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M. Haydn: Endimione

CD cover J C Bach Endimione

Aleksandra Zamojska, Ulrike Hofbauer, Lydia Teuscher, Nicholas Spanos, Salvburger Hofmusik, Wolfgang Brunner
113:29 (2 CDs)
cpo 555 288-2

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The serenata Endimione is part of a body of such miniature operas composed at the Court of Salzburg in the second half of the 18th century, which includes the azione teatrale il sogno di Scipione and Il re pastore by Mozart. Work by a number of ensembles, not least Salzburger Hofmusik, has increasingly brought Michael Haydn out from the shadow of his elder brother, Joseph, and this charming serenata highlights his skills with the voice and with orchestral writing. It is probable that the virtuoso soprano part of Endimione would have been taken by Mozart’s friend and collaborator, the celebrated Munich castrato, Tommaso Consoli, and it is sung impressively here by the countertenor Nicholas Spanos. A fine line-up of three excellent sopranos take the parts of Amor, Diana and Nice, producing the necessary vocal fireworks, while they are ably supported by the wonderfully responsive Salzburger Hofmusik under the direction of Wolfgang Brunner. While some ensembles take a much more aggressive approach to the music of this period, the Salzburger Hofmusik are always appropriately courtly, allowing the music to speak for itself. This pays dividends at moments such as Endimione’s accompanied recit Lode al ciel and Diana’s ensuing Cavatina, where Haydn’s delicious orchestration and sublime lyrical skills are allowed to unfold naturally. Indeed, this serenata is rich in such inspired passages, underlining the fact that Michael Haydn’s distinctive compositional voice has until recently been so unfairly overshadowed. Salzburger Hofmusik have already played a key role in highlighting the Court Kapellmeister’s skills as a composer of church music, but this present recording shows his equally remarkable abilities as an “operatic” composer.

D. James Ross

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Vivaldi: Cantatas for soprano 1

CD cover Vivaldi cantatas for soprano 1 Arianna Vendittelli

Arianna Vendittelli, Abchordis Ensemble, Andrea Buccarella
62:42
naïve OP7257

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It cannot be stressed too often just what an extraordinary project Naïve’s complete Vivaldi Edition is. With their striking, sometimes bizarre covers featuring models – this one a very 21st-century young woman adorned with a ruff and blossom in her tousled hair – each CD adds to a total of issues that with this addition devoted to soprano cantatas reaches volume 68.

By definition the Edition has introduced many new works to the catalogue, but Vivaldi’s 30-odd cantatas have in general been reasonably well represented on record and all six here (RV 650, 652, 669, 667, 660 and 665) are or have been previously available on CD. That is not to detract from the present issue, which, while not flawless, has a great deal to recommend it. Not the least of the appeal comes from the beguiling quality and personality of Arianna Vendittelli’s soprano, which heard at its best gives to these pastoral cantatas of love in its various guises an empathy and seductive warmth that is irresistible and frequently touching. Ornaments are neatly turned and passaggi negotiated with an agile ease, though I fear as so often it is necessary to report there is no convincingly articulated trill to be heard, though Vendittelli deserves credit for at least attempting this most elusive, but essential of decorations.  

If only that were the whole story, but sadly it is not. In common with so many singers today Vendittelli exercises less than perfect control over her higher register, which is too often unevenly produced. This is particularly in evidence in the most ambitious and outstanding of these cantatas, ‘Sorge vermiglia in ciel, la bella Aurora’ RV 667. In four movements alternating recitative and aria, it is, as it not uncommon, the complaint of the lover whose affections are not returned but who will still remain faithful to the loved one, in this case Sylvia. The passion and fervour are barely contained and the cantata, which concludes with a full-blooded aria di furia was obviously written for an exceptional virtuoso castrato or soprano, with expansive often awkward vocal leaps in all four movements. The opening recitative allows Vendittelli to reveal impressive chest notes in the lower register, but in the aria ‘Nasce il sole’ the lack of control is cruelly revealed, with the difference in volume between the chest notes and upper head notes running counter to everything we know about the technical requirements of the day (cf. Tosi). Yet what is disappointing is that both here and elsewhere Vendittelli shows she has a lovely mezza voce perfectly capable of ‘touching’ (Tosi’s word) upper notes. There’s an especially noteworthy example in the final aria, ‘Vedrò con nero’ from the delightful lighter cantata ‘La farfalletta s’aggira al lume’, RV 660. Here the word ‘splendor’ is positively caressed on its final appearance with each repetition. I relish, too, the undulations of the B section of this aria, with their little hints of portamento.

