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Recording

Marc’Antonio Ingegneri: Volume Two: Missa Voce mea a5

CD cover Marc'Antonio Ingegneri Volume 2

Choir of Girton College, Cambridge; Historic Brass of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama led by Jeremy West, directed by Gareth Wilson
62:44
Toccata Classica TOCC 0630

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My review of volume 1 (TOCC 0556) was posted on 12 April 2020. Those who enjoyed the recording will be pleased to know that Gareth Wilson adheres to much the same format in this second helping of Ingegneri. This time the Historic Brass does not embrace the Guildhall School of Music and Drama beside the Royal Welsh, and he includes the motet on which Ingegneri’s mass is based. The composer seems to have assumed that he was paying tribute to his teacher Cipriano de Rore, to whom this motet had become attributed even as early as the sixteenth century, but seemingly it is the work of the less distinguished but worthy Paolo Animuccia, whose brother Giovanni has a higher profile. Paolo’s motet Voce mea is nowhere near as fine a work as Palestrina’s Laudate pueri and it is surprising that the latter is not included on volume one as a prelude to Ingegneri’s mass which is based upon it. Although the ways in which Ingegneri uses Animuccia’s motet are audible and interesting, the inferior material renders this mass (which is in only five parts) less gripping than his Missa Laudate pueri (which is in eight parts) from volume 1. That said, there is a sumptuously beautiful passage built on suspensions which emphasize the profundity of the emotional appeal “miserere nobis” in the Gloria. The majority of the intervening motets are set to texts familiar from the works of significant contemporary composers, and it is interesting to compare Ingegneri’s creative responses to theirs.

Like its predecessor, this recording comes with a detailed booklet containing two impressive and readable essays. Carlos Rodriguez Otero, who sings tenor on this disc, tells us about “Ingegneri in focus: sacred music and religious life in Cremona”, while Gareth Wilson’s article “Ingegneri against the odds” is an enthralling account of how the challenges and obstacles thrown up by the pandemic were overcome in the making of this recording. For this reason alone it is worth supporting the disc.

Perhaps because of the circumstances under which the music was recorded, the Girton Choir sounds different –but not worse – on this album, with more of an edge to the tone, especially in the upper parts. This is by no means detrimental to Ingegneri’s music. As before Historic Brass have an equal role, playing some motets by themselves, or taking over sections of certain pieces, such as the second Agnus in the mass, or simply playing some parts while members of the Choir sing the others. There are also some gung-ho full passages such as the amens concluding the Gloria and Credo. Listeners will either like or dislike this approach, and will relish the variety of sounds or be annoyed by the switches of timbre. Or they will simply take it as it comes.

Richard Turbet

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Recording

Cantatas for Bass: Bach BWV 56, 82, 158, 203

CD cover Bach Cantatas for Bass Stephan Macleod

Stephan Macleod, Gli Angeli Genève
64:32
Claves CD 50-3049

This is a beautifully crafted CD. After many years of singing for others, Stephan Macleod, the Swiss bass-baritone, has put together his own group of singers and players under the name of Gli Angeli Genève, and they perform splendidly under his direction.

Last year they released a B Minor Mass, which I have yet to hear in detail, but in these cantatas for bass solo the absolute unanimity of style with clarity, agility and attention to the words and the meaning of what he is singing together with a thoroughly informed approach to the HIP background in terms of instrumental textures and balance is outstanding. He uses a string band of 3.3.2.2.1 with dual accompaniment, using the cembalo alone in many of the arias to thin the texture, and a double SATB group of singers.

