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Locatelli: Sei Concerti a Quattro op. 7

CD cover Natale Arnoldi directs Locatelli Sei Concerti a Quattro op 7

Ensemble Baroque “Carlo Antonio Marino”, Natale Arnoldi
79:52
Tactus TC 691203

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By the time Locatelli published his opus 7 set of Concerti a Quatro in 1741 he was an established musician of European status living in Amsterdam, but having travelled widely throughout the continent. What is perhaps most striking is that although now of mature years, the composer was still experimenting with style and form, combining the rigours of counterpoint with the more gentle aspects of the galant style. The resulting compositions have a delightful freshness, which both look back at the music of the first half of the 18th century, but also anticipate mid-century developments which would come into fruition with the Mannheim school. The ensemble match the freshness of Locatelli’s compositions with a lovely spontaneity of performance, and some engaging incidental ornamentation. Hearing these vibrant accounts, it is surprising that Locatelli’s opus 7 concertos weren’t more successful as a publication. Perhaps the composer had left it too long since his previous publication, and the modest number of six pieces may also have put people off. It is surprising though that Locatelli’s public seemed unable to appreciate how these pieces simultaneously acknowledged the past and pointed to the future.

D. James Ross

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Gesualdo: 6th book of madrigals

Digital download album Gesualdo 6th book of madrigals La legende noire

La légende noire, La Guilde des Mercenaires, Adrien Mabire
65:56

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These performances of madrigals from Gesualdo’s extraordinary final publication, Book VI, a work of stunningly daring harmonic progressions and musical non sequiturs, are themselves revelatory. La Guilde des Mercenaires under the direction of Adrien Mabire are attempting something revolutionary, performances of Gesualdo with wind instruments. The programme note asks why performances of Monteverdi are regularly presented with instruments, while Gesualdo is almost invariably presented a capella. The answer seems obvious – that while Gesualdo’s highly chromatic idiom is tricky for singers, it is perhaps even more tricky for early wind instruments. These performances seem to belie these difficulties, as the wind instruments, occasionally playing on their own, never sound less than comfortable. Whether this is due to the technical proficiency of the players, or whether after all Gesualdo’s writing is more about unexpected progressions and juxtapositions rather than sheer chromaticism, and therefore possibly easier for wind players than singers, the overall effect is very convincing. Part of the ongoing questioning of the myth of a capella performance, it is encouraging to see younger players challenging the old dogmas of HIP performance and exploring alternatives. The wind component of these performances is a real revelation – the vocal contribution is also pretty impressive, and when voices and instruments combine we get a genuine flavour of a whole new dimension of Gesualdo’s music. I still remember the effect of first hearing Byrd’s Great Service with wind and before that, performances of Dufay Masses with voices and wind, and I can’t help feeling that this recording is a similar moment of transformation.

D. James Ross

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Sabine Devieihle: Bach · Handel

CD cover Sabine Devieihle sings Bach and Handel

Sabine Devieihle: Bach · Handel
Pygmalion, Raphael Pichon
83:37
Earto 1 90296 67786 1

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The stated aim of this CD is ‘to portray affliction and repentance as well as joy and desire through the works, sacred and profane,’ of Bach and Handel. This catch-all mission statement has the ring of something made up to try to cover an eclectic range of performances, and indeed that proves to be what we are presented with. However, the sweet-voiced Sabine Devielhe sings so expressively and exquisitely while the forces of Pygmalion make such a wonderfully effective contribution that it almost doesn’t matter that the thematic links may be a little tenuous. The programme provides beautiful performances of Bach’s cantatas BWV 51 and 199, as well as the Sinfonia from BWC 199 and the sacred song Mein Jesu was vor Seelenweh BWV 487. Perhaps the odd part of the programme is that where a further couple of Bach cantatas and sacred songs could have provided the balance, the performers turn instead to the oratorios and operas of Handel. We have two arias from the Brockes Passion, interspersed with two arias from Giulio Cesare, rounded off with the final aria from Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. Interestingly, the Brockes Passion finds Handel at his most Bachian, and the direct comparison that this juxtaposition invites is instructive. The impressive Devieilhe proves equally effective as a singer of Baroque opera, while her account of the concluding recit and aria from Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno is simply spellbinding. The concluding showpiece, BWV 51 Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, in which Devieilhe duets dramatically with Pygmalion’s trumpeter, Hannes Rux, is a suitably showy conclusion to this enjoyable and impressive CD. Raphael Pichon, who can on occasion be a bit of a showman, demonstrates here that he can direct with subtlety and refinement, allowing this powerful music to speak very much for itself.