The singer is given well-played continuo support by the members of the Abchordis Ensemble (here harpsichord or organ, cello, chittarone or archlute) and bassoon (in slighter RV 669 and 665), but it is not always tastefully judged. This applies particularly to movements where the plucked instrument is given full reign to make a tiresomely over-intrusive contribution, while the introduction to the opening aria of RV 660 sounds positively twee rather than capturing Vivaldi’s delightful evocation of flitting butterflies and meandering bees. Nonetheless, and as stressed above, Vendittelli brings to these cantatas much that is to be cherished and relished. For that reason the CD is welcomed as yet another valuable addition to the Vivaldi edition.    

Brian Robins

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Fantasia Bellissima

CD cover of Fantasia Bellissima Hofstötter

The Lviv lute tablature
Bernhard Hofstötter lute
41:51
TYXart TXA18115

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The city of Lviv, one of the main cultural centres in Ukraine, has had many names over the years, including the Polish Lwów, German Lemberg, and Russian Львов (Lvov). The University Library has in its possession a manuscript (UKR-LVu 1400/I) which contains music notated in French and Italian lute tablature. This manuscript, referred to by Bernhard Hofstötter as “The Lviv Lute Tablature”, is the source of the music for the present CD. Confusingly, in the CD liner notes Kateryna Schöning refers to the book as the “Cracow Lute Tablature”. An early owner of the book, Schwartz-An[drzej] Czarny, wrote in the manuscript that he was from Crakow, and gave the date 1555. The watermarks show that the paper was made not far from Crakow. A description of the lute music with incipts may be seen on line at  – Piotr Poz´niak (Cracow), ”The Kraków Lute Tablature: A Source Analysis”, Musica Iagellonica, (2004) ISSN 1233–9679. This manuscript is not the same as “The Cracow Lute-Book”, vol. 2 of Valentin Bakfark Opera Omnia, ed. Homolya István and Dániel Benkö, (Budapest: Editio Musica Budapest, 1979), which is a modern edition of a printed source: Valentin Bakfark, Tomus Primus (Crakow, 1565).

Bernhard Hofstötter claims that his recordings of pieces from the Lviv lute book are “World Premiere Recordings”. You could argue that Oleg Timofeyev beat him to it back in May 2011 with his recording, The Lviv Lute (Sono Luminus DSL-92134) recorded on 21st May 2011, with 19 pieces from the manuscript. However, Timofeyev’s recording is with his group Sarmatica, and the music has been arranged to be sung and played by various instruments. Hofstötter plays the music, albeit with some artistic licence, as it is in the manuscript, intabulated for solo lute, so I think his claim could be justified. He plays a 7-course lute after Vendelio Venere by Renatus Lechner, which is very bright in the treble (either that or the recording engineer makes it bright).

The first and last track, “Tarzeto”, consists largely of variations over the ground IV, V, I, I. To create extra excitement Hofstötter starts strumming that chord sequence about half-way through, and speeds up towards the end. To some listeners, strumming may seem out of place for the lute, yet there are occasional examples in extant lute sources, e.g. Hans Newsidler’s “Gassen hawer” (1536). It’s a matter of taste, of course, but I would prefer not having Hofstötter’s extra excitement. I think the piece is fine as it is, and does not need turning into something resembling Gaspar Sanz’s well-known Canarios for baroque guitar. A facsimile of the music (ff. 31r-31v) may be seen on line in Piotr Poz´niak’s article cited above. There is no strumming notated in the manuscript. Hofstötter’s oft-repeated IV, V, I, I sequence actually comes only twice at the end of the piece in the manuscript, not numerous times at the beginning as he plays it. As notated, it’s a nice piece, rather like a calata by Dalza on a good day.

