Year: 2015

Motets et cantates de Hammerschmidt, Telemann, Bruhns, Scheidt…
Le Concert Etranger, Itay Jedlin
77:17
Ambronay AMY045

• Bruhns: Hemmt eure Tränenflut
• Hammerschmidt: Ach Gott, warum hast du mein vergessen? Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott; Ergo sit nulla ratio salutis; Herr, wie lange willst du mich so gar vergessen? Inter brachio salvatoris mei; Pavane 1 à 5
• Monteverdi: Sinfonia
• Rosenmüller: Sinfonia XI
• Scheidemann: Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott (organ), Præludium in D
• Scheidt: Ist nicht Ephraim mein teurer Sohn? (organ)
• Telemann: Ach Herr, straf mich nicht in deinem Zorn

[dropcap]M[/dropcap]any fine ensembles have cut their teeth at the Ambronay Fesitval, where it is almost expected that performers will step off the well-trodden path and bring their audiences new experiences and insights into familiar repertoire. This programme combines settings of texts which call upon God in one way or another (both vocal and instrumental) is beautifully performed with some outstanding singing and playing – look out especially for bass Nicolas Brooymans!

The vocalists wring every last drop of feeling out of the text without allowing their emotions to affect the high quality of their singing. Although Telemann’s fine Ach Herr, straf mich nicht  sets the bar at a higher point than any of the subsequent works can quite reach, the inclusion of five works by Hammerschmidt is particularly welcome (even if the booklet notes omit any mention of the 30 Years War – surely the reason why so many such texts were set at the time!) and Bruhns’ Hemmet eure Tränenflut  is but one of that composer’s many works that deserve to be better known and more widely recorded. Finely played as it is, what exactly is the justification for the inclusion of a sinfonia by Monteverdi?

Brian Clark

Knabenchor Hannover, Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble, Barockorchester L’Arco, Jörg Breiding
115:09 (2 CDs)
Rondeau Productions ROP701920

[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ach of the two CDs which make up this recording feature three large-scale vocal works in the Venetian style by one of the late 17th century’s undoubted masters; Arno Paduch’s booklet note suggests that the conversion to Catholicism of Duke Johann Friedrich von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (the dedicatee of Rosenmüller’s 1667 Sonate da camera) might suggest that at least some of the Latin church music was written for Hanover. The combined forces of that city’s modern boys’ choir, four imported soloists for the upper voice obbligato parts, the Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble, and the Barockorchester L’Arco (here strings with lute, dulcian and organ) produce an absolutely glorious sound throughout. The psalms are framed by plainchant antiphons sung by a Schola (seven men from the choir), who also supply the Ingressus  and the hymn (Ave maris stella). Veronika Winter and Maria Skiba are exemplary sopranos, while Alex Potter and Henning Voss shine as the alto soloists. Where I had expected to find the shift from the intimacy of solo voices to a large choir (25, 17, 9, 12), in fact the effect was rather impressive, and similar anxiety about an imbalance between instruments and choir was dispelled in performance; the recording engineer has clearly placed his microphones perfectly, allowing the whole soundscape to be captured without compromise. This is an impressive achievement, and includes some truly beautiful music – the Lauda Jerusalem  with solo trumpet is especially worthy of note. Many Rosenmüller works remain unrecorded, though, so let us hope that Breiding and co. are not finished yet!

Brian Clark

La Capella Ducale, Musica Fiata, Roland Wilson
76:07
deutsche harmonia mundi 88875051442

[dropcap]J.[/dropcap] H. Schein has often been relegated to the role of ‘filler’ composer, providing a pretty but musically inconsequential piece to fill up an early Baroque programme. Not so long ago this was the fate of Michael Praetorius, a composer now recognized for his major contribution to large-scale choral music, and it should probably come as no surprise Schein promises to be a similar discovery. This collection of music from his Cymbalum Sionium  of 1615 is the work of a highly accomplished, inventive and imaginative musical mind, building on the world of Lassus, Hassler, and the Gabrielis, clearly being influenced by Praetorius and in turn influencing Heinrich Schütz. It seems extraordinary even in a country like Germany which boasts such an embarrassing wealth of superlative early Baroque music that Schein’s choral music should largely have escaped attention until now, but the present CD does much to rectify this problem. The performances are energetic, beautifully sung and presenting a full range of instrumental colours including scampering cornets, recorders and splendid regal, dulcian and a great bass shawm tones which add a terrific earthy note to proceedings. The striking contemporary portrait of Schein, complete with funky coiffure and facial hair, suggests a composer as flamboyant as the vividly wonderful music recorded here. One of the chief delights of reviewing is coming across completely unanticipated treasures, and this CD certainly comes into that category.

