Author: EMR2015

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From Darkness Into Light

Brumel Lamentations CD cover

Brumel: The complete Lamentations of Jeremiah for Good Friday
Musica Secreta, directed by Deborah Roberts & Laurie Stras
73:05
Obsidian CD719
+Compère, Josquin, Moro & anon

Performance and musicology come together on this disc with results that are exciting, rewarding, stimulating and reassuring. Previously only two sections of Brumel’s Lamentations, Heth and Caph plus the refrain “Jerusalem, convertere”, were known – or at least thought – to exist. Laurie Stras’s booklet notes describe how the rest of this substantial work had all the time been visible in plain sight but unrecognised, until it dawned on her recently that it had been staring us in the face “for centuries”. She also explains how she came to deduce that this newly rediscovered source for the complete work had been compiled for a nunnery, hence the performance on this disc by the female vocal ensemble Musica Secreta, supported authentically by a continuo of organ and viol “to sustain lower parts.”

This is an extraordinary work. Brumel varies his treatment of the initial Hebrew letters, sometimes setting them in short and concise phrases, sometimes stretching out to quasi-instrumental preludes or even short fantasias, often exploiting different scorings. This in microcosm is true of the entire work. Given Brumel’s dates, c. 1460-1515, there seem to be so many pre-echoes of later music. For instance, just to focus briefly on English music of subsequent generations, in Nun, the fourth section, there is a strikingly Tudor-sounding dissonance at “fulsa et stulta”, while on the final word “sempiternos” before the refrain “Jerusalem convertere”, there is a cadence which crops up again at the word “perditionem” in Tallis’s In jejunio et fletu. Add to this the glaring “English” cadence in Gimel, section 5, at the word “confregit”. And he exhibits an almost Byrdian variety and intensity in his responses to the recurrences of the refrain “Jerusalem convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum”, most profoundly at the end of the second section, Joth. Other aspects of this remarkable work similarly can be heard to echo down through the music of his Franco-Flemish successors.

Musica Secreta perform this music radiantly. Brumel’s vision is projected sensitively, whether ruminative or ecstatic. Every part is clearly audible, and the balance between them is ideal. The continuo is discreet but effective. The rest of the programme consists of eight works, five of them anonymous, from a manuscript that was compiled by the same scribe as the Brumel source, and which was intended for use in a particular nunnery, giving Laurie Stras the clue that this source for the complete Lamentations by Brumel might also be for the use of nuns. One of the pieces Sancta Maria succurre miseris is by the scribe Antonio Moro himself. Another is Josquin’s Recordare virgo Mater while the other named composer is Compere, represented by his slight Paranymphus salutat virginem. Perhaps the best of these works is a luminous anonymous altermatim setting of the Salve regina with which the disc appropriately concludes. The quality of the performance and of the music bring this revelatory disc to a satisfying close.

Richard Turbet

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Handel: Samson

Box cover of Dunedin Consort's recording of Handel's Samson

[Joshua Ellicott Samson, Jess Dandy Micah, Matthew Brook Manoa, Vitali Rozynko Harapha, Sophie Bevan Delila, Hugo Hymas An Israelite, A Philistine, Messenger, Mary Bevan A virgin, An Israelite woman, A Philistine woman, Fflur Wyn A virgin, A Philistine woman, Tiffin Boys’ Choir, directed by James Day], Dunedin Consort, John Butt
204:14 (3 CDs in a cardboard box)
Linn CKD 599

In some ways the most remarkable thing about this recording is that it exists at all. Not many projects requiring a week’s recording time make it to disc these days so congratulations and thanks to those who have provided the funding and/or taken the financial risk, for it really is a major undertaking that requires eight soloists; additional singers for the chorus including trebles for the top line; and an orchestra in which horns, trumpets, oboes and bassoon join a relatively large body of strings and the keyboard continuo. And the choruses were all recorded twice! The discs include Handel’s standard scoring of adults with the boys adding richness to the top line, but also available for download is a performing option which Handel seems to have used from time to time – ‘just’ the soloists singing together with an extra ripieno alto to balance the sections.

The booklet, too, is pretty lavish though in English only. We are offered two excellent essays – on the work itself and on performing issues, the full text (and there’s a lot of it) and the usual performers’ credits. I do wish that these (for the singers, at least) weren’t quite so formulaic: only two get beyond the standard lists of prizes, roles and conductors.

