Category: Recording

The Great Violins
volume 1 – Andrea Amati, 1570
Peter Sheppard Skærved
127:11 (2 CDs)
athene ATH23203

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is the first of a projected series in which the violinist is allowed to play some of the most important violins that have come down to us. I suspect that, had I been involved, I would have argued very strongly that the recordings should also feature relevant music. So “disappointed” is possibly the best way to describe my reaction to the fact that this two CD set of Telemann is played on a 1570 Amati! What about all the fabulous music of the earlier 17th century? Then to think that some of the repertoire is not violin music at all calls the entire enterprise into question – is it all about the violins, or is the player really supposed to be the focus of our attention? A Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (to whom the instrument belongs), and “dedicatee of over 400 works for violin”, he clearly has something of a reputation but I regret to say that there is little to engage me here, either in terms of the recorded sound or the way in which Telemann’s interplay of voices is handled – the music is read horizontally without any concept (at least as far as I can discern) of the importance (perhaps I might even go as far as to say “the existence”) of the vertical. His notes seem to suggest that Telemann expected the works to be played in sequence, with the brightness of one “immediately annulled” by its successor. I’m afraid this won’t be on my shelves very long.

Brian Clark

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Pamela Lucciarini soprano, Alessandro Carmignani alto, Laboratorio Armonico
77:06
Tactus TC651601

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hese recordings of four secular cantatas for solo voice marks the CD debut of a practically unknown 17th-century Italian composer born in Mondolfo and active in and around the Veneto, Pietro Porfiri. The music is charming, if generally conventional, with one or two original instrumental touches, including an early extended use of the cello. As we spend a lot of time in their company the quality of the solo voices is an essential aspect in this type of repertoire, and Pamela Lucciarini has a personable and expressive voice, which invites us in and provides compelling accounts of this unknown repertoire. Alessandro Carmignano’s alto voice is perhaps a little less convincing, showing weaknesses in the lower range and with an occasional tendency to dip below notes. On the other had he has a consistently glowing tone, which adds a pleasant gloss to the texture.

James Ross

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Kenneth Tarver Joshua, Tobias Berndt Caleb, Renata Pokupić Othniel, Anna Dennis Achsah, Joachim Duske Angel, NDR Chor, FestspielOrchester Göttingen, Laurence Cummings
115′ (2 CDs)
Accent ACC 26403

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]’m not sure if the Handel operas performed at the Göttingen International Handel Festival (by the FestspielOrchester Göttingen under Lawrence Cummings) are recorded live as a matter of course each year, but I seem to have heard several such offerings and they are, without exception, a true joy from start to finish. I can’t recall if the other discs follow the same format, but I felt that the inclusion of snippets of applause in this recording of Joshua only added to the feeling of actually being at the opera. With the exception of Anna Dennis, I was unfamiliar with the soloists, and was pleasantly surprised by the uniform quality but varied timbre of their voices. This said, I did find Renata Pokupić‘s rather heavy vibrato (I know, so “early music” but bear with me) a little static on her first recitative and aria. As the opera progressed, however, this became less of a problem.

First performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, on March 9th, 1748, Joshua was one of several oratorios composed by Handel to celebrate the victory of the Hanoverian dynasty over the Jacobites. As such, it focuses on the militaristic might of the mighty leader, Joshua, but while it undoubtedly was a commentary on the political situation of its time, the libretto (possibly by Thomas Morell) sticks to the biblical account but adds in a love story. The slightly whimsical style of Dr Wolfgang Sandberger’s booklet notes belie excellent scholarship and add to the sense of a well-informed production.

The oratorio contains many lovely and well-known moments, including the rousing ‘See, the conqu’ring hero comes!’. As always, Cummings’s pacing of the music is so incredibly well-judged that both narrative and music flow unimpeded. A real joy both in terms of content and interpretation.

Violet Greene

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Lily Afshar guitar
72′
Archer Records ARR-31962
BWV998, 1006a, 1007, 1009, “Ave Maria”

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ll the pieces on this CD are arranged by Lily Afshar for the classical guitar, and are published in her collection, Essential Bach Arranged for the Guitar (Pacific, Missouri: Mel Bay, 2013). She exploits the technique of playing across the strings, rather than along them, so as to sustain the harmony created by single-line passages, as did early 17th-century lutenists with their style brisé, and baroque guitarists with their campanellas. Most of Bach’s lute music survives only in staff notation, not tablature, so it is not clear which technique was intended, but I like what she does, having had similar aims with my own youthful arrangements of Bach for the guitar.