Macleod has a mellifluous voice, but is capable of real bass edge when required in the grittier recitatives, where I like his well-crafted change of tone between the andante arioso passages that quote the chorales and the fluid recitative proper. He sings the plainer, earliest version of BWV 82, that eschews the later oboe da caccia doubling in the third movement, but the balance with the oboe is first rate here. I have only two slight question marks. First, in BWV 56, where in the third movement the tortuous journey through this world gives way to a glimpse of heaven in a wonderful aria with a tuneful obbligato oboe; here I felt the balance in this trio was miscalculated: the oboe was too far in the background and the voice slightly overpowering as a result. And in the highly problematic BWV 158, where there are traces of a possible earlier version (the original wrapper gives the Presentation as well as the second day after Easter for the performance date), the virtuoso obbligato part in 158ii is marked violin, but the lowest string is never used and a low c# is avoided in passagework that clearly expects it. This makes it look very much as if this part in its surviving form was conceived for a traverso, and having tried several options, I favour the traverso rather than the violin, which sounds unnaturally high for the obbligato in this performance.

But these tiny quibbles are the only thing I can find to question in what is otherwise an exemplary recording, featuring musicians who deserve every success in their work together.

David Stancliffe

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Recording

Bach: Two-Part Inventions | Sinfonias

CD cover of Bach arrangements by incantati

incantati (Emma Murphy recorders, Rachel Stott viola d’amore, Asako Morikawa viola da gamba)
59:57
First Hand Records FHR122

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This delightful CD of duets and trios by Bach was recorded in May last year, and so is a fruit of the liberation from lockdown. While the chosen instruments all have associations with each other in some of Bach’s early scoring (like BWV 152, for example), hearing three friends playing together spontaneously is a delight, and reminds me of many occasions when groups like this would look in the cupboard for some Bach that would work on the instruments that happened to be at hand and set to, armed with sonatas, concertos, the Art of Fugue and chorale preludes.

One of the great delights of Bach is that you can play his music on almost any combination and it will sound terrific. Bach was an inveterate arranger and parodist of his own music as well as that of others, and his trio chamber music versions of concerto movements or the Schübler organ preludes, transcribing movements from cantatas for organ, show the way. In this selection, where keyboard music, including one of the six trio sonatas for organ, is played on instruments, the clarity and distinctness of the instrumental lines is always preserved, which makes these copy-book examples of Bach’s endlessly inventive skill in canonic and polyphonic composition a delight. I find myself smiling at each fresh take as I re-discover hidden treasures. And how much better this is in the hands of such delightful musicians than the other way round, when complex polyphonic compositions are reduced to endless percussive piano arrangements.

I enjoyed this venture, and continue to play the CD with pleasure.

David Stancliffe

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Recording

Krebs: Keyboard Works volume 2

CD cover Krebs Keyboard music volume 2 Steven Devine

Steven Devine harpsichord
77:17
resonus RES10100

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Steven Devine continues his splendid performances of Krebs’ keyboard works with this volume which comprises the substantial Overture in the French style (Krebs-WV 820), the Partita in B flat major (Krebs-WV 823) and the Sonata in A minor (Krebs-WV 838) – in all over 77 minutes of expert and beguiling playing.

Devine’s chosen instrument for this recording is a double-manual harpsichord by Colin Booth (2000) after a single manual by Johann Christof Fleischer (Hamburg 1710) at a=415Hz and tuned to Werkmeister III. The singing quality of this instrument is perfectly suited to the music – by turn lyrical, adventurous and complex, and for which Devine is a persuasive champion.

Bach’s favourite pupil, Krebs spans the shift from the essentially florid style of the toccatas and contrapuntal writing of the late 17th century to the gallant and appealing tunefulness of the 18th century. The Preludio and Fuga (tracks 10 & 11) in the B flat Partita give a good idea of the starting point of Krebs’ style, with the bold chromatic modulations, but for his more ‘modern’ leanings listen to Devine’s stylishly elegant Corranta (13). However, it is the genuinely post-Bachian music that is the most interesting to me. The inclusion of the A minor sonata gives us a foretaste of where music was heading with a modern, “Sturm und Drang” opening movement followed by a very grazioso middle movement and a finale full of classical gestures.

As you would expect, the playing is incredibly neat and stylish and blessedly free from those eccentricities which make repeated listening to some player’s recordings so irritating. Devine does us all a great service in producing this collected edition which couldn’t be bettered.

