Category: Recording

François Joubert-Caillet, L’Achéron
75:53
Ricercar RIC364

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a sampler for a forthcoming project to record the complete five Livres de Pièces de Violes  of Marin Marais. It has been initiated by Jérôme Lejeune, musicologist and himself an accomplished viola da gambist, familiar through many recordings on the Ricecar label, which he heads. He has commissioned François Joubert-Caillet, and the ensemble L’Achéron, to record them. This introductory disc gives a taste of what we might expect, with a selection of pieces from each of the five books.

It is the second disc by L’Achéron I have heard. The first was a recording of Ludi Musici, a publication of dances by Samuel Scheidt, which I reviewed earlier this year. In that recording François Joubert-Caillet directed the ensemble playing treble viol, in what I felt was a superb performance.

On the evidence of that, and now this recording, he is an outstanding virtuoso and musician. The opening piece, Prélude en Harpegement, from the 5th book (the one in F major) is beautifully played, poised, controlled and wonderfully eloquent. It is followed by a succession of well-known pieces from all five books: L’Arabesque, Le Rêveuse, Feste champêtre, Les Voix humaines, Tombeau pour Mr de Sainte Colombe, 18 tracks in all, most of them familiar from many recordings by so many marvellous players. Couplets de folies  also appears, but in an apparently earlier and shorter version found in an Edinburgh manuscript.

His approach is fairly literal, mostly following Marais’ directions, but free in his approach to tempo, for example in La Guitare, (and thankfully isn’t tempted to pluck any of it). The accompaniments are beautifully played. He is joined by the second bass viol in pieces for two viols from Book I, and the sound is wonderfully full and lush, but always clear.

With such a galaxy of superb recordings from which to choose, why buy this one? Well the playing certainly makes it worth it. He plays with complete technical command, excitingly brilliant in the rapid passages, moods ranging from tenderly lyrical to dramatic, with a great variety of attack. One can only look forward to the progress of the undertaking with great anticipation.
The booklet has a brief essay from the player, and a more extended one from Lejeune. Information about the instruments played is a bit sparse, with nothing about the solo bass viol, and hopefully that will be provided in future as the series is produced over the coming years. It is a mammoth undertaking, and, to my knowledge, if completed, will the first time this has been achieved. Played with this level of insight, sympathy, brilliant virtuosity and eloquence, it promises to be fully worthy of Marais’ wonderful legacy.

Robert Oliver

Les Traversées Baroques
67:56
Chemins du Baroque CDB001

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]ontinuing her mission of bringing to proper prominence the music of 17th-century Poland, Judith Pacquier has teamed up with director Etienne Meyer to showcase the work of Kaspar Förster. The music in this programme is smaller scale, more concentrated and more adventurous than the Mielczewski and the Zielenski of the previous recordings. Förster studied with Carissimi and it is impossible not to hear echoes of the latter’s Jepthe in the harmonic twists in the first psalm Confitebor tibi Domine. The excellent sleeve notes tell us that the introduction of such seconda practica  into the Hanseatic bridgehead of Gdansk gave rise to a “mini Thirty Years War” of musical controversy – only resolved, it seems, when more names were invented to give decent separations between ever more avant-guarde styles. Instrumental styles were also beginning to dominate musical lines, and the singing is suitably virtuosic. In particular, the soprano Anne Magouët creates line, life and energy, totally transcending the coloratura. Instrumental contributions (to both vocal and purely instrumental pieces) involve two cornettinos, two violins, dulcian and gamba. What makes the instrumental playing especially attractive is the fact that within each pair of instruments, each one says the same thing but finds its own voice to say it. (Judith Pacquer and William Dongois, cornettino; Stéphanie Erös and Josèphe Cottet, violin.) This personality, added to wonderful playing, makes the performance particularly engaging. The dulcian of Mélanie Flahaut combines complete fluency with marvellous bounce and life – taking hold of the shape of the music as a whole. There is music that plays with the edges of harmonic possibilities, beautifully shaped lines and a clear concept of the music in performance – recorded with an excellent natural balance and spacing. A gem.

Stephen Cassidy

Musica Antiqua Latina
52:11
deutsche harmonia mundi 88875174822
Music by G. B. Bassani, G. M. Bononcini, Cazzati, Corelli, D. Gabrielli, Torelli, Vitali & anonymous

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]orelli tends to be filed under “Roman” composers; this CD sets out to balance that assumption by contrasting three of his trios (including the Ciaccona that ends his op. 2 set) with music of contemporaries. While I enjoyed a lot of what Musica Antiqua Latina do here, several things irked me, too; the strumming guitar for one, the disconnect with the booklet note for another (lots about Corelli in Bologna, almost nothing about the music we hear), the programme’s sub-title (how can people who lived before or at the same time as Corelli be described as his successors?), the portrait of Sammartini purporting to be Bassani (OK, they have the same Christian names, but that wig is way too modern!), and – to crown it all, at least for me – a Balletto by Vitali in which the three voices play in different meters, except because of the “arty arrangement” (ironic use of language) we never hear it as it was printed in the composer’s op. 13 (Artificii musicali) so we don’t really get the point…

This sort of thing might work very successfully in live performance, so I could perhaps understand its inclusion if this were a DVD release; here it is plain daft. Like a rush of Red Priest to the head. When a group plays so beautifully together (as they do on the majority of this disc), why resort to gimmickery of any sort?

Brian Clark

Theatre of Voices, Paul Hiller
75:27
Da Capo 6.220634

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his recording owes at least something to a concert I heard in Copenhagen when I was there for the annual Renaissance Festival as the organiser’s guest, since I had suggested that they celebrate the 300th anniversary of the death of Christian Geist, who had lived, worked and died in that city. The programme is not quite the same, but there are still two works by Geist on offer: His setting of Dixit Dominus  (by using the Erbe Deutscher Musik edition, they missed out a whole passage of tenor part that had slipped the editor’s notice!) and his “affective” Die mit Tränen säen. Buxtehude similarly is represented by two works: His Gott, hilf mir  and Jesu, meine Freude  are both rightfully well known and their influence on the young J. S. Bach is undeniable! His father-in-law Tunder’s Dominus illuminatio mea  is an impressive piece, indeed, while Bruhns’ bass tour de force, a virtuoso setting of De profundis clamavi, is no less so, and Kaspar Förster (the younger)’s Confitebor tibi Domini  brings a wonderful survey of music with which Buxtehude was most likely familiar to a rousing close. Throughout the singing and playing are of the highest order, and the solo bass also contributes a fine booklet essay, tying all the composers together in a readable narrative. The sung texts are translated into English only, which I don’t suppose will pose much of a problem from the majority of Danes – I wonder how successful it would be the other way around!

Brian Clark