Year: 2018

Dorothee Mields, Lautten Compagney, Wolfgang Katschner
78:40
deutsche harmonia mundi 88985491572

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t is difficult to know quite who this weird and not-at-all-wonderful CD is aimed at. Almost certainly not the kind of listener who takes the trouble to visit EMR’s site. Admirers of the singer, maybe? Well, certainly Dorothee Mields is a justly admired soprano with a voice of pure, yet rounded quality and a fine technique that allows her to sing long legato lines with reassuringly secure pitch. Here there are odd moments, particularly in the Lamento d’Arianna, where her singing can be admired without too much reservation. But in general, given that she shows only moderate understanding of the stylistic requirements of the music and her Italian diction is poor, she can be heard to much better effect elsewhere.

The programme itself is an extraordinary mishmash, romping across music culled from the madrigal books, the 1610 Vespers and other sacred collections and not excluding a nod in the direction of opera with part of the duet ‘Sento un certo non so che’ from L’Incoronazione di Poppea. A part of? Oh, yes indeed. And the fact that it is a duet and there is only one singer? No problem. Just run Valetto’s opening stanza without a break into the response of Damigella (not that you’ll know until you read the booklet notes). Then stop. This cavalier approach to the music is the major hallmark of the entire CD. A capella madrigals for five voices? Once again, no problem. Just fill in the missing vocal lines with instruments, changing the orchestration every few bars to make sure listeners don’t get bored. A ground bass, as in Lamento della Ninfa? Ah, that’ll sound better with a nice bit of clickitty-clacketty percussion added. As for those boring men who commiserate with the Nymph? Oh, let’s just forget them; no one will notice. And so on.

The most curious thing about the project is the desperately old-fashioned feel it has. It smacks of the kind of thing people used to do to unknown Baroque composers in the early years of the 20th century. Well, we’ve moved on a hundred years. Monteverdi’s music now lies at the heart of standard early music repertoire, leaving this horribly misbegotten and musically sterile conception no place for anyone but the most undemanding of the singer’s admirers.

Brian Robins

Il suonar parlante orchestra, Vittorio Ghielmi
58:58
Alpha Classics Alpha 392

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]ehind the almost film poster of a booklet cover with galloping horse feet across the dusty plains, we encounter an assortment of works, some extracted from their familiar Baroque settings, and re-cast in an arranged gypsy mode, some pieces as arrangements of more traditional themes. It is rather like taking a whistle-stop tour through Transylvania and beyond whilst looking through a shifting musical kaleidoscope at this earthy, spirited, often rustic, stomping music. There are moments of captivating beauty too; the two guest musicians provide extra colour Dorothee Oberlinger’s sopranino recorder in one piece, and Shalev Ad El in the F. Benda work dazzle with their dextrous ease. The great gusto  and joie de vivre  of many of the other works shine through with the various soloists and a leader on great form. We pass through the foothills, the taverns, and country dances with the odd traditional song along the way. The front cover might have led to Telemann’s “Les courreurs” (TWV55:Es1 or TWV55:B5) or even “Les Scaramouches” (third movement of “La Changeante” TWV55:g2). The second Telemann extraction and arrangement, Track 7 on this CD, has gone for a bagpipe effect on the gamba, when the French clearly implies “Vielle” i.e. “hurdy-gurdy” or Lyra mendicorm, which in the original suite is couched between Menuets I/II and a Sicilienne avec Cadenze, and has real rustic impact! Here the drone dominates, and the snappier rustic tempo wanes. This recording offers more of the trend towards “Gypsyfication”, taking us from the polite salons of formal Baroque concerts into the middle and Eastern European fields, crossing almost into Istambul. Some of the violin playing reminded me of the great Stéphane Grappelli with lashings of improvisatory zeal. I wasn’t entirely won over by the Vivaldi, a tad more with the Mozart; the Benda was superb! Not to everyone’s taste, but a colourful tour nonetheless.

David Bellinger

La Spagna, Alejandro Marías
71:39
Lukos Records 5451CRE80843
TWV51: A5; 52: a1, G1; 55: D6, G10

[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ntering into the ever-expanding ranks of recordings of these quite familiar, yet discerningly witty and descriptive pieces, we have La Spagna’s offerings under a strawberry and vanilla cover now joining the 15+ of TWV55:D6, and approaching 30(!) of the “Burlesque de Quixotte” suite in G major TWV55:G10. The once unfamiliar concerto for gamba and strings, TWV51:A5, has at least four known recordings. Note that the concerto for recorder, gamba and strings is wrongly identified, and should be TWV52:a1! It is widely accepted that Telemann’s concertante gamba works were conceived with the Darmstadt virtuoso Ernst Christian Hesse in mind; he studied under Marais and Forqueray in Paris.The musicians of the Darmstadt court orchestra worked closely with Telemann during his Frankfurt period (1712-1721), especially during large public performances. In the D major gamba suite here, we encounter within the French framework many keen nods towards the Italianate concerto style; it is a hybrid with added idiomatic effects e.g. La Trompette, one of several brass simulation effects found in TWV55… Another example is the 3rd movement from TWV55:B4, Les cornes de Visbade. With the present director being a gamba and cello player, the choice of repertoire is hardly surprising; yet one feels a wider selection could have made for a better tribute during the anniversary year; perhaps a couple of the wonderful violin and gamba sonatas from TWV42 which are played so well online by this very ensemble!

