Category: Recording

LOQUEBANTUR: Music from the Baldwin partbooks

Post author By EMR2015
Post date November 4, 2015
No Comments on LOQUEBANTUR: Music from the Baldwin partbooks

The Marian Consort, conducted by Rory McCleery. The Rose Consort of Viols, led by John Bryan.
66:12
Delphian DCD34160

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his superb disc manages to be both rewarding and frustrating: rewarding, because of the fine performances and excellent repertory; frustrating, because so many of the pieces are already available in equally distinguished recent versions, leaving other material from John Baldwin’s partbooks awaiting commercial recordings. On the one hand, it can be argued that there cannot be too many recordings of the title track, Tallis’s Loquebantur variis linguis, the luminous Whitsun Respond in seven parts which survives only in manuscript. On the other hand, the two motets by William Mundy on this disc, Adolescentulus sum ego and Adhaesit pavimento, are available in equally fine performances by Magnificat on “The Tudors at Prayer” (Linn CKD 447), while Sive vigilem by the variously spelt Derrick Gerarde (who with a name like that nowadays would be playing in goal for Tranmere Rovers) is on Signum Classics’ first disc of music from the Baldwin Partbooks “In the Midst of Life” sung superbly by Contrapunctus (SIGCD408). It all raises the question as to whether the putative purchaser would wish to own all these recordings, or would stick with just one. The latter would be a serious misjudgement because, despite the overlapping contents, all three consist of wonderful music, at least some of it not duplicated elsewhere; on the disc under review, one such work is the premiere recording of the Canon 6 in 1 by Byrd, played by The Rose Consort. These days Byrd premieres are few and far between, so this item is valuable discographically, but it is also valuable in its own right as an intriguing and delightful piece of music. It is followed appropriately by Byrd’s early motet O salutaris hostia whose violent discords are triggered by its complicated canonical construction. The Marian Consort’s interpretation does not begin as assertively as that of The Cardinall’s Musick (ASV CD GAU 178) but by the end is singeing listeners’ eardrums.

Another premiere recording is Christian Hollander’s Dum transisset Sabbatum which, despite possible first impressions, should emphatically not be dismissed as mere Franco-Flemish note-spinning. Concluding the disc is a work seldom recorded, but which becomes more remarkable as it proceeds, and which then compounds that remarkableness in subsequent hearings: this is John Sheppard’s Ave maris stella, a selection all the more welcome during what is being regarded as his quincentenary. Finally, multiple recordings have helped me out of one particular quandary. Hitherto I have been unable to decide whether I think that Taverner’s sublime six-part piece Quemadmodum, which survives with the Latin title but no text, was intended by the composer as a work for instruments or voices. Comparing the brisk performance on this disc by The Rose Consort with the more leisurely performances by Contrapunctus and Magnificat on the discs mentioned above, has convinced me that Taverner intended it as a vocal setting of Psalm XLII. For example, the sonority at the first appearance (in the modern edition) of the words “ad te Deus” is far more successful when sung; and the musical phrase accompanying the words (again in the modern edition) “et apparebo” sounds much more like a phrase that would be set to words (even if not these) rather than one composed for instruments. In summary, this is a superb disc, and however many pieces from it one might possess on other recordings, its outstanding performances, wonderful repertory and profound interpretations justify its purchase, without hesitation.

Richard Turbet

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Tags Renaissance

Recording

Luys Milán: El Maestro, Libro 1 (1536)

Post author By EMR2015
Post date November 4, 2015
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José Antonio Escobar vihuela de mano
66:05
Naxos 8.573305

[dropcap]L[/dropcap]uys Milán’s El Maestro (1536) was the first of seven books of vihuela music published in the 16th century. The first nine pieces are fantasias, in modes 1-4, not too hard to play, and graded according to difficulty. There follow nine fantasias with redobles (running passages) exploring all eight modes, four fantasias in modes 5-8, and six pavanas, the last of which is in triple time. José Antonio Escobar plays all the solo music in the order in which it appears in the source, and plans another CD to cover the rest of El Maestro (Libro 2). Milán’s music has an improvisatory feel, and he seems to enjoy the repetition of little motifs or riffs, which may be heard in more than one piece. In bars 73 and 77 of Fantasia 19, there is an extraordinary throw-back to earlier times with a double-leading note chord. There are some curious changes of harmony, such as the unexpected shift from major to minor in bar 15 of no. 3.

