Author: EMR2015

London Early Opera, Bridget Cunningham
48:18
Signum Classics SIGCD428

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]n enjoyable and well-thought-out idea for a disc, though despite the sleeve’s capital letters, the most interesting (i. e. unusual) music is by Thomas Arne and John Hebden – a charming and quintessentially English pastoral duet by the former, and an equally charming and tuneful string concerto by the latter, (with a foot-tapping triple-time conclusion.) It is also good to hear two of Handel’s rarely-performed English songs, The Advice  and The Melancholy Nymph, especially when as well and gracefully performed as here, by Sophie Bevan and Charles MacDougall, respectively.

The lion’s share of the recital is devoted to Handel – the merry sinfonia from Acis and Galatea  is an appropriately pastoral opening to our evening under the trees, with a cleverly improvised organ link from its interrupted cadence to the Organ Concerto op. 4 no. 2, deliciously played by Daniel Moult and springily accompanied by London Early Opera’s fine band, under the expert baton of Bridget Cunningham. Kirsty Hopkins is a suitably lovelorn Galatea, next, with a bird-call supplying warbling gilt to Handel’s orchestral lily. Following the Arne pastoral mentioned above, is the solemn and sublime Dead March from Saul (which is definitely known to have been performed regularly at the Gardens), then, after the two Handel continuo songs, the Hebden concerto. Our evening’s recital is (somewhat meagrely, at 48:18) concluded by the lovely ‘As steals the morn’ duet from L’Allegro, engagingly sung by Eleanor Dennis and Greg Tassel, who shone previously in the Arne Pastoral.

In some ways the real highlight of this issue is David Coke’s extended and scholarly history of the Gardens themselves, putting the music into its remarkable social context, worlds away from Handel’s usual opera house and church surroundings. I look forward to hearing more from this interesting project.

Alastair Harper

We received a second review of this recording, this one even more favourable (the stars show the average of the two reviewer’s ratings):

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is the first of two CDs, with the second to follow fairly soon. The repertoire comes mostly from Handel, plus one Arne piece (Colin and Phoebe  for STB) which sounds a bit hefty for a pastoral and the first of John Hebden’s only set of string concertos, which is well worth hearing.

The booklet (36 pages full of information, all in English) gives a thorough account of the musical aspect of Vauxhall. It began as The New Spring Gardens around 1660; the addition of music appeared through Jonathan Tyers, who took over the Gardens around 1730 and was very involved in the music until his death in 1767. The music organisation was primarily through Handel and Arne: perhaps a third volume could be Arne at Vauxhall. On the whole, the music is easy-going, but Handel knew well how to balance it. One item seemed odd – ‘The Dead March’ from Saul. The oratorio was first performed on 16 January 1739 and appeared in the Vauxhall Gardens four months later, and was regularly played. I wonder when it was first performed at a funeral. The list of players does not specify large kettle drums, but I was surprised by the variety of sounds, which seem odd to me. I was disappointed by “As steals the morn”: parts I & II have L’Allegro and Il Penseroso in alternation, but part 3 is entirely Il Moderato – a bit of a cheek from Jennens, whose literary skill is way below Milton, but there is some mitigation in elements of Act V of The Tempest. In most respects, this is an excellent programme – short, but I prefer that to running on for too long! The singers and players are fine, though I’d favour the violins as either one or three for the first and second groups. As a whole, the items are suitably varied, and the music is mixed between the familiar and the less so.

Clifford Bartlett

Trevor Pinnock, Marieke Spaans, Marcus Mohlin harpsichords, Katy Bircher flute, Manfredo Kraemer violin, Concerto Copenhagen, Lars Ulrik Mortensen harpsichord/director
106:20 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
cpo 777 681-2
BWV 1044, 1060–65

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his 2-CD set completes the recordings by Concerto Copenhagen and Lars Ulrik Mortensen of the Bach Concerti, where Mortensen is partnered by Trevor Pinnock in the two harpsichord concerti, and by others in the three and four harpsichord ones. The triple concerto for flute, violin and harpsichord makes up the set.

No-one who has heard the other volumes or the recently released violin concerti by Concerto Copenhagen will want to miss these. This group plays stylishly, rhythmically and with a sense of delight in the intricate filigree music that these multiple instrument recordings offer. This suits the impish joie de vivre that Trevor Pinnock, having relinquished his long and creative association with the English Concert, brings to his music-making these days, and he makes a splendid partner to Mortensen. It was a young Mortensen whom Pinnock got to join them in the English Concert’s 1981 recording of the three and four harpsichord concerti, so here, thirty years on, we have a return match.