The CD begins with a spirited performance of Bach’s Lute Suite no. 4 (BWV 1006a), which is adapted from Bach’s Third Violin Partita (BWV 1006). In the exciting, virtuosic Prelude, Afshar maintains momentum by omitting some of the bass notes present in the lute version, but which were not in the Violin Partita. She does the same in the elegantly flowing Bourrée and Gigue. It is not a serious loss, since the Violin Sonata was fine without them, and one has to adapt the music to the instrument one has; a mere six strings and a tuning largely in fourths does have its limitations.

Other pieces are the well-known Cello Suite no. 1 (BWV 1007), Prelude, Fugue and Allegro (BWV 998) benefitting from a sonorous dropped D tuning, and Cello Suite no. 3 (BWV 1009) including two modestly restrained Bourrées. The CD ends with an interesting and effective arrangement of Ave Maria, taken from Bach’s Prelude no. 1 in C major (BWV 846) from Book 1 of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, with a vocal melody added 100 years later by Charles Gounod (1818-93). It Is certainly strange (but not unpleasant) to hear a Bach Prelude turned into a sort of Victorian Cavatina.

I’m not sure that “Bach on Fire” is a fair reflection of Afshar’s playing. She has a certain gentleness and sensitivity in her interpretation (even in the liveliest movements like the superfast Allegro from BWV 998,) which I find appropriate and most attractive.

Stewart McCoy

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“The Saxon Alternative”
Syrinx
62:04
Resonus RES10154
TWV44:2, 7, & 14; TWV55:c3, B3

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his fabulous recording is devoted to one of the less well-known repositories of baroque music. As well as maintaining “Kapelle” (ensembles made up of singers and instrumentalists who were as capable of performing sacred as secular music), many German courts – in imitation of Louis XIV – maintained an “hautboistenband”, a separate group of musicians who served a different purpose. Their precise function remains cloudy (there are records, for example, of court musicians being paid to teach the “hautboisten” to play the violin), but Belinda Paul’s informative booklet notes are right to suggest that the classical “Harmonie” did not simply appear out of thin air – the involvement of instruments other than double reeds (and the ability of “hautboisten” to play them) was a long tradition. The CD’s title derives from the fact that Saxon bands regularly featured a pair of horns; thus the recording features two overtures for five-part winds, two for the saxon variant (pairs of oboes, horns and bassoons) and a concerto for pairs of oboe d’amore, horns and bassoons (all with harpsichord continuo).

It will surprise no-one that Telemann manages to delight the ear with what might seem like limited resources. The blend of double reeds and horns (especially oboes d’amore and horns!) is gorgeous, especially when recorded in such a generous but not over-resonant acoustic. The individual movements of the suites take on a character of their own, with the composer’s mischievous sense of humour never far from the surface (just listen to La Grimace and I defy you not to smile…) It’s all such fun that I can even forgive Dan Tidhar for using the lute stop on track 16. I hope we will hear more of this repertoire from Syrinx (or even some of the cantatas mentioned in the booklet – I have edited several…)

Brian Clark

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Red Priest
71:59
Red Priest Records RP012

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]ed Priest albums are always stylish, entertaining and controversial, and this one is no exception. It took me a little while to become accustomed to the sound world of Red Priest – recorder, violin, cello and harpsichord – as applied to Handel’s Messiah but I found I soon entered into it and really enjoyed their imaginative interpretations of such well-known music. There is a lot of very fine, conventional playing, contrasting with sections of virtuosic mania. The arrangements, originally by Angela East but developed and re-worked during the rehearsal process, are extremely ingenious and half the fun lies in picking out the little snippets of other pieces which creep in. There are some wonderful variations for Piers Adams in The Recorder Shall Sound, followed by a lovely duet for bass recorder and violin in Despised and Rejected. Siciliano Pedicuro (“How Beautiful are the Feet”) is another gorgeous duet, this time for violin and cello, and the only funny thing about it is the title. The jazzed-up “Hallelujah”, on the other hand, had me laughing as, after snatches of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, “Czardas” and other familiar tunes, it somehow turned into “Happy Birthday to You”.

