Marcel Ponseele, Il Gardellino
133:29 (2 CDs in a darboard wallet)
Accent ACC 24314
TWV 41:g2, g6, a3; 42:c4, d4, Es3, g5; 43:D7; 51:e1, f2, A12; 53:E1
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a compilation of recordings dating from 1995–2005 and covering the whole gamut of Telemann’s works for solo oboe; sonatas with continuo from various of his published sets, trio sonatas with violin or flute or even obbligato harpsichord, and concertos (including oboe d’more, too). This, of course, is not just any old oboist playing – Ponseele has been recognized as one of the performers on the instrument for many years and these recordings are like a compendium of masterclasses in each of the works involved. Nor are his companions unkown; one the “concerto” disc he is joined by Il Gardellino, while the second disc has Richte van der Meer on cello and Pierre Hantaï on harpsichord, with contributions from Fred Jacobs (in the sonata with obbligato harpsichord and continuo), and Taka Kitazako (oboe) and Per-Olov Lindeke (trumpet) in the rarely heard TWV 43:D7. This is a thoroughly enjoyable set which I have no hesitation in recommending.
Maria Espada, Rachel Redmond, Marta Fumagalli SSA, Ghislieri Choir & Consort, Giulio Prandi
69:59
deutsche harmonia mundi 88985348422 Ah che troppo ineguali, Donna che in ciel, Dixit Dominus
A cracking compilation of three of Handel’s youthful masterpieces, culled from recent live performances in Göttingen, Pavia and Ambronay.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he little-known cantata ‘Donna, che in ciel’ opens the disc; its unusual structure (formal French overture, three contrasting arias, with one of the intervening recitatives ‘accompagnato’ and a final aria with contrapuntal chorus) is convincingly suggested by Juliana Riepe as a ‘calling card’ marking Handel’s arrival in Rome in early 1707. Handelians will recognise several old friends- the first movement of the overture was recycled in Agrippina, whilst the striking semiquaver “vacillation” motif which opens the first aria reappears in the sinfonia to the final scene of Giulio Cesare. The final chorus has some echoes in the Birthday Ode for Queen Anne, and the block chords and bass runs of a certain well-known Coronation anthem also make an early appearance. It is a splendid piece, and must have created a considerable stir in Roman musical circles.
Maria Espada is fully in control in the demanding vocal writing, and can throw off semiquaver runs seemingly effortlessly; she also has the beauty of tone and phrasing to make the lovely second continuo-accompanied aria glow.
She is similarly splendid in the next work, a recitative and aria possible performed by the castrato Pascalino at a ‘spiritual concert’ organised by Cardinal Ottoboni for the feast of the Annunciation later the same year.
The disc concludes with the well-known and dazzlingly-virtuosic ‘Dixit Dominus’, where the excellent Ghisleri choir get a chance to really show off. Giulio Prandi sets uncompromisingly lively speeds, to spine-tingling effect. Try the superb final chorus- the Gloria Patri begins with two contrasting thematic tags, which thrillingly combine with the proper psalm tone in long notes (appropriately ‘as it was in the beginning’). The final ‘Amen’ is an exhilarating repeated-note fugue, which takes the sopranos to high B flats, and has everyone singing their shirts off; the repeated stretti and the seemingly-endless pedal point at the end bring the work (and disc) to a gloriously contrapuntally-satisfying conclusion. The lovely tone and precise passagework of the Glaswegian soprano Rachel Redmond, in her aria ‘Tecum principium’, is also worth watching out for.
The sleeve note is interesting factually, though perhaps a little wayward in translation from time to time.
Bertali, Schmelzer, Biber: Church sonatas
Cappella Murensis, Les Cornets Noirs
71:36
audite 97.539
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is the third recording of Muffat’s only surviving liturigcal work that I know of; Cantus Cölln (the first) filled their disc with Biber’s setting of the Litany for St Joseph and sonatas by Biber and Bertali, then Gunar Letzbor used boys for the upper parts and saw no need to pad out the recording. The present version has women sopranos but is a disc of two halves – the added sonatas (by Biber, Bertali and Schmelzer) are performed in an arch-like sequence after the mass. Audite’s recordings are always of exceptional quality and the principle interest of this recording will be for audio geeks who will be thrilled by the positioning of the five “choirs” in different parts of the abbey in Muri where the sessions were held.
[Video in German, subtitled in English]
Surround sound is available as an HD download. For me, though, the whole thing is slightly phoney since Muffat’s contemporaries can never have heard it in such perfection; quite apart from the fact that the resonance must have been affected by the presence of a congregation and the assembled clergy and royalty (although I don’t think the author quite wants to believe what he is writing, the booklet notes give convincing reasons why the piece was more likely written for Passau than Salzburg; though someone should have checked the date Haydn’s death…), the mass was never intended to be an unbroken sequence, and there would have been other music in the service. That said, these are outstanding performances with the trumpets, cornetti and sackbutts, string band and two vocal choirs resounding splendidly in the space. The sonatas – which, incidentally, illustrate perfectly that Biber’s music did not just happen in a vacuum; he learned a thing or two from both the other composers! – show Les Cornets Noirs at their glorious best.