There are three fantasias by John Dowland in the Lviv manuscript. Track 2 is an upbeat interpretation of Fantasia no. 6 (Poulton & Lam). Hofstötter understandably looks for ways of making the music expressive – adding occasional ornaments (good), rolling chords, e.g. the second chord of bar 7 (effective in enhancing the following 7-6), easing off in bar 21 (nice, because it helps a change of mood), and bringing the music to an overdramatic stop in bar 23 (not nice, because it loses momentum). One thing I really do not like is the exaggerated séparé of four two-note chords in bars 3-4. It interrupts the flow (one of each séparé pair must by definition be out of time), and it obscures the two-part polyphony.

Hofstötter plays 19 pieces altogether. (There are twenty tracks, but Tarzeto appears twice.) Some are very short. Passo e mezo (track 11) lasts a mere 24 seconds, although it makes musical sense when followed in the next track by a matching Saltarello (52 seconds of which the last 12 seconds are silence before the next track starts). Scattered among the jolly dance pieces are some song intabulations – Claudin de Sermisy’s “Le content est riche”, Pierre Sandrin’s “Doulce memoire”, Jacquet de Berchem’s “O s’io potessi donna”, and Clément Jannequin’s “Or vien ça, vien”. Valentin Bakfark’s “Non dite mai” with its title looks like a song intabulation, but it is a galliard. A modern transcription may be found in vol. 3, pp. 51-2 of the Bakfark edition mentioned earlier.

There is much variety. Strumming returns in a setting of La rocha el fuso, but it is used sparingly – just for the fast repeated chords of one section. It is very effective, and I think appropriate here. Particularly pleasing is Hofstötter’s performance of Giovanni Pacoloni’s well-named Fantasia bellissima, which is used for the title of the CD. There is a slowly-paced rendition of Dalza’s Pavana alla Ferrarese – the tempo has to be slow if only to be able to fit in all the fast notes at cadences and elsewhere. From a later age comes Dowland’s Forlorn Hope Fancy (Poulton and Lam, no. 2) with its lugubrious descending chromatic motif. All in all, the Lviv lute tablature is an interesting source, not widely known even in the lute world. Hofstötter has done well to bring it to our attention with a lively and pleasing performance.

Stewart McCoy

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Haydn: Die Schöpfung

CD cover Haydn Creation Jordi Savall

Yeree Suh, Tilman Lichdi, Matthias Winckhler, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Le Concert des Nations, Jordi Savallq
103:18 (2 CDs in a card triptych)
Alia Vox AVSA9945


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Is there a more uplifting work in all music than The Creation? Even in a half-decent performance and for all the perceived naivety (by some) of parts of its text and the mimetic response they drew from Haydn, it juxtaposes glorious, iridescent power with reassuring companionability to a degree that is surely unique. Jordi Savall’s new recording, made shortly before his 80 birthday in May 2021, is, as one would expect, a great deal more than half-decent. The ethos of the performance is established at the very outset. Aided by the generous acoustic of the Romanesque church at Cardona in Catalonia, the portentous opening chord of the introductory ‘Representation of Chaos’ seems to last an eternity before finally dying. Again as one might expect, tempos are in general on the slow side, but only in Part 3 is there any feeling that there might have been more forward movement. In the opening duet with chorus for Adam and Eve that is more than mitigated by the manner in which Savall builds the movement to a magnificently controlled climax in the overwhelming outburst of praise to God, ‘Heil, dir’. Less convincing is the equally slow tempo for the more worldly duet that follows, ‘Holde Gattin!’, a wonderful example of the way in which Haydn throughout constantly alternates the godly with the world He has created.

This combination of the elevated, the spiritual with the everyday, the mundane world of cattle and worms, is to my mind at the heart of the humanity Savall finds in the oratorio. And time and again it is through the superb playing of his orchestra that he achieves that goal. Listen, for example, to the exquisite tenderness of the orchestral opening of the terzetto ‘In holder Anmut’ (In fairest raiment), so touching in its evocation of the beauties of nature and yet another number that will build inexorably, in this case from the pastoral to a glorious climactic point in the chorus ‘Der Herr ist gross’ (The Lord is great).

