Author: EMR2015

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Sheet music

Ballet Music from the Mannheim Court, Part 5

Edited by Paul Corneilson & Carol G. Marsh
Recent Researches in the Music of the Classical Era, 111
xxxii + 207pp, $375
A-R Editions, Inc ISBN 978-1-9872-0170-3

These excellent editions of Cannabich’s Les Fêtes du sérail (Corneilson) and Angélique et Médor ou Roland furieux bring this series to a fine conclusion. With 21 and 25 numbers respectively (not counting the overtures), these are substantial pieces which, with the help of two contemporary sources (one given in translation as the original is freely available online, and the other given side-by-side in French and English), the editors hope not only will orchestras pick up the music and perform it, but ballet companies will also take up the challenge of creating suitable choreographies for both sets. The scores feature all the instruments you’d expect to find in a classical orchestra, and Les Fêtes throws in a pair of piccolos and some percussion for good measure. The music mixes through-composed pieces with movements consisting of repeated sections and Da Capo structures; some have nuanced dynamics, others are left to performers’ discretion; both end with susbtantial Contredanses. Both editors provide excellent introductions to the works, as well as comprehensive editorial commentaries. RRMCE now has 111 volumes – what a monumental achievement!

Brian Clark

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Sheet music

Michele Pesenti: Complete Works

Edited by Anthony M. Cummings, Linda L. Carroll, and Alexander Dean
Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance, 171
liii + 218pp, $350
A-R Editions, Inc ISBN 978-1-9872-0139-0

So there are a total of 36 surviving pieces by Michele Pesenti (c. 1470-c1528), of which only three are sacred. The remainder survive as settings in four parts (mostly with only the top part texted) or for voice with lute. This excellent volume not only provides performing versions of them all, but goes to great lengths to explain how the poetry of the time works (and how that has guided the editors to underlay the text in the most appropriate fashion), as well as detailed commentaries on and translations of them all. Two of the secular pieces are Latin odes. The works with lute give both tablature and staff notation versions, making this music accessible to all performers of this neglected repertoire – it would be intriguing to hear the various settings of the same text one after the other (definitely NOT in one of these “mix and match” programmes that is de rigeur at the moment!).

This is a great example of scholars working together – thank goodness not all musicologists are as territorial as some I have encountered!

Brian Clark

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Sheet music

Mozart & Haydn from Henle

Mozart: String Quartets Vol. 3 (performing materials)
Henle 1122 €32
Mozart: String Quartets Vol. 3 (study score) Edited by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert
Henle 7122 €22 [Also available for tablet]
Mozart: Piano Trio K. 442 (performing materials) Edited by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert with Piano fingerings by Jacob Leuschner
Henle 1379 €29.50
Haydn: Symphony in C, Hob I:82 (study score) Edited by Sonja Gerlach & Klaus Lippe with a preface by Ullrich Scheideler
Henle 9050 €13 [Also available for tablet]

Any new issues from G. Henle Verlag are to be welcomed. The latest consignment paired Urtext study scores of Mozart’s celebrated “Haydn” quartets with a set of performing materials (of which the Violin 1 part includes the prefaratory material and critical commentaries that enhance the score!), a piano trio consisting of not one but two completions of three fragments – the first by the composer’s friend, Maximilian Stadler, and the other by celebrated Mozart expert, Robert Levin – as well as the movement Stadler added to make a more balanced work (after discarding one of Mozart’s!), and finally another Urtext study score, this time of Haydn’s C major symphony, “The Bear”.

It goes without saying that the printing is beautiful and the paper of the highest quality. The typography is also exemplary, both in the detailed introductions and critical commentaries (in three languages!) and the music itself. Outstanding work at unbelievably reasonable prices!

