Author: EMR2015

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I put a spell on you

I put a spell on you cover

Body & Soul Consort
47:41
E-Label: bellesecouteuses.com

Well… I approached this CD with an open mind, and if I could have selected my favourite bits I would have been writing quite a positive review of about ten minutes of music. This would have consisted of some lovely singing of 17th-century material by Ellen Giacone, accompanied by archlute, cornet and gamba. Unfortunately, this was not possible as, in addition to being interspersed by 1940s and 50s numbers, the early material had a habit of being invaded by drumkit and bass guitar, as if they had been waiting for centuries for this treatment. While the ‘early’ material is relatively inoffensive, the later material does not really lend itself to performance on a mixture of early and modern instruments, while the crossover treatment is often just silly. I usually complete the headings of my reviews after I have written the review itself, and it is quite some time since I have noted with relief the brevity of a CD. I can’t imagine who will want to buy this curious CD, but if 17th–/20th-century fusion is your thing, knock yourself out.

D. James Ross

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Vivaldi: Entre Ombre et Lumière

CD cover Vivaldi entre ombre et lumière Ensemble Baroque de Toulouse

Caroline Champy Tursun mezzo-soprano, Ensemble Baroque de Toulouse, Michel Brun
61:02

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This CD features Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater RV 621, sung by mezzo-soprano Caroline Champy Tursun, who also supplies a selection of arias from Bajazet, Giustino, Farnace and Orlando furioso, while the ensemble’s director appears as flute soloist in the flute Concerto Il Gardellino and the strings contribute the Sinfonia al Santo Sepolcro Rv 169. Recorded using a system called ECA in the Chapelle Notre-Dame-d’Alet, the performance is extraordinarily vivid – to my ear, unsettlingly so! As most of the orchestral playing is one-to-a-part and the default approach is distinctly ‘choppy’, I found the occasional legato sections, as in the slow movement of the flute concerto, a blessed relief, while much of Tursun’s singing was also pleasantly musical. The presentation of the package is distinctly odd – I still haven’t found a record label or a number, so have stated the group’s website in its place, although that doesn’t appear to be on the package either. The single CD is attached to the bottom of a box, which accommodates a huge folded sheet of programme notes, like a motoring map and for all its size only in French. Of course, this eccentric presentation need not put anyone off purchasing this CD, except that it is a reflection of the eccentricity of the performance, which seemed to go out of its way to distort Vivaldi’s music in a variety of ways. I have mentioned the persistent choppiness, and in the Sinfonia Al Santo Sepolcro a rather arch approach to the legato texture made this piece sound equally eccentric. Poor Vivaldi seems particularly open to ‘interpretation’, to the extent that it is quite unusual to hear his music given a good straightforward performance. It is probably true that Vivaldi is played too much, but rather than finding some new spurious approach to his music, why not turn to his less frequently played contemporaries? The present forces could easily have presented fine performances of these pieces, but seemed too intent upon being quirky.

D. James Ross

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Sopra La Spagna

La Spagna, Alejandro Marías
74:42
Lukos records 5451CRE201665

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This celebration of the tune la spagna and its role throughout the history of music, opens paradoxically with a work which is not part of this tradition. The lament Triste España by Juan del Encina was composed to mark the death of Don Juan, the son of Ferdinand and Isabella, and I can’t hear it without recalling the searingly minimalist 1970s performance by Musica Reservata and the unrelenting voice of Jantina Noorman. In their instrumental rendition here, La Spagna manage a similar level of bleak integrity, appropriate perhaps for a project delayed by a global pandemic. What follows is a tour of la spagna-inspired music from throughout Europe, including a some newly conceived improvisations. There is some degree of variety amongst the historical la spagna settings, and the threat of turgidity is avoided, if occasionally only just. There is a certain degree of uniformity in the all-string rendition of much of this repertoire – perhaps a recorder might have lent a little textural variety? – but these are intense performances with integrity and considerable commitment. Particular highlights for me were the introduction of castanets into one of the modern improvisations, as well as the dynamic account of Tobias Hume’s Spanish Humor and the delightfully varied performance of Marin Marais’ Folies d’Espagne with which the programme concludes.