This all said, the director and the musicians give a balanced, unforced account of these familiar works.

David Bellinger

Die Freitagsakademie
72:39
Winter & Winter 910 245-2
TWV42:g5, 43:a5, 51:A2, 55:C6 & g4

[doprcap]O[/dropcap]n the face of it, this would be a perfect disc for me; sandwiched between two of my favourite ouverture-suites (with three oboes!) are one of his most beloved trio sonatas (this one for violin and oboe), a nice oboe d’amore concerto, and – by way of a treat – a piece I don’t think I’ve ever heard before, one of his four-part string pieces (this one is labelled “sonata”). That, however, is where the excitement reached its climax. The paltry notes (printed on the inside of the wings of the triptych packaging – German to the left, English to the right) are little more than a potted biography of the composer up to the point he established his Collegium Musicum that Zimmermann’s café would later host and then some blurb about that establishment; nothing, in other words, about the music or why it was selected for inclusion. The performances are a mixed bag; while the chamber music (by which I mean everything that is not an overture-suite, even though they, too, are played one-to-a-part) is pleasant enough (the biting string playing in some of the dances are less in evidence, for example), there are two aspects of the suites that I found less attractive; the tinkling of the harpsichord that rather distracted the ear from the actual melodies at several points (and I cannot help wondering if some of the overly mannered slow movements were paced simply to accommodate such indulgence), and the overmiked growly violone – there were times when I had to turn the volume down (on more than one player) to mask the distortion.

Brian Clark

Brecon Baroque, Rachel Podger
71:08
Channel Classics CCS38316

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] haven’t heard as persuasive an account of The Art of Fugue  since Fretwork released their elegant version in 2002. In Brecon Baroque, Rachel Podger has gathered some of her stellar friends and made this fine CD which has clarity and passion, as well as thought-provoking decisions about scoring.

I have listened to a number of performances on the organ, which in some ways seems to be the obvious medium for such intellectually abstract and challenging music; but I find Podger’s acute judgment as to what might be the best combination of instruments to shape the character of each piece as sound as her flawless and committed playing. We have the Canons “alla Decima” and “alla Duodecima” played on the harpsichord, which appears in other movements – but not all – as a basso continuo. The string players can appear as two violins, viola and ‘cello, or as violin, two violas and ‘cello or any combination in trio. The order seems wholly logical, and the importance of this recording is greatly enhanced by a splendid essay by John Butt on the compositional techniques that are demonstrated in this extraordinary compendium of canonic and fugal writing Bach drew together as Die Kunst der Fuge. This booklet is a model for what a booklet should be, and it is a real treat to have such a scholarly but accessible essay.

The playing is wonderful – a viol-like edge and clarity where that is required; a sense of growing intensity through the gathering complexities of the work; and the final Contrapunctus left hanging, unfinished in the air with its wistful resolution unfulfilled. I much enjoyed this remarkable display of heartfelt musicianship and hope that the performance will receive the accolades it deserves.

David Stancliffe

Violin concertos in minor keys & selected works for alto voice
la voce strumentale, Dmitry Sinkovsky violin, countertenor, conductor
61:23
naïve OP 30567
BWV 1041, 1052, 1056, extracts from BWV 232, 244 & 245

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here are a number of recordings made as “calling cards”, and this seems to be one of them as it features the variety of talents that Dmitry Sinkovsky and his Russian period instrument string ensemble (2.2.2.1.1) can exhibit. But mainly just Dmitry Sinkovsky. Not only does he direct the ensemble and act as the soloist in the three Bach violin concertos – BWV 1052, BWV 1056 and BWV 1041 – all later re-worked for harpsichord; he also sings three well-known alto arias. Presumably he recorded these using a voice-over technique, as I can’t imagine he would have let the violin solo in “Erbarme dich” from the Matthew Passion be played by anyone else.

There is some odd phrasing in the arias, but what I dislike most is his tight, narrow vibrato which creates an unsuitable sound for Bach and doesn’t match the sinewy strings. Nor do I like his violin playing: it is too aggressive, too controlling and too far from the intertwined spirit of Bach. You sense that this musician is more interested in self-promotion than in serving Bach’s music.

This is not a recording that I can recommend to the readers of the EMR.

David Stancliffe