Weser-Renaissance, Manfred Cordes
68:26
cpo 555 010-2
Förtsch: Ich vergesse was dahinten ist, Unser Leben währet siebenzig Jahr
Michael Österreich: Ich habe einen guten Kampf gekämpfet
Georg Österreich: Plötzlich müssen die Leute sterben, Unser keiner lebet ihn selber
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is the fourth CD that Manfred Cordes and his excellent team has devoted to music in Gottorf. Alongside music by two of the composers already featured there is a very fine work by the more famous Georg Österreich’s older brother, Michael. The opening piece is Förtsch’s lavish “Unser Leben währet siebenzig Jahr” with seven voice parts, four violins, two violas, four gambas, bassoon and continuo! The fact that it survives only in a copy might explain the rather odd passages in some verses of the central aria where the duetting alto and bass occasionally sing in octaves (a fact that the otherwise informative booklet notes fail to mention).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilCisLpkft0
It is followed by the older Österreich’s setting for more modest forces of one of “the standard” funeral texts, “I have fought a good fight”, which reveals the former Thomaner’s considerable skill. The final work – the longest on the disc at over 19 minutes! – adds a pair of oboes to the ensemble. It ends with a “tremolo”-accompanied setting of a verse from “Herzlich tut mich Verlangen” (known to English speakers as “the Passion chorale”). Throughout the singing and playing as excellent, the balance between individual voices and vocal and instrumental groups is well managed, and the sound quality is very high. All in all, another success for this typically enterprising cpo series.
Emmanuelle Guigues viola da gamba
63:00
L’Encelade ECL1404
Schenck, Telemann and J. S. Bach
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]usic for unaccompanied bass viol by Schenck, Telemann, and J. S. Bach is played on a 6-string bass viol, dating from the end of the 17th century, attributed to Edward Lewis, of London. It apparently travelled to America early in its life, and was recently restored in New York by William Monical. It’s worth mentioning all this because the instrument itself has a gorgeous sound, very mellow, and even across its registers. It is played at a= 405, and recorded in an ancient church in the Dordogne. The recording sounds close-miked, albeit in a generous acoustic, but her technique is so clean and her articulation so secure that no extraneous sounds of shifting or too-fast bow-stroke is heard at all.
Further, the repertoire she chooses is particularly demanding – the unaccompanied bass viol is an unforgiving instrument in that any false stroke, any fudged fingering is immediately apparent. As for the music, that of Schenck requires a virtuoso technique, of that there is no doubt, but it needs a care-free approach as well. The two delightful sonatas for unaccompanied viol, Opus IX, L’Echo du Danube, published in his native Amsterdam around 1700, are Italianate in their construction, perhaps owing something to Corelli, but the chordal technique is very similar to that of Christopher Simpson and Marin Marais. Their melodic charm allied to the possibilities offered by the bass viol make them compelling listening, particularly when played as beautifully as she does.
Telemann’s sonata in D major (TWV40:1) is well known and widely recorded, but nowhere better than here. The sonorous acoustic is generous, but the close-miking means that her playing has to be completely clean – there is no concealment in the texture, and it is a superb performance of a very charming and ingenious work.
The Bach 5th suite, transposed to D minor, and played without its prelude, is the final work. She plays it with great insight, and although her approach is literal, she gives a particular flavour to each movement, none more so than the dreamy quality of the final gigue.
This is the third recording of hers that I have heard, and she is undoubtedly an outstanding artist, with a commanding technique, and no need to resort to gimmicky mannerism. Her own excellent notes in the booklet, somewhat awkwardly translated into English, give an enlightening historical context for this repertoire. Highly recommended.
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f the six string quartets completed by Haydn in 1772 and subsequently published as his opus 20 were not quite as radical a development as is sometimes suggested, they do none the less a mark a notable moment in the history of the genre. The name, incidentally, is taken from an early publication featuring an ornate title page headed by a motif of the sun god Apollo.
Among many striking features of the group is the sense of experimentation, not experimentation in the sense of groping one’s way forward trying to work things out, but in a bolder way that for perhaps the first time shows Haydn revelling in the control of the difficult genre he had already done so much to develop. Thus we find him playing with form, perhaps most strikingly in the Adagio of the C-major Quartet (no.2), which is nothing less than a full blown accompanied recitative and seria aria in which the vocal part is taken by the first violin. Or what of the Affettuoso of the first of group, in E flat? Here is one of those sublime cantabile movements that Haydn made so much his own, much of it in stepwise movement redolent of hymn or chant. Yet no hymn or chant ever employed modulation to such magical effect! Or we might turn to the opening Moderato of No. 1, with its first notes suggestive of ‘Where e’re you walk’, but more importantly one of many passages in these quartets where the composer contrasts high against low sonorities, sombreness against brilliance. Many more examples – contrapuntal mastery, for instance – could easily be cited in these quartets in which Haydn constantly surprises, challenges and delights the listener in, to quote the words of the great Haydn scholar H C Robbins Landon, ‘a barely suppressed state of excitement’.