David Stancliffe

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Recording

Bach: Matthäus-Passion

CD cover Matthäus-Passion Pygmalion

Julian Prégardien, Stéphane Degout, Sabine Deveilhe, Lucile Richardot, Reinoud van Mechelen, Hana Blaz>iková, Tim Mead, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, Christian Immler, [Maîtrise de Radio France], Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
162:00 (3 CDs in a card box)
harmonia mundi HMM 902691.93

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This splendid recording of the St Matthew Passion by Raphaël Pichon’s Pygmalion has been a long time in gestation. It is worth the wait. First, it is technically excellent: clean, well-balanced and every line can be heard without distortion. Second, the dramatic structure of the work – so different from the St John – is carefully thought through and well-presented in a series of scenes between two book-ends: the Preparation of the Passover, the Garden, at the High Priests’, before Pilate, the Cross and the Burial. But most importantly, this is the first recording of the St Matthew that I have encountered where real care has been taken to match the quality of the singing voices to the resonance and sound quality of the period-instrument bands, and the result is arresting.

The forces are quite large. Each line in the two choirs is led by the concertisten singer who sings the arias allocated by Bach to each choir, and each choir has five soprano, two alto, two tenor and four bass ripienisti singers in addition, so the choral sound – though fairly substantial – matches the ‘solo’ singing. The only singer excluded from the choro is the Evangelista, Julian Prégardien, whose place leading the tenors of choir 1 is taken by the admirable Reinoud van Mechelen, whose high voice has that distinctively clean yet mellifluous ring. It is he and the alto of choir 1, Lucile Richardot, who exemplify the vocal style that Pichon is after. When I first heard Buß und Reu, I was convinced that the pure, slightly nasal, ringing tone was a male voice. Richardot matches the flutes so well, but is equally flexible and commanding with the strings in Erbame dich: these two are exactly the type of voices that work for me.

Sadly, the standard set by Richardot and van Mechelen is not met by the soprano or the bass of choir one. For all her admirable phrasing in Ich will die mein Herze schenken, Sabine Devieilhe is unable – or unwilling? – to control the wobble in her voice. Singing in duet with Richardot in So ist mein Jesus nun gefangen – taken at a spanking pace with elegant ornaments and cracking interjections from the 2nd choir – she manages better, so it is a real pity that she falls back on modern, singerly sounds as her default option. The other weak link is the B1, Stéphane Degout, singing Jesus and those choir 1 arias. His voice, though rich and characterful, sounds plummy and bottled – a throwback to the singing style of an earlier period and out of kilter with the razor-sharp strings (3.3.2.1.1 in each band) who provide the halo round Jesus’ music.

The concertisten in choir 2 are well known soloists in Bach’s music. Hana Blažíková in Blute nur, Tim Mead in Können, Tränen and Christian Immler in Gerne will and Gebt mir produce quality performances that match the instrumental colour splendidly. The tenor Emiliano Gonzales-Toro was known to me chiefly as the singer/director of his own version of the Monteverdi Orfeo, but is equally admirable here in Geduld. All these singers make this recording outstanding for their ability to subsume their soloistic persona into the overall sound pattern Pichon is creating. The choruses have edge and bite, and many of them are refreshingly brisk. Chorales are treated to their own persona, and are an integral part of the whole drama rather than the boring but necessary hymns between the real music that they can so often become.

Julian Prégardien is a wonderful story-teller, at once tender and dramatic, and with a feeling for the shape and import of each phrase within the whole narrative: his diction – a significant feature of every singer in this recording – is outstanding. It is this sense of drama that pervades this recording and provides its distinctive and very French take on the Great Passion. Apart from the full libretto, translated into both French and English, which occupies pages 38 to 105 of the substantial 111-page booklet in rather grey, arty typeface – so not easily readable –, there is room only for a basic list of players and singers together with one of those composite and very French interviews with Pichon and Prégardien about how they planned their take on the Matthew over a number of years. There is nothing about the music itself, its sources, versions, transmission and readings; nor about the singers, players, instruments or chosen temperament; nor about the key musical decisions such as when and where to use dual accompaniment, adding the harpsichord of choir 2. The basso continuo instruments are listed as a group together as in Bach’s very first version as well as with their respective orchestras – theorbo and organ with choir 1 and organ and harpsichord with choir 2. Why and where are the bassoons (present in both orchestras) added or do the violas da gamba play in more than the specific arias where they are scored? All of this suggests to me that Pichon is more interested in dramatic affekt than in serious HIP scholarship and I am left with a lot of unanswered questions. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but the buyer should beware.

