Author: EMR2015

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Bruhns: Cantatas and Organ Works, Vol. 1

CD cover Bruhns Cantatas and Organ Works Yale Suzuki

Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Masaaki Suzuki
86:14
BIS 2271 SACD

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The prospect of all Bruhns’ surviving cantatas and organ works being recorded – and by such a good team – is very welcome. An additional bonus is that the recordings – or this first one at any rate – are made in the Marquand Chapel at Yale using the substantial Taylor and Boody organ there, built in 2007 and pitched at A=465Hz at a ¼ comma meantone tuning. This produces some delicious sounds, especially in the richly registered fantasia on Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland. It is a pity that we are not given the registrations – or have I missed a link to a website?

Suzuki’s team at Yale, where he was on the faculty from 2009 to 2013, includes an outstanding bass-baritone, capable of a wide range in De profundis, Paul Max Tipton. He is joined by two experienced tenors, Dann Coakwell and James Taylor, professor of voice at Yale: they are experienced in a wide range of music but  – and I nearly wrote ‘therefore’ – do not have quite the same vocal purity and period style as Tipton. Nonetheless, together with one-to-a-part strings, two violins, two violas, two gambas and a continuo group of ‘cello, dulzian, theorbo and organ, the ensemble is excellent, and the clarity combined with the bloom of the YDS chapel’s acoustic gives a sheen as well as blend to this welcome CD.

Nicolaus Bruhns died young: he was 31. He had been a pupil of Buxtehude, and then was sent to Copenhagen, where he came into contact with Italian music and made a reputation as a virtuoso on the violin. He was famously able, according to Mattheson, to perform double-stopping on the violin while playing the bass line on the pedal organ. The solo cantata for bass, Mein Herz ist bereit, exhibits some of this remarkable violin writing, with double stopping suggesting more than the single violin that is scored.

While there are no discernable influences on Bach, his style – bridging the small-scale works of Schütz to the cantatas of the AlteBach-Archiv – marries the Italian concerto with the German choral tradition. These recordings were made in 2016-7, and there is a good liner note on the music by Markus Rathey.

I welcome this recording – over 80 minutes long! – and hope that the second volume appears soon. The more we understand the music of Germany in the final third of the 17th century and learn to appreciate its texture, the better we shall appreciate Bach; and the more likely we will be to make good decisions about performance practice.

David Stancliffe

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Virtuosi

CD cover Virtuosi Bach Johann Ernst

J. S. Bach | Prinz J. E. v. Sachsen-Weimar
Thüringer Bach Collegium
66:54
audite 97.790

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The Thüringer Bach Collegium, an ensemble of two violins, viola, violoncello and contrabass, with cembalo and lute, are directed by the veteran violinist Gernot Süßmuth. They play the concerto for three solo violins in D (BWV 1064); for organ in D minor by Johann Gottfried Walther on a theme from Torelli; for oboe and violin in C minor (BWV 598); for organ in C (BWV 595) a fragment from Prince Johann Ernst; a concerto in B flat for violin (arranged by Prince Johann Ernst from BWV 983 and reconstructed by Gernot Süßmuth); a concerto for organ in G after Prince Johann Ernst (BWV 592); and finally the double violin concerto in D minor (BWV 1043).

The Italian concerto had found its way into the princely courts of Germany by the end of the 17th century, and its arrival in the court of Wilhelm Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Weimar is well-documented thanks to his musical nephew’s – Prince Johann Ernst’s – return from his grand tour which included bringing the latest Vivaldi scores from Amsterdam.

This recording traces Bach’s making the Italian concerto his own, adapting the originals for a variety of instrumentation that seem to have been encouraged by the young Prince’s passion for the violin as well as keyboard. The (earlier) solo instrument versions reconstructed here survive in many cases in later versions as concertos for harpsichord, as we know them best; but here is a programme worked out to illuminate Bach’s evolving technique.

The exercise is instructive, and that it its prime purpose. Not all of the music is of the very highest quality. Now based in Arnstadt, several of the players have played for many years in the Staatskapelle in Weimar. They clearly enjoy their period instrument life, even if their playing sounds more full-blooded than we often hear from one-to-a-part ensembles. I commend it as with their other recordings of music off the beaten track that can help illuminate the criss-crossing of influences and variety of instrumentation as Germany absorbed the instrumental concerto into the mainstream of its music-making.