Brian Clark

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Recording Uncategorized

Festive masses from Lambach Abbey

St. Florian Sängerknaben, Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor
66:31
Accent ACC 24358

There are obscure composers and then there are the likes of Benjamin Ludwig Ramhaufski and Joseph Balhasar Hochreither! The latter was born halfway through the lifetime of the former and, mostly on account of the prominent trumpet parts, there is not much to distinguish their music; indeed, on a blind listening, I defy even a seasoned lover of 17th-century music not to assume it’s either Schmelzer or Biber… Such is the quality of the polyphony and the lyrical ease of the melodies. Combining boy’s voices with those of six men works very well and the instrumentalists clearly enjoy the chamber music feel. Gunar Letzbor’s quest for “true sound” typically gives a dry edginess to his recordings, but here the rather warmer acoustic allows the sound to blossom a little without detracting from the detail. I have enjoyed having this CD in the car for the past few weeks – it is bright and uplifting, and I highly recommend it.

Brian Clark

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Recording

Er heißet Wunderbar!

Barokkanerne, directed by Alfredo Bernardini
67:38
LAWO LWC1169

This is a beautiful CD combining cantatas by three of the candidates for the vacant Thomascantorate with a concerto by a fourth. The one-to-a-part singing lifts the music by Fasch and Graupner to a whole new level when compared to performances by choirs who have hitherto been the only ones to champion the repertoire, especially with four such skilled singers in fine voice and instrumental partners whose lightness of touch elevates the sound even more. Cecilia Bernardini’s rendition of Telemann’s little-played Concerto in E minor with two obbligato oboes is very impressive – I swear she must use olive oil on her bow rather than resin, so even and effortless do the pyrotechnics for both hands sound (rather like a swan, serenely gliding by frantically paddling out of sight!) “Schwingt freudig euch empor” is one of my favourite Bach cantatas and this performance is right up there amongst the best I have heard.

All the more frustrating therefore to read “For who has heard of Graupner, or of Fasch, and do we in hindsight really take the nimble multi-arted Telemann all that seriously?” in the booklet notes. Such opinions are fine, but actually printing them in a booklet like this undermines years and years of work to restore these composers’ reputations even to public notice at all. And even if the note writer doesn’t have much respect, Herr Bach most certainly did, so perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned there.

And then there is “The [Fasch] cantata’s brevity (perhaps a world record here) may suggest that the performances in Zerbst were not a significant part of the service”… First, the piece in question survives in a secondary source so who is to know what had happened to it in transmission? Secondly, a letter Fasch wrote in 1752 reveals that he had been told that music was taking up too much of the services so he had to halve the length of the figural music – and in those days you did as you were told. Besides, on a major church feast, the service also included a Missa brevis with Credo, so pretty much the equivalent of three cantatas in one sitting. Not to mention a Te Deum with “unter Paucken und Trompeten”. A little knowledge is, indeed, a dangerous thing – maybe someone who actually knows about the music might be asked to contribute their next booklet essay.

Brian Clark

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Recording

J. S. Bach: Sonatas for Viola [da Gamba] and Harpsichord

Antoine Tamestit viola & Masato Suzuki harpsichord
Arrangements of BWV 1027-9, and BWV 5iii

Peter Wollny writes the liner notes to these arrangements for viola and harpsichord to make the case for rearranging gamba music for the viola, Bach’s known preferred instrument for ensemble playing. But, apart from the obvious similarities in tessitura and the fun to be had playing the gamba parts on the viola if that is your instrument, there are not many convincing arguments. We can indeed imagine JSB picking up his viola and playing one of these pieces to improve his children’s keyboard skills, but . . . 

One of the casualties of these kinds of arrangement which is perhaps most obvious in the G major BWV 1027 sonata is that the tones of the viola are so luscious that the right hand of the harpsichord – recorded rather more reticently – doesn’t really stand a chance against the viola. This is not a true marriage of equal tones, as it is on a thinner-toned viola da gamba, nor does Tamestit on the ‘Mahler’ Stradivarius of 1672 he was loaned for this recording really display much HIP awareness. It isn’t just the rubati and the fulsome tone: it’s those little give-away tricks like swelling through long notes and giving us a concernedly subservient tone for the ‘less important’ counter-subjects.