Nonetheless, and despite my personal reservations about the suitability of two of the singers (which listeners may not share), this is an outstanding performance by any standards, and I warmly encourage everyone to buy it. It is on three CDs and is a real bargain, and the thought that has gone into its preparation and direction makes a welcome change from many of the more lumbering and dully correct performances to which we are often treated. I find the style, tempi and continuity convincing, while stripping away the varnish of respectability brings a glow of excitement to the treasure that lies beneath.

David Stancliffe

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Recording

J. S. Bach – Works for Flute and Keyboard

CD cover Toshiyuki Shibata Anthony Romaniuk Bachadriati

Sonatas, Fantasias, Improvisations
Toshiyuki Shibata flute, Anthony Romaniuk fortepiano
58:30
Fuga Libera FUG 792

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These two artists met in the summer gap in the 2020 lockdown in Antwerp, and agreed to get playing together. Both were baroque musicians and also jazz players, used to improvising. The result is this CD centred on Bach’s Flute Sonatas in E, E minor and B minor, for which Shibata commissioned a flute after Quantz as well as one after Eichentopf from around 1720. The harpsichord used by Romaniuk is by Detmer Hungerberg while the fortepiano after Silbermann used in the B minor sonata is by Kerstin Schwartz-Damm and has an intriguing variety of stops and makes an ideal partner to the Quantz flute. The pitch they play at is 402Hz after Quantz, which gives a lovely relaxed and unhurried feel to their playing.

In addition to their Bach sonatas, they introduce their improvisations, observing that often a piece was preluded in the 18th century, and that a baroque score was often more akin to jazz lead-sheets, where not only was a degree of ornamentation expected but in realising the basso continuo sometimes an additional melodic line was contrived more in the style of the right hand part in BWV 1030.

Before the purists sniff at this performing style, I urge them to listen to the results of this collaboration and decide whether this style of music-making does not have a good deal to teach the most HIP of practitioners, even if we might do it slightly differently. Bach was celebrated for being able to improvise an extra voice to a complex polyphonic structure whether in the right hand of a keyboard continuo instrument playing in a sonata or a violin descant to a chorale, as in many of the Weimar period cantatas. I have learned a lot about his compositional style by watching him at work in these modes as he crafted the organ chorale preludes, which, like the solo keyboard compositions, most likely had their origins in improvisations in preluding a chorale for Lutheran worship.

So while I put this CD aside while I made room for other more obviously attractive discs I had been sent, I am grateful for having heard it, and glad of the stimulus as well as the opportunity to eavesdrop on two able and thoughtful musicians at work as they ponder the place of what is now called improvisation in the performance of the high baroque.

David Stancliffe

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Recording

Mandolin on Stage

CD cover Mandolin on Stage Raffaele La Ragione Il Pomo d'Oro Francesco Corti

The Greatest Mandolin Concertos
Raffaele La Ragione, Il Pomo d’Oro, Francesco Corti
66:56
Arcana A524

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This exciting and enjoyable CD of concertos for early mandolins begins with the well-known Concerto in C major (RV 425) by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). Raffaele La Ragione plays a copy of a six-course Lombard mandolin built by Tiziano Rizzi after an original by Antonio Monzino (1792). It makes a bright, crisp sound which stands out from the group of accompanying instruments, but I would rather hear Vivaldi not played with a plectrum as La Ragione does, but rather with the right-hand fingers, which produce a sweeter more mellow sound. In his contribution to the book, The Early Mandolin, Early Music Series 9 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), page 38, James Tyler writes: “From the evidence examined so far, it is clear that finger-style playing was the norm for the mandolino in Italy, and I can find no evidence for plectrum-style playing until the second half of the eighteenth century.” However, La Ragione’s virtuosity and musicality are nevertheless impressive, and he brings life and vigour to his performance.

