Category: Recording

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

Les Amis de Philippe, Ludger Rémy
59:38
cpo 777 780-2

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s the exploration of the contents of the so-called Schranck II collection at the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden continues, the focus shifts to the wealth of anonymous material there. A convolute labelled Mus. 2-Q-21 contains a trio sonata attributed to Telemann and a “set” of seven quartets for flute, violin, bass and continuo. Their uniformity suggests that they were all written by the same composer, and some have suggested that the only likely candidate to have produced such a set is Telemann. In his booklet note, Rémy insists that the identity of the composer is not as important as its quality, but there is no explanation why the fourth of the set is not included; since Radio Bremen is credited as a production partner, perhaps the programme was tailored to fit a particular slot in their broadcasting schedule, but surely time could have been found to record the missing work. I have similar reservations about the choice to record the seventh piece in an arrangement (albeit “after Dresden models”) by Rémy for two harpsichords (in which he is partnered by Ketil Haugsand); I would far rather have a separate disc of such duets from the same collection. The cello is only sometimes independent of the bass (I’m not sure quite why two are played on viola da spalla and three on violoncello, and I’m not entirely convinced that a violone is required in addition to the other two…) Whether it is by Telemann or not, the music is enjoyable and I hope someone will produce editions of it so others can explore it.

Brian Clark