Author: EMR2015

Categories
Recording

Luys Milán: El Maestro, Libro 1 (1536)

Dark green flowers

José Antonio Escobar vihuela de mano
66:05
Naxos 8.573305

[dropcap]L[/dropcap]uys Milán’s El Maestro (1536) was the first of seven books of vihuela music published in the 16th century. The first nine pieces are fantasias, in modes 1-4, not too hard to play, and graded according to difficulty. There follow nine fantasias with redobles (running passages) exploring all eight modes, four fantasias in modes 5-8, and six pavanas, the last of which is in triple time. José Antonio Escobar plays all the solo music in the order in which it appears in the source, and plans another CD to cover the rest of El Maestro (Libro 2). Milán’s music has an improvisatory feel, and he seems to enjoy the repetition of little motifs or riffs, which may be heard in more than one piece. In bars 73 and 77 of Fantasia 19, there is an extraordinary throw-back to earlier times with a double-leading note chord. There are some curious changes of harmony, such as the unexpected shift from major to minor in bar 15 of no. 3.

Escobar’s playing is clear and expressive, and he creates a variety of moods from the lively to the slow and reflective. He adds his own ornaments sparingly – an upper mordent here and a lower mordant there – and a flourish in the repeat of Pavana 1. He articulates chords to good effect, for example in Fantasia 19. He sounds fine when he keeps the rhythm steady, and he has a nicely paced ending to Fantasia 7, but sometimes he has a jerky way of playing – accelerating through fast passages – which creates a feeling of instability and unease. Milán advises playing fast notes extra fast, but he doesn’t invite a drastic change of speed within each phrase. Dotted minims tied over the barline are clipped in no. 3, also adding to the effect of stumbling forward. Escobar strums a few chords in the final track, but the momentary uplift from that, is spoilt by rushing the fast notes (minims).

Nine bars from the end of the second fantasia there is a serious mistake which has slipped through the editing net: instead of a chord consisting of just two E flats and B flat, Escobar catches the fourth course, adding a minor third, yet if a full triad had been desirable, a major chord would have been appropriate. The same rogue G flat can be heard in bar 83 of no. 3, bar 70 of no. 7, and bars 107, 165, 178 and 191 of no. 19. Rather than risk this happening, one might be tempted to hold down a G at the 2nd fret of the 4th course, so if the wrong string is sounded, at least the resultant major chord wouldn’t be so bad. However, the way to avoid G flat sounding at the fourth course, is to stop the second and third courses with the first finger of the left hand as if an open 1st course were needed, rather as a violinist would for stopping a perfect fifth, and not use a full barré across all the strings at the first fret.

For the final cadence of no. 4, I would dampen the open 6th course of the dominant chord before playing the final chord with the open 5th course in the bass. Escobar lets the 6th course ring on, producing a second inversion for the last chord – interesting, because in no. 5 he does dampen the string for a clearly stated final chord.

Escobar’s vihuela was made by Julio Castaños from Málaga, and is tuned to G at A=415. It has a clear, bright sound, which suits the music well.

Stewart McCoy

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B00XWDKNJA&asins=B00XWDKNJA&linkId=YIDKTZQH2U237D6J&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=7748079&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B00XWDKNJA&asins=B00XWDKNJA&linkId=NSF7ZGBUZBIAO455&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

Categories
Recording

Mirare BARGAINS!

Floral design

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ith only weeks to go until Christmas, Mirare has release four wonderful collections by grouping oustanding recordings from their back catalogue.

In no particular order, they are:

La Reveuse 3 CD set
A 3 disc set from La Rêveuse consisting of recitals of Purcell (songs and chamber music, 60:00), Sébastien de Brossard (sacred and secular vocal music and a sonata in C, 64:00) and Henry Lawes (“ayres” for tenor and instrumental music, 69:00).

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B013VOKG4G&asins=B013VOKG4G&linkId=&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=8351266&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

Ricercar Consort 3 CD set
Three fabulous discs from the Ricercar Consort, directed by Philippe Pierlot: an immense disc of Bertali instrumental music (80:00!), another featuring Purcell’s Fantazias and In nomines (61:00), and finally François Couperin’s Apothéoses (with texts spoken by François Morel) coupled with Rebel’s Tombeau de Monsieur de Lully (67:00).

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B013VOKG96&asins=B013VOKG96&linkId=&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=8351262&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

Ricercar 3 CD set
A second set by the Ricercar Consort sandwiches a disc of primarily vocal music by Matthias Weckmann (79:00) between two discs of Bach, the first coupling his oboe d’amore concerto and Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten with Handel’s harp concerto and Tra le fiamme with soprano Nuria Real (64:00), the second of cantatas (BWV 63, 110 & 151, 68:00).