David Stancliffe

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Telemann: Französischer Jahrgang 1714/15 Vol. 1

CD cover of Telemann Französischer Jahrgang vol. 1

Elisabeth Scholl, Julia Grutzka, Larissa Botos, Rebekka Stolz, Fabian Kelly, Julian Clement, Hans Christoph Begemann SSAATBB (only the tenor is common to both discs), Gutenberg Soloists, Neumeyer Consort, Felix Koch
133:43 (2 CDs in a box)
cpo 555 436-2

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From the long-held, slumbering details of illuminating musicology, along with the impetus of Canberra Baroque’s editions, we find a most noble project underway; to record the first ever full cycle of cantatas from a composer known to have written about 20 or so. Some may have had knowledge of just a few “glinting stars” from this major constellation, but gradually we shall be able to experience the whole year’s worth of 72 works. Here alone we have about nine premieres! It opens with the resplendent Jesu meine Freude TVWV1:966 with an eight-part choir (the rest more modest!), sporting some very finely crafted arias – the soprano one has four recorders, while the final bass one mirroring the words with a bell-effect motif in Schlage bald… This is an excellent opening to these versatile and delightfully prismatic cantatas upon which a spotlight is finally being held!

These ten works (mostly from the Lenten period) offer special glimpses into the musical application of a master fusionist, and melodic interpreter. As the cycle’s modern nickname implies, elements of French music have been cleverly imported and interwoven. TVWV1:32 Ach sollte doch die ganze Welt opens with a fine fleeting Overture! There are rondeau-forms and other movements with Gallic flavour and modes. Mostly scored for four vocalists, with another four ripienists and strings, Telemann also applies modest sprinkling of  extra woodwinds, such as in the third aria of TVWV1:678 with no fewer than three bassoons! The Palm Sunday piece (TVWV1:1585, with two oboes) is a most welcome premiere, though some of our readers might recognise the opening and one of the chorales, which Bach lifted for his (pasticcio) Passion Oratorio with a backbone of mostly C. H. Graun’s music, on a previous CPO CD.

This cycle – written a few years after moving from Eisenach to Frankfurt – displays a dazzling array of musical invention and inspiration guided by the famous theologian poet Erdmann Neumeister’s texts. Judging by how many times he undertook the task of setting cycles by this poet with great diligence, this proved a most fruitful collaboration for Telemann .

Right from the start, you feel Felix Koch has mustered an extremely fine team to do justice to these neglected gems of spiritual music with often special twists redolent of France. The Neumeyer Consort is responsive and vibrant with a crisp, alert sound. The Gutenberg Soloists provide really balanced, radiant support to the main soloists! Elizabeth Scholl (who has already shown her mettle as Agrippina in Telemann’s opera, Germanicus), comes to the fore and often gives a striking performance above her peers… with just the occasional tonal sharpness delivered in all earnestness!

All in all, there is an astounding display of a masterful and engaged musical mind at work within these spiritual cantatas. Felix Koch et al are about to place this full “constellation” into the heavens, and it will shine with some intensity, gradually informing all of the inexhaustible musical abilities of one of the baroque’s finest. The 67-page booklet will equally inform all about this most noble and worthy undertaking. Roll on Easter!

David Bellinger

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Au goût Parisien

CD cover Haydn 2032 vol 11 Au gout parisien

Haydn 2032, vol. 11
Kamerorchester Basel, Giovanni Antonini
80:27
Alpha Classics Alpha 688

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One of the greatest pleasures of my current reviewing activities is the arrival of a new CD in Alpha’s Haydn 2032 series. In this cycle, Giovanni Antonini is leading either his own Il Giardino Armonico or the Kammerorchester Basel through an intégrale of the composer’s symphonies scheduled for completion in time for the 300th anniversary of his death in 2032. The performances to date have been notable for the happy alternation of dynamic energy and subtly delicate colouring Antonini brings to the works, qualities enhanced by the conductor’s unusually acute ear for orchestral balance.

Not unexpectedly these features are again to the fore in the latest issue.  Unlike most of the previously issued recordings that also either introduced works by Haydn’s contemporaries or non-symphonic works by the composer, this concerns itself solely with four of his symphonies composed over a period of some twenty years. The title given to the disc requires little explanation as to the inclusion of Symphonies  82 in C, ‘L’Ours’ [the Bear] and 87 in A since they are respectively the first and last of the set Haydn composed in 1785 and 1786 as the result of a commission from the Concert de la Loge Olympique in Paris, at the time one of the oldest and most esteemed concert giving organisations in Europe. The inclusion of Symphonies 2 in C and 24 in D as being in the ‘Parisien taste’ is not so obvious, but explained by the fact that the first was the first Haydn symphony to be printed in Paris, while anecdotal evidence suggests that the D-major was almost certainly the first to be performed at the Concert de la Loge (in 1773).