Escobar’s playing is clear and expressive, and he creates a variety of moods from the lively to the slow and reflective. He adds his own ornaments sparingly – an upper mordent here and a lower mordant there – and a flourish in the repeat of Pavana 1. He articulates chords to good effect, for example in Fantasia 19. He sounds fine when he keeps the rhythm steady, and he has a nicely paced ending to Fantasia 7, but sometimes he has a jerky way of playing – accelerating through fast passages – which creates a feeling of instability and unease. Milán advises playing fast notes extra fast, but he doesn’t invite a drastic change of speed within each phrase. Dotted minims tied over the barline are clipped in no. 3, also adding to the effect of stumbling forward. Escobar strums a few chords in the final track, but the momentary uplift from that, is spoilt by rushing the fast notes (minims).

Nine bars from the end of the second fantasia there is a serious mistake which has slipped through the editing net: instead of a chord consisting of just two E flats and B flat, Escobar catches the fourth course, adding a minor third, yet if a full triad had been desirable, a major chord would have been appropriate. The same rogue G flat can be heard in bar 83 of no. 3, bar 70 of no. 7, and bars 107, 165, 178 and 191 of no. 19. Rather than risk this happening, one might be tempted to hold down a G at the 2nd fret of the 4th course, so if the wrong string is sounded, at least the resultant major chord wouldn’t be so bad. However, the way to avoid G flat sounding at the fourth course, is to stop the second and third courses with the first finger of the left hand as if an open 1st course were needed, rather as a violinist would for stopping a perfect fifth, and not use a full barré across all the strings at the first fret.

For the final cadence of no. 4, I would dampen the open 6th course of the dominant chord before playing the final chord with the open 5th course in the bass. Escobar lets the 6th course ring on, producing a second inversion for the last chord – interesting, because in no. 5 he does dampen the string for a clearly stated final chord.

Escobar’s vihuela was made by Julio Castaños from Málaga, and is tuned to G at A=415. It has a clear, bright sound, which suits the music well.

Stewart McCoy

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Tags Renaissance

Recording

Mirare BARGAINS!

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ith only weeks to go until Christmas, Mirare has release four wonderful collections by grouping oustanding recordings from their back catalogue.

In no particular order, they are:

A 3 disc set from La Rêveuse consisting of recitals of Purcell (songs and chamber music, 60:00), Sébastien de Brossard (sacred and secular vocal music and a sonata in C, 64:00) and Henry Lawes (“ayres” for tenor and instrumental music, 69:00).

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Three fabulous discs from the Ricercar Consort, directed by Philippe Pierlot: an immense disc of Bertali instrumental music (80:00!), another featuring Purcell’s Fantazias and In nomines (61:00), and finally François Couperin’s Apothéoses (with texts spoken by François Morel) coupled with Rebel’s Tombeau de Monsieur de Lully (67:00).

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A second set by the Ricercar Consort sandwiches a disc of primarily vocal music by Matthias Weckmann (79:00) between two discs of Bach, the first coupling his oboe d’amore concerto and Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten with Handel’s harp concerto and Tra le fiamme with soprano Nuria Real (64:00), the second of cantatas (BWV 63, 110 & 151, 68:00).

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The fourth set combines a Bach instrumental CD (BWV21 (sinfonia only), 1017, 1066 & 1069, 69:00) directed by Pierre Hantaï with a disc on which he plays arrangements of Rameau’s orchestral music for two harpsichords with Skip Sempé (75:00).