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B013VOKG14&asins=B013VOKG14&linkId=&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=8351258&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

Pierre Hantaï 2 CD set
The fourth set combines a Bach instrumental CD (BWV21 (sinfonia only), 1017, 1066 & 1069, 69:00) directed by Pierre Hantaï with a disc on which he plays arrangements of Rameau’s orchestral music for two harpsichords with Skip Sempé (75:00).

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B013RS10F0&asins=B013RS10F0&linkId=&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=8351275&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

All of the discs were well received in the pages of the printed Early Music Review, and this chance to grab them at a bargain price should not be missed!

Brian Clark

Categories
Sheet music

Nicola Porpora: Vespers for the Feast of the Assumption

Floral design

A Reconstruction of the 1744 Service at the Ospedaletto in Venice
Edited by Kurt Markstrom
Collegium Musicum Yale University. Second Series: Volume 21. Y2-021
Full Score (2015), A-R Editions. xxiv + 300 pp.
ISBN 978-0-89579-818-3

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his massive volume contains Kurt Markstrom’s conjectural reconstruction of a Vespers service for the Feast of the Assumption – one of the major celebrations of the famous Ospedaletto, where he was maestro di coro – and contains all of the required elements: five psalms, a Magnificat and two settings of the appropriate Marian antiphon “Salve regina”, as well as plainsong versions of “Deus in adiutorium”, the hymn (“Ave maris stella”) and all the psalm antiphons. In keeping with the Venetian theme, the choral music is scored for divided sopranos and altos with strings and continuo. Three of the movements are not dated 1744 – “Laudate pueri” is from the next year and in the same style so makes an ideal match; the settings of “Dixit Dominus” and the Magnificat, however, exist as sets of parts in Naples (the other material is all in the British Library in London) and scored for standard SATB choir. To make them match, Markstrom has simply transposed the male parts up an octave (taking his lead from indications in another Porpora autograph score where the reverse process is indicated) This is all very well, but in his thorough notes, he himself concedes that they are conceived in a slightly different style. More of an issue for me – although the editor does not share my concerns – are the contrasts in key centre; the sequence runs (all major keys) F, A, A, D, D, B flat, or four sharp keys framed by two flat ones.

A further issue for me is that fact that for the two framing movements, Markstrom prints two separate bass parts. More than once, he says this is because the organ part has figures, and that he wants to be able to show where the keyboard and string parts are at variance. One of his examples is the beginning of movement 11 of “Dixit Dominus”. Since it is impossible to say what actually was in the cello and “contrabassusse” parts, it is difficult to be critical but the whole thing is something of an academic exercise anyway – surely, given that the “soprano 2” part is actually the original tenor part transposed up an octave, the continuo part ought to have been altered, too, so the lower part of the “divisi celli” (what?!) should actually be the upper; what the score currently suggests is that the alto 1 part (doubled by violin 2) is in counterpoint with a second voice heard in octaves! It’s called invertible counterpoint for a reason.

Taken as a whole, however, this is a magnificent achievement. Porpora’s music deserves to be better known. This fine edition inspired Martin Gester to perform the Vespers at the Ambronay Festival to great public acclaim, and one hopes that performance materials (choral scores and instrumental parts) being available on request from the publisher will encourage others to seek it out. There is something wonderful about close-harmony female voices doubled at “the real pitch” by instruments that gives this already beautiful music a magical lift.

Brian Clark

Categories
Book

Ruth Tatlow: Bach’s Numbers

Floral design

Compositional Proportion and Significance
xviii + 411pp, £84.99
Cambridge University Press, 2015.
ISBN 978-1-107-08860-3

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he very subject matter of this book might be enough to send you screaming to the hills. Hand on heart, I am a sceptic. My understanding of proportion in music has been (naively?) based on early musical notions that the circle of perfection represented triple time sub-divided into three elements. When I hear music compared to architecture and how the parts must relate proportionally to the whole, I think (again simplistically?) of the folly of having three consecutive phrases of 5, 17 and 11 bars. Surely things that feel  balanced are  balanced? The notion that Bach sat down like an architect and spanned out not only movements but also entire works (and then collections of works!) based on the number of bars involved would strike me as preposterous. And yet, when you sit down and draw up tables, as Ruth Tatlow has done by the dozen, the numbers stack up to support the theories she passionately advocates.