Il Pomo d’Oro is conducted by the harpsichord player, Francesco Corti, who adds his own embellishments, and keeps the ensemble tightly knit. The accompanying instruments from the group are two violins, viola, cello, double bass, harpsichord and theorbo. The theorbo is a welcome asset. It does much to create a warm, homogeneous sound. In the slow second movement the harpsichord drops out, and Miguel Rincon’s theorbo gently provides harmony, countermelodies, deep bass notes, and tasteful end-of-phrase fill-ins. Vivaldi’s third movement is typical of his style, with a plethora of broken chords, repeated notes, scalic passages, and round-the-clock chord progressions. Enjoy the third movement on YouTube.

There are seven items altogether: four concertos with a mandolin of some sort, interspersed with three items without mandolin. The first of the non-mandolin pieces is a lively Sinfonia in G major by Baldassarre Galuppi (1706-85). There is much repetition of four-bar phrases, and a lack of complex harmony and lyrical melodies. It is a romp designed to invigorate the soul. The other tracks without a mandolin are an Allegro presto from a Sinfonia in B flat major by Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816), and an Allegro from a Sinfonia in D major by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809).

The second concerto for mandolin is one in E flat major attributed to Paisiello. For this La Ragione plays a four-course Neapolitan mandolin by an anonymous Neapolitan maker c. 1770. Neapolitan mandolins are what most people today think of as mandolins. They have four courses of metal strings and are tuned in fifths. They are played with a plectrum, which gives a strong attack and enables super-fast tremolo notes. La Ragione’s instrument has a clear, full sound, which he uses to good effect, with a pleasing variety of tone and dynamic, particularly noticeable in a long unaccompanied passage towards the end of the second movement. The uplifting third movement is played with enthusiasm by soloist and orchestral members alike.

La Raggione also uses his Neapolitan instrument for a Mandolin Concerto in G major by Francesco Lecce (fl. 1750-1806). The second movement, Largo, is especially gratifying, with La Raggione’s bright, well-shaped phrases enhanced by the gentle notes of Rincon’s theorbo. The third movement, Allegro balletto, requires a fair amount of dexterity from La Ragione, with fast flurries of notes now in threes now in fours.

Another track to be found on YouTube is the Rondo from the Concerto in G major by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837). For this Concerto La Ragione plays a four-string Brescian mandolin by Lorenzo Lippi after a late 18th-century original by Carlo Bergonzi II. With its four single courses it has a more delicate sound than the Neapolitan mandolin, which La Ragione turns to his advantage. He is accompanied by a small orchestra, in which flutes, oboes, bassoons and horns are added to the strings and harpsichord. The extra instruments help to create a fuller sound, and provide a welcome contrast of timbres. What cheerful music this is.

Stewart McCoy

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Recording

Vivaldi: 12 Concerti Di Parigi

CD cover Vivaldi 12 Concerti Di ParigiStefan Plewniak Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal

Venise – Vivaldi – Versailles No. 3
Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal, Stefan Plewniak
60:21
Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS065

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Ten of the twelve concerti in this Paris manuscript are known from other sources, suggesting that the manuscript was drawn up at relatively short notice as a presentation piece for a potential patron. The set is associated with a visit to Trieste by the Austrian Emperor Charles VI, in whose retinue was the keen amateur violinist Franz Stephan, who seems to have acquired the set. This perhaps explains why they are all ‘ripieni’ concerti, spotlighting the whole ensemble rather than a soloist. The subsequent enormous popularity of Vivaldi’s music in France can hardly be put down to these concerti, as they lack the sparkle and originality of several of the master’s other manuscripts and publications. Plewniak and his orchestral forces seem determined to make up for the risk of any musical mundanity with the sheer energy of their performance – however, this seems frequently to err on the side of aggression. Each energetic track is preceded by what sounds like a sharp intake of breath from all concerned, while the percussive attack on the stringed instruments is given further edge by some very choppy guitar playing. It is a pity that this element of aggression is allowed to creep into these performances, as many of the more relaxed movements are lyrically and tastefully presented. I don’t want to sound too unenthusiastic about this latest in a series of thought-provoking recordings to emanate from the Palace of Versailles, but at the same time it seems part of a fashion of ‘overplaying’ Vivaldi, when often his music should be allowed to speak more for itself.