“Lascia ch’io Pianga” from Rinaldo marks the start of the second half of the performance with some lovely violin playing by Julia Bishop. The Trio Sonata in F major op.2 no. 4 is the only piece in the programme originally composed for the Red Priest instrumental line-up, five hyper-active fast movements contrasted with beautifully ornamented slow ones. We are allowed to recover from the breath-taking “Harmonious Blacksmith Variations” with the beautiful Largo from Concerto Grosso op.3 no. 2. This leads into some very silly pizzicato which turns out to be the Passacaglia from the Keyboard Suite in G minor which has serious moments before becoming more and more manic. The finale is Zadok the Red Priest in which, as Piers Adams describes in his booklet notes, Zadok the Priest and the Queen of Sheba become unlikely but fervent lovers. Handel finally disappears into the wind with the bonus track, Aria Amorosa taken from the CD Priest on the Run.

Victoria Helby

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Ensemble La Romanesca, José Miguel Moreno
62:45
Glossa GCD C80201

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t is hard to believe that this sparkling recital was originally issued in 1993; the repertoire it explores, that of 17th-century Spanish secular music, remains relatively little known. Much of the vocal half of the disc is devoted to the theatre music of Juan Hidalgo, who was closely associated with the great dramatist Calderón. Marta Almajano’s delicate and precise soprano negotiates his teasing and rhythmically complex lines with aplomb – try the delightful ‘Cuydado, Pastor’ for an appetite whetter. I particularly enjoyed Sebastián Durón’s lovely ‘Sosieguen, descansen’, with its haunting gamba-obbligato’d triple-time refrain. Unfortunately the booklet only gives the texts in Spanish; with such dramatically conceived music, translations would have been very helpful. Moreno and the instrumentalists of Ensemble La Romanesca come to the fore in the remaining half of the disc, with a dazzling display of variations on well-known grounds of the period, e. g., the lovely Sanz Canarios, along with a couple of more extended fantasias; that by Salaverde is especially memorable.

Alastair Harper

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Barbara Heindlmeier recorder, Ensemble La Ninfea
70:33
Raumklang RK 3402

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is the first recording of the six recorder sonatas by Schultzen which were published by Roger in Amsterdam and survive in a copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Although they appear in Roger’s 1737 catalogue they are known to have existed as early as 1704 and the identity of A. H. Schultzen, the composer named on the print, is somewhat mysterious. The writers of the booklet notes, which are a little confusing at this point, have concluded that he is Andreas Heinrich Schulze, an organist at Hildesheim who attended the same school as Telemann. He appears in Walther’s Musikalisches Lexicon (Leipzig 1732) where there is also a separate adjacent entry for A. Schultsen, a composer of six recorder sonatas who may or may not be the same person. The specified instrumentation is “flauto solo con cimbalo overo fagotto” but La Ninfea’s varying continuo line-up of combinations of gamba, baroque lute, theorbo, harpsichord and organ is very effective and I like the little preludes which introduce some of the movements. The lovely warm performances by Christian Heim and Marthe Perle, who share the solos in the three anonymous gamba sonatas, contrast well with Barbara Heindlmeier’s incisively played allegros and elaborately ornamented slow movements in the recorder sonatas. Readers who wish to play this attractive music themselves will be pleased to know that the very legible Roger edition of the Schultzen sonatas is available on the Petrucci web site. The gamba sonatas are from the library of Princess Louisa Frederica of Württemberg (1722-1791) and are now in the library of the University of Rostock. There doesn’t appear to be an available edition but they would be well worth publishing.

Victoria Helby

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Ensemble Barockin’
56:26
Raumklang RK 3304
Sonatas in d & G (op. 12, 1743), c & D (op. 17, 1756)

[dropcap]E[/dropcap]MR will readers will surely be able call to mind Quantz’s advocacy of the quartet and his admiration for Telemann’s works in the genre. Well, here’s music that seriously rivals GPT and that’s a clause I never thought I’d type. The instrumentation is the same as the ‘Paris’ set – flute, violin, gamba and continuo – and the musical style is much same with a judicious balance of conversation and counterpoint and even a touch of drama. The playing is very accomplished and the straightforward approach to the continuo (as requested by the composer) is more than welcome. There are a few lumps and bumps in the note though I enjoyed the Guillemain biography. Either the engineers or her colleagues could have done the flautist a few more favours in terms of the instrumental balance but overall this is a welcome discovery. Two of the works are claimed as first recordings.

David Hansell

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