Category: Recording

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

Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen
70:35
Hyperion CDA68093

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the general context of current programming styles it feels odd to have a disc which offers two quite unconnected groups of pieces. I must say that I would have preferred to hear L’Apothéose  in the context of other instrumental music and, especially, the famous Leçons  in the company of other petits motets  by Couperin. There are some brilliant examples out there which really are too little sung. Anyway, back to what actually happens. The concert instrumental  is most beautifully played by the strings, with loving attention given to every detail but with no sense of tip-toeing from note to note. I liked having the movements’ titles spoken though they could have been very slightly slower and at a very slightly higher level. The only element that jars is the combination of lute and harpsichord on the continuo. This is just too much and is at times an over-active distraction from the simple nobility of the upper parts. I’m afraid that I did not enjoy the Leçons  quite as much. Others may not be as disturbed by the singers’ vibrato: I would have liked less so that the ornaments, especially the trills, were clearer and more special adornments to the line. In the booklet, Graham Sadler’s elegant note appears in English, French and German though artists’ biographies are in English only, as are the translations of the sung Latin texts.

David Hansell

Hana Blažíková soprano, Accentus Austria, Thomas Wimmer
57:18
deutsche harmonia mundi 8 89854 11892 1

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]lassy programme, classy music, very classy performances – pretty much ideal, in fact. Hana Blažíková controls her vibrato so that we hear clearly the perfectly pitched core of her tone, which thus becomes both an apt companion and a contrast to the cleanly played violins. And the music is very attractive: Fux could really do it, not just write about it. The only disappointment is that all the vocal items are accompanied by chamber-scaled forces: it would have nice to have at least one with the larger forces which were deployed on important occasions in the imperial chapels. The booklet (Ger/Eng) essay would have benefited from a fiercer copy editor – the English does occasionally read like a translation – though the content is good. I’m quite surprised that our editor passed this on!

David Hansell