Much the same might be said of these performances by the Chiaroscuro Quartet. I suspect there are no wound strings employed by members of the ensemble, which is not afraid of the nutty rasp of bow on pure gut, something that needs the outstanding technique at the command of these players. Special praise must go to first violinist Alina Ibragimova not only for her negotiation of the at-times high-flying part, but the expressive beauty of her playing in such passages as the second half of the Poco adagio of the G-minor Quartet (No. 3), here matched fully by cellist Claire Thirion. Throughout the Chiaroscuros are equally unafraid of tempo fluctuation, unmarked ritardandi and some daring extremes of dynamic contrast. These may bother some, although to my mind such licence is rarely taken other than for expressive purpose, rather than drawing self-serving attention to the performers. In sum, for me these performances complement the marvellous invention of Haydn in their ability to make the listener hear these quartets in a fresh light. I very much hope the Chiaroscuro Quartet and BIS will bring us the remaining three quartets before too long.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a debut CD from the Japanese-born harpsichordist who trained in Milan. She has recorded a mixed Frescobaldi programme taken from across the two books of Toccatas. It includes six toccatas in which she shows both stylistic awareness and technical fluency. The playing in these can be a bit formulaic, with somewhat exaggerated contrasts between sections and quite a lot of sudden accelerandos, but the rhetorical divisions are clear. The canzonas and gagliardas get lively performances, as does the centre-piece of the programme, the Cento Partite sopra Passacagli. There are two sets of variations which are played more reflectively and perhaps too slowly in the case of the Romanesca set. It is good to have the less-commonly recorded Capriccio sopra La Battaglia which is given a suitably bellicose performance. Yashima plays on a copy by Andrea Restelli of a harpsichord by Gregori of 1726 which is closely and richly recorded. There are informative liner notes by Marco Gaggini. This is a promising debut from a player from whom we can expect more in the future.
Michel Bouvard, François Espinasse organs
65:20
lo dolce vita LDV26
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he French organist André Isoir, who died recently, was noted for his J.S. Bach recordings. Two of his former students, themselves organists of renown, have recorded this disc of his solo transcriptions made from a variety of well-known Bach works including cantata and Mass movements, orchestral suites and concertos. That there seems little or no difference between the two performers here is a tribute to their acknowledged debt to their teacher. Both play with rhythmic vitality and very sympathetic registrations on an organ by Georg Westenfelder in Fère-en-Tardenois, inaugurated by Isoir in 1991. It is ideally suited to these transcriptions and expertly recorded with great clarity. Transcriptions have long been an essential part of the organist’s stock in trade and these are very effective re-interpretations of works which were themselves refashioned and reimagined by the composer. As a collection it would probably be one to dip into from time to time, rather than listening right through, but it is certainly a very enjoyable disc.
Richard Egarr harpsichord
105:33 (2 CDs in a jewel case in a cardboard sleeve)
harmonia mundi HMU 907583.84
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f Julian Perkins’ recent recording gives us the scaled-down soundworld of the clavichord for these suites, Richard Egarr takes full advantage of a large Couchet double-manual harpsichord copy by Joel Katzman to show that they don’t just have to be treated as domestic music. On this recording they emerge very much as public pieces. These are exhilarating performances, sometimes brash (especially in the Courantes), but always convincing.
Tempi can be a bit fast, but the listener is swept along by Egarr’s strong sense of drive and singing lines, and by some constantly innovative ornamentation. They are very personalised readings from a performer who clearly enjoys his playing and, as in his liner notes here, likes to be a bit provocative. Egarr adds in some variant versions of the Menuet and Courante from Suite no. 2 (though unfortunately on the other CD from the Suite itself). This is very stimulating recording and is highly recommended.
Julian Perkins clavichord
125:37 (2 CDs in a jewel case)
Resonus RES10163
+Froberger: Partita No. 2 in d, FbWV 602, Telemann: Suite in A, TWV 32:14
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]aking his cue from the fact that the clavichord was by far the most common instrument for domestic music making and personal practice in Germany, Julian Perkins’ playing makes a persuasive case for recording the French Suites on the clavichord, following on from Thurston Dart’s historic 1961 recording on that instrument. This is impressive clavichord playing, highly intelligent and nuanced, with singing lines and rhythmic security. Voicing and counterpoint are beautifully controlled and repeated sections are judiciously ornamented. Perkins includes the Preludes to Suites 4 and 6 found in some sources. He also frames the suites with Froberger’s Partita no. 2 in D minor FbWV 602 and Telemann’s Suite in A major TWV 32:14 (long erroneously attributed to Bach as BWV 824), acknowledging and adeptly illustrating those composers’ influence on Bach. Perkins plays on two Peter Bavington clavichords, copies of a diatonically fretted c. 1785 instrument by Bodechtel in Nürnberg and an unfretted 18th-century German instrument, probably by Silbermann. In making this recording Perkins has done an important service to both the clavichord and to J. S. Bach. As a different take on these well-known works it can be highly recommended.