The orchestra of Concert de la Loge was far larger than any for which Haydn had previously written, boasting some 40 violins and ten double basses. So it is hardly surprising he kicked off the sextet of symphonies for  the organisation with one of his grandest ceremonial C-major symphonies, a work sadly compromised by the inappropriate nickname given it in the 19th century. That may also account for the choice of modern-instrument Kammerorchester Basel for this issue, since although not as well-proportioned as the forces listed above it here boasts a handsomely-sized string section that, as usual, plays for Antonini with minimum vibrato. The opening of the Vivace, replete with thundering timpani and blazing brass, has an electrifying, visceral excitement that barely lets up throughout the movement, while in the finale the heavy drone dance that inspired the work’s nickname is played with such unbuttoned, bucolic fervour as to put the sedate reputation of the Swiss at risk. By contrast, the dance-like rhythms of the subject of the variations that form the Allegretto second movement are given the lightest of textures, while the Menuet has a trio that is one of several passages that allow the outstanding wind players of the Basel orchestra to shine.

The A-Major Symphony is more modestly scored without trumpets and drums, its opening Vivace articulated with a pointed rhythmic verve that brings to mind the opera house, its secondary idea another passage of the finest filigree texture. The following Adagio is one of the rare places where I differ from Antonini’s idea of tempo, being taken excessively slowly, but it is impossible to deny the beauty of the solo oboe’s love song or indeed the translucent concertante writing for the Harmoniemusik. The finale is a superb movement, again bristling with good-humoured vitality but allowing for momentary darker thoughts in the contrapuntal development.

The two symphonies from the early 1760s are much slighter, no. 2 having only three brief movements and being reminiscent of mid-century Italian opera overtures of composers such as Jommelli. The D-Major is primarily notable for its beguiling Adagio, a cantabile movement that is in effect a long-breathed love song for flute, here played with affectionate sensitivity. In sum, this is a splendid addition to a cycle distinguished above all by its vivid, life-enhancing spontaneity. 

Brian Robins

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Recording

William Byrd: Keyboard Music

CD cover Friederike Chylek Byrd keyboard music

Friederike Chylek harpsichord
57:02
Oehms Classics OC 1724

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While listening to this excellent disc, it occurred to me that Friederike Chylek would be the ideal harpsichordist to make another recording of Byrd’s complete keyboard music, a successor and alternative to Davitt Moroney’s boxed set from 1999 (Hyperion CDS 44461-7, reissued 2010). The baker’s dozen of pieces selected here are varied in genre and structure, and in technical and interpretive demands. By now most of these pieces have achieved more than one recording, but it is good to hear less familiar items such as The Irish march, extracted from its home in The battle, and the will o’ the wisp Wilson’s wild amongst the mighty Second ground and the pioneering virtuoso Prelude and Fantasia. One of the finest of the great Nevell pavan and galliard pairs, the Fifth, appears in company with two of Byrd’s most familiar song variations, Sellinger’s round and The carman’s whistle. The programme is completed by two almans – BK 89 (T 437) and The queen’s alman – and is topped and tailed by The Earl of Oxford’s march, and Tregian’s ground aka Hugh Ashton’s ground. The use here of the former title indicates that Ms Chylek is playing the version in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (FVB), which was compiled by Francis Tregian, and not the version in My Lady Nevell’s Book which uses the alternative title; she also defers to the FVB version of the Prelude and Fantasia rather than that left in another manuscript by Byrd’s pupil Thomas Tomkins.

Ms Chylek has made two previous recordings which feature Byrd’s music to a greater or lesser extent: Time stands still (OC 1864 – my review posted in EMR 7 February 2017) and From Byrd to Byrd (OC 1702). I reviewed both of them favourably, noting that she has a unique feel for the English virginalists in general, and for Byrd in particular.