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All of the discs were well received in the pages of the printed Early Music Review, and this chance to grab them at a bargain price should not be missed!

Brian Clark

Tags Baroque

Recording

Bach: a Violino e Cembalo

Post author By EMR2015
Post date November 1, 2015
No Comments on Bach: a Violino e Cembalo

Erich Höbarth violin, Aapo Häkkinen harpsichord
119:35 (2 SACDs)
Aeolus AE10236
BWV 1014–1019, 1021–1023

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a fabulously recorded set – you can hear every detail of the music without the slightest hint of breathing or other incidental sounds. The balance between violin and harpsichord (huge dynamic range afforded by the variety of sounds available to Häkkinen notwithstanding!) is expertly managed. Bach’s lines are crystal clear throughout without the excessive bite that sometimes spoils recordings of Bach’s music for this combination. While Aapo Häkkinen explores every facet of his 1970 instrument (after Hass[note]He also uses a 2011 copy of Italian models for BWV 1021, 1022[/note]), I did not feel that Höbarth was as interested in varying his colour so much. Another difference of approach was evident in the Adagio of BWV1017 where the right hand keyboard part has triplets, the left hand has even quavers and the violin dotted quavers; while Häkkinen smooths these into triplets, Höbarth tucks his semiquavers in after the third of each group. This may be an interesting effect musically, but I fear it was not what Bach intended. While there is no denying that he is master of Bach’s notes, I was not entirely convinced by Höbarth’s ornamentation either. The thoroughly footnoted booklet essay only lightly touches on the possibility of BWV 1023 having been written for Pisendel, later the Dresden Konzertmeister. In summary, this set has a fine bonus by way of three other sonatas for violin and harpsichord (some may argue that BWV 2012 and 1023 need basso continuo – i. e., a sustaining string bass), and the harpsichord playing is impeccable, but I prefer the sounds made by various other violinists. Try for yourself, though!

Brian Clark

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Tags Baroque

Recording

Seasons

Oliver Davis, Antonio Vivaldi
Kerenza Peacock violin, Grave Davidson soprano, Trafalgar Sinfonia, Ivor Settlefield
62:16
Signum Records SIGCD437

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is an interesting disc, combining Vivaldi’s most famous violin concertos with a new orchestral song cycle entitled “Anno” by Oliver Davis (b. 1972) setting the the Italian sonnets that were printed in the Op. 8 partbooks in which the “Four Seasons” were published. Grace Davidson’s pure voice combines well with the Trafalgar Sinfonia’s largely vibrato-less string sound, and the rhythmic vitality and neo-Baroque style of Davis’s writing lend the cycle an easy instant accessibility.

BBC Radio 3’s CD Review programme the other day had several versions of the Vivaldi works (including solo organist and gypsy violinist!) and I would say the present recording lies halfway along the spectrum from HIP to wacky (although, to be honest, that doesn’t make allowance for several “wacky HIP” crossovers, which I would rather did not exist…) – Kerenza Peacock is an accomplished violinist, and she is mostly very well accompanied; I’m afraid I just did not hear anything new in these performances. Of course, the whole premise of the disc is to contextualize the Davis composition; actually, I think I would have preferred to hear more of his music.

Brian Clark

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Tags Baroque, Modern

Recording

Mozart: Opera Arias & Overtures

Post author By EMR2015
Post date November 1, 2015
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Elizabeth Watts Soprano, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, directed by Christian Baldini
61″
Linn Records CKD460
Music from La clemenza di Tito, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, La finta giardiniera, Idomeneo & Le nozze di Figaro

Ian Graham-Jones

[]

[wp-review]

Tags Classical, Opera

Recording

Aufschnaiter: Memnon sacer ab oriente (Vesper op. 5)

Post author By EMR2015
Post date November 1, 2015
No Comments on Aufschnaiter: Memnon sacer ab oriente (Vesper op. 5)