D. James Ross

Profeti della Quinta
69:29
Pan Classics PC 10350

[dropcap]L[/dropcap]uzzaschi is chiefly known as the composer of a collection of madrigals for the Dame of Ferrara, his Madrigale per cantare et sonare a uno, doi e tre soprani, catering for the virtuoso voices of the world’s most famous vocal trio before the Three Tenors. There are a couple of items from that collection here sung very effectively by soprano and male alto, but it is the other material from Luzzaschi’s other publications that interested me more. These include madrigals in five and six parts, sacred music and instrumental ricercars, and toccatas. Who knew that Luzzaschi was so versatile and so thoroughly competent in such a wide range of genres? The performances are beautifully musical, and one particular highlight is an arrangement by the group’s director Elam Rotem for one of the group’s counter-tenors and harpsichord of a five-part madrigal, which, taking the music for the Ladies of Ferrara as a model, he encrusts with decoration.

In comparison to his sparkling secular music, his sacred music, while utterly competent lacks perhaps the sheer verve of the other repertoire. As I have suggested, variety is the keynote of this excellent CD, and I found myself enjoying thoroughly an organ rendition of one of Luzzaschi’s canzonas, and the group’s polished viol consort playing his ricercars, while the finely balanced and delicately ornamented singing was a constant delight. For added variety, the viols play a couple of galliards by Luzzaschi’s contemporary, Giovanni Anerio, primarily known for his sacred choral music, but clearly also a master of instrumental chamber music. I have not always been entirely complimentary about Elam Rotem’s projects in the past, but this one seems to me entirely laudable and beautifully realized. Incidentally, full marks for the cover illustration, Titian’s ‘Venus with an organist and a dog’ in which the musician gazes at the rather corpulent goddess in search, one hopes, of musical inspiration.

D. James Ross

Music at San Marco di Venezia 
ensemble officium
63:53
Christophorus CHR 77390

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his varied programme of music for voices and instruments is taken from Andrea Gabrieli’s Sacræ Cantiones  of 1565, an early publication comprising works composed for the Munich Hofkapelle, which Gabrieli visited, working alongside Lassus. It is worth remembering that this music, which now sounds so distinctively ‘Venetian’ to us was composed for Lassus’ Court ‘orchestra’, and bearing that in mind, we can readily hear the influence of Lassus throughout. This is particularly the case in a cappella works such as Bonum est confiteri, whereas in the more elaborate works incorporating cornets and sackbuts we can hear the future musical world which was to make San Marco the envy of early Baroque Europe. All of the music is taken from the 1565 publication with the exception of the ‘diminution’ of Laudate Dominum  for cornet and organ, completed in period style by the group’s excellent cornet soloist Friederike Otto, and the complex 10-part setting of Laudate Dominum in sanctis eius, published posthumously in 1587 by the composer’s nephew and musical heir, Giovanni. The singing and playing are precise and expressive, and if I could occasionally have done with more panache and a slightly more generous acoustic – assuming as the CD title suggests that Gabrieli went on to use his earlier works in San Marco following his appointment there in 1566 – I liked the way the ensemble sometimes employed voices on each line, including the high top lines. Although it is widely assumed that the choral forces in San Marco were made up of adult male singers with falsetto male alto voices topped by cornets, the use of boys or even adult male sopranos cannot be ruled out. I also liked the variety of presentations, including a lovely instrumental rendition of O sacrum convivium. It is easy to dismiss Andrea Gabrieli as a bridge figure between Lassus and his flamboyant nephew Gabrieli, but this CD helps to reinforce the fact that he had his own distinctive and profound voice, which was already clearly in evidence in this early publication.