D. James Ross

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Salve Regina

CD cover Clint van der Linde Les Muffatti Hasse Porpora Vivaldi

Motets by Hasse and Porpora
Clint van der Linde, Les Muffatti
69:07
Ramée RAM 2012

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Loosely based around a ‘grand tour’, undertaken and recorded in a diary between 1713 and 1715 by one Corneille-Jean-Marie van den Branden, an aristocratic Netherlander, this collection of Neapolitan and Venetian music is of particular value for including first recordings of motets by Hasse and Porpora. Porpora’s Nisi Dominus is indeed housed in a collection in the archiepiscopal archives in Mechelen that has been linked to van Branden, having been presented by him to cathedral there. Scored for solo alto and strings, it must therefore be an early work. There are five movements, the second of which, ‘Vanum est vobis’ has an elaborate violin solo, while ‘Gloria patri’ springs a surprise by unexpectedly changing metre to triple time to carry the motet to a brightly exuberant peroration.

Of greater interest is the other first recording, a setting by Hasse of highly dramatic verses, Hostes averni (‘Foes roaring with infernal rage’), again set for solo alto and strings. The extensive opening aria reflects the text, a surging, driving movement with bravura writing for the singer underpinned by fierce scalic passage work for the orchestra. An intense accompagnato follows, this quasi-operatic motet concluding with a totally contrasted aria (‘Blanda in prata’) typical of the mellifluous sweetness that earned Hasse the soubriquet ‘il divino Sassone‘ in Italy. In addition to the premieres, Porpora is at his most beguiling in a Salve Regina (the opening is pure ecstatic balm), while Hasse’s Alma Redemptoris Mater attempts successfully in its ability to seduce the senses. Finally, to return to the Branden connection, there are two of Vivaldi’s brief string concertos, RV 154 in G minor and RV 136 in F. The traveller records being taken by Vivaldi to a concert at the Pietà.

The programme, then, is an interesting one, the performances regrettably less so. Clint van der Linde is a South African countertenor whose tone is generally pleasing, though upper notes have a tendency to be a bit hooty and intonation is not always completely secure. Where however he is ill-equipped for these works is the lack of technique to do full justice to works composed for virtuoso castrati. While passaggi are capably sung and cantabile lines nicely sustained, ornaments in general are poorly articulated and there is no trill, an absolutely essential piece of technical equipment in this music if it is to make its full effect. Perhaps most damagingly of all, van der Linde’s diction is so poor as to at times give the impression that he is singing vocalises. This lack of projection and clarity is critical in music that oozes the fervour and theatricality of the counter-Reformation from every pore. The neatly turned orchestral playing both in accompanying the motets and in the concertos is of a high standard, but in serious need of a shot of Mediterranean brilliance and colour. It reminds me of what we thought of as stylish Baroque playing before the best Italian groups wrested back their repertoire from northern Europeans.

In sum, if you mainly enjoy your music as background or in car the disc will make for a pleasing experience; if you look for something that probes more deeply then it may not be for you. But van den Branden’s travel diaries sound fascinating, a kind of Dutch Burney avant la lettre.

Brian Robins

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The Myth of Venice

CD cover The Myth of Venice Gawain Glenton Silas Wollston

16th-century music for cornetto & keyboards
Gawain Glenton, Silas Wollston
61:50
Delphian DCD34261

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The opening two pieces of this disc announce one of the primary tensions between musical schools of this era. The foremost theorists at the time were typically the organists, drawn to music’s formalities, whereas the soloists were wont to indulge their flights of fancy, with more attention to drama and personality. Andrea Gabrieli, one of the first organists at St Mark’s, provides the introduction: his formally structured ricercar, whose second voice, here on cornett, enters en point, continuing to pirouette lightly, using all the stage space available. Meanwhile, the formal organ continues to provide a tactus to set your watch to, in and out of the changes in mensuration. After this little delight, we turn to the founding father of the Venetian tradition, Adrian Willaert, whose beautiful arrangement of the chanson Jouissance de donneray, has to fight its way out of a briar of notes provided by Dalla Casa, perhaps the most self-indulgent of all cornettists at the time. These lines delineated, we proceed to an exploration of what lies between. We enjoy Glenton’s diminutions on Willaert’s A la Fontaine, using Ganassi’s thesis La fontegara, which add his sense of asymmetry, and hence freedom beyond his contemporaries. The effects of timbres are explored imaginatively. Between the dense and gently tremulous metal trebles of organ pipework, steals a mute cornett in Parabosco’s ricercar – offering a discreet and steady hand – da Pace. Diruta’s ricercar has a beautiful simplicity and grace, provided by a broad-sounding mute cornett and organo di legno. The organ playing throughout is marvellously seamless, with the most sparing and judicious lingerings and details of articulation that make the extended toccatas particularly engaging. The disc finishes with a selection of pieces instrumentally conceived from the off, and so into which the divisions slot comfortably – including a couple of premieres by Gorzanis. I am now looking forward to more discs from these players.

