Author: EMR2015

Categories
Recording

A Restless Heart

Floral design

Wayward Sisters
59:16
J. S. Bach, Brade, Corbetta, Corelli, Fontana, Geminiani, B. Marini, Matteis, Schmelzer, Schop & de Selma y Salaverde

This CD is something of a whistle-stop tour of 17th- and 18th-century European chamber music. The composers represented are not all the most obvious – Bach, Corelli, Marini Schmelzer, Matteis, Brade, Geminiani all feature but so do Giovanni Batista Fontana, Bartolomé de Selma v Salaverde and Francesco Corbetta. The ensemble, Wayward Sisters, comprises a violinist, recorder player, cellist and a theorbist/lutanist, and they play the music with an intimate awareness of Baroque performance practice and with considerable musicality and virtuosity. This is fortunate as a rather ‘off the wall’ programme note suggests very little understanding of the music’s context – in it, theorbist John Lenti opines ‘Pre-enlightenment western culture was weird’. Is he punning wittily on the group’s name? Elsewhere the statement that the name derives from ‘Henry Purcell’s vivid conjuring of Shakespeare’s witches’ (?) suggests not… The group acknowledges support through indiegogo, a crowdfunding forum, so (obviously) the packaging of this CD, including the devising of the programme notes, has been done on a shoestring. Probably the important point to make is that it has allowed a group of fine young musicians to bring their very pleasing playing to a wider audience. The recording is slightly ‘close’ for my taste, but certainly provides a ‘vivid conjuring’ of the group’s dynamic sound.

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

O Eterne Deus

Medieval floral

Music of Hildegard von Bingen
Vajra Voices, dir. Karen R. Clark, Shira Kammen vielle & medieval harp
50:22
Music & Arts CD-1291

It is hard to remember a time without Hildegard, but (of course) the rediscovery of her remarkable music after centuries of silence was a relatively recent affair. Many of us remember the effect of first hearing recordings by Gothic Voices and Sequentia of this extraordinary repertoire, and it remains just as distinctive today. Of course, it goes without saying that you need singers capable of doing it justice, but in the American ensemble Vajra Voices we have a group who have specialized in Medieval and modern music and in Hildegard’s music in particular. Under the expert direction of Karen R. Clark, they bring an engaging drama to Hildegard’s music, soaring and swooping with ease and evident delight. They are ably supported by Shira Kammen on vielle and medieval harp, who also takes a couple of solo and duet instrumental slots with Allison Zelles Lloyd. It is nice to note that they are playing a Kentigern harp by the Highlands’ own Ardival Harps. When reviewing, I tend to put on CDs at random to get to know them thoroughly before passing judgment – it is interesting that, of all my current batch, the Hildegard one has been the one I was able to identify instantly.

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

Forgotten chamber works with oboe from the Court of Prussia

Modern floral

Notturna, Christopher Palameta
59:32
deutsche harmonia mundi 1 90758 21552 5
Music by J. G. Graun, Janitsch and Krause

In the retrospective painting by Adolph von Menzel, Frederick the Great of Prussia is shown as flute soloist with an orchestra led by CPE Bach and being listened to by a number of Bach’s musical colleagues. In the audience may well have been Johann Gottlieb Janitsch, Johann Gottfried Krause and Johann Gottlied Graun, all featured here on a charming collection of music with oboe from Frederick’s Court. Although music with flute was clearly favoured by the flautist King, his court boasted a fine orchestra allowing his composers to feature most of the instruments current at this time. The presence of a truly great composer such as CPE Bach has led to Frederick’s other musical employees such as the three represented here being portrayed as mediocre. However on the evidence of the fine chamber music recorded here, while they may have lacked the originality and profound genius of Bach they were not by any means without merit. Christopher Palameta is a highly accomplished exponent of the early oboe and plays and directs Notturna with equal assurance and musicality. Of the three composers here, Janitsch is new to me, and I think I enjoyed his Sonata in B flat for traverso, oboe, viola and bc best. Graun’s A minor Quintet for traverso, oboe, viola, cello, and obbligato harpsichord is a strikingly original piece, which underlines the flexibility of make-up of chamber ensembles at the time. Graun may well have composed the prominent harpsichord part of this piece to be played by the resident keyboard virtuoso, CPE Bach. It is interesting to note that several of these musicians may well have been present when JS Bach visited the Court in 1747 and improvised the bulk of his Musical Offering – what would these Galant composers have made of that?