D. James Ross

Gli Incogniti, Amandine Beyer
73:08
harmonia mundi HMC 902221
Violin concerti RV228, 282, 313, 314a, 316, 322, 323, 372a, 391
Sinfonia to L’Olimpiade & Ballo Primo  from Arsilda Regina di Ponto

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ans of Vivaldi will welcome this disc of six three-movement concertos, with some incomplete single movement concertos or reconstructed movements of others, plus two operatic excerpts. This small ensemble of just four violins with one player on each of the lower parts shows Vivaldi’s virtuosity at his best, yet it is not afraid of some real sustained pianissimo playing – a quality sometimes sadly lacking in some period ensembles today.

(The video is in French)

I particularly enjoyed the different sonority of the scordatura concerto RV 391 in B minor, with the solo violin tuned to B-D-A-D, for it is often than Vivaldi shows his best compositional skills in minor mode works – and indeed four of the full concertos on this disc are in minor keys. Nevertheless the D major RV 228, with its cadenza in the third movement (here given the full ‘Paganini’ treatment, yet still stylistically convincing) is a fascinating work. The ensemble’s title, and indeed the theme running through the disc, is taken from Benedetto Marcello’s little publication satirising some of the features of the Italian opera of the day.

Ian Graham-Jones

5 3*4.5

Christopher Wilke 13 course lute
J. S. Bach, Falckenhagen, Weiss
Barcode: 6 90474 54098 2

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]hristopher Wilke’s CD begins with variations by Adam Falckenhagen on the German chorale “Wer nur den lieben Gott”. The melody begins with simple chords, but it is soon decorated with fast flourishes. There follow passages of broken chords in quavers, semiquavers, triplets, sextuplets, and the piece ends with a dramatic triple suspension. This is the florid world of galanterie, where simple musical ideas are subsumed in excessive decoration.

Next comes J. S. Bach’s Lute Suite BWV995. In the Präludium Wilke adds much ornamentation, and in the Presto he keeps the semiquaver movement going with notes séparées  and the addition of appoggiaturas from above and below. His speed is a modest 152, about the same as Axel Wolf, slower than Andreas Martin and Joachim Held at about 166, and faster than Peter Croton at about 142. A restful Allemande with neatly played ornamentation has Wilke’s own tasteful doubles for the repeats. The Courante is played with distinctly uneven quavers and a few lightly strummed chords. The slowly-played Sarabande is enhanced by Wilke’s doubles for the repeats. In Gavotte 1 there are a few um-chings and a demisemiquaver flourish for the repeat; he takes a steady speed, so that Gavotte 2 has the same pulse with quaver triplets; extra notes are added to the return of Gavotte 1. The Gigue could be crisper if he didn’t clip some of the dotted quavers, but all in all I do like the way he puts his own gloss on this oft-played suite.

There follow Falkenhagen’s extravagant variations on “Nun danket alle Gott”, the well-known hymn “Now thank we all our God”. Ponderous bass notes underpin the melody first with rich chords, and then with variations which become more and more elaborate, until the effect is almost reminiscent of flamenco guitar. It is curious stuff, and certainly takes us a long way from the simplicity of the original Protestant hymn.

The rest of the CD is devoted to music by Silvius Leopold Weiss based on “L’Amant Malheureux”, an allemande by the 17th-century French lutenist, Jacques Gallot. From the Rohrau manuscript is Gallot’s original composition together with a double by Weiss, a Courante, a Fantaisie, and a Gigue variation on “L’Amant Malheureux”. There is an extraordinary wealth of musical ideas here, and the music requires considerable virtuosity from Wilke. From the Paris manuscript (Pn Res Vmc Ms 61) are pieces in G minor: variations by Weiss on “L’Amant Malheureux”, a Courante, and a Gavotte. Finally, from the London manuscript (Lbl Add. Ms 30387), another variation by Weiss on Gallot’s allemande. In his liner notes Wilke suggests that Gallot’s piece must have been important for Weiss, for him to have used it so much as a basis for his own compositions. Wilke confesses that Weiss’s gloss on Gallot helped him through a difficult time in his own life.

Stewart McCoy

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