So where does that leave the soloists? Well, although all three sing well enough, particularly in ensemble work, I have to confess a certain disappointment. There is to my mind in common a shortage of strong personality, a lack of communicative skill that results in an inability to make the text tell in the way it can and must in this work. Most satisfying is the Korean soprano, Yeree Suh. Hers is a truly delightful soprano, fresh, youthful and supple enough to essay passaggi with fluent ease and turn ornaments with elegance. At her best, as in ‘Nun heut die Flur’ (With verdure clad), she is beguiling and charming, but overall she needed to pay more attention to enunciation. Tenor Tilman Lichdi’s Uriel is fine without ever challenging some of the outstanding singers of the role. The timbre is agreeable and he brings a pleasingly youthful lightness of touch to his opening aria, ‘Nun schwanden’ (Now vanish’), but in the magnificent accompagnato celebrating the division of night and day, the sun and the moon, the ear is constantly caught not by the singing but the orchestra’s magnificent evocation of sunrise and the mystery of moonlight. And so it is too with Matthias Winckhler, whose baritone is rather lightweight for Raphael’s music and is at times pushed to maintain a steady tone at Savall’s deliberate tempos.  But I would not wish to over-exaggerate any deficiencies the soloists might have; by any standard their contribution is at the very least thoroughly acceptable.

I’ve not so far mentioned Savall’s splendid hand-picked chorus, here just 20-strong (considerably fewer than Haydn had at his disposal in 1808) but sounding more numerous with the aid of the acoustic. The catalogue is graced by a number of outstanding recordings of The Creation. This one, for the reasons suggested, is rather special, and joins them as the product of the cumulative experience of one of the great musicians of our day.

Brian Robins

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Eccles: Semele

CD cover Eccles Semele Academy of Ancient Music Cambridge Handel Opera Julian Perkins

Anna Dennis, Héloïse Bernard, Aoife Miskelly, Helen Charlston, Bethany Horak-Hallett, Rory Carver, James Rhoads, William Wallace, Jonathan Brown, Richard Burkhard, Jolyon Loy, Graem Broadbent, Christopher Forster, Academy of Ancient Music, Cambridge Handel Opera, Julian Perkins
121:27 (2 CDs in a triptych in a folder with a hardback booklet)
AAM012

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John Eccles has been the victim of historical bad timing. Following immediately after Purcell, on whose operatic writing he built very directly, his operas, and Semele specifically, were utterly overshadowed by the arrival in London of Handel. Handel’s own Semele served specifically to eclipse Eccles’s, which had to wait until the 1960s to receive its first performance. By this time the manuscript was incomplete, but it soon became apparent that this was one of the great ‘what-ifs’ of English music. Had Eccles’ Semele, setting a libretto by Congreve no less, been performed in the early 18th century, and earned him the accolades they both deserved, might truly English opera (in English and in the English tradition established so promisingly by Purcell and Blow) have survived to compete with Handel’s Italianate offerings? It is fascinating to hear the degree to which Congreve and Eccles choose the truly tragic route through the familiar myth, while Handel takes a generally more lightweight approach. Eccles Semele has been recorded before, but the present Cambridge Early Music package, with its extensive collection of related essays and a line-up of superb soloists from the Cambridge Handel Opera and the ever-excellent Academy of Ancient Music truly puts Eccles’ opera on the map. The dramatically powerful and musically persuasive performance is directed by Julian Perkins, who at the opposite end of the scale has delighted audiences up and down the country with his clavichord playing, here conducts with considerable authority. There are few Baroque performers who have not dabbled in the music of John Eccles – perhaps sometimes even initially due to his novelty name – and been impressed with his musicality, but his Semele demonstrates an altogether more impressive level of inspiration and musicality. My one slight reservation about this otherwise exemplary issue is that the one or two ensemble items sound a little too ‘close’ and vocally competitive. Otherwise, I think you can tell that these are young singers who are used to staging the opera of this period, and if the Eccles hasn’t yet made it to the Cambridge boards, the sense of unfolding drama is palpable on these two intense and engaging CDs.

