Category: Recording

Kammerorchester Basel, Julia Schröder
66:35
deutsche harmonia mundi 889853155927
Music by Alberti, Colonna, Laurenti, Perti, Torelli, Zavateri & anon

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t has to be said that the title of this CD is slightly misleading. 1666 is the date of the foundation of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna but, as only the oldest of the composers represented was an adult at the time and two of them weren’t even born yet, the date is something of a red herring. The CD explores the music of a group of ground-breaking Bolognese composers, who – with a couple of exceptions – have sunk completely into obscurity. Giuseppe Torelli is perhaps the only one of them more generally known today, and that largely for his music with trumpets. This selection of sinfonias and violin concertos certainly demonstrates how radically original and ahead of their time the composers of the Accademia were, and Julia Schröder’s beautiful violin playing in the latter brings this obscure bygone age to vibrant life. Giovanni Colonna, Giuseppe Alberti (not he of the bass), Giacomo Perti, Girolama Laurenti and Lorenzo Zavateri deserve to be more than names in an archive register, and it is indeed surprising, and a sign of the embarrassment of riches available in Baroque Italy, that their instantly attractive music has been so comprehensively forgotten. The dynamic, precise and idiomatic playing of the Basel musicians on their baroque instruments is a major factor in the attraction of this disc.

D. James Ross

Vespro della Beata Vergine 1650
La Capella Ducale, Musica Fiata, Roland Wilson
82:02
deutsche harmonia mundi 8-89853 75132-7
+Grandi, Neri & Rigatti

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hese experienced performers present a fascinating reconstruction of Marian Vespers using the posthumous Vincenti 1650 publication of Monteverdi’s late motets. As they assert in the notes, this music deserves to be as well known as the 1610 vespers music, and perhaps by drawing it together into a putative Vespers service and juxtaposing it with music by Monteverdi’s less famous but equally sparkling successors Rigatti, Neri and Grandi they have gone some considerable way to increase its popularity. If we could have wished for a very slightly more resonant acoustic, these are beautiful performances sung and played with the assurance that comes from specializing in this type of repertoire for several decades. I am sure I have heard most of the Monteverdi pieces before, but hearing them in this new context added to their impact, and the works by Giovanni Rigatti, beautifully sung by Georg Poplutz and Dominik Wörner, further added to the already high estimation in which I hold this sadly overshadowed composer. A work I had certainly never heard was Monteverdi’s remarkable six-part Laetania della beatae Vergine  which concludes the recording. It’s wonderfully looping phraseology and inventive setting were an entirely suitable way to conclude this ground-breaking and very generously filled CD.

D. James Ross

Francesco Galligioni, L’Arte dell’Arco
73:56
Brilliant Classics 95346

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he programme notes for this CD are probably correct to dispel any doubts that these pieces are the work of Vivaldi – while he is not known to have played the cello, we know that he wrote idiomatically for a plethora of other instruments he probably didn’t play, and the music displays the master’s unerring sense of melody and motivic development. Galligioni’s playing is wonderfully passionate and he is ably and inventively supported by his continuo group using violone, organs, harpsichord and lute in a variety of imaginative permutations. While the fiery allegros with the soloist’s wonderfully bravura and yet gritty playing are terrifically exciting, it is in the more lyrical slow movements that the ensemble reaches considerable heights of expressiveness. I occasionally felt that the recording was a little ‘close’ for comfort, but at the same time there is a pleasant after-bloom which emphasizes the tone of the baroque cello. Fresh from recording the Vivaldi cello concertos, Galligioni is absolutely steeped in the idiom of Vivaldi’s cello writing and surmounts the technical challenges of these sonatas with consummate ease.

D. James Ross