Category: Recording

Cappella Musicale di S. Barbara, Umberto Forni
67:02
Tactus TC 541801

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his a live concert recording (complete with audience presence and applause at the end) of a five-part mass by Rovigo, using the composer’s complete instrumental canzonas and two motets to create a semblance of a liturgical reconstruction. The live nature of the recording means that there is a fair amount of background and occasionally foreground noise, in the manner of a you-tube video, as well as a couple of fluffed notes, but the structure of the programme and the generally excellent standard of the performance as well as the rarity of the music meant that I found it easy to overlook these shortcomings. As not a single note of Rovigo’s organ music has survived, the performance opens with a flamboyant Toccata by Merulo, but after that the music is all Rovigo’s, and of a consistently high standard. Regarded in his lifetime as on a par with Monteverdi, while the latter’s stock has inexorably risen the former has sunk into obscurity, and this CD is a useful reminder of the ‘lesser’ composers of the second half of the 16th century. The five-part Missa Dominicalis  is a work of imagination and considerable musicality, while the lighter canzonas are also delicately inventive. He was employed at the sumptuous court of Mantua, being headhunted temporarily by the Duke of Bavaria, who also supported a musical establishment of considerable prestige. Clearly Rovigo was greatly valued in his own lifetime, and the present engaging cross-section of his work shines a useful spotlight on this forgotten figure. The CD ends with an impressive eight-part polychoral setting of Laudate Dominum, suggesting that there may be a further wealth of unexplored material awaiting modern performance.

D. James Ross

Magnus Staveland Imeneo, Ann Hallenberg Tirinto, Monica Piccinini Rosmene, Fabrizio Beggi Argenio, Cristiana Arcari Clomiri, Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi
114:51 (2 CDs in a wallet)
Glossa GCD 923405

[dropcap]A[/dropcap] most interesting issue. Hymen’ ‘a new Serenata’, was one of the works which Handel took with him on his famous visit to Dublin in 1742. It is a rewriting of his penultimate opera Imeneo, which had received its (unsuccessful) London premiere in November 1740, following an unusually long (for Handel) gestation, having been begun originally in September 1738. For Dublin, Handel shortened the opera, omitting one character almost entirely, and rewrote the parts of Imeneo (bass) and Tirinto (alto castrato) for tenor and female contralto respectively. Two duets, both for Rosmene with Tirinto, were added. The plot concerns Rosmene’s choice between two suitors – Imeneo, who has saved her life, and Tirinto, whom she loves, and who loves her in return. After some prevarication (including an impressive and emotionally equivocal mad scene) she dutifully chooses Imeneo; remarkably, however, Handel stresses her doomed love with Tirinto, and the moralising final chorus, which follows their prolonged farewell duet, is in the minor key.

The music is consistently charming, and often much more. Alert Handelians will notice echoes from Saul  and Messiah, both of which were composed while Imeneo was in gestation.

The principal part, despite the title, is that of Tirinto, which was sung (in travesti) by Mrs Cibber, who was clearly a favourite of Handel’s. The ever-reliable Anne Hallenberg does it full justice, with warm tone and unshakeable technique. Try her Act 1 ‘Se potessero’ (CD 1 track 5), and prepare to be charmed. Rosmene, probably originally sung by Cristina Avoglio, is Monica Piccinini; her bright soprano blends well with Hallenberg in their two duets (the last, originally from Sosarme, is particularly beautiful) and she brings considerable dramatic flair to her splendid Act 3 accompagnato. Imeneo is sung by tenor Magnus Staveland – his ‘Sorge nell’alma mia’, with its echoes of ‘Why do the Nations’, is suitably exciting, and he blends well with Rosmene and Tirinto in the marvellous trio which concludes Act 2. Fabrizio Beggi’s rich bass makes an excellent Argenio, and the few remaining bars left to Clomiri are ably sung by Cristiana Arcari.

Europa Galante are one of Europe’s top ‘original instrument’ ensembles, and are on cracking form, responding with great panache to Fabio Biondi’s lively direction. The edition used has clearly been given much thought; in his excellent sleevenote Biondi reasonably suggests, for example, (by analogy with the first Messiah  performances) that Handel did not have woodwind players in Dublin, and omits them here.

Hymen was probably the last Handel opera to be conducted by the composer himself (on 31st March 1742); it is admirably recreated here!

Alastair Harper

Terry Wey alto, Marie Friederike Schöder soprano
Batzdorfer Hofkapelle
71:16
Accent ACC 24309

[dropcap]L[/dropcap]argely thanks for Reinhard Goebel, Heinichen’s instrumental and orchestral music is fairly well known; similarly, Carus-Verlag’s series devoted to his masses has brought that repertoire to wider notice. The present disc sets out to explore yet another facet of the composer’s extensive output, his chamber cantatas. As well as one piece for alto obbligato theorbo and continuo dating from the composer’s time in Venice, the vocal works (one each for soprano and alto, plus a duet cantata) feature pairs of oboes and recorders (never simultaneously), strings (once without violas) and continuo.

The singers could not really be more different. Terry Wey is secure throughout his range, with some stylish ornamentation; Marie Friederike Schöder on the other hand, though she has a genuinely lovely voice, really struggles with some of Heinichen’s writing – in some places she even introduces what one of my friends used to call “notes of indeterminate pitch and duration” as she is tries her best to negotiate the leaps and bounds demanded of her.

The instrument contribution is delightful. Batzdorfer Hofkapelle (33211 strings with the winds, threorbo and harpsichord) play very nicely, and the two soloists (oboe suprema Xenia Löffler and Daniel Deuter on violin) have style in buckets; two “Vivaldian” three-movement concertos by the Dresden-based composer are perfect vehicles for their talents. Interestingly both survive only in sources at Darmstadt, showing how close the links between the two exceedingly musical courts (and their Leipzig-educated employees!) were at that time.

One grey mark for Accent – the texts are only translated from Italian into German, without so much as an internet link to French or English versions. Otherwise, with the one caveat touched on above, this is an enjoyable recital of music that definitely deserves to be better known.

Brian Clark