D. James Ross

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Vivaldi: Flute concertos [op. 10]

CD cover Vivaldi Op 10 Flute Concertos Carlo Ipata auser musici

Carlo Ipata, auser musici
47:30
Glossa GCD 923530

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This account of Vivaldi’s six flute concertos op10 (1729) takes the subtitle of the French publication literally, using single players on each of the four string parts, but adds considerable weight in the form of a double bass, while replacing the stipulated organ with a harpsichord and theorbo – it might have been interesting to hear what a difference an organ continuo might have made. However, the forces used here and the wonderfully rich Glossa recorded sound add a textural opulence to this music, which is most enjoyable and impressive. The opus 10 includes three famous ‘programmatic’ concerti, La Notte, Il Gardellino and La Tempesta di Mare, as well as three further concerti, two of which are reworkings of pieces for ‘third flute’ and the third of which was composed specially to make up the numbers. This publication was hugely popular, and if Vivaldi’s public didn’t feel short-changed by being presented with largely non-original material, neither should we at the relative brevity of this CD. The main reason for this is Carlo Ipata’s expressive flute playing, which it has to be said is more effective in the more dynamic movements than in the contemplative sections, where I occasionally felt he could have made more of Vivaldi’s simple lines. Overall, though, these are engaging and technically assured performances, and Ipata’s warm-toned flute is always in perfect balance with the orchestral forces. We hear so many exaggerated and otherwise ‘souped-up’ performances of Vivaldi these days, that something more restrained and tasteful, such as we have here, is a genuine treat.

D. James Ross

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Giuseppe Sammartini: Sonatas for recorder and basso continuo vol. 2

CD cover Giuseppe Sammartini Sonatas for recorder and basso continuo vol. 2

Andreas Böhlen, Michael Hell, Daniel Rosin, Pietro Prosser
73:20
AEOLUS AE-10306

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Older brother of the better-known Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Giuseppe has come to be somewhat eclipsed from the days when his name was mentioned in the same breath as Corelli and Geminiani. After training in Milan with his oboist father, Giuseppe took the well-worn route to London where he advanced from jobbing musician to entering the employment of Frederick Prince of Wales. By the time of his death in 1750 at the age of 55, he was rated as ‘the finest performer on the hautboy in Europe’. His 32 surviving works for alto recorder suggest an intimate knowledge of this instrument too, and indeed it was common at the time for musicians to double on several woodwind instruments. While Sammartini’s sonatas may not have quite the technical demands of Vivaldi’s recorder writing, they are to my mind much more idiomatic, reflecting the lively professional and amateur interest in the instrument. Andreas Böhlen’s accounts are strikingly musical and deftly ornamented, while the rapid passage-work is stunningly well executed. He plays a set of four alto recorders in F modelled on originals by Steenbergen, Bressan and J Denner, as well as an instrument in G by J C Denner, each with a distinctive and engaging voice. His continuo ensemble of lute, harpsichord and cello is superbly supportive and responsive, and used in various permutations to imaginatively vary the textures. As an ensemble, they are clearly all immersed in the chamber music of this period, and their performances are wonderfully expressive and evocative, as is David Lasocki’s comprehensive and stylishly written programme note. I enjoyed enormously volume one of Sammartini’s Sonatas by these performers, and this second volume has more than lived up to its promise. We look forward to further volumes exploring the rest of this gifted composer’s output.

D. James Ross