Stephen Cassidy

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In the Garden of Polyphony

CD cover Israel Golani In the Garden of Polyphony

French Renaissance Music for Lute and Guitar
Israel Golani (Renaissance lute and Renaissance guitar)
68:00
Solaire Records SOL 1010

Israel Golani’s CD is an anthology of French music from the 16th century for lute and for guitar. His gut-strung 6-course lute built by Martin Shepherd has a lovely sound quality, particularly in the treble; as was customary for 6-course lutes it has a high octave string on the fourth course. Golani also plays a similar lute built by Alfonso Marin, which sounds a semitone lower, and has no high octave string on the fourth course – fewer treble notes, but clearer for polyphony. The guitar pieces are played on a 4-course renaissance guitar also built by Alfonso Marin.

Golani begins with Albert de Rippe’s intabulation of Pierre Sandrin’s “Pleurez mes yeux”. De Rippe tracks Sandrin’s chanson closely, but with the addition of flowing divisions, mainly quavers. Golani’s playing is clear with nicely shaped melodic lines. I do like the way he plays cadential semiquavers in this piece – neat, in time, and without interrupting the flow. Some of De Rippe’s accidentals are surprising. The piece is essentially in F major, but De Rippe adds sharps to the f’s in the second bar; they would not have been sung in Sandrin’s original, but they are effective on the lute. Surprising harmonies also appear in De Rippe’s lengthy Fantasie quatriesme. His intabulation of “Un jour le temps” is given an unhurried, sensitive interpretation.

Golani includes pieces from the first two books of lute tablature to be printed in France: Pierre Attaingnant’s Tres breve et familiere introduction (Paris, 1529) and Dixhuit basses dances (Paris, 1530). Track 7 is an intabulation of the tender chanson for three-voices, “Fortune laisse moy”. It is a lovely piece of music played well, so it is a pity there is a wrong note – 18 notes from the end – where Golani plays f’ instead of b’ flat. The note is b’ flat in Attaingnant’s original and in Daniel Heartz’ edition, so I guess Golani made his own copy, and accidentally wrote tablature d on the wrong line. The Branle gay “C’est mon amy” whizzes along at a gay speed. Basse dance “Beure frais” lacks its Tourdion, which would have added a refreshing change from C minor to C major. Golani opts for a nice slow tempo for a gentle “Dolent départ”, but succumbs to adding erratic touches of rubato. Playing out of time does not necessarily make a piece more expressive. As with the music of Albert De Rippe, there are some surprising accidentals, including a false relation involving e’ natural and e flat. It might have lost a mark in an ‘O’ Level exam, but such clashes add a certain expressive piquancy, especially when played on a lute. For “Amy souffrez” Golani turns to a manuscript source, Öffentliche Bibliothek der Universität Basel Musiksammlung, Ms. F IX 56, which has more divisions and unexpected accidentals than Attaingnant’s more familiar printed source.

One of the pieces published in Louvain by Pierre Phalèse is Allemande (track 4), which also appears in various guises in non-French sources, including the Willoughby MS, where it has the title “Grenes Alman”. The Willoughby divisions are twice the speed of Phalèse’s fast notes, which makes me wonder if Golani’s interpretation is a bit on the fast side. At any event I would have preferred the rallentando to occur after (not during) the divisions over the dominant of the final cadence.

The 4-course guitar was popular in 16th-century France. Nine different collections were printed in the 1550s, and another printed in 1570 survives. Golani plays six pieces from these guitar books together with his own intabulation of the basse dance “Auprès de vous” from Attaingnant’s Second Livre (1547). The texture is inevitably thin, and all four voices cannot be sustained. However, it is a nice arrangement, and Golani captures the essence of the piece in a tasteful way.