This becomes all the more clear when Bach revises his works when he is assembling them into sets. He removes entire movements, re-writes others, all seemingly with the sole aim of making the total bar counts match over huge spans of his output. Suggesting that the numbers at the end of his scores representing the bar count is strong evidence for a pre-occupation with such things simply ignores the fact that other composers do it, too – and more often than not professional copyists do the same – quite simply in order to ensure that each of the separate parts they copy out has the same number of bars! I have some difficulty accepting in larger works that Tatlow’s 1:1 and 2:1 proportions are justifiable when the selection of movements that adds up to one or other total is so random within a sequence; make a different selection from the list of movements and the maths does not work. Must we assume that Bach got to the “Dona nobis pacem” of the B minor mass knowing exactly how many bars he had to write? Presumably – since it is a repeat of an earlier movement – he already knew that, so had to be more self-controlling in composing the “Agnus Dei”?

There is a huge amount of information in these 400+ pages and the book is anything but an easy read. In her Appendix (“A theology of musical proportions and Harmony in Bach’s time”), I do not see anything that talks to me of numerical proportion and counting bars; rather it is harmony that is seen as the root of perfection, including reference to numbers (7 is omitted from the sequence of “the whole of Harmony”).

There are some slips that copy editors really should have caught (“Leh-rmeister” at a line end on p. 16 is dreadful, for example; there is also a stray dash on p. 17), but on the whole the book is beautifully laid out and printed.

Brian Clark

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=1107088607&asins=1107088607&linkId=&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=DE&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-21&marketplace=amazon&region=DE&placement=1107088607&asins=1107088607&linkId=&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=1107088607&asins=1107088607&linkId=HEOPVOQAVIZ3LTRZ&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

Categories
Sheet music

Frescobaldi: Il Primo Libro di Capricci fatti sopra diversi Soggetti, et Arie (Roma, Soldi, 1624)

Floral design

Edited by Christopher Stembridge. (Organ and Keyboard Works II).
Bärenreiter (BA 8413), 2015.xxviii + 90pp, £37.00.

I bought the five volumes edited by Pierre Pidoux and published by Bärenreiter as BA2202 in 1968. Christopher Stembrige is a meticulous editor, but the bolder print of the Pidoux/Bärenreiter does make it easier to read – and I don’t think that a sensible reader will assume that beaming quavers does not imply breaking of phrases. Stembridge’s notation of triple time, however, is worth trying. But neither edition observes the four-stave layout of the original edition. The new edition has useful introductory notes and critical commentary. For study, it is excellent, and I’m glad to have both editions. Academics and serious performers definitely need BA8413, as opposed to BA2202!

Clifford Bartlett

Categories
Recording

Bach: a Violino e Cembalo

Floral design

Erich Höbarth violin, Aapo Häkkinen harpsichord
119:35 (2 SACDs)
Aeolus AE10236
BWV 1014–1019, 1021–1023

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a fabulously recorded set – you can hear every detail of the music without the slightest hint of breathing or other incidental sounds. The balance between violin and harpsichord (huge dynamic range afforded by the variety of sounds available to Häkkinen notwithstanding!) is expertly managed. Bach’s lines are crystal clear throughout without the excessive bite that sometimes spoils recordings of Bach’s music for this combination. While Aapo Häkkinen explores every facet of his 1970 instrument (after Hass[note]He also uses a 2011 copy of Italian models for BWV 1021, 1022[/note]), I did not feel that Höbarth was as interested in varying his colour so much. Another difference of approach was evident in the Adagio of BWV1017 where the right hand keyboard part has triplets, the left hand has even quavers and the violin dotted quavers; while Häkkinen smooths these into triplets, Höbarth tucks his semiquavers in after the third of each group. This may be an interesting effect musically, but I fear it was not what Bach intended. While there is no denying that he is master of Bach’s notes, I was not entirely convinced by Höbarth’s ornamentation either. The thoroughly footnoted booklet essay only lightly touches on the possibility of BWV 1023 having been written for Pisendel, later the Dresden Konzertmeister. In summary, this set has a fine bonus by way of three other sonatas for violin and harpsichord (some may argue that BWV 2012 and 1023 need basso continuo – i. e., a sustaining string bass), and the harpsichord playing is impeccable, but I prefer the sounds made by various other violinists. Try for yourself, though!