Few of us will know Samson as well as we should – a shame, for it gives us Handel on fine form not only in the content of individual movements but in the way in which he subverts our musical expectations to engage and re-engage our attention. The ‘plot’ is a sequence of tableaux and philosophising rather than pure narrative drama and the music makes considerable demands on the performers, not least of stamina. Joshua Ellicott as Samson draws us in to his world, rather than shouting about it, and really does sing most beautifully. He and all his colleagues exhibit some fine diction, especially in recitative – and it’s not often I find that I want to say that. I do think that all the singers have moments when their vibrato gets away from them but this is less of an issue than on many CDs I have recently reviewed for EMR. The orchestra is also a classy act and John Butt has a sure hand in matters of musical pacing.

So if you don’t know Samson, you should make this your way in. This release is unlikely to be surpassed – or even competed with – for some time.

David Hansell

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Dandrieu: Magnificats Vol. 1

Cover of Dandrieu organ CD

Jean-Baptiste Robin Grandes Orgues 1710 (Chapelle Royale – Versailles)
70:51
Versailles Spectacles CVS023

With all due respect to both composer and performer, this CD is all about this organ though the combination of the music and the instrument for which it was arguably written is also a point of some significance and interest.

The Versailles organ was developed by three generations of the Clicquot family during the 18th century (1711, 1736, 1762) and was spared damage and removal during the revolution. However, work in 1872 and 1935 changed its character to the point at which a new spirit of ‘authenticity’ required complete dismantling in 1989 and a comprehensive rebuild to restore the 1711 voices. These are distributed over four manuals and pedal and can deliver all the characteristic registrations of the Classical French school. As one of the resident organ team, Jean-Baptiste Robin understands the instrument perfectly though doesn’t quite give us the full tour. Like most modern players he is not quite brave enough to include the tremblant fort in the Grand jeu, though if that wouldn’t work on this instrument where could it?

The music – 33 movements averaging about 2 minutes each – is a mixture of liturgical styles (it would have been good to include the chant for at least one of the Magnificats) and more ‘popular’ sets of variations on carol tunes, together with a few odds and ends. It’s all attractive, and at times positively imposing, and is given sympathetic and stylish performances by J-BR. I don’t always warm to his approach to inégalité, though what he does is a perfectly reasonable choice from the range of options.

The booklet (in French, English and German), notwithstanding a few lumpy translation moments, is luxurious with notes on the music, player and instrument and several striking pictures. A further release will include Dandrieu’s transcriptions for organ of his own chamber compositions. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait too long for this sequel, and fingers crossed for the tremblant fort!

David Hansell

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Mozart & Beethoven [keyboard music]

CD cover of Mozart and Beethoven recording

Thomas Leininger fortepiano
78:14
Talbot Records TR1901
K331, 332, 397; Sonata in F, op 2/1

Depending on your point of view, this may be ‘a breath of fresh air’, ‘wilful distortion of the music’ or a bit of both. The programme begins with a reasonably orthodox performance of Mozart’s D minor fantasia K397. Thereafter each of the three well-known sonatas is prefaced by an improvisatory prelude based on ideas and suggestions taken from Clementi and Czerny, and this improvisatory style is carried into the sonatas themselves, with much and sometimes quite extreme variation of tempo; ornamentation; mini-cadenzas; dis-location between the hands; and far more use of the moderator lever than any other player I have heard.

As far as I am concerned this last feature is especially welcome – I’ve often wondered why players, both ‘modern’ and HIP, don’t do it more.* What I do query is the inclusion on a recording of the preludes. Of their very nature these are transitory and ephemeral but the ‘document’ nature of a CD seems to accord them a quasi-canonic status that they don’t really have. But this could also be said of ornaments, of course. Of the other distinctive features of the playing I found the tempo variation the most disturbing and the least convincing: sometimes the effect was comparable to a beginner’s speeding up in the easy passages and slowing down when the going gets tougher. But the additional ornaments are more than welcome.

The booklet (in English and German) says nothing about the music itself – perhaps it is regarded as too familiar to need it. And I do think you should hear this recital: it does question ‘standard practice’ and that’s to be applauded.

David Hansell

*Sir Andras Schiff is a notable exception. At a recital I attended he was positively dancing over all three of his Steinway’s pedals – though not when he was playing Bach!