There is much variety in Golani’s collection, which includes lute music by Adrian Le Roy, Guillaume Morlaye, Jean-Paul Paladin, and Julien Bellin. It ranges from Morlaye’s catchy little Gaillarde with a plethora of bluesy flattened sevenths, to Bellin’s strict three-part counterpoint in his Trio. Golandi plays the Trio twice, the second time with his own divisions added. I like what he does – sometimes the extra notes simply fill gaps between notes a third apart, but other times he is more adventurous, for example with some nice jazzy syncopation introduced towards the end. The CD ends where it began, with an intabulation of Sandrin’s “Pleurez mes yeux”, this time in a setting by Guillaume Morlaye for 4-course guitar. Never mind that harmless wrong note in Track 7 mentioned earlier. Golani’s performance is really excellent, and makes for a most enjoyable CD.

Stewart McCoy

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Rameau: Grands Motets

CD cover Rameau Grands Motets Jarry

Choeur & Orchestre Marguerite Louise, Gaétan Jarry
77:43
Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS 5052

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Such is Rameau’s renown as an opera composer that today we have a forgivable tendency to forget that the long period of his creative life before the sensational appearance in 1733 of Hippolyte et Aricie was devoted near exclusively to sacred music. As Gaétan Jarry notes in a long and helpful note, Rameau was organist of ‘at least a dozen churches’, though his observation that not a single organ work of Rameau’s has come down to us can almost certainly be explained in one word: extemporisation. Such was its importance as a fundamental of French organ technique that unless someone was on hand to transcribe it such improvisation belonged near exclusively to the moment.  

Unlike Lully and Delalande, Rameau’s output of the major sacred form of the Baroque in France, the grand motet, is small, just four examples considered to be authentic being extant (a fifth, Diligam te has been dismissed from the canon). All four are included on the present disc for the first time. Of these Laboravi clamans, a setting of verse 3 of Psalm 69, is a tiny work (just 73 bars) of uninterrupted counterpoint, its long melismatic lines reflecting its opening line, ‘I am weary of my crying’. The other three motets are on a considerably larger scale, alternating contrasted solo and solo ensemble verses with those for full chorus. Each has its own distinctive character. Quam dilecta tabernacula (‘O how amiable are thy dwellings’, a setting of Psalm 84 (83)), for example, opens with tranquil, luminescent flutes and a soprano solo, sung with vernal freshness by the excellent Maïlys de Villoutreys. It’s a mood broadly sustained throughout the work, a brief excursion for a joyous triple-time contrapuntal chorus at the words, ‘My heart and my flesh rejoice…’ being an exception. In convertendo (‘They that put their trust in the Lord’, Psalm 125 (126) on the other hand has a text that juxtaposes the pain of captivity in Babylon with joy at the prospect of release. In keeping with such ambiguity, it contrasts the exuberant joy of ‘Magnificavit Dominus’ a florid duet for soprano and bass (Villoutreys again superb with the fine bass David Witczak), with, for example, the final movements, a madrigalian solo trio, ‘Qui seminant’ (They that sow in tears) followed by a magnificent chorus that opens with astounding chromatic harmony, a passage as great as anything in the choral works of Handel or Bach. The final and longest motet, Deus noster refugium (God is our refuge, Psalm 46 (45)) has a text filled with vivid imagery that was a gift to a man shortly to become one of the great dramatic composers of the age. One notes among many examples the shuddering strings at ‘the earth is moved’ and the thrilling, surging impetus of the choral writing at ‘The waters roared out …’

As already intimated the performances are outstanding, with the chorus aided by the acoustic of the Chapelle Royale in Versailles achieving a wonderful breadth and depth. All six soloists are first-rate, with special plaudits once again going to haute-contre Mathias Vidal. Jarry’s outstanding ensemble can today be considered among the best of the Baroque ensembles in a country more richly endowed with them than any other.

