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Telemann: Harmonischer Gottesdiesnst Vol.7

CD cover Telemann Harmonischer Gottesdienst vol. 7 Bergen Barokk Toccata Classics

Bergen Barokk (Franz Vitzthum alto, Peter Holtslag flute, Thomas C. Boysen theorbo, Markku Luolajan-Mikkola viola da gamba, Hans Knut Sven harpsichord/organ)
62:31
Toccata Classics  TOCC 0182

It must be said that this recording has taken quite some time (several years!) to finally appear – recorded in 2008, we wondered if the project would continue, so this is a wonderful pre-Christmas gift; and we are in safe hands with both composer and ensemble. If you were told to go and hear six liturgical cantatas with exactly the same, limited instrumentation, you might expect some momentary lulls in interest, yet these finely crafted works are easily on par with Handel’s nine German Arias, and offer a very decent range of unforced expressivity for the solo vocalist (here a male alto) and instrumentalist (transverse flute). A very well observed trait in the continuo section, the canatas alternate between harpsichord and organ across the CD, neatly marking out the dual application of these well-conceived works for possible domestic use and/or divine worship.

It is a double joy to encounter some new works among others that are familiar, especially when the bright, mellifluous musicality takes hold from the very first: Ew’ge Quelle…other notable openings are found in both TVWV1:994 and 1:449, the first has echoes of the last aria in the “Landlust” TVWV20:33 from the Moralische Cantaten of 1736, with its nightingale imitations (superbly captured by Peter Holtslag, who is excellent throughout alongside Fritz Vitzthum).

Upon closer inspection of Stig Wernø Holter’s  most insightful notes, some minor “slips” in translation can be clearly noted: for example, track 9 (on page 8) “Thus heaven will be the prize”; and in the second cantata’s first aria, the final verb is “verbannt” , which means “banished” or “cast out”. These (and a couple of other near-misses) do little to affect one’s pleasure with such engaging performances, combining to form an intimate, edifying listen to some beautifully contoured cantatas from Telemann’s 1725-6 published cycle. A fine continuation of the series.

David Bellinger

P. S. Only 30 fabulous cantatas to go before the project is completed!

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Bach: Sonatas & Partitas

CD cover Tedi Papavrami Bach Sonatas and partitas on Alpha

Tedi Papavrami
138:00 (2CDs in a card triptych)
Alpha 756

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Seventeen years on from his first recording of the Sei Soli, Tedi Papavrami, the Albanian and French educated violinist playing a fairly new violin by Christian Bayon (Lisbon 2015) and using a bow by Jean Marie Persoit (Paris c.1830) found himself in lockdown returning to Bach. With many concerts cancelled, and a violin that was making what he described as a ‘more luminous sound’ than the one he used for his recording in 2005, he chose the Arsenal at Metz to make a new recording that was more spare, and pruned of showy excesses.

Jacques Drillon, writing in the liner notes quotes the film director Robert Bresson as saying, ‘One does not create by adding, but by subtracting’.

The lockdown return to Bach has given Papavrami a sharpened sense of the essential nature of these remarkable pieces, where the bass is always implied, though never stated, and less is somehow more. So this is a new and leaner Papavrami, dispensing with vibrato for the most part and positioning himself in the space between Milstein and Kuijken, but eschewing the bravura and showmanship associated with an earlier generation of famous solo violinists.

He plays a modern instrument at A=440, so in no way is this an ‘early music’ performance and cannot be compared with the light-fingered, dancing recordings made by Rachel Podger. Instead, we hear a sober and thoughtful account with no frills that lets the music speak for itself rather than showcase an individual’s personality. By contrast, I find Jacques Drillon’s booklet essay – apparently delving into the changing mindset of Papavrami to explain his new take – rather personality-centred. It diverts us from the music, with the many questions that the Sei soli raise – three Italian-style sonatas and three French-style suites – only glancingly mentioned.

But there are other good points: the giving (rather than resonant) acoustic of the Arsenal in Metz (where Christine Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata recorded their Monteverdi Vespers in 2010) is splendid, and the pacing and attention to phrasing is all good. But my own preference is for a lighter bow-stroke and more attention to the harmonic superstructure offered by a less equal temperament.

David Stancliffe

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Hammerschmidt: Ach Jesus stirbt

CD cover Hammerschmidt Ach Jesus stirbt Vox Luminis Lionel Meunier

Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier
70:27
Ricercar RIC418

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A key figure in the mid-17th-century German world is Andreas Hammerschmidt (1611/2-1675) who was fluent in the emerging cantata style and equally at home in monody or the madrigalesque style of Italy. His sacred works were published over 15 volumes printed between 1639 and 1671 and combine polychoral motets with solo and dialogue pieces, many using thematic material derived from chorales. In some ways overshadowed by his better-known contemporary Schütz, he was among the creators of the sound world of Lutheran church music in which the contributors to the Altbachisches Archiv and ultimately Johann Sebastian Bach himself were formed. A lot of attention has been paid to Schütz and Schein, and to Buxtehude in the north, while Hammerschmidt is unjustly – on the basis of this fine recording – neglected.