D. James Ross

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Purcell: Birthday Odes of Queen Mary

CD cover Purcell Birthday Odes of Queen Mary Robert King

The King’s Consort, Robert King
77:10
VIVAT 122

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There are few ensembles more familiar with the music of Henry Purcell than the King’s Consort under the direction of Robert King. After establishing the link back to pioneering performances by David Munrow, featuring James Bowman, in which King sang as a boy, he alludes to how musicology has provided us with an ever clearer picture of just how this music would have been performed in Purcell’s own day. The smaller instrumental and vocal forces are evident on this beautiful recording – two each of sopranos, altos, tenors and basses cover the solos, duets and the chorus parts, while two each of violins, violas and bass violins along with two oboes, recorders and trumpets with a continuo group of harpsichord/organ and theorbo make up the orchestral component. The Odes featured are Arise, my Muse (1690), Love’s Goddess sure was blind (1692) and Celebrate this Festival (1693) – in fact, the numbering of the items in which the trumpets participate is wrong in the programme list – for 2 read 3 and for 3 read 1.) However, in all honesty, this is the only tiny flaw in an otherwise exemplary package. As usual, King has assembled a first-rate line-up of specialist singers, and the singing of all eight is an utter delight. Exquisite phrasing is complemented with deft and utterly idiomatic ornamentation in every case, while the choruses are given equally detailed treatment, and the instruments in turn complement this with their own superlative level of musicianship. As a result, the often frankly silly libretti can be overlooked in the light of such stunning music-making. We even have time for an ‘in joke’ in the mock rage with which the ground bass of May her blest example in Love’s Goddess sure was blind is presented here, alluding to the story of a piqued Purcell using the tune Cold and Raw after the Queen had previously preferred it to his own music. The choice of a pair of recorders for Sweetness of Nature in Love’s Goddess sure was blind for which the instrumentation in the imperfect source is ambiguous, is inspired, but then when I went back to Munrow’s 1976 recording, this was his solution too. The many vocal and instrumental highlights in this recording are too many to enumerate – suffice it to say, I loved this CD, and can hardly imagine more convincing performances of these three lovely pieces.

D. James Ross

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Bach: The Art of Fugue

CD cover Filippo Gorini Bach The Art of Fugue

Filippo Gorini piano
97:11 (2 CDs in a card triptych)
Alpha 755

It is a little odd to find this series of performances of Bach played on the modern grand piano by a succession of young players on the Alpha label, the home of impeccable historically informed (occasionally controversially so) performances. For my full views on Bach on the modern piano, please see my recent review of Bach: The Well-tempered Clavier Book 1, played on the piano by Aaron Pilsan also on Alpha. I won’t rehearse old arguments here, except to point out again that The Art of Fugue constitutes something of an exception to my HIP preference for period instruments. This enigmatic collection, as far as we can understand conceived by its composer as truly abstract music for the appreciation of connoisseurs and not tied in his mind to any particular instrument, transcends its time. As a result, it is played in our times on a variety of instruments and by different ensembles and still has the power to mesmerise. Thus too, these beautifully understated accounts on two CDs by Filippo Gorini beguile and charm in equal measure. I almost found myself admiring Gorini’s ability to bring out individual lines in the texture, something which Bach could not have done on any of the keyboard instruments of his time, but which a small chamber ensemble most certainly could and would have done – and which of course the eye, and the mind’s ear, of the educated connoisseur would also naturally have accomplished. If you like your Bach on modern piano, this surely must be the sort of performance you would want – wonderfully free from pianistic effects, elegantly understated and technically perfect.