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Jean Baptiste Loeillet: Trio Sonatas

Loeillet Trio sonatas CD cover

Epoca Barocca
61:10
cpo 555 143-2

Sometimes it’s enough to write music that is well crafted, if not especially striking, and then get someone to play it with sensitivity, style and a sense of purpose. Jean Baptiste Loeillet did just that and in Epoca Barocca he has found his ‘someone’. Arguably, these trios provide pleasure for the players rather than excitement for the listener, but if you can experience enjoyment without excitement then this is for you. The balance between flute and oboe is good, the musical relationship between them intimate and complementary and all aspects of the performance are delicately judged. With one possible exception. I’d have been quite happy to hear the whole programme with just cello and harpsichord on the continuo line. Here we have from time to time and in addition to those, bassoon, organ and theorbo. The music doesn’t need these further colours, however: there is more than enough attractiveness in the top lines. I also found myself wondering how often a bassoon was actually used as a continuo instrument in chamber music.

The booklet (in German and English) offers a good and informative essay about the music and the basic information about the ensemble.

David Hansell

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Kapsberger: Intavolatura di Chitarone

Jonas Nordberg Chitarrone theorbo music CD cover
Jonas Nordberg theorbo
69:45
BIS Records BIS 2147 SACD
 
Kapsberger’s music for the chitarrone, the instrument otherwise known as the theorbo, is quintessentially baroque, extravagant, unpredictable, and highly expressive. For the present CD Jonas Nordberg has selected music from the Libro Primo (1604) and the Libro Quarto (1640). He begins with Toccata prima from the Libro Quarto, an extraordinary piece of music, with exciting 6- and 7-note chords interspersed with resonant campanellas, exceptionally fast slurred roulades, chordal passages with sudden, surprising shifts of harmony, supported by the satisfying, rich tone of the long diapason strings. I like Nordberg’s interpretation, playing the fast notes very fast indeed, yet holding back for tender moments in chordal passages.
 
Next from the Libro Quarto comes the first Passacaglia. Apart from some running passages towards the end, the notes of the ground are very much in evidence, clear, solid, and irrepressible. Meanwhile the higher notes move on apace, enhanced with many ornaments. Gagliarda Prima consists of two sections, each of which have repeats in style brisé. Nordberg plays the first time through each section twice, and saves the brisé repeats until the end. Gagliarda octava has three sections; the first and third are conventional by Kapsberger’s standards, but the second section has a different mood, where the melody creeps up and down chromatically. The second group of pieces ends with a jolly Canario based on a simple Bergamasca-like chord sequence. I think Nordberg takes it a bit too quickly, if only because the campanellas of bars 11-12 are so quick they lack clarity.
 
From the Libro Primo comes the well-known ground, Aria di Fiorenze, with ten variations. Nordberg creates an overall mood which is satisfyingly gentle with subtle nuances. The carefully placed chords of C major involving a high e’ on the third course are particularly pleasing. Each variation has its own character, for example the fifth consists of running passages, the sixth has rolled four-note chords, the seventh has super-quick roulades between chords, and the eighth has triplas. Nordberg loyally observes Kapsberger’s signs for rolled chords and ornaments. Kapsberger marks four-note chords to be rolled or arpeggiated, because he only used the thumb and two fingers of his right hand. When four-note chords occur only here and there in a piece, Nordberg rolls them, but in the sixth variation they occur throughout, so Nordberg arpeggiates these to good effect. The roulades in the seventh variation require considerable dexterity, but Nordberg is equal to the task, playing them quickly, evenly, and without losing sight of the overall architecture. I am impressed with his virtuosity. With such excellent playing, it is unfortunate that Nordberg comes unstuck towards the end of the eighth variation. There is, in my opinion, a crotchet rhythm sign missing from the original source at the very end of the penultimate stave, causing Nordberg to charge on at double speed with quavers for the next few notes. In fact I think all the rhythm signs from there to the end could do with some pretty drastic editing to make musical sense of what I believe should be a straightforward passage with regard to rhythm. Another problem arising from reading the facsimile occurs in Toccata 9 from the Libro Quarto: the chord at the start of bar 6 has a low E notated as a number 9 above the stave. Nordberg does not play it, and I wonder if he misread it as a minim rhythm sign, even though the actual minim sign is notated immediately above it. Not to worry. The absence of one insignificant bass note does not stop me enjoying all the other notes of this well-played piece.
 