Among discs devoted to Byrd’s keyboard music, this current recording is among the very finest. Her interpretations are penetrating but not quirky, profound but not distracting. This transcendence is best illustrated in Tregian’s ground which, at 8’30, is one of Byrd’s longest keyboard works. The triple time of Byrd’s chosen ground is sustained unassertively but irresistibly while Byrd’s remarkable ruminations continue above and around it. There have been several recordings of this magnificent piece, and a number of performers treat it as a virtuoso work to display their techniques. This works perfectly well, and the music can withstand it. Ms Chylek takes a more contemplative, less frenetic view, so that every aspect of Byrd’s counterpoint and harmony is clearly audible, while the passion of Byrd’s creation still shines through. Her interpretation – and this is the case with every track – is seemingly not so much aimed at exhibiting her own formidable technique, but rather, is placed at the service of the composer and what Byrd himself seeks to express through his music. This is no criticism of other more flamboyant performances, but it is the key to what gives this recording its unique character, which in turn elevates it to such a high level of achievement. She uses a modern copy of a Ruckers from 1624, and her playing on it provides ideal listening: stimulating to the intellect, and delightful for recreation.

Richard Turbet

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Recording

Händel vs Scarlatti

CD cover Handel versus Scarlatti Cristiano Gaudio encelade

Cristiano Gaudio harpsichord
71:00
encelade ECL2003

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This disc ostensibly recreates the reputed keyboard competition hosted by Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome in 1709 between Handel and Domenico Scarlatti, both 24 years of age at the time. Reportedly, Scarlatti won the harpsichord leg while Handel excelled on the organ. I say ostensibly, because we do not know what music either composer might have performed, and any reconstruction is at best very tentative: it is more than likely that both composers improvised their contributions to fit the occasion. Scarlatti’s sonatas are difficult to date and choosing ‘early’ ones is tricky. Gaudio gives us ten, including some not so often recorded, which between them certainly give a good indication of the sort of music which the composer might have improvised as a young man in Rome. They do show the composer’s Italian side, less influenced by Iberian music than much of his output.

When it comes to Handel, Gaudio relies firstly on the Suite in F HWV 427 which, as well as having been published by Walsh in 1720, survives in an earlier Neapolitan manscript and shows strong Italianate influence. He also includes four toccatas from a Bergamo manuscript, which seem very unlikely to have been by Handel at all. The track listings say ‘Georg Friedrich Händel, attr. William Babell’ but there is no discussion whatsoever, in the extensive liner notes, of the manscript or its complications. In a 2018 article in Early Music, Andrew Woolley convincingly showed that these toccatas are by Babell, while perhaps reflecting the close collaboration between him and Handel during the 1710s. The fact that they are most likely not by Handel does not entirely rule out their appropriateness to the purpose of this CD. The mixture of German and Italian characteristics actually make them plausible examples of the sort of music Handel might have improvised in Rome – not the Handel of the printed Suites, or his only authenticated Toccata (HWV 586), but earlier Handel. In any case they are good pieces and well worth recording. There is also the more solidly Handelian Chaconne HWV435 (though without the introductory two-line melody and bass from the early 1706 manuscript) and, as a bonus at the end, Gaudio’s own transcription of the opening Adagio from the Sonata for Violin HWV372 (though authorship of this piece, too, is disputed). The 24-year-old Gaudio’s playing is exciting and very clearly articulated, with a strong sense of forward propulsion. It is the approach of a young man, excited by the potential of the instrument and of the musical template and, as such, highly appropriate to this project. He plays on a Mietke copy by Bruce Kennedy and an Italian-style harpsichord by the same maker, mixing and matching between the composers on each instrument. Recording quality is excellent, with a generous acoustic and a bell-like quality to the sound. It is a worthwhile and highly satisfying recording which can be well recommended.

Noel O’Regan

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John Bull: In nomine | Walsingham

Cover Léon Berben John Bull mp3

Léon Berben organ
76:45
Lanvellec Editions LE00005
https://www.festival-lanvellec.fr/accueil/boutique

