Category: Recording

Christopher Wilke 13 course lute
J. S. Bach, Falckenhagen, Weiss
Barcode: 6 90474 54098 2

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]hristopher Wilke’s CD begins with variations by Adam Falckenhagen on the German chorale “Wer nur den lieben Gott”. The melody begins with simple chords, but it is soon decorated with fast flourishes. There follow passages of broken chords in quavers, semiquavers, triplets, sextuplets, and the piece ends with a dramatic triple suspension. This is the florid world of galanterie, where simple musical ideas are subsumed in excessive decoration.

Next comes J. S. Bach’s Lute Suite BWV995. In the Präludium Wilke adds much ornamentation, and in the Presto he keeps the semiquaver movement going with notes séparées  and the addition of appoggiaturas from above and below. His speed is a modest 152, about the same as Axel Wolf, slower than Andreas Martin and Joachim Held at about 166, and faster than Peter Croton at about 142. A restful Allemande with neatly played ornamentation has Wilke’s own tasteful doubles for the repeats. The Courante is played with distinctly uneven quavers and a few lightly strummed chords. The slowly-played Sarabande is enhanced by Wilke’s doubles for the repeats. In Gavotte 1 there are a few um-chings and a demisemiquaver flourish for the repeat; he takes a steady speed, so that Gavotte 2 has the same pulse with quaver triplets; extra notes are added to the return of Gavotte 1. The Gigue could be crisper if he didn’t clip some of the dotted quavers, but all in all I do like the way he puts his own gloss on this oft-played suite.

There follow Falkenhagen’s extravagant variations on “Nun danket alle Gott”, the well-known hymn “Now thank we all our God”. Ponderous bass notes underpin the melody first with rich chords, and then with variations which become more and more elaborate, until the effect is almost reminiscent of flamenco guitar. It is curious stuff, and certainly takes us a long way from the simplicity of the original Protestant hymn.

The rest of the CD is devoted to music by Silvius Leopold Weiss based on “L’Amant Malheureux”, an allemande by the 17th-century French lutenist, Jacques Gallot. From the Rohrau manuscript is Gallot’s original composition together with a double by Weiss, a Courante, a Fantaisie, and a Gigue variation on “L’Amant Malheureux”. There is an extraordinary wealth of musical ideas here, and the music requires considerable virtuosity from Wilke. From the Paris manuscript (Pn Res Vmc Ms 61) are pieces in G minor: variations by Weiss on “L’Amant Malheureux”, a Courante, and a Gavotte. Finally, from the London manuscript (Lbl Add. Ms 30387), another variation by Weiss on Gallot’s allemande. In his liner notes Wilke suggests that Gallot’s piece must have been important for Weiss, for him to have used it so much as a basis for his own compositions. Wilke confesses that Weiss’s gloss on Gallot helped him through a difficult time in his own life.

Stewart McCoy

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Claire de Sévigné soprano, Maria Soulis mezzo-soprano, Aradia Ensemble, Kevin Mallon
59:48
Naxos 8.573324
RV604, 606, 607, 627, 628, 631, 633

My first reaction to this CD was one of surprise. In a world packed with unperformed Baroque music, it is surprising to come across what I assume is yet another complete account of the sacred music of Antonio Vivaldi. So what do these Canadian performers bring to Vivaldi’s music which would necessitate another complete account of his church music? Well this CD is a testimony to the healthy state of period playing and singing in Canada. Claire de Sévigné’s singing in In turbato mare irato  is spectacular – effortlessly virtuosic throughout the wide range it demands and beautifully sweet-toned. Her fellow soloist Maria Soulis has a fine warm mezzo-soprano voice, which has uncanny elements of the male alto about it. The playing and singing of the Aradia Ensemble, which turns out to embody a chorus as well as a string orchestra, is concise and delicate and under the direction of Kevin Mallon the performers demonstrate a profound understanding of Vivaldi’s oeuvre. The fact is that these performances are very persuasive indeed, and if somebody is to commit the complete sacred Vivaldi to disc, these are probably the best people to choose. For Vivaldi fans these are crisp fresh accounts of familiar repertoire, for those unfamiliar with Vivaldi’s vast sacred output other than the ubiquitous Gloria  there are many delights in store, while for the parsimonious a new complete account of Vivaldi’s sacred music has its own delights. If I am stretched to answer my own original question about what these performances add to the sum of human knowledge about Vivaldi, the high standard of the singing and playing can only delight.

D. James Ross

Roberta Invernizzi, Silvia Frigato, Krystian Adam, Thomas Bauer SSTBar, La Risonanza, Fabio Bonizzoni dir
61:44
Glossa GCD 921517

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]ecent years have produced no greater aural pleasure than La Risonanza’s on-going series of Handel’s vocal chamber works. Here they turn their attention to one of the most neglected genres in his output, the vocal duets and trios with continuo accompaniment. Checking back, I was amazed to find that it is now 30 years since the delightful Hungarian soprano Mária Zádori and alto Paul Esswood produced a splendid two-CD set including eleven duets. Since that was for a different vocal disposition, there are no duplications with the new disc, the contents of which are two trios and nine duets composed during or (in one case) possibly just before Handel’s Italian sojourn (1707-1709).