The tenor aria BWV 5iii is one of the few that is likely to have a viola obligato; though no instrument is specified the part is written in the alto clef. But however much this is a true trio sonata, the right hand of the harpsichord only becomes a true partner for a few bars at the start of the middle section from bar 69 onwards.

They are both fine players, but not well matched here. They play at A=415, but there is no information on matters like temperament. Viola players may be glad to hear these plausible arrangements, but many listeners will think that Bach’s music is best served by his chosen scoring.

David Stancliffe

 

 

 

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Recording

Schütz: Resurrection of Christ, Ostermotetten

La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken
57:00
Accent ACC 24355

Nine singers, three viol players, an organ and Kuijken, playing both violin and violone, combine to produce a splendid CD of Schütz’s Easter music. As well as the substantial Easter story (SWV 50) there is the early dialogue (SWV 443) and three other pieces that provide more motet-like settings.

By contrast with later conventions, the narrative in SWV 50 is sung against a web of viols which sustain – and occasionally improvise – chords; the effect in Kuijken’s austere but beautiful performance is not unlike a lirone. The hieratic nature of this modal declamation with its repeated and formulaic cadences contrasts with the character parts in the drama, which are almost always sung by duets or sometime trios. Cleopas alone sings with a single line, and one duet is scored with a single voice and a violin. This use of pairs of voices, with their dramatic imitative writing, chromatic harmonies and colourful characterisation bridges the distance between the Italianate world of Monteverdi’s and Grandi’s duet writing and the chamber music of the court at Dresden and Schütz’s own Kleine geistliche Konzerte. 

In chamber music of this style, all depends on the quality of the voices and the intensity of the musicians’ commitment. Both are of the highest quality here. There are no overblown gestures vocally, and no attempts to make the music sound grander with unnecessary doubling or additional instrumental parts. The voices are beautifully balanced and the tenors range from the low to the very haute-contre, blending perfectly. And the convention of using a pair of equal voices to represent the Vox Christi as well as other characters has that magical surprise-factor that two singers give when they join to represent the voice of God in Benjamin Britten’s Abraham and Isaac. The two singers in SWV 443 singing ‘Maria’ or ‘Rabbuni’ produce the same effect. Per contra, the singers in Ich bin die Auferstehung (SWV 464) and Ich weiss dass mein Erlöser lebt (SWV 393) look forward to Johann Michael Bach and the German tradition in the last quarter of the 17th century. What a great deal, geographically as well as temporally, Schütz spanned.

The texts are in German, English and French, and so is the characteristic note by Kuijken. There are no details of the instruments, pitch or temperament, but otherwise this CD is a model of clarity, quality and collaborative musicianship.

David Stancliffe

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Recording

Telemann: Oratorium zur Einweihung der neuen St.Michaelis-kirche 1762

Oratorio for the dedication of the new St.Michael’s Chruch 1762
Rahel Maas, Marian Dijkhuizen, Julian Podger, Klaus Mertens, Mauro Borgioni SmSTBB, Kölner Akademie, Michael Alexander Willens.
71:40
cpo 555 214-2

How fortunate we are to encounter another jewel in the CPO crown! To be able to hear a rather special oratorio following events from Hamburg’s eventful past. This music would probably be on a secret wish list, alone for its splendid panoply of instruments (two corps of three trumpets and drums, plus horns, flutes, oboes etc..), deployed with great inventiveness and impressive musico-pictorial flair; applied too with an ability that belies, defies even, the composer’s advanced age of 81! Added to this are the honed qualities of processional solemnity, religious reflections, and great topographical importance.