The booklet, though slender, is full of useful information – just who is playing in which concerti, and which are done one-to-a-part – the C minor version of the double violin concerto BWV 1062 being one; who made the harpsichords, and what instruments they are based on – those played by Pinock and Mortensen are copies by John Phillips of a 1722 Dresden Johann Heinrich Gräbner, together with the pitch and ‘an unequal temperament’. It sets out the complexities of dating the concerti, and recognises the critical questions around the different scorings – or supposed scorings in the case of the putative oboe d’amore concerto – of which versions are provided in the NBA volumes that contain the versions for harpsichord. It used to be thought that all these concerti dated from Bach’s time at Köthen between 1717 and 1723. More recent analysis and dating of sets of surviving MSS parts make it seem more likely that, as with the parodied birthday cantatas of the Köthen period, much of the instrumental music was reused later, probably when Bach became leader of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum in the 1730s. Were the instrumental parts that accompany the C major BWV 1061 – and a version exists without any strings at all – added by Bach or someone else, for example?

Whatever the complexities, these performances – recorded in 2011 and 2013 in the bell-like acoustics of the Garnison church in Copenhagen – are excellent, to my mind the only other group offering performances of a comparable standard at the moment being John Butt’s Dunedin Consort.

It is good to have the triple concerto, an expanded version of the Prelude and Fugue in A minor for harpsichord BWV 892, as part of the set. The playing here is of the same exemplary standard – crisp rhythms, crystal-clear strings and sensitive balance. Katy Bircher and Manfredo Kraemer are faultless, and provide a matching tone to this work, which has so many echoes of Brandenburg 5, with their fluent passagework and only occasional predominance of the violin, which makes me think that the engineers haven’t messed about with the balance too much. The slow movement in particular with just the three solo instruments illustrates a wonderful relaxed and generous rhythmic interplay. This is chamber music at its very best.

David Stancliffe

[ED: David awarded SIX stars for performance and recorded sound!]

Johane Ansell soprano, Jason Nedecky baritone, Aradia Ensemble, Kevin Mallon
63:01
Naxos 8.573280
The Married Beau, The Old Bachelor, Sir Anthony Love, The Spanish Friar, Aureng-Zebe

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hree years after it was recorded and eight years after the release of Volume 1 comes another Purcell anthology from Naxos. At this rate a complete survey will take almost fifty years! Much as Hogwood’s pioneering exploration of this music reflected both his and the time’s preference for near non-interpretation, this recording is rather more gutsy in its approach as is the trend now, and this will appeal to many. But I’m not sure that other aspects of the performance practice have quite the same allure, for me at least. The size of the string band at 3311 (no 16’, mercifully) is within the range of possibilities for theatre bands at the time but I’m less convinced by the churchy bloom to the sound. And I’m not remotely convinced by the frequent addition of assorted percussion bangs and tinkles and the assigning of various passages to solo woodwind (especially 4’ pitch recorder). Perhaps there is something to be said for ‘non-interpretation’ after all. I did , however, enjoy Johane Ansell’s (and no, she’s not a relative of mine with an alternative spelling) soprano contributions though again the addition of a cello to the keyboard accompaniment felt not quite right in HIP terms. So very much a curate’s egg, though more Purcell is never a bad idea. The essay (Eng/Ger) does well to cover the music’s context in less than two pages and the texts of the songs are also included in the booklet, but not translated.

David Hansell

Capella Savaria, Zsolt Kalló
88:01
Hungaroton HCD32706-07

[dropcap]M[/dropcap]uch as I enjoyed the version of the Brandeburgs I reviewed last month, I must confess that this new set from Capella Savaria has outshone it.
Just out of interest, I started with the third concerto and, just as I had expected from this group, the “slow movement” grows organically out of the final cadence of the preceding one, courtesy of an improvisation from leader, Zsolt Kalló. No harpsichord imposters here!

Elsewhere things are much as one would expect, which is not to say that there are not occasional moments that caused a raised eyebrow or two; the raucous horns in the Menuetto of Concerto 1, the slower (and gradually settled into…) tempo of the following trio and the fluid tempo changes of the ensuing Polonaise all fall into that category. Yet they eyebrows quickly gave way to smiles as one realised just how comfortable they must all be with one another to accommodate such seemingly idiosyncratic ideas without allowing them to disrupt the flow or feel somehow imposed on Bach’s music.

I repeatedly write in these pages that one should always have something fresh to say if one plans to re-record something that is already available in dozens of other versions; Capella Savaria will not shock, but they will make you feel like you are hearing these pieces for the first time, which is no mean feat.

Brian Clark