At the time Handel visited Italy the vocal duet was popular as a sophisticated chamber form cultivated by composers such as Steffani. I find several aspects of the youthful Handel’s contribution to it quite remarkable, perhaps above all in his realisation of dramatic possibilities not necessarily inherent in texts largely concerned with the vagaries of love. He achieves this by adopting a flexible approach quite different from the formalism of the chamber cantatas. There are no da capo  arias, the text being treated in sections in ways that seem to take their cue from the words. Take, for example, ‘Va, speme infida’ (HWV 199) (Go, treacherous hope, be off), for two sopranos. It opens, as suggested by the text, driven by a strong running bass and rapid imitative passaggi  between the voices. ‘Tu baldanzosa’ (You told my heart in a conceited manner) brings a new idea, with a slower dotted rhythm, still with much imitative passaggi  but now also introducing lovely floated cantabile writing. At the word ‘Ma’ (but) that starts line 4, the pause after it brings a striking moment of rhetoric, before continuing the fervid sentiment (‘if having been a liar to no avail’) in more declamatory, increasingly accusatory mode before almost imperceptibly text and music slip back to the opening to create a satisfying and thoroughly logical cyclical form. The whole effect is both musically and dramatically masterful. I’ve chosen to discuss this one duet in detail as an illustration of Handel’s extraordinarily confident handling of the form, but most of the others could be discussed in similar fashion. The pair of trios add not only an extra voice, but also an extra dimension, demonstrating the composer’s mastery of counterpoint in writing of madrigalian complexity and sensitivity. ‘Se tu non lasci amore’ (HWV 201) (Too well do I know that if you do not give up love), for which we have a rare specific date and place of composition (Naples, 12 July 1708), is scored for two sopranos and bass, the contrast of vocal gamut skilfully exploited in intricately interwoven lines. The text, which speaks of the anguish of the separated lover, lends itself to writing that involves such an unusually high degree of chromaticism and dissonant suspensions that it inspires the note writer to the unlikely theory that it was composed in homage to Gesualdo, himself of course Neapolitan.

As might have been predicted, the performances are very much a match for the interest and high quality of the music. Roberta Invernizzi has been one of the mainstays of the series, but her customary musical insight and gloriously free tone is here matched keenly by Silvia Frigato and Thomas Bauer, their performance of the bewitching ‘Tacete, ohimè, tacete! (HWV 196) (Cease, oh, be still), a plea not to disturb the sleeping Amor, bringing some exquisite mezza voce  singing and forming one of the highlights of the CD. The excellent tenor Krystian Adam gets only one duet with Invernizzi, ‘Caro autor di mio doglia’ ((HWV 182) (Dearest author of my pain), but that too is exceptional, the one unadulterated love duet. Again the structure is interesting, with a high point of ecstatic fervour at the declamation ‘O lumi! O volto! O luci! O labbro! (O enlightenment! O countenance! O eyes! O lips!). It will come as no surprise to those who’ve followed the series to learn that Bonizzoni’s support is as unobtrusively musical as ever. If that sounds like faint praise, it is not meant to be; his refusal to strive for superfluous effect is one of his greatest assets, not to mention a rare one. Reservations? Very few, but critical duty demands mention of Invernizzi’s tendency to sing too loudly in her upper register, and I felt the singers were a little parsimonious with ornamentation. But that is Beckmesser-ish carping in the context of what is unquestionably one of the best discs of 2015. A joy of a CD!

Brian Robins

Sergio Azzolini, L’Onda Armonica
68:40
naïve OP 30551
Tesori del Piemonte  vol. 59
RV469, 473, 491, 492, 498 & 500

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hese six bassoon concertos once again contradict the oft-paraphrased oversimplification that the composer wrote “one concerto 600 times”. Framed by works in C major, there are two more in A minor (including my favourite of Vivaldi’s 39 solo concertos for the instrument, RV498) and one each in F and G major. In live performance, I have previously written in these pages, Sergio Azzolini can be rather distracting in his means of communicating with his audience, but through the medium of digital music I am spared that visuals and can luxuriate in the warmth of his tone, especially in the lyrical central movements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnkY8iT69Po

In the faster outer ones, yes, Vivaldi relies on the building blocks of ritornello form, but he had the great advantage over most of his contemporaries of writing really ear-catching melodies in the first place, and when it comes to writing virtuosically for the soloist, he has few – if any – rivals. L’Onda Armonica (44221 strings with plucker – with an array of different instruments at his disposal – and keyboardist) are more than “accompaniment”; just listen to the opening of RV498 (Track 7 – Azzolini imagines it representing a snow-covered Venetian winter!) as a sample of their layered dynamics and careful phrasing. This is a fabulous CD and I shall enjoy returning to it often.

Brian Clark

NeoBarock
73:35
Ambitus amb 96 980
Johann Baal: Sonata in A minor (Möller)
Biber: Partias IV & VI ex Harmonia artificiosa-ariose
Mayr: Trio sonata in D minor, Solo sonata in D (Ries)
Erlebach: Sonata Terza in A
Kerll: Sonata in F
Schmelzer: Sonata in F

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen one has seen performers live in concert it impacts on how one listens to and hears a recording. While the concert I heard was of music by Fasch and Stölzel, yet the contagious enthusiasm and excitement they brought to it is clearly audible in this foray into the kaleidoscopic world of the stylus fantasticus. Where recent recordings have focussed on one violin, or a violin in dialogue with gamba, here the repertoire is for two “treble instruments” (I have to tread carefully in case pedants object to me calling a viola treble!) and continuo. Both players (Volker Möller, whose excellent booklet notes include an obituary of the almost unknown Johann Baal, a cleric who unfortunately came to an unsavoury end when he used a door that led to a cliffside…) are equally at home on the scordatura version of their instruments; Möller notes how Schmelzer uses such different scordaturas for the two violins that the work sounds like a sonata for viola and violino piccolo. With all the intricacy going on in the melody parts, NeoBarock wisely limit their continuo section to cello and either harpsichord or organ, and their simple accompaniments provide the perfect backdrop. The booklet and casing are decorated by an original artwork by Gerhard Richter, for which the performers express their thanks; I would like to express my thanks to all concerned for a fabulous hour’s entertainment.

Brian Clark