St Florian Sängerknaben, Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor
52:49
Pan Classics PC 10349
+Hugl: Organ works

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hy do musicians have to make outrageous claims for lesser-known composers? Referring to Aufschnaiter as “the Catholic Bach” is not what I would consider helpful in trying to raise the public profile of a composer whose music need only be given air time to acquire his own fan base. Anyone who goes out and buys this CD, expecting to be amazed by fabulous music they cannot believe they have never heard before is likely to be disappointed; neither by the music, nor the performances, I hasten to add, as both are perfectly enjoyable and uplifting. The programme is built around of the first of two sets of Vespers psalms published as his op. 5 of 1709, four years after he succeeded Georg Muffat as Kapellmeister in Passau. I love the sense of big open space and the combination of trumpets and sackbutts with a small vocal group (as is Letzbor’s wont) with a finely balanced string ensemble. I really would prefer just to hear the music on its own merits – it has plenty and they are gloriously realised here!

Brian Clark

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Tags Baroque

Recording

Haydn: The Creation

Sarah Tynan, Jeremy Ovenden, Matthew Brook STB-Bar, Handel and Haydn Society, Harry Christophers director
98:15 (2 CDs)
Coro COR16135

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n an era when creationism is generally regarded solely as the province of a few eccentrics, Haydn’s great oratorio is surely a deeply paradoxical work for both performer and listener. How does one approach it in today’s world, not only in the terms of the creation itself but also of a text that has Eve singing to her Adam, ‘Thy will is law to me’? Feminists shudder! One answer for performers, of course, is to take the work head on, submitting to the blazing genius and deep faith of its composer. That is fundamentally the approach taken in this live Boston performance from May 2015 given by the Handel and Haydn Society (H & H), America’s oldest surviving concert giving organization.

Like Christopher Hogwood (a predecessor as artistic director of the H & H) in his splendid L’Oiseau-Lyre recording, Harry Christophers has chosen to give the work in English, perfectly reasonable given that Haydn himself was keen to retain dual language versions of the work. Christophers’ decision is also thoroughly vindicated given that one of the major strengths of the performance is the manner in which it communicates the text so strongly. Both soloists and chorus employ excellent diction and a real sense of rhetorical understanding. The male soloists, the Uriel of tenor Jeremy Ovenden and bass Matthew Brook’s Raphael, are particularly outstanding in this respect, most especially in the magnificent descriptive accompanied recitatives that account for some of the work’s most unforgettable passages. Otherwise the contribution of the soloists is very good, if not perfect. All three voices, especially that of soprano Sarah Tynan (Uriel), employ an excess of vibrato.

Christophers’ slow tempo for Raphael’s opening recitative immediately leads Brook into displaying a wide, continuous vibrato, but thereafter he settles down to keep it under greater control, though his tone has at times a tendency to insecurity. But overall this is a fine interpretation, frequently displaying great authority and considerable nobility in the early numbers of Part 2. Ovenden, too, excels in bringing a strong sense of character to recits, ‘In rosy mantle’ making an especially striking impression after the exquisitely lovely opening of Part 3, the three flutes evoking the tranquility of bright, Elysian dawn. Tynan copes impressively with fioritura of ‘On mighty pens’ and generally with embellishments (she even sports a trill), but the voice tends to stridency in the upper register and I suspect she might be happier with later repertoire. The treatment of ornaments is not always convincing and fermatas lack the expected cadential flourishes.

If the choral singing by a sizeable force lacks the ultimate in finish and finesse, it certainly makes up for it in verve and commitment, the climaxes of the big choral numbers often spine-tingling in intensity. But the real hero here is the orchestra, which throughout responds to Christophers’ insightful, penetrating and ever sensitively phrased direction with playing of superlative quality in every department. There are really far too many examples to which attention might be drawn, but I will just mention the beautifully judged introduction to ‘On mighty pens’, the prominent wind parts exquisitely balanced, the strings’ dotted quavers and semi-quavers delightfully pointed. Vocal shortcomings perhaps keep this version from the top of the pile, but there is so much here to enjoy, indeed relish.