Partly to remedy this, Vox Luminis – here using 13 singers – recorded this selection of his works in 2019, using the substantial organ by Dominique Thomas of 2002 in the north transept of the church of Notre-Dame at Gedinne in Belgium, where in 2017 they had recorded motets by Schein and Ahle for inclusion in an interesting CD devised by the remarkable Breton bassoonist, Jérémie Papasergio. The Hammerschmidt programme is structured around texts for Passiontide and Easter, beginning with the elegiac motet Ach Jesus stirbt, which is the title given to the whole CD. They work with the string group CLEMATIS, (2 violins, 2 violas and violone) and brass (2 trumpets, 3 trombones and bassoon), although the majority of pieces have just basso continuo with the voices.

Vox Luminis are at the heart of their comfort zone with this colourful and often surprisingly adventurous music. The balance, clarity and diction for which the group is justly celebrated are all in evidence in these subtle and well-paced performances. This is an important introduction to Hammerschmidt’s unique voice, but it is also a quite excellent performance of gripping music.

I like it a lot, and it offers far more than just filling another gap in the complex jigsaw of 17th-century Germany, where cross currents between national styles, composers’ opportunities to travel and the myriad small courts with their musical establishments was all part of creating an emerging late Baroque synthesis. Each performance is beautiful and moving in itself, but the cumulative effect is distinctive and compelling.

Some motets are in more in the old cori spezzati style; others employ echo effects, like Siehe, wie fein und lieblich ists in three choirs. In a newer and more obviously modern style, Ach Gott, warum hast du mein vergessen has four character voices, beginning with Ps 22.1 and ending with Alleluias, so taking us from the cross to the empty tomb. Its companion piece is Wer wälzet uns der Stein, where a pair of sopranos ask the question ‘Who will roll away the stone?’ A pair of violins dialogue with them, while violas and violone shadow the lower voices and a bright organ sound adds to the outburst of Easter joy. Restrained and sung by just four voices with continuo is O barmherziger Vater, while Christ lag in Todesbanden makes polyphony out of the chorale, setting it for two trebles and a tenor with three trombones and continuo. Easter is celebrated in a less antique Lutheran style in Triumph, Triumph, Victoria, which has upper voices in pairs – two sopranos, two tenors and then a different pair of sopranos – for the verses with two trumpets and three trombones with the tutti. For Ascension Day we have a motet based on upward scale passages that cumulates in tuttis capped by three trumpets. Very different is Vater unser, with four favoriti, a five-part string group and a capella of five voices joining for the tutti, and the poignant words Ist nicht Ephraim mein theurer Sohn, set memorably by Schütz, receives a haunting performance with just five voices.

As so often with Vox Luminis, the performances seem just right: no individualistic voices unbalance the perfect restraint, yet the outbursts of Easter joy are life enhancing. The choice of music not only illustrates the multiple styles to be found in Hammerschmidt, but shows how rich was the melting pot of middle Europe in these mid-17th-century years. This is an important CD, and no one should be without it.

David Stancliffe

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Goldberg: Complete Trio Sonatas

CD cover Goldberg Trio sonatas Ricercar Ludus Instrumentalis

Ludus Instrumentalis, Evgeny Sviridov
69:57
RIC 426

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This well-played CD collects the surviving trio sonatas of Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, and begins with one formerly attributed to his teacher, J. S. Bach, when it was known as BWV 1037: we soon see why. Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was introduced to Goldberg as a child keyboard prodigy at Dresden in 1737, when he had been brought there aged 10 by Count von Keyserlingk from his natal Danzig. It was probably W. F. who supervised his initial studies in Dresden, though Johann Sebastian certainly taught him after he moved to Leipzig in 1746 and the set of variations for the insomniac Keyserlingk bears his name.

Goldberg died of consumption in 1756, having lived in Leipzig and then after moving back to Dresden on Keyserlingk’s return in 1749, before entering the service of Count Heinrich von Brühl in 1751, where he composed virtuoso harpsichord concertos in the gallant style and a number of chamber works. His surviving cantatas, written when he was 15 (and also recorded by Ricercar), ‘display an astonishing skill in the use of imitation and fugato’ when writing for chorus. J. F. Reichardt, writing at the end of the 18th century, placed him on the same level as Bach and Handel.

Many of these techniques are displayed in these chamber works, which include four trio sonatas, a prelude and fugue in G minor and a sonata for two violins, viola and basso continuo in C minor.