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The Robert Dallam organ in the Church of Saint-Brandan in Lanvellec, Brittany, is a unique survival, built while the maker was in exile in Brittany during the English Civil War. Most of the original pipework survives and the instrument was restored to something close to its original condition in the mid-1980s. It is a real treat to hear it in this recital of John Bull’s music by the Dutch organist Léon Berben. It has great clarity, well captured in this recording, with a rich sound and a good variety of registrational possibilities. Some stops come close to the sound of the musette or bagpipe and are put to good use in pointing up the more earthy elements in Bull’s music. Most of the disc is taken up with the composer’s eleven authenticated In nomine settings. These show great variety of compositional techniques, combining a strict harmonic framework (based on part of a melody from the Benedictus of a John Taverner Mass) with repeated figurative writing. The improvisatory basis of this writing is brought out particularly well by Berben, who also enjoys the frequent changes of metre. He rises to the virtuosic challenges caused by the shortening of note values as these pieces reach their conclusion, and always manages to stop repetitions from becoming boring – something not always easy in Bull’s music. At the core of this programme is Bull’s set of thirty variations on the ‘Walsingham’ tune, a great tour de force of late Elizabethan keyboard writing which takes almost twenty minutes here. It shows off the full range of the organ’s registers as well as Berben’s control of the instrument. A couple of fantasias on Palestrina’s madrigal Vestiva i colli and a few other short pieces completes the disc. There are excellent sleeve notes by Berben and Jon Baxendale. This is a stimulating and enjoyable presentation of some of the best of Bull’s music and can be thoroughly recommended.

Noel O’Regan

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Graupner: Complete Harpsichord Music

CD cover Graupner Complete Harpsichord Music

Fernando De Luca harpsichord
14 CDs in a card box
Brilliant Classics 96131

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At the famous audition process to choose a new Cantor for Leipzig’s Thomaskirche in 1722-3 Christoph Graupner was second choice (after Telemann) but could not obtain leave from his employer at the court of Hesse-Darmstadt and so made way for J. S. Bach. In that context it is thought-provoking to listen through the nearly fifty partitas which make up almost all of Graupner’s surviving keyboard music, recorded here by Fernando De Luca. The only other pieces here are a single short Prelude and Fugue, and an Aria with one variation. Less than half of the Partitas were published during Graupner’s lifetime, the rest surviving in manuscript in Darmstadt. All are attractive works, rich with musical ideas, but ultimately going over the same ground again and again and tending to rely on repeating trusted formulae. They seem to illustrate Andrew McCredie’s comment in the New Grove article on the composer: ‘working on a modest scale, [Graupner] was regarded more for the originality of his ideas than for their working out’. It is as if Bach continued to churn out French Suites and almost nothing else. Might a move to Leipzig have meant a different outcome for Graupner? We will never know. He was certainly amazingly prolific in Darmstadt, with over fourteen hundred cantatas and lots of other works surviving. Like Telemann, musical ideas flowed freely from his fingers and pen. The most extended of his partitas are a set of twelve named after the months of the year, each with from six to ten movements, headed by Preludes which can take a variety of forms, and continuing with the usual standard dances and various galanterien. In other suites the Allemande fulfils something of the function of an opening prelude.

This 14-CD collection is a monumental enterprise for De Luca who seems to relish such challenges.  Together with Marco da Gregorio he runs a website ‘Sala del Cembalo del caro Sassone’ which contains a whole host of recordings of keyboard music by many different composers, all recorded by De Luca.  He is clearly used to big projects and able to learn music quickly. His playing is consistent and faithful to the score, though perhaps motivated more by a desire to leave a firmly mainstream account of the works than to let in any sense of playfulness or experimentation. Fast movements can be exciting, particularly some of the Gigues; slower movements can be a bit heavy-handed and would have benefitted from some more subtlety in execution at times, though there are some fine moments and a judicious use of ornamentation on repeats. He plays on two instruments: a copy of a Blanchet (1754) by C. Caponi and copy of a Christian Vater (1738) by F. Ciocca, both of which provide opportunities for variety of registration and are pleasingly recorded. There is only very slight information in the accompanying booklet – movement lists are only found on individual CD covers; a short essay deals only in generalities with nothing much on individual partitas. The numbering follows that of the Graupner Werkverzeichnis (GWV). (Incidentally, GWV online is a mine of information about the composer and his output, editions and performances of this works.) There is much to admire about this recording project, and it is certainly very useful to have all of Graupner’s authenticated keyboard music available in one place. Listeners will want to dip in and out, perhaps taking one partita at a time, admiring both Graupner’s and De Luca’s facility and being rewarded with some attractive music confidently delivered.

