work that is arguably Buxtehude’s magnum opus deserves. In fact, it is as if three totally different performances had been combined: the instrumental sonatas are rather understated and rather plain, the tuttis – despite what I have to commend as the best choral singing I have ever heard from Italy with a beautiful balance between the voices – are micro-managed (in my opinion) to a fault, and the solos (though once again well sung by different members of the choir) are overly fussy in their redistribution of continuo instruments. In the “choruses”, it is as if the conductor wants to wring every last drop of passion out of the notes – vast expanses of silence interrupt the flow (this also happens in some of the sonatas, where there is no indication in the score), then powerful forward-driving harmonic passages are drawn out – try “Quid sunt plagæ iste” (Tracks 14 or 18) for size; I’ve never heard the third word sung with a soft “g” before either… If you are unfamiliar with the music, you may not have the same reaction to these performances as I have – do try it for yourselves!

Brian Clark

Voces 8 : Les Inventions
59:57
Signum SIG CD 391

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] don’t normally approve of advancing the reputation of a composer at the expense of one of his contemporaries, but the statement in Patrick Ayrton’s that we would be more familiar with the name of Marcello if Vivaldi hadn’t sprung to prominence at the beginning of the 20th century undoubtedly has some truth to it. Marcello’s music has always struck me as having more heart than Vivaldi’s, and this is born out by these charming settings of the Psalms.

I am not convinced by the wisdom of presenting them here in the 1757 English adaptations by Charles Avison – perhaps these works are so unfamiliar that they deserve to be heard in the original Italian, a form in which they swept Europe and impressed Marcello’s musical contemporaries. And perhaps lines such as ‘his eyelids try the children of men’ and ‘my moisture is like the drought in summer’ are best left in the relative obscurity of Italian. The performances are generally idiomatic, although I found the rather roomy church acoustic made both voices and instruments sound rather indistinct and distant. Having said that, a nice variety of vocal colours and a lovely blend make for a convincing representation of Marcello’s largely unknown masterpiece Estro poetico-armonico. More please.

D. James Ross

[wp-review]

Fantasticus (Rie Kimura violin, Robert Smith viola da gamba, Guilliermo Brachetta harpsichord )
71:15
resonus RES10156
Buxtehude: Praeludium in g, Sonata in A op. 2 no. 5
Erlebach: Sonatas II in e, III in A
J. P. Krieger: Sonata X in A
Kühnel: Sonata VIII in A
Walther Cappricio [sic] in C

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t does not seem so long ago that I was (rightly) praising Fantasticus’s recital of sonatas by Tartini and Veracini. Arguably the repertoire on the present disc – chamber music for violin, gamba and keyboard – is what a group like this “should be playing”; instrumental composers letting their imaginations take flight, even if the Erlebach sonatas are broadly cast as suites of dances with more abstract introductions. The style comes into its own when the harmonic rhythm slows down and tuneful melody gives way to quasi recitative, or to sequential passages that expand exploratively, uncertain of their final destination. This is perhaps nowhere better demonstrated than in the Kühnel sonata for gamba and continuo, where the whole range of the instrument is exploited. If Rie Kimura’s violin was in the spotlight last time, here she must share it with both her colleagues and all three (of course!) shine. As I posibly wrote at the end of my previous review of this group, I cannot wait to hear what they turn their hands to next – they make me smile.

Brian Clark