D. James Ross

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Locatelli: Sei Concerti a Quattro op. 7

CD cover Natale Arnoldi directs Locatelli Sei Concerti a Quattro op 7

Ensemble Baroque “Carlo Antonio Marino”, Natale Arnoldi
79:52
Tactus TC 691203

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By the time Locatelli published his opus 7 set of Concerti a Quatro in 1741 he was an established musician of European status living in Amsterdam, but having travelled widely throughout the continent. What is perhaps most striking is that although now of mature years, the composer was still experimenting with style and form, combining the rigours of counterpoint with the more gentle aspects of the galant style. The resulting compositions have a delightful freshness, which both look back at the music of the first half of the 18th century, but also anticipate mid-century developments which would come into fruition with the Mannheim school. The ensemble match the freshness of Locatelli’s compositions with a lovely spontaneity of performance, and some engaging incidental ornamentation. Hearing these vibrant accounts, it is surprising that Locatelli’s opus 7 concertos weren’t more successful as a publication. Perhaps the composer had left it too long since his previous publication, and the modest number of six pieces may also have put people off. It is surprising though that Locatelli’s public seemed unable to appreciate how these pieces simultaneously acknowledged the past and pointed to the future.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Gesualdo: 6th book of madrigals

Digital download album Gesualdo 6th book of madrigals La legende noire

La légende noire, La Guilde des Mercenaires, Adrien Mabire
65:56

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These performances of madrigals from Gesualdo’s extraordinary final publication, Book VI, a work of stunningly daring harmonic progressions and musical non sequiturs, are themselves revelatory. La Guilde des Mercenaires under the direction of Adrien Mabire are attempting something revolutionary, performances of Gesualdo with wind instruments. The programme note asks why performances of Monteverdi are regularly presented with instruments, while Gesualdo is almost invariably presented a capella. The answer seems obvious – that while Gesualdo’s highly chromatic idiom is tricky for singers, it is perhaps even more tricky for early wind instruments. These performances seem to belie these difficulties, as the wind instruments, occasionally playing on their own, never sound less than comfortable. Whether this is due to the technical proficiency of the players, or whether after all Gesualdo’s writing is more about unexpected progressions and juxtapositions rather than sheer chromaticism, and therefore possibly easier for wind players than singers, the overall effect is very convincing. Part of the ongoing questioning of the myth of a capella performance, it is encouraging to see younger players challenging the old dogmas of HIP performance and exploring alternatives. The wind component of these performances is a real revelation – the vocal contribution is also pretty impressive, and when voices and instruments combine we get a genuine flavour of a whole new dimension of Gesualdo’s music. I still remember the effect of first hearing Byrd’s Great Service with wind and before that, performances of Dufay Masses with voices and wind, and I can’t help feeling that this recording is a similar moment of transformation.

D. James Ross

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Sabine Devieihle: Bach · Handel

CD cover Sabine Devieihle sings Bach and Handel

Sabine Devieihle: Bach · Handel
Pygmalion, Raphael Pichon
83:37
Earto 1 90296 67786 1

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The stated aim of this CD is ‘to portray affliction and repentance as well as joy and desire through the works, sacred and profane,’ of Bach and Handel. This catch-all mission statement has the ring of something made up to try to cover an eclectic range of performances, and indeed that proves to be what we are presented with. However, the sweet-voiced Sabine Devielhe sings so expressively and exquisitely while the forces of Pygmalion make such a wonderfully effective contribution that it almost doesn’t matter that the thematic links may be a little tenuous. The programme provides beautiful performances of Bach’s cantatas BWV 51 and 199, as well as the Sinfonia from BWC 199 and the sacred song Mein Jesu was vor Seelenweh BWV 487. Perhaps the odd part of the programme is that where a further couple of Bach cantatas and sacred songs could have provided the balance, the performers turn instead to the oratorios and operas of Handel. We have two arias from the Brockes Passion, interspersed with two arias from Giulio Cesare, rounded off with the final aria from Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. Interestingly, the Brockes Passion finds Handel at his most Bachian, and the direct comparison that this juxtaposition invites is instructive. The impressive Devieilhe proves equally effective as a singer of Baroque opera, while her account of the concluding recit and aria from Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno is simply spellbinding. The concluding showpiece, BWV 51 Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, in which Devieilhe duets dramatically with Pygmalion’s trumpeter, Hannes Rux, is a suitably showy conclusion to this enjoyable and impressive CD. Raphael Pichon, who can on occasion be a bit of a showman, demonstrates here that he can direct with subtlety and refinement, allowing this powerful music to speak very much for itself.