D. James Ross

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KeyNotes

CD cover KeyNotes Early European Keyboard Music

Early European Keyboard Music
Corina Marti
65:54
Ramée RAM1916

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For her performances of early European keyboard music on clavisimbalum, claviciterium (clavicytherium), organetti and medieval organ, Corina Marti raids the usual 14th- and 15th–century sources : the codices of Faenza, Buxheim, Las Huelgas, Florence and Peruggia, as well as a new one for me, the Robertsbridge Manuscript, two pages of 14th-century keyboard music bound together with another manuscript associated with Robertsbridge in Kent. From this last manuscript Marti plays a setting of Tribum quem non obhoruit, which unfortunately turns out to be a reworking of familiar music by Phillippe de Vitry – how much more exciting to have heard a wholly original English keyboard work from this period. I find 14th- and 15th-century keyboard music, with its mixture of rawness and fluidity, utterly compelling, and I enjoyed these accounts by Corina Marti, although I did wonder just occasionally about some of the mannered hesitations in the performances, which I suspect may not have been entirely for musical reasons. So while this CD perhaps lacks the jaw-dropping virtuosity and sheer bravado of the accounts of similar repertoire by Tasto Solo, Marti plays her selection of instruments idiomatically and persuasively. The medieval organ on which many of the tracks are performed is the wonderful Altenbruch Organ, an instrument embodying pipe-work from its original construction by Johannes Koch before 1497, which has survived a number of later reworkings, including one by Johann Hinrich Klapmeyer in 1727. It has the real and rare sound of a voice from the past, and truly brings this fine music to life.

D. James Ross

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Con arte e maestria

CD cover Con arte e maestria Oliver Webber

Virtuoso violin ornamentation from the dawn of the Italian Baroque
Monteverdi String Band In Focus, Oliver Webber, Steven Devine
78:45
resonus RES10282

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It has become apparent that Italian music composed towards the end of the 16th century and in the early part of the 17th century was almost invariably intended to be lavishly ornamented in performance. Tantalisingly, but also mercifully for players aiming for historically informed performances of this repertoire, some composers and players occasionally wrote out the divisions they were clearly using all the time, while a number of theoreticians wrote treatises with examples of ornamentation. One such, the Selva di varii passagii by Francesco Rognoni, gives us the heading for this CD as the title ends con arte e maestria. The violinist Oliver Webber and keyboard player Steven Devine, individually and together, apply these treatises to a variety of appropriate pieces, as well as performing versions of works which have survived in ornamented forms. In addition, Webber supplies a couple of improvised showpieces ‘in the style of Bassano and Monteverdi’ – there can be little doubt that once the early violin virtuosi had mastered the art of ornamentation, in a sense recreating the original works, they would have been emboldened also to improvise more freely in the style of the time, as we know for a fact all the great keyboard masters did. I still remember my astonishment at leafing as a student through Ganassi’s Fontegara, a guide to ornamentation from the earlier 16th century, with its blizzards of scales and other written-out ornaments, including trills in thirds and fourths – who does those? While we can never be absolutely sure how performances sounded in the historical past, Webber and Devine have done an excellent job of thinking themselves back into the role of early Baroque virtuosi, and their performances of this repertoire, encrusted with ornamentation, is musically convincing and thrilling. The nearest parallel to this ‘living art’ of ornamentation must be the aleatoric nature of some jazz idioms, but of course the difference is that we can hear how the latter worked in performance. Webber and Devine apply their consummate technical skills and flawless musical instincts to bring this vital performance technique vividly back to life – and with considerable ‘art and mastery’. 

D. James Ross

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Ich schlief, da träumte mir

Anne Marie Dragosits Ich schlief, da träumte ich

Anne Marie Dragosits harpsichrod
65:00
encelade ECL 2002

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This imaginative programme of movements associated with sleep and night-time in general from the late Baroque period features a wonderful harpsichord by Christian Zell and the equally impressive playing of Anne Marie Dragosits. Some purists may object to her extraction of individual movements from larger works by these German composers, but in reality many of these are pieces which are rarely played in their entirety anyway, and I found myself more intrigued by their shared and contrasting moods and idioms than by their lack of musical context. If sometimes the mood is slightly ‘souped up’ by Dragosits’ occasionally mannered presentation and changes of stops in mid-piece, I found myself less critical of this than you might expect, and by contrast I was engaged by the range of timbres she found in her remarkable instrument. Also, we shouldn’t underestimate the avant garde nature of some of this music from the late Baroque, a period when keyboard composers particularly were experimenting with unexpected harmonic progressions and melodic lines – perhaps they too were keen to emphasise these features in their performances. It was curious to find the constituent materials of the harpsichord – ‘diverse wood and metal, ivory, tortoise-shell’ (both mercifully long dead) – listed in the notes, but as the several illustrations in the booklet reveal this is a stunningly handsome instrument to look at as well as to listen to.

D. James Ross