Within this fine late work, we find an inspired mind and agile quill wielded with considerable effect. This dedicatory music of just over one hour was placed within a whole series of prayers and readings lasting nearly four! The work in two parts, is split by a stunning instrumental chorale (Track 15) for six trumpets. This special oratorio was written by Joachim Johann Daniel Zimmermann, archdeacon of St.Caherine’s, someone with whom Telemann had already collaborated on several occasions, most notably the John Passion of 1745 (TVWV5:30). The background events to this special piece actually go back 12 years earlier, to the 10th March 1750, when – during a freak, violent storm – the original church was struck by ferocious lightening, hail, snow and rain, the latter seen as particular divine leniency, or possible redemption, dampening the flames, but not preventing the serious destruction of the church. This duality of mixed emotions is caught in the restorative, post-disaster aria (Track 11) “Thus grace and mercy were united” after the vividly portrayed horrors through tracks 7-10. With the wonderful aria (Track 13) the once scattered “flock” returns to the old place of worship. The lengthy (over five minutes) chorale at track 16, is to be sung by one and all of the congregation! This inclusivity is echoed in the finely measured aria (Track 18), “The Amen of your people resounds to your first, in the place consecrated by it!” The resounding “Es schallet” perfectly captured here. Track 20 captures a sense of what this all meant to the faithful Hamburgers to see their beloved and famous (iconic) St. Michaelis Church rise from the ashes and those double-edged lightening strikes; “Shall no adornment be spared…that makes your Hamburg glorious” (again)? In the quite lengthy recitative (Track 21), we hear of the monumental efforts to help bring about the re-building, and also perfectly reflected in the aria (Track 23) expounding the “Tempel” built by love, a labour of love, one could say? The music here has a really delightful, disarming effect, set in supreme contrast to the almost apocalyptic scenes heard before. The superb closing sequence starts with the magnificent aria (Track 27) with some lingering fearfulness of what happened to the previous building, yet exudes a proud sense of steadfastness until the End of days. The final two-verse chorale is adorned with judiciously applied trumpets and drums.

This is, in short, a really top-notch interpretation with Klaus Mertens and all, adding to our understanding of Telemann’s highly productive Hamburg years, through his amazing protean and prismatic musical imagination, tempered by the religious inspirations and impulses of the texts. O how lucky are we to turn a singular musical event into a multiple listening experience at the flick of a switch! Vintage late Telemann to be drunk in!

Just a final remarks:

1. Just the odd little slips in English translation, syntax goes astray (Aria Track 3), “Flock” (Track 13), semantics in line 4 (Aria 20).

2.No mention is given of the horn players? Unless there’s a missing “Horns” for the last named pair of the six trumpeters: Ute Rotkirch, Jaroslav Roucek?

3.Would have liked a touch more brightness in the recorded tone.

4.Booklet notes by Prof. Wolgang Hirschmann are studious and insightful.

David Bellinger

Categories
Recording

Vivaldi: Arie e cantate per contralto

Delphine Galou contralto
Accademia Bizantina, directed by Ottavio Dantone
57:47
Naïve OP30584

Three secular cantatas and eight opera arias, mostly either replacements or from incomplete operas, feature on this splendidly performed but musically uneven recital that is one of two new additions to Naïve’s massive Vivaldi Edition. Much the most satisfying is Cessate, omai cessate (RV 684), a late cantata for alto and strings dating from 1734-5. Superbly dramatic, it opens with an extended highly wrought accompanied recitative structured in three parts, the central one forming a contrasting arioso. The opening aria also brings contrast between barely suppressed unhappiness and the outburst of angst at ‘Ah, sempre più spietata’ (Ah, ever more merciless). The following recitative, a dark night of the soul, is given articulation in a final ‘ombra’-type aria of driving, febrile intensity. It is music that begs for performers able to do justice to its histrionic demands. Here it finds them. Since becoming husband and wife Delphine Galou and Ottavio Dantone have benefited mutually and immeasurably, the singer from her husband’s insistence on the importance of textural communication, while the once rather tense Dantone has noticeably relaxed. The results they achieve in Cessate are electrifyingly symbiotic, every word, every bar speaking of a unity of purpose that projects a profound musical and emotional experience. Listen, for example, in the first aria, to the way already mentioned contrast is handled, Galou’s ‘Ah’, expressive of volumes of pain, the fierce string chords a metaphorical blow to the solar plexus. In the second aria Galou’s inflexion on the words ‘Dorilla, l’ingrata, morire potrò’ (my italics) sear themselves into the mind, as does the wonderfully rounded chest note on the words ‘vendetta faro’ at the conclusion of the B section. This is the pastoral chamber cantata at its most potent and highly developed. A word of praise, too, for the stylish da capo decoration which always remains embellishment rather than the re-writing of the vocal line that too often passes as ornamentation