Brian Robins

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Heinichen: Dresden Vespers

CD cover Heinichen Dresden Vespers

Ensemble Polyharmonique, Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, Jarosław Thiel
67:31
Accent ACC 24381

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The announcement of this recording was a bittersweet thing for me. After many excellent renditions of his orchestral music, fine performances of his masses, and – relatively recently – a fantastic account (albeit with many, many cuts) of his opera “Flavio Crispo”, the chance to hear some of his Vesper music with minimal forces promised to be something of a revelation. On the other hand, with my Fasch scholar’s cap on, would Heinichen manage to overcome his reputation as the man who butchered Fasch’s music for Vespers (and, it must be said, for mass!) to such an extent that it is virtually impossible to establish the original version with absolute certainty? The answer is, of course, a resounding “Yes!” These performances of music for the celebration of the Jesuit St Francis Xavier from the early 1720s is a celebration of his many talents as a composer and also of the performers’ commitment to it. Eight singers and 44321 strings with oboes, bassoon and continuo bring the five contrasting psalms to life, as well as a magnificat and the appropriate hymn and Marian antiphon, as micht have been heard on the feast itself, and finish the programme off with the longest piece in the programme, Heinichen’s first setting of a Litany for the Saint, which was probably heard throughout the week-long celebration. Three of the psalms are through-composed with each phrase of text given a its own musical theme, while Dixit Dominus, Laudate pueri and the Magnificat are subdivided with a variety of arias for the soloists. The hymn setting is in older-sounding Fux-like counterpoint. The singing is radiant (the tutti sound ravishing!), and the playing is by turns incisive and beautifully supportive of the voices. If – as Gerhard Poppe’s essay states – Heinichen found himself unexpectedly appointed as director of the Dresden court’s Catholic Chapel, it is clear that he embraced the position with both hands; there is some truly impressive music here – don’t miss it!

Brian Clark

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Resurrexi!

CD cover Resurrexi! The Choir of Keble College Instruments of Time and Truth Mozart Haydn

Easter in Vienna with Mozart and the Haydn brothers
Emily Dickens, Rebekah Jones, Philippe Durrant, Graham Kirk SmSTB, Choir of Keble College, Oxford, Instruments of Time and Truth, directed by Paul Brough
56:05
CRD 3539

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In an amusing and rather winning introductory note Paul Brough, the musical director of Keble College, disarmingly explains that the objective of this recording is not an attempt ‘to give a lesson in history, liturgy, theology or musicology’ but rather to bring to the listener ‘the powerful truth of Easter …’ That, then, is the spirit in which I will try to review it.

Despite the disclaimer, the recording will indeed recall to many the kind of liturgical reconstruction that was fashionable in the closing decades of the last century, especially the pioneering work of Andrew Parrott and Paul McCreesh. It is centred round the idea of how an Easter Mass might have been celebrated in Salzburg in the 1770s, though for some inexplicable reason the CD carries the subtitle ‘Easter in Vienna…’. It is planned around Mozart’s Mass in C, KV 258, which dates from the middle of that decade and takes its name from speculation that it is the Mass given at the consecration of Count Ignaz Friedrich von Spauer as Dean of Salzburg Cathedral in late 1776. Scored with trumpets and timpani, it is therefore a hybrid work, a so-called missa brevis et solemnis that although ceremonial in character conforms to the famous (or maybe infamous) dictum of Archbishop Colloredo that the entire Mass – including plainchant and additional liturgical movements – should not last longer than 45 minutes. Each of its movements is therefore extremely brief – the entire Gloria takes only 2½ minutes in the present performance – with little repetition of text and the brief passages for the four soloists mostly integrated into the choral texture, perhaps, as Stanley Sadie pointed out, most interestingly in the unusual antiphonal exchanges between soloist and choir in the Benedictus. It was a form that, as Mozart wrote to famous theorist Padre Martini of Bologna, required ‘a special study’ and not one that is likely to have appealed to him.

Otherwise choral settings include the opening Marian antiphon, Mozart’s C-major Regina coeli, KV 276/321b, composed in 1779 for an unknown occasion, joyously bright but for a brief appropriately prayerful digression at ‘ora pro nobis’. Of earlier provenance is the concluding Te Deum in C by Haydn, composed for an unknown occasion in the early 1760s during his first years of employment with Prince Nicholas Esterházy, possibly for the Prince’s official entry into Eisenstadt in 1762. It’s an unremarkable work in the somewhat stiff, old-fashioned Austrian style, and rather less striking than his brother Michael’s more modern gradual setting of the sequenza Victimae paschali laudes, composed for Palm Sunday in 1784. It was one of a series of such pieces commissioned by Colloredo to replace the string sonatas traditionally inserted between the reading of the Epistle – hence the commonly-used name Epistle Sonatas – and the Gospel. One of Mozart’s, KV 274 in G, is included here in a disappointingly prosaic performance in which the weedy chamber organ is no substitute for one of the four Baroque organs in Salzburg Cathedral.