D. James Ross

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Salve Regina

CD cover Clint van der Linde Les Muffatti Hasse Porpora Vivaldi

Motets by Hasse and Porpora
Clint van der Linde, Les Muffatti
69:07
Ramée RAM 2012

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Loosely based around a ‘grand tour’, undertaken and recorded in a diary between 1713 and 1715 by one Corneille-Jean-Marie van den Branden, an aristocratic Netherlander, this collection of Neapolitan and Venetian music is of particular value for including first recordings of motets by Hasse and Porpora. Porpora’s Nisi Dominus is indeed housed in a collection in the archiepiscopal archives in Mechelen that has been linked to van Branden, having been presented by him to cathedral there. Scored for solo alto and strings, it must therefore be an early work. There are five movements, the second of which, ‘Vanum est vobis’ has an elaborate violin solo, while ‘Gloria patri’ springs a surprise by unexpectedly changing metre to triple time to carry the motet to a brightly exuberant peroration.

Of greater interest is the other first recording, a setting by Hasse of highly dramatic verses, Hostes averni (‘Foes roaring with infernal rage’), again set for solo alto and strings. The extensive opening aria reflects the text, a surging, driving movement with bravura writing for the singer underpinned by fierce scalic passage work for the orchestra. An intense accompagnato follows, this quasi-operatic motet concluding with a totally contrasted aria (‘Blanda in prata’) typical of the mellifluous sweetness that earned Hasse the soubriquet ‘il divino Sassone‘ in Italy. In addition to the premieres, Porpora is at his most beguiling in a Salve Regina (the opening is pure ecstatic balm), while Hasse’s Alma Redemptoris Mater attempts successfully in its ability to seduce the senses. Finally, to return to the Branden connection, there are two of Vivaldi’s brief string concertos, RV 154 in G minor and RV 136 in F. The traveller records being taken by Vivaldi to a concert at the Pietà.

The programme, then, is an interesting one, the performances regrettably less so. Clint van der Linde is a South African countertenor whose tone is generally pleasing, though upper notes have a tendency to be a bit hooty and intonation is not always completely secure. Where however he is ill-equipped for these works is the lack of technique to do full justice to works composed for virtuoso castrati. While passaggi are capably sung and cantabile lines nicely sustained, ornaments in general are poorly articulated and there is no trill, an absolutely essential piece of technical equipment in this music if it is to make its full effect. Perhaps most damagingly of all, van der Linde’s diction is so poor as to at times give the impression that he is singing vocalises. This lack of projection and clarity is critical in music that oozes the fervour and theatricality of the counter-Reformation from every pore. The neatly turned orchestral playing both in accompanying the motets and in the concertos is of a high standard, but in serious need of a shot of Mediterranean brilliance and colour. It reminds me of what we thought of as stylish Baroque playing before the best Italian groups wrested back their repertoire from northern Europeans.

In sum, if you mainly enjoy your music as background or in car the disc will make for a pleasing experience; if you look for something that probes more deeply then it may not be for you. But van den Branden’s travel diaries sound fascinating, a kind of Dutch Burney avant la lettre.

Brian Robins

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The Myth of Venice

CD cover The Myth of Venice Gawain Glenton Silas Wollston

16th-century music for cornetto & keyboards
Gawain Glenton, Silas Wollston
61:50
Delphian DCD34261