I’ve concentrated on Cessate to an unusual degree simply because nothing else on the CD comes close to matching it. That is no fault of the performers, who are indeed to be congratulated on making as much as possible of the two occasional cantatas (RV 685 & 686) composed during the period spent in Mantua in the service of the imperial governor, Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt (1718-20). Both are crumbs from Vivaldi’s table, notable for little more than the presence of braying horns in RV 686, symbolic of aristocratic hunting – and obsequious ceremonial.

The notes are by no means of the scholarly standard expected from this series, especially as regards the opera arias. We should have been told that La Candace, composed for Mantua in 1720, is a lost work of which only 11 arias survive, three of which are given here. The most winning is ‘Caro pupille’, charming as to both music and text, and here sung by Galou with affectionate fervour. It is also inaccurate to term Damira’s aria from La verità in cimento (Venice, 1720) ‘positive and reassuring’, since it is neither, being a comic aria with asides of insincere mockery. I assume it was an inserted aria, since although the note-writer informs us it comes from act 2, scene 3, it was not included in the Vivaldi Edition complete recording of La verità. And if you wonder about the unfamiliar Tieteberga (Venice, 1717), it too is now lost, the sole remaining fragment being the indifferent replacement aria recorded here.

In the context of my near-unbounded enthusiasm, a couple of minor caveats must be recorded. Although far less aggravating than at one time, Dantone is not beyond irritating mannerisms, the worst of them the mannered slowing up at cadences. His penchant for fussy continuo and intrusive theorbo twiddles remains annoying. Galou’s formidable technical arsenal would be near complete, were she to develop a proper trill. However, make no mistake – these splendidly performed and vividly communicative performances are streets ahead of what we all too often encounter in this kind of repertoire

Brian Robins

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Recording

J.S. Bach: Das wohltemperierte Klavier , Volume 1

Steven Devine harpsichord
111:19 (2 CDs in a card tryptych)
Resonus RES10239

Steven Devine plays a double-manual harpsichord by Colin Booth from 2000 after an 18th-century Johann Christoff Fleischer original (Hamburg 1710) that he tunes in a version of Kirkberger III, ‘gently modified so as to retain the key colours that make the harpsichord sing so much better, but eliminating any extreme dissonances’.

The distinctive tuning that results can be heard in the opening eight tracks, where the C# major and minor after the C keys sounds delightfully zingy, especially in the great C# minor fugue. Devine spends much of his liner note (where all the quotations from German are idiomatically translated into English) discussing what Wohltemperierte means. The mellow tone of Colin Booth’s harpsichord and Steven Devine’s elegant, unfussy playing make these CDs a delight to listen to. His technique is faultless, his ornaments elegant and the rhythmic playing has give without being mannered. Imitative passages are intelligently articulated and registration is so well chosen that it never obtrudes – it just feels right and how you’d love to be able to play it yourself.

A bonus is the lovely warm acoustic – St Mary’s church, Birdsall in North Yorkshire – and the sensitive recording. The harpsichord sounds caressed rather than hammered and its treble is crystal clear while the bass speaks roundly without being plummy.  This is an altogether delightful pair of CDs, and makes me impatient for the second part. There are other recordings about, including Colin Booth’s own, but Devine’s has a particular seemingly effortless grace, and it’s the one of all I’ve heard in the past ten years that I am happiest to live with.

David Stancliffe