It would be idle to pretend that the soft-grained sopranos of Keble College project anything like the visceral brilliance of continental boys, but the choir is a fine, well-trained and balanced body, while the four soloists capably meet the relatively modest demands made on them. Baritone Graham Kirk is an unexceptionable cantor, while the choir’s intoning of the plainchant is effectively if a little too deliberately done. Does it all perhaps sound a little too polite and Anglican? Well, maybe, but to go back to my opening paragraph on its own terms, this celebration of Easter in Mozart’s Salzburg amply succeeds in giving both spiritual and musical satisfaction.

Brian Robins

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A room of mirrors

A room or mirrors

Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, Zachary Wilder tenors, Ensemble I Gemelli
57:56
Gemelli GFA001/1

A Room of Mirrors is the initial release of the Gemelli label, which takes its name from the ensemble co-founded by Mathilde Etienne and Swiss tenor Emiliano Gonzalez Toro in 2018. He is one of the most stylish and accomplished singers of early 17th-century music, having underlined the point as the Orfeo de nos jours in the outstanding Naïve recording issued in 2020. In addition, Gonzalez Toro is one of the best singers of the haute-contre repertoire in French Baroque opera.

The title reflects the place played by mirrors, either in a literal or metaphorical sense, in early Baroque thinking, a topic explored in an interesting note by Etienne. She doesn’t mention the importance of the mirror as a familiar trope in Baroque opera and after listening to the CD it would be possible to expand her thoughts. For example, a number of the works here are duets in which Gonzalez Toro is partnered in exemplary fashion by Zachary Wilder, the prevalence of imitation introducing a form of mirroring of the voices. Then the opening track, the familiar and irresistibly catchy ‘Damigella tutta bella’ by the otherwise little-known Florentine court composer Vincenzo Calestani (1589-after 1617) has an first half that is mirrored by the final section as the ardent lover plied with the wine of desire becomes the over-satiated lover who has fallen out of love with the ‘damsel fair and pretty’, the damigella tutta bella. One of Gonzalez Toro’s great strengths as a singer of this repertoire is his ability to colour and interpret the all-important text and the subtle manner in which he contrasts the emotions of ardour and scorn is an outstanding example among many that could be identified in the collection. He revisits Orfeo in a setting of the eponymous hero’s ‘Dove ten’vai’ from act 3, scene 1 by another unfamiliar name, the Prague-born Francesco Turini (1595-1656), who spent most of his career as organist of Brescia Cathedral. Here set as elaborate duet, Orfeo’s rhetorical questioning is paradoxically answered by the second tenor in imitation. The most represented composer is Sigismondo d’India (1582-1629), a prolific composer of vocal music and, with Monteverdi, one of the leaders of the so-called ‘secondo prattica’. Unlike Caccini, d’India’s adoption of the modern style did not mean eschewing counterpoint and the rich dissonant harmony of the duet ‘Giunto alla tomba’, a lament drawn from Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata, makes for one of the most intense experiences of the recital. A reminder that this was a period of experimentation comes with the extreme, even bizarre dissonance of ‘Intenerite voi’, one of several examples of a lover’s appeal to a haughtily insensitive young woman. Another form of mirroring comes with the judicious contrast of serious with lighter or even comic songs. Among the last named is Biagio Marini’s ‘La vecchia innamorata’, in which the singer contrasts the attentions of an ugly old woman who loves him, with the girl who ‘gives me pains’ in a manner that would shortly become familiar in many a Venetian opera. The comedy is brought off with consummate skill, as is the lavish ornamentation in Frescobaldi’s ‘Se l’aura spira’, perhaps the most graciously enchanting music in the collection.

In addition to the vocal numbers, I Gemelli – which here consists of a continuo group with pairs of gambas and violins, recorder and cornet – contribute extremely well-executed performances of several instrumental pieces, among them Dario Castello’s striking Sonata Quarta and d’India’ s ‘Langue al vostro languir’, for which since the text is published in the booklet comes as something of a surprise. An outstanding recording that serves not only to illustrate the richness of the repertoire but also enhance the reputation of Emiliano Gonzalez Toro and I Gemelli as being in the vanguard of its interpreters.

Brian Robins