Ludus Instrumentalis is a group of young players led by Evgeny Sviridov who have made some Youtube videos to illustrate their work. Their instruments are fully listed in the liner notes, and their mellow harpsichord is by Zander (2017) after Dulcken. I find the balance excellent and the playing attentive, bringing out the counterpoint well and allowing us to hear the detail as the melodic interest shifts among the instruments.

I found this CD an eye-opener. Goldberg’s writing is astonishingly more like Johann Sebastian’s than anyone else among their contemporaries. Included is a Prelude and Fugue which illustrates what the 48 might look like if they had been written for this standard chamber combination rather than a keyboard. And even if the other trio sonatas show more chromaticism and display a more tortured and involved counterpoint as Goldberg explores a more gallant approach to thematic material – this sometimes seems to herald the approach of a more romantic period – the facility in part-writing is assured and those who do not know this music will learn a lot about where music might have gone had this extraordinary talent not been snuffed out at the age of 29.

You will enjoy this CD, as well as being surprised by Goldberg: please listen to it.

David Stancliffe

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Anima aeterna

CD cover Anima aeterna Jakub Jozef OrlinskiIl pomo d'oro

Jakub Józef Orliński countertenor Fatma Said soprano, Chorus and Orchestra of Il Pomo D’Oro, directed by Francesco Corti
80:21
Erato 0190296743900

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Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński first came to notice in a YouTube video singing an aria from Vivaldi’s Il Giustino. Endowed with a ravishing voice of a pure golden sweetness, the looks of a young Hollywood star and an exceptional if not perfect vocal technique, Orliński’s video rapidly achieved cult status and a recent check showed it has received over 8 million viewings. A follow-up video of him break dancing did no harm either. Since then, however, he has shown himself to be more than an ephemeral boy wonder, producing fine CDs of both sacred and secular arias in addition to singing Ottone in what has to be referred to as Joyce DiDonato’s Agrippina.

Here Orliński returns to sacred repertoire in a programme that includes several rarities, though I suppose it is a sign of the times that the singer is quick to point out in his introductory note that it is not the religious side that is the principal focus. In a sense, there is some justification for that in that all this is music of the counter-Reformation, music that owes much to opera and is designed to appeal more to the senses than it does to the soul. Nothing better illustrates this than the opening motet by Zelenka, Barbara, dira, effera, Z 164, a furious outburst against the crucifiers of Jesus – the text reads uncomfortably today – driven by fierce, taut rhythms and melodic angularity typical of the composer. Consisting of a long, unusually structured opening aria, a short recitative and the final ‘Alleluja’ customary in motets, it’s a bravura piece well suited to displaying Orliński’s vituoso gifts, in particular the dazzlingly articulated passaggi. Less admirable is a reluctance to introduce trills, which as I’ve previously noted he can sing but appear still to be work in progress rather than a confident part of his technique.

The other side of the Orliński coin is strikingly in evidence on the following track, an aria for the Repentant Sinner from Fux’s sepolcro – oratorios staged at the imperial court in Vienna in Holy Week – Il Fonte della salute (1716). A beautiful continuo aria with an obbligato part for baryton, it provides the ideal vehicle for the singer to display the sheer beauty of his voice and unwavering sense of line and shaping. Another motet by Zelenka, a setting of the Vespers psalm Laetatus sum, ZWV 90 is a duet for which Orliński is joined by the bright, flexible soprano of Fatma Said. The opening duet has an entrancing, dancing lightness exceedingly well captured here, while succeeding movements including solo arias for both voices as well as further brief duets, in which the voices combine exquisitely, especially in the setting of ‘Gloria’, which underlining the point made above could in a different context well be a love duet. With the exception of the brief Handel antiphon with which the programme ends, the remaining items are by less familiar composers. ‘Giusto Dio’ by the Portuguese composer De Almeida (1702-1755) and is prayerful plea of great beauty from his oratorio La Giuditta, again allowing Orliński to demonstrate his legato and including a central section that calls for his impressively strong chest register. The da capo opens with a lovely messa da voce and although the aria is taken at an indulgently slow tempo, the overall effect is so beguilingly luxuriant I for one am not complaining. Even less well known is Bartholomeo Nucci (fl. 1717-c.1749), from whose oratorio Il David trionfante comes a rather conventional trumpet aria, the martial tones and virtuoso character of which tempt Orliński into a rather vulgar cadenza. Of greater substance is the setting of Laudate pueri by Gennaro Manno (1715-1779), a member of a family of musicians and for a period joint maestro di cappella at Naples Cathedral with the aging Porpora. Following a florid opening nicely contrasted sections also include choral interjections, the only work on the CD to do so.

Overall, the programme vividly enhances Orliński’s now-established credentials as a serious singer rather than a celebrity. Given the unfamiliarity of much of the programme, it is a pity that the notes are so unhelpful; Manna is omitted completely. I’m not sure what to make of a cover picture that seemingly finds Orliński in mid-Ovidian metamorphosis into some kind of greenery.