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

Couperin, Rameau [&] de Seixas

Modern floral

Mariko Terashi piano
76:11
athene ath 23207

Of the three composers represented here, Carlos de Seixas is by far the least well known. Working in Portugal in the first half of the 18th century, he had the double misfortune firstly to die young at the age of just 38 and secondly to have most of his music and his instruments destroyed in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. On the basis of the imaginative and polished sonatas performed here, he is a composer whose reputation is overdue a re-evaluation. Younger than either Couperin or Rameau by some twenty and thirty years respectively, de Seixas was clearly much more open to new keyboard styles, and it is intriguing to think what he might have achieved had his life not been cut short by a fatal attack of rheumatic fever. In addition to four of de Seixas’s Sonatas we have selections from the first and second Livres de Clavecin by Rameau and pieces from various Ordres by Couperin. I have to point out at this stage that Mariko Terashi performs her programme on a modern piano, and that (personally) I like my harpsichord music played on a harpsichord. Even setting that prejudice to one side, I have to say that I find Terashi’s playing a little bland and that her ornaments lack the definition I think is necessary for the music of this period. She also has the annoying mannerism of throwing away final cadences. This is all probably least detrimental in the forward-looking de Seixas pieces, but both the Rameau and the Couperin sound emasculated. I am grateful to this CD for having alerted me to the music of de Seixas, and I must look out for performances on harpsichord.

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

Michelangelo’s Madrigal

Dark green flowers

Kate Macoboy soprano, Robert Meunier lute
Et’cetera KTC 1623
Music by Cara, dall’Aquila, Dalza, da Milano, Pesenti, Scannazaro, Scotto & Tromboncino

This interesting collection of secular Italian songs of the first half of the 16th century is built around the work of Bartolomeo Tromboncino, and more specifically the madrigal Come harò donque ardire, setting a poem by the legendary artist Michelangelo Buonarroti – the ‘Michelangelo’s Madrigal’ of the title. In addition to several other of Tromboncino’s settings, we have music by Joan Ambrosio Dalza, Marco dall’Aquila, Michele Pesenti, Francesco da Milano, Marchetto Cara and Paulo Scotto. Robert Meunier proves an able accompanist and an accomplished soloist in the works for lute alone, while Kate Macaboy has a pleasant well-focused soprano voice. In keeping with the performance notes, both performers treat the written scores as springboards for their own musical imaginations, decorating both the melody and the accompaniment as the composers surely intended. Macaboy introduces an appropriate level of dramatization into her performances, and this along with the accumulation of ornamentation prevents the often rather simple melodies outliving their welcome. It is hard to reconcile this rather naïve compositional style with the fact that Tromboncino and Michelangelo collaborated while employed together at the Ferrara court of the notorious Lucrezia Borgia. Perhaps an aptitude for on-the-spot elaboration of melodies would have helped cultivate the quick reactions necessary for survival at a Renaissance Italian court!

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

C. P. E. Bach: Cello Concerti

Pink chrysanthemum

Guy Fishman cello, Members of the Handel and Haydn Society
64:24
Olde Focus Recordings

Probably the most prodigiously talented of the Bach sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel wrote concertos for a large variety of instruments, but his cello concerti are probably the finest of these. It is mainly in the slow movements of the three concerti recorded here by Guy Fishman and his colleagues in the Boston-based Handel and Haydn Society that we find CPE at his most eloquent and profound. Frequent quixotic changes of mood and moments of inspired originality animate the opening movements and also the often sparklingly virtuosic finales. Playing one to a part, the ‘orchestral’ musicians can react quickly and unanimously to the soloist, and these performances are characterised by fleetness of foot and animated interaction between soloist and ensemble. Composed while Bach was employed at the court of Frederick the Great, he clearly had access to some of the finest musicians of the age, and while his duties at court seem to have been underappreciated, with his music sounding rather too musically daring for the conservative Frederick, it did at least leave the composer lots of time to produce a string of masterpieces. The programme comprises the concerti in A major Wq. 172, in A minor Wq. 170 and in B flat major Wq. 171, all beautifully played and for which Fishman invents his own cadenzas as Bach’s cellist would undoubtedly have done – Bach’s own cadenzas, which do survive, were composed for transcriptions of the works for solo harpsichord and chamber ensemble and so are keyboard-specific. Listening to the magnificent B flat concerto with which the CD culminates, it is astonishing to realize how far music has traveled in just one generation.

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

Bonporti: Sonatas op. 2

Floral design

Labirinti Armonici
58:01
Brilliant Classics 95718

The first nine of the ten trio sonatas that make up Francesco Antonio Bonporti’s op. 2 consist of four dance-based movements, while the final sonata is a Ciaccona in G. Superficially they resemble Corelli’s sonate da camera, but there is a greater degree of contrapuntal complexity (the imitations come thicker and faster, for example) and Bonporti has a wider harmonic palette. Labirinti Armonici opt to perform the sonatas out of order; that of the printed set forms no pattern, so this seems sensible. The playing is generally of a high order – there is an occasional lack of ensemble in some of the quick triplet passages, but the overall effect is of a highly professional group at home with the repertoire. So little of Bonporti’s works have been recorded to the highest standards; let us hope this is a start of a revival!