There follows Ballo Primo from the Libro Quarto, a suite of four dances, three of which have style brisé repeats. Kapsberger’s well-known, oft-played Toccata Arpeggiata consists of a series of chords, each one marked with his sign for arpeggiation. Nordberg arpeggiates the notes of each chord quickly and not necessarily in strict time to create a flurry of notes, but he is careful moving from one chord to the next, giving the piece shape with well-arched phrases. Kapsberger’s Battaglia from the Libro Quarto is a long piece lasting over eight minutes. Nordberg’s playing of it is characteristically clean and expressive, although I wonder if a little more aggression might be in keeping with the title of the piece. The CD ends with the eponymous Kapsberger, variations on an eight-bar ground, with pleasing campanellas.
 
Stewart McCoy
 
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Vivaldi Con amore

Cover of Tafelmusik CD Vivaldi Con amore

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Elisa Citterio, dir
75:25
Tafelmusik TMK1039CD

For nearly forty years Tafelmusik, Canada’s leading period instrument orchestra, was directed by violinist Jeanne Lamon, but in 2017 she was succeeded by another woman violinist, the Italian Elisa Citterio. The present collection of Vivaldi concertos marks Citterio’s recording debut with the orchestra, and it is interesting to find that on the basis of it she has already put a strong individual mark. Citterio’s background includes work with all the major Italian period instrument orchestras and there are times here when we might almost be listening to Accademia Bizantina or Il Giardino Armonico. There is the same nervous, at times spiky, intensity brought to Vivaldi’s allegros, the same grand sweep to ritornellos, the same relishing of long cantabile lines, and the same careful dynamic gradations. Yet even in writing that I’m conscious of being slightly unfair to Citterio, since one of the principal positives of this outstanding set of performances is that they reveal she has a strong musical personality. There is hardly a routine moment here, no mean achievement when it comes to a batch of Vivaldi concertos. Take for example the popular Lute Concerto in D, RV 93, hardly a masterpiece and a work that can easily outstay its welcome. Superbly played throughout by Lucas Harris, the opening movement is here given an understated delicacy that introduces an unexpected aura of mystery. The following Largo is taken very slowly, but enriched by decoration from the soloist that gives the movement an improvisatory freshness, while the final movement is again unassertively presented, but distinguished by the precision of Harris’ fingerwork.

This freshness of approach is a feature of the whole programme, which has been well planned to include a diverse set of concertos that allows some of Tafelmusik’s outstanding players an chance to shine. Thus in addition to the lute concerto we are given violin concertos in C minor (RV 761), known as ‘Amato bene’, and E major, the well-known ‘L’amoroso’ (RV 271), the 4-violin Concerto in B flat, RV 553, a double oboe Concerto in C, RV 534, a bassoon Concerto in D minor, RV 481 and the Concerto in D for 2 violins and 2 oboes, RV 564a. The programme is completed by the overture to the opera Ottone in villa (Venice, 1713).

Among these works, the two minor key concertos are exceptional. The nervous intensity and restless spirit of the opening Allegro of the C minor Concerto are splendidly captured by Elisa Citterio, while the filigree of the marvellous central Largo, taken rather too slowly, is spun with affectionate elegance and the final Allegro played with a bright edginess that does not exclude moments of fantasy and bizzarrie also apparent elsewhere in Citterio’s playing. The bassoon concerto is another outstanding work, played quite superlatively by Dominic Teresi. In the opening Allegro the soloist alternates the slighty mournful tones unique to his instrument with gurgling passage work, while the chromatic dissonance of the succeeding Larghetto, a quasi accompanied recitative and love-sick aria, reaches depths of profound desolation.

My only reservations concern the tempo of largos; it is odd to find Citterio taking the Adagio non molto central movement of RV 564a at a faster tempo than most of them, while the familiar Italian fondness for over-intrusive plucked continuo is here particularly annoying in the central Largo of RV 553. Tafelmusik’s CD production people might also care to consider rather better notes than the scanty generalised effort included here. None of that detracts from the fact that this is the most stimulating and thought provoking CD of Vivaldi concertos I’ve heard in some while.