Brian Robins

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[wp-review]

Tags Classical

Recording

Treasures of the German Baroque

Post author By EMR2015
Post date November 1, 2015
No Comments on Treasures of the German Baroque

Telemann, Pisendel, Schaffrath, Reichenauer, [Dieupart, Brescianello]
Radio Antiqua
59:28
Ambronay AMY305

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]adio Antiqua seem to have created a niche market for themselves. Consisting of violin, bassoon (or recorder/voice flute) and continuo, the five-strong line-up can cover lots of bases. Here they have opted for 18th-century music, including three works for the core line-up, one work each for the two “soloists” (Pisendel’s devlish C minor violin sonata and a Dieupart suite in D played on voice flute), and a “concerto” by Antonin Reichenauer in which the cello is liberated from its continuo role.

The final work on the disc, another chamber concerto, this time by Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello, is by far the most taxing. It is interesting, though, how complementary the timbres of the violin and bassoon are – the central movement of the Brescianello sees them in close imitative dialogue very much in the style of Zelenka’s trios, and is such a delight I had to listen to it quite a few times! Could this be that elusive “perfect Christmas present” for your early music friend?

Brian Clark

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Tags Baroque

Recording

Polonica: Lute music with Polish connections around 1600

Post author By EMR2015
Post date November 1, 2015
No Comments on Polonica: Lute music with Polish connections around 1600

Michał Gondko renaissance lute
70:51
Ramée RAM 1406

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n his extensive liner notes Michal Gondko defines Polonica as music with a Polish title, composed by a Pole, or which the copyist describes as Polish. He has assembled an interesting collection of lute music from the 1580s to the 1620s. There is considerable variety, from simple dance melodies to complex fantasias, taken from eight printed sources and nine manuscripts (all helpfully listed in the liner notes). Five of the dances are from Mattheus Waissel’s Tabulatura (1591), in duple and triple time, some jolly and some sad, sensitively played, and restful to the ears. Another five are from the manuscript known as Danzig 4022, now in Berlin. They are nice pieces, but performed here in a way which would encourage me to sit back in my armchair and listen, rather than feel inspired to get up and dance. Most attractive are three dances from Leipzig MS II.6.15 (the Dlugorai Manuscript), one of which is ascribed to Alberti Dlugorai (c.1557-after 1619). Other works by him include a curious stop-go Villanella, his well-known Finale from Besard’s Thesaurus Harmonicus (1603) – with a surprisingly dreamy interpretation quite unlike the punchy interpretation of others – and two prelude-like fantasias.

The second one (track 16) is an amalgam from two sources – Leipzig MS II.6.15 and Besard (1603) – created by Gondko to overcome problematic passages, and performed with a fair amount of rhythmic freedom. Another significant Polish composer represented here is Diomedes Cato (c.1560-after 1618) with a Galliarda from the Chilesotti lute book and a lovely Prelude with interesting harmonies from Besard (1603, recte 4 recto, not verso). Gondko includes a couple of pieces composed for the viol by Tobias Hume – A Pollish Vilanell and A Polish Ayre – to which he tastefully adds ornaments and a few divisions for repeats. Hume’s idiosyncratic style is unmistakeable, and although the viol is limited to chords involving adjacent strings, his music works well on the lute. The CD ends with two pieces by Jacob Reys – a Galliarda which explores the higher reaches of the lute (10th fret), with Gondko’s added ornaments and divisions, and a Fantasia from Besard 1603 (recte 21 verso, not recto). Gondko’s lute was made by Paul Thomson. It has seven courses, and a clear, bright sound particularly in the upper register.

Stewart McCoy

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Tags Baroque, Renaissance