Brian Clark

Categories
Recording

Corelli: Violin Sonatas op. 5

Floral design

Rémy Baudet violin, Jaap ter Linden cello, Mike Fentross theorbo & guitar, Pieter-Jan Belder harpsichord
119:53 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
Brilliant Classics 95597

As I have written in these pages so many times in the past, recordings of such important repertoire really need to have something new to say about the music as well as the performers; oftentimes, this results in some hot-shot young fiddler taking the 12 sonatas by the scruff of the neck and decorating the living daylights out of them – the overall effect, of course, is that Corelli is lost in a whirlwind of notes and artificial conceits ranging from subito pianissimo to triple fortissimo just for sheer dramatic effect.

Quite to the contrary, this set (which features two “blasts from the past” in ter Linden and Fentross, a relative newcomer in Belder and – I am ashamed to say! – an unknown violinist in Rémy Baudet) is Corelli as the composer would probably have played it! Baudet has for many years led both modern and period ensembles across Europe as well as playing with the Quartetto Italiano and writing a book about developments in violin technique from 1770-1870. He is also quite the violinist, more than capable of shaping Corelli’s most complex part-writing, weaving the delicate filigree of the ornamentation of the slow movements, and actually dancing the dances. He is, of course, in splendid company, and the whole enterprise is beautifully captured by Brilliant’s engineers.

If – for some strange reason – you don’t already have a set of these pieces, buy this one. Even if you have, buy this one – at Brilliant’s amazingly low prices, this will be something against which to measure your favourite!

Brian Clark

Categories
Uncategorized

The Alehouse Sessions

Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike
50:42
Rubicon RCD1017

Before I review this CD I have to declare an interest – some of you will have read my ecstatic EMR review from the St Magnus Festival in June of a series of appearances by the Barokksolistene (still available on the EMR website) in which I tried to capture the mixture of amazement and pleasure that I experienced at their live shows. Although it is impossible, I shall have to try to set my experience as an audience member to one side as I review this CD of one of the actual programmes I attended back in June. So how does this recording hold up as a heard experience without all the intriguing stage business, the charismatic presence of Bjarte Eike and the witty and profound theatrical dimension? Is it, as sometimes happens, a case of ‘you had to be there’? Well no. The superb technical prowess of these remarkable musicians, their uncanny sense of ensemble, their unparalleled familiarity with the material all shine through I think in this CD. Some of the eccentricities of presentation which at the live performance we rather took on trust, sound a little more outrageous on CD – Thomas Guthrie’s idiosyncratic vocal style perhaps needs his beguiling physical presence to be entirely convincing, while I was much more aware of the heavy level of arrangement of the source material which had clearly gone on. In some of the music, this involves updating the harmonies in an unsettlingly modern cabaret style, while the edges of the instrumental authenticity are a little blurred by the use of a mixture of Baroque and essentially modern instruments. Some of the musicians unashamedly bring their jazz roots with them onstage, but for me the type of music they are performing lends itself brilliantly to that sort of spontaneous improvisatory approach. At its best, this CD is wonderfully energetic and idiomatic, and even at its most eccentric it is never remotely unmusical or dishonest to its source material. Perhaps most impressive is the way in which the CD, like the show, captures the ambience of a bunch of young men ‘on the lash’ using musical performance to show off to one another, to challenge one another and ultimately to impress us with their innate musicality and technical assurance. Maybe it is after all impossible for me to divorce listening to this CD from the experience of the live Barokksolistene, and maybe the CD will mainly sell as an after-concert souvenir, but actually I would recommend that you buy the CD and then seriously try to catch the group live. You won’t regret either!

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

Birds

Modern floral

Elina Mustonen harpsichord
68:19
fuga-9447
Byrd, F. Couperin, Rameau + modern composers

As a lover of birds and the harpsichord, this CD could have been fashioned specially for me! Throughout history composers have admired and imitated the songs of birds, and this CD by harpsichordist Elina Mustonen explores the relationship in the keyboard music of the 17th, 18th and 21st centuries. The CD opens with the stunning sounds of nightingale song before Mustonen embarks on the Quatorzième Ordre from Couperin’s Troisième Livre de Clavecin of 1722, in which the composer evokes the songs of various birds, most prominently arguably the most distinguished of avian vocalists, the nightingale. After the Couperin, we are taken through a group of modern pieces for harpsichord by Peter Machajdík and Oli Mustonen with bird connections before the programme concludes with some slightly tangential Byrd and some much more on-message Rameau. Elina Mustonen entitles her programme notes A Bird Fancyer’s Delight and it is perhaps a pity that she didn’t arrange some of the melodies from that famous 17th-century English publication rather than shoe-horn in the Byrd (what’s in a name?) and the modern works, which are a bit of a culture shock. The sound of Mustonen’s 1993 Kroesbergen Couchet copy harpsichord is superbly rich and vividly captured by her sound engineers. All in all, I felt that this programme was an intriguing idea, best at its beginning and end, seeming slightly to lose its way in the middle, although the quality of the music and the playing are never less than excellent.

D. James Ross