Brian Robins

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Sweelinck: Fantasias, Toccatas & Variations

Sweelinck key board music CD cover Richard Egarr

Richard Egarr harpsichord
76:13
Linn Records CKD 589

This recording has all the signs of having been a labour of love for Richard Egarr who self-confessedly set out to to make the music vibrant and exciting, rather than what he sees as the non-expressive and detached (aka ‘colourless and academic’) way Sweelinck has traditionally been performed. I’m not sure that’s a fair judgement of all previous recordings but this one does certainly succeed in bringing the music to life. Beautifully recorded on Egarr’s own Ruckers copy by Joel Katzman at 393 Hz, with a close-up acoustic, it successfully recreates the sort of genial late-night domestic music-making among friends which Willem Baudartius described in Sweelinck’s Amsterdam house (referred to in Egarr’s sleeve note). The playing reflects that milieu too, never too showy but always firmly committed and showing a deep-rooted understanding of each of the genres represented. He starts with an extended Praeludium Toccata [Seiffert 21] which shows the full breadth of Sweelinck’s art and its debt to his English musical forbears. In some ways the four toccatas are the star pieces here, giving scope for both careful voice-leading and virtuosity. Five extended fantasias provide intellectual heft, including one on the hexachord which starts conventionally but ends in a riot of scales in all directions. The Fantasia Crommatica gets a particularly fine performance as do two sets of variations. The booklet gives us Egarr’s personal rationale for the recording but nothing much about the actual music. In this fine recording, he is probably entitled to assume that it can speak for itself.

Noel O’Regan

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Palestrina: Missa Tu es Petrus

Palestrina Missa Tu es Petrus CD cover

The Choir of St Luke in the Fields, David Shuler
63:43
MSR Classics MS1698

After their recent successful recording of music by Pierre de Manchicourt, this New York group has turned its attention to more familiar fare by Palestrina; this also means entering a much more competitive field. These are solid performances with some undoubted highlights, though the quality of the vocal sound is not always consistent. There are fourteen singers in the group, roughly two per part in the six-voice music which dominates this disc. I particularly like the strong sense of the tactus (pulse) which goes through everything they sing. Praiseworthy, too, is the good blend and a resonant recording environment which still allows voice-leading and contrapuntal writing to come through clearly. As well as the motet Tu es Petrus and the Mass based on it, they perform five other pieces. I particularly enjoyed two five-voice motets, Caro mea and the Offertory Improperium expectavit: both achieve a rounded balance sometimes lacking in the other pieces. In other cases openings are a bit tentative or rough, vowels are not always well blended, and tuning and support is not consistently maintained. That said, this recording presents a good cross-section of Palestrina’s more forward-looking music, much of it relying on antiphonal exchange between two voice groupings, and culminates in the double-choir Surrexit pastor bonus. This piece represents late Palestrina and shows us where the Roman polychoral idiom would head in the next generation. Sleeve notes are informative and contain all texts and translations. A stimulating disc with some gems.

Noel O’Regan

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de Peñalosa: Lamentationes

Peñalosa Lamentations CD cover

New York Polyphony
56:41
BIS-2407 SACD

This exceptionally fine recording provides a convincing taster for the works of Francisco de Peñalosa, a leading Spanish composer of the early sixteenth century. The four male singers produce a beautifully blended and characterful sound, being particularly careful to unify vowel sounds and producing some really quiet singing in places. Their countertenor, Geoffrey Williams, blends well, his voice neither dominating nor inhabiting a different vocal world, as can sometimes happen. All four show exceptional control in long-breathed phrases while their singing brings the texts to life, with great clarity in enunciating the words; recording quality is also excellent. They sing two of Peñalosa’s three surviving lamentations and three movements from his Missa L’homme armé, as well as two short motets, one an attractive three-voice Song of Songs setting, Unica est columba mea. While it would have been good to have had the third lamentation and the other Mass movements, the group compensates by giving us a beautifully sombre Stabat mater by Juan Escobar (only the first two verses are set) and two pieces by Guerrero, his four-voice Quae est ista and the lively villancico Antes que coma’is a Dios. These show us how Peñalosa’s music links with that of his contemporary Escobar and the much later Guerrero, with all three echoing aspects of the style of Josquin des Prez. There are some excellent liner notes by Ivan Moody.  Highly recommended.

Noel O’Regan

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