Brian Clark

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B015GH035S&asins=B015GH035S&linkId=&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=8303532&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B015GH035S&asins=B015GH035S&linkId=HWOFO25MIHTRG5X3&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

Categories
Recording

Seasons

Modern floral

Oliver Davis, Antonio Vivaldi
Kerenza Peacock violin, Grave Davidson soprano, Trafalgar Sinfonia, Ivor Settlefield
62:16
Signum Records SIGCD437

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is an interesting disc, combining Vivaldi’s most famous violin concertos with a new orchestral song cycle entitled “Anno” by Oliver Davis (b. 1972) setting the the Italian sonnets that were printed in the Op. 8 partbooks in which the “Four Seasons” were published. Grace Davidson’s pure voice combines well with the Trafalgar Sinfonia’s largely vibrato-less string sound, and the rhythmic vitality and neo-Baroque style of Davis’s writing lend the cycle an easy instant accessibility.

BBC Radio 3’s CD Review programme the other day had several versions of the Vivaldi works (including solo organist and gypsy violinist!) and I would say the present recording lies halfway along the spectrum from HIP to wacky (although, to be honest, that doesn’t make allowance for several “wacky HIP” crossovers, which I would rather did not exist…) – Kerenza Peacock is an accomplished violinist, and she is mostly very well accompanied; I’m afraid I just did not hear anything new in these performances. Of course, the whole premise of the disc is to contextualize the Davis composition; actually, I think I would have preferred to hear more of his music.

Brian Clark

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B0145CBNVI&asins=B0145CBNVI&linkId=&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=DE&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-21&marketplace=amazon&region=DE&placement=B0145CBNVI&asins=B0145CBNVI&linkId=&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B0145CBNVI&asins=B0145CBNVI&linkId=NRA4YI6MOB5YXX5B&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

Categories
Recording

Mozart: Opera Arias & Overtures

Pink chrysanthemum

Elizabeth Watts Soprano, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, directed by Christian Baldini
61″
Linn Records CKD460
Music from La clemenza di Tito, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, La finta giardiniera, Idomeneo & Le nozze di Figaro

Ian Graham-Jones

[]

[]

[]

[]

[wp-review]

Categories
Recording

Aufschnaiter: Memnon sacer ab oriente (Vesper op. 5)

Floral design

St Florian Sängerknaben, Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor
52:49
Pan Classics PC 10349
+Hugl: Organ works

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hy do musicians have to make outrageous claims for lesser-known composers? Referring to Aufschnaiter as “the Catholic Bach” is not what I would consider helpful in trying to raise the public profile of a composer whose music need only be given air time to acquire his own fan base. Anyone who goes out and buys this CD, expecting to be amazed by fabulous music they cannot believe they have never heard before is likely to be disappointed; neither by the music, nor the performances, I hasten to add, as both are perfectly enjoyable and uplifting. The programme is built around of the first of two sets of Vespers psalms published as his op. 5 of 1709, four years after he succeeded Georg Muffat as Kapellmeister in Passau. I love the sense of big open space and the combination of trumpets and sackbutts with a small vocal group (as is Letzbor’s wont) with a finely balanced string ensemble. I really would prefer just to hear the music on its own merits – it has plenty and they are gloriously realised here!

Brian Clark

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B0145CBLK6&asins=B0145CBLK6&linkId=&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=8313121&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B0145CBLK6&asins=B0145CBLK6&linkId=4SUP6F7OCJLXFIO6&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

Categories
Sheet music

Mozart: Piano Sonata in A Major K. 331 (Alla Turca)…

Pink chrysanthemum

Edited by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert.
G. Henle Verlag, 2015.
iv + 26pp, €7.00

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is not merely an offprint – it is a new edition. Mozart’s pages were split, and only the last page survived until a double leaf of the autograph was recently found in the National Széchényi Library in Budapest. Apart from the limited autograph sheets, the editor also found a copyist’s MS in Prague – an extensive report can be downloaded at www.henle.com. There are two early editions, in 1784 and what was called a fourth impression, though K331 was reset by three engravers.

I’ve compared the new edition with the Bärenreiter Collected Works, in this case quite late (1986). There is a difference in the first two bars: Bärenreiter has a slur for the first two of a group of three quavers, whereas Henle (referring to the 2015 edition) slurs all three. (I don’t edit Mozart, but the problem of slurring 6/8 or 12/8 rhythms in Handel, whose music I spend a lot of time editing, are often ambiguous.) Comments are helpfully noted on the musical pages as well as in the separate critical notes. The newly discovered four pages cover the end of the first movement and beginning of the second. (Why are the bar numbers not stated to show the exact beginnings and ends?) Could not the new pages have been printed at half-size on the two blank pages at the end? The Sonata itself is one of Mozart’s most popular works, and I expect that rival editions will appear.

Clifford Bartlett

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B00ZXBR9ZU&asins=B00ZXBR9ZU&linkId=&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]