Noel O’Regan

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Psalmen & Lobgesänge

CD cover David Erler Psalmen & Lobgesänge

aus dem mitteldeutschen Barock
David Erler alto, L’arpa festante
75:56
Christophorus CHR 77453

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None of our readers will be particularly surprised to learn that I loved this CD. The repertoire (psalm settings and songs of praise for alto and strings) is right up my street, the instrumental support given to the singer is sympathetic and empathetic (meaning that they understand that lots of their music projects the text every bit as much as the solo voice part) and, well, David Erler. Effortless in the coloratura (and there is plenty of that among the six pieces here, five recorded for the first time!), and glorious in longer, sustained lines, his is the perfect voice for this repertoire. None of the composers is particularly well known (most of our readers ought to have heard of Briegel and Theile) and, indeed, three of the pieces remain anonymous, but my attention was held for the entire length of the disc, from the jubilant opening (J. C. Schmidt’s “Bonum est confiteri Domino”) to the “Gloria” of the final work, an anonymous Magnificat setting – talk about saving the best until last! What a fabulous piece, with its crowning triple-time “Amen”, with the voice and instruments in joyous dialogue. I cannot recomment this recording enough – it’s a cracker!

Brian Clark

 

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G. B. Bassani: Affetti Canori

CD cover G B Bassani Affetti Canori op 6

Cantate e ariette per soprano e basso continuo Op. VI
Anna Piroli soprano, Luigi Accardo harpsichord/organ, Nicola Brovelli cello, Elisa La Marca theorbo/guitar
56:16
Dynamic CDS7918

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Paduan-born Giovanni Battista Bassani (c.1650-1716) was an almost exact contemporary of Corelli, but an infinitely more versatile composer. Believed to have studied in Venice with Legrenzi, he was not only a virtuoso violinist, but also a fine organist worthy of holding several important posts in the cities of northern Italy in which he worked, Padua, Venice, Modena, Bologna, Bergamo, but above all Ferrara, where he was maestro di cappella of the cathedral from 1686. His extensive catalogue includes at least nine operas (sadly now all lost apart from fragments), oratorios, of which there is an excellent recording (Opus 111, 2001) of his La morte delusa (Ferrara, 1696), many other sacred and secular vocal works and a substantial body of instrumental chamber works.

Bassani’s collection Affetti Canori was published as his opus 6 in Bologna in 1684. It consists of six single-movement ‘arias’ and with six cantatas in several movements that alternate arias with recitar cantando or arioso, often in a highly flexible way reminiscent of the quasi-scena episodes in the operas of composers like Cesti. It is the independent arias that often strike the listener as the more adventurous as to matters of harmony. The opening ‘Occhi amorevoli’, for example, one of the most exceptional pieces of the collection, starts with a plea of heartfelt beauty for the lady’s eyes to give succour to the poor mendicant, its supplicatory tone reinforced by chromaticism. Then comes a vivace giving the pleas greater urgency, before a return to the opening cantabile largo. And this is perhaps a good moment to introduce the singer, soprano Anna Piroli, who like the music itself excels in this work. She is the possessor of a fresh, sweet-toned voice that not only has a technique fully able to encompass agile passage work, though there is nothing over-demanding in that respect here, but also capable of sustaining an unwavering cantabile line. As can be heard in the final bars of this aria, Piroli’s mezza voce is quite ravishing, and with the very occasional exception of a pushed top note she’s one of those rare singers that seem incapable of making an unpleasant sound. Ornamentation is well-executed and mostly stylish, though it would have been good to hear an occasional trill. While her diction is fair there are times where a firmer projection of the text would not come amiss. Her response to text is however often telling; listen for example to her wistful emphasis on the words ‘goduti contenti’ (former pleasures) in one of the recitatives from the cantata Consolata gemea.

That is at once the most extended and arguably the most impressive of the cantatas, though several others come close. While most of them take the vicissitudes of love fairly light-heartedly – and the number of lively triple-time arias tells us we should not take the content too seriously – here the cantata is founded on a beautifully expressive minor-key largo that acts as a ritornello refrain – its repeats intelligently decorated – that seems to speak of something more profound. It is most affectingly sung by Piroli, who sustains the pathetic cantabile lines with especially touching effect. Also particularly noteworthy is another lengthy cantata, Ardea di due begl’occhi, with its captivating aria in chaconne form.

Piroli is given outstanding support by the continuo players, whose contribution is always positive without ever intruding onto the singer’s territory, a lesson some others would do well to take on board. It is, in fact, a compliment to say that most of the time the listener is not aware of them.

Full texts and translations plus extended notes by musicologist Marco Bizzarini are included, rounding off a thoroughly satisfying and rewarding issue that brings this splendid set of works to the catalogue for the first time.

Brian Robins