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The opening two pieces of this disc announce one of the primary tensions between musical schools of this era. The foremost theorists at the time were typically the organists, drawn to music’s formalities, whereas the soloists were wont to indulge their flights of fancy, with more attention to drama and personality. Andrea Gabrieli, one of the first organists at St Mark’s, provides the introduction: his formally structured ricercar, whose second voice, here on cornett, enters en point, continuing to pirouette lightly, using all the stage space available. Meanwhile, the formal organ continues to provide a tactus to set your watch to, in and out of the changes in mensuration. After this little delight, we turn to the founding father of the Venetian tradition, Adrian Willaert, whose beautiful arrangement of the chanson Jouissance de donneray, has to fight its way out of a briar of notes provided by Dalla Casa, perhaps the most self-indulgent of all cornettists at the time. These lines delineated, we proceed to an exploration of what lies between. We enjoy Glenton’s diminutions on Willaert’s A la Fontaine, using Ganassi’s thesis La fontegara, which add his sense of asymmetry, and hence freedom beyond his contemporaries. The effects of timbres are explored imaginatively. Between the dense and gently tremulous metal trebles of organ pipework, steals a mute cornett in Parabosco’s ricercar – offering a discreet and steady hand – da Pace. Diruta’s ricercar has a beautiful simplicity and grace, provided by a broad-sounding mute cornett and organo di legno. The organ playing throughout is marvellously seamless, with the most sparing and judicious lingerings and details of articulation that make the extended toccatas particularly engaging. The disc finishes with a selection of pieces instrumentally conceived from the off, and so into which the divisions slot comfortably – including a couple of premieres by Gorzanis. I am now looking forward to more discs from these players.

Stephen Cassidy

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Recording

In the Garden of Polyphony

CD cover Israel Golani In the Garden of Polyphony

French Renaissance Music for Lute and Guitar
Israel Golani (Renaissance lute and Renaissance guitar)
68:00
Solaire Records SOL 1010

Israel Golani’s CD is an anthology of French music from the 16th century for lute and for guitar. His gut-strung 6-course lute built by Martin Shepherd has a lovely sound quality, particularly in the treble; as was customary for 6-course lutes it has a high octave string on the fourth course. Golani also plays a similar lute built by Alfonso Marin, which sounds a semitone lower, and has no high octave string on the fourth course – fewer treble notes, but clearer for polyphony. The guitar pieces are played on a 4-course renaissance guitar also built by Alfonso Marin.

Golani begins with Albert de Rippe’s intabulation of Pierre Sandrin’s “Pleurez mes yeux”. De Rippe tracks Sandrin’s chanson closely, but with the addition of flowing divisions, mainly quavers. Golani’s playing is clear with nicely shaped melodic lines. I do like the way he plays cadential semiquavers in this piece – neat, in time, and without interrupting the flow. Some of De Rippe’s accidentals are surprising. The piece is essentially in F major, but De Rippe adds sharps to the f’s in the second bar; they would not have been sung in Sandrin’s original, but they are effective on the lute. Surprising harmonies also appear in De Rippe’s lengthy Fantasie quatriesme. His intabulation of “Un jour le temps” is given an unhurried, sensitive interpretation.

Golani includes pieces from the first two books of lute tablature to be printed in France: Pierre Attaingnant’s Tres breve et familiere introduction (Paris, 1529) and Dixhuit basses dances (Paris, 1530). Track 7 is an intabulation of the tender chanson for three-voices, “Fortune laisse moy”. It is a lovely piece of music played well, so it is a pity there is a wrong note – 18 notes from the end – where Golani plays f’ instead of b’ flat. The note is b’ flat in Attaingnant’s original and in Daniel Heartz’ edition, so I guess Golani made his own copy, and accidentally wrote tablature d on the wrong line. The Branle gay “C’est mon amy” whizzes along at a gay speed. Basse dance “Beure frais” lacks its Tourdion, which would have added a refreshing change from C minor to C major. Golani opts for a nice slow tempo for a gentle “Dolent départ”, but succumbs to adding erratic touches of rubato. Playing out of time does not necessarily make a piece more expressive. As with the music of Albert De Rippe, there are some surprising accidentals, including a false relation involving e’ natural and e flat. It might have lost a mark in an ‘O’ Level exam, but such clashes add a certain expressive piquancy, especially when played on a lute. For “Amy souffrez” Golani turns to a manuscript source, Öffentliche Bibliothek der Universität Basel Musiksammlung, Ms. F IX 56, which has more divisions and unexpected accidentals than Attaingnant’s more familiar printed source.

One of the pieces published in Louvain by Pierre Phalèse is Allemande (track 4), which also appears in various guises in non-French sources, including the Willoughby MS, where it has the title “Grenes Alman”. The Willoughby divisions are twice the speed of Phalèse’s fast notes, which makes me wonder if Golani’s interpretation is a bit on the fast side. At any event I would have preferred the rallentando to occur after (not during) the divisions over the dominant of the final cadence.

The 4-course guitar was popular in 16th-century France. Nine different collections were printed in the 1550s, and another printed in 1570 survives. Golani plays six pieces from these guitar books together with his own intabulation of the basse dance “Auprès de vous” from Attaingnant’s Second Livre (1547). The texture is inevitably thin, and all four voices cannot be sustained. However, it is a nice arrangement, and Golani captures the essence of the piece in a tasteful way.

There is much variety in Golani’s collection, which includes lute music by Adrian Le Roy, Guillaume Morlaye, Jean-Paul Paladin, and Julien Bellin. It ranges from Morlaye’s catchy little Gaillarde with a plethora of bluesy flattened sevenths, to Bellin’s strict three-part counterpoint in his Trio. Golandi plays the Trio twice, the second time with his own divisions added. I like what he does – sometimes the extra notes simply fill gaps between notes a third apart, but other times he is more adventurous, for example with some nice jazzy syncopation introduced towards the end. The CD ends where it began, with an intabulation of Sandrin’s “Pleurez mes yeux”, this time in a setting by Guillaume Morlaye for 4-course guitar. Never mind that harmless wrong note in Track 7 mentioned earlier. Golani’s performance is really excellent, and makes for a most enjoyable CD.

Stewart McCoy

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Recording

Rameau: Grands Motets

CD cover Rameau Grands Motets Jarry

Choeur & Orchestre Marguerite Louise, Gaétan Jarry
77:43
Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS 5052

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Such is Rameau’s renown as an opera composer that today we have a forgivable tendency to forget that the long period of his creative life before the sensational appearance in 1733 of Hippolyte et Aricie was devoted near exclusively to sacred music. As Gaétan Jarry notes in a long and helpful note, Rameau was organist of ‘at least a dozen churches’, though his observation that not a single organ work of Rameau’s has come down to us can almost certainly be explained in one word: extemporisation. Such was its importance as a fundamental of French organ technique that unless someone was on hand to transcribe it such improvisation belonged near exclusively to the moment.  

Unlike Lully and Delalande, Rameau’s output of the major sacred form of the Baroque in France, the grand motet, is small, just four examples considered to be authentic being extant (a fifth, Diligam te has been dismissed from the canon). All four are included on the present disc for the first time. Of these Laboravi clamans, a setting of verse 3 of Psalm 69, is a tiny work (just 73 bars) of uninterrupted counterpoint, its long melismatic lines reflecting its opening line, ‘I am weary of my crying’. The other three motets are on a considerably larger scale, alternating contrasted solo and solo ensemble verses with those for full chorus. Each has its own distinctive character. Quam dilecta tabernacula (‘O how amiable are thy dwellings’, a setting of Psalm 84 (83)), for example, opens with tranquil, luminescent flutes and a soprano solo, sung with vernal freshness by the excellent Maïlys de Villoutreys. It’s a mood broadly sustained throughout the work, a brief excursion for a joyous triple-time contrapuntal chorus at the words, ‘My heart and my flesh rejoice…’ being an exception. In convertendo (‘They that put their trust in the Lord’, Psalm 125 (126) on the other hand has a text that juxtaposes the pain of captivity in Babylon with joy at the prospect of release. In keeping with such ambiguity, it contrasts the exuberant joy of ‘Magnificavit Dominus’ a florid duet for soprano and bass (Villoutreys again superb with the fine bass David Witczak), with, for example, the final movements, a madrigalian solo trio, ‘Qui seminant’ (They that sow in tears) followed by a magnificent chorus that opens with astounding chromatic harmony, a passage as great as anything in the choral works of Handel or Bach. The final and longest motet, Deus noster refugium (God is our refuge, Psalm 46 (45)) has a text filled with vivid imagery that was a gift to a man shortly to become one of the great dramatic composers of the age. One notes among many examples the shuddering strings at ‘the earth is moved’ and the thrilling, surging impetus of the choral writing at ‘The waters roared out …’

As already intimated the performances are outstanding, with the chorus aided by the acoustic of the Chapelle Royale in Versailles achieving a wonderful breadth and depth. All six soloists are first-rate, with special plaudits once again going to haute-contre Mathias Vidal. Jarry’s outstanding ensemble can today be considered among the best of the Baroque ensembles in a country more richly endowed with them than any other.

Brian Robins