Brian Robins

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Bach / Biber: Pièces pour Violon & Basse

CD cover Immanuelle Dauvin Bach and Biber recital

OVNI Baroque
Emmanuelle Dauvin violin & organ
60:45
Hitsura HSP 007

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This unusual CD explores the real and implied harmonic resonances in selected works by Biber and Bach. The performer is the French violinist Emmanuelle Dauvin, who while exploring the Bach works for solo violin found herself fascinated by the polyphonic implications and was led back to Biber’s sonatas and their sparse bass lines. How could she bring out the implied harmonic structure line in Biber’s Rosary sonatas with their extravagant and varied tuning? OVNI Baroque is short for “Orgue & Violon Nouvelle Interprétation”, and this takes its inspiration from her hero, Nicholas Bruhns, who was said to have played the organ and violin simultaneously.

How is that possible? Her answer is to use her feet, as Bruhns is said to have done. And so, beginning with the pedal points held in Biber’s Annunciation Sonata, she began playing some simple pedal passages as she played the violin. In addition to the Partita BWV 1002, she includes one piece of Bach, BWV 1023, the ‘Sonata a Violino solo col Basso’, where she plays the slow moving bass line on the organ, leaving its implied harmonies to be suggested by the rich harmonic overtones of the Montre 8’ – or is it the Pédale 8’ Basse? – and the church’s acoustics combined, and I had half been expecting her to add some of the implied bass line in the Partita prima a violin solo senza Basso (BWV 1002) which she divides into two, but she plays it straight, and is clearly committed to HIP.

She plays an instrument by Fabien Peyruk after Amati (2015), but switches for the Nativité sonata to a violin by André Mehler after Stainer (2010). The organ in the church at Guignicourt (Aisne) was built by Jean Daldosso in 2003, and is in the north transept whose details you can see on this website:

https://www.villeneuve-sur-aisne.fr/decouvrir-guignicourt/lorgue-jean-daldosso

And the playing? I found the recorded sound in the church harmonically rich and curiously satisfying. The clear and firm basso feels quite sufficient in the Biber sonatas, and I applaud her attention to the basic resonance of the church. It is an interesting take, and easy to listen to. The accompanying glossy booklet has a quality feel to it, but manages to say very little about the music and a great deal about Dauvin’s feelings. It is a very French experience, and violinists in particular will be intrigued.

David Stancliffe

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Bach: 6 suites

Myriam Rignol Bach cello suites on gamba

Myriam Rignol viole de gambe
73:98 [sic] + 81:36 (in a card triptych)
Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS040

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Myriam Rignol plays with Les Arts Florissants, Raphaël Pichon’s Ensemble Pygmalion and The Ricercar Consort (Phillipe Pierlot) as well as a number of other classy groups and has recorded the Bach ‘cello suites – pour le viola de Basso as the earliest copy by Kellner from 1726 indicates – on the viola da gamba. In spite of the title given to this recording project and the many photographs of Versailles and of Rignol there with her instrument, the recording was made last November in la Cité de la Voix de Vézelay.

She points out in a conversation in the booklet that for the very French-style suites, Bach might well have had the sound world of the gamba and its noted French exponents in mind. And in his foreword, Giles Cantagrel rehearses how uncertain we are about just what the violoncello was becoming in the early years of the 18th century. We know that Bach disliked the stiff way in which the ‘cello was played in Leipzig, and preferred a more viola-type of instrument to play passagework more lightly. Was this a bassetgen (which Gerber said Bach had invented around 1724 for just this purpose – the so-called viola pomposa – one of which was in Bach’s possession when he died) or the violoncello da spalla or the violoncello piccolo? Certainly, the final suite needs an instrument other than the present-day ‘cello, so why not use the favoured French instrument for these very ‘French-style’ pieces?

And the results seem to justify this choice. Not only is her French viole de gambe a fine instrument in its own right (and although photographed several times, there are no details of its maker or provenance), but it gives life to the implied polyphony of so much of the music in a new and convincing way in her capable hands. She plays unfettered by a tradition of interpretation, and the freedom and lightness she brings suits the dance-like quality of the music well: it is about as far from Pablo Casals as you could get! I like it a lot, and hope that other gamba players will want to embrace the ‘cello suites in their repertoire.

David Stancliffe

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Bach: Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, Herz und Mund…

CD cover of Bach Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis Rademann

Núria Rial, Wiebke Lehnkuhl, Benedikt Kristjánsson, Matthias Winckhler, Gaechinger Cantorey, Hans-Christoph Rademann
65:54
Carus 83.522

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These two substantial cantatas are as good an introduction to Bach cantatas as you are likely to get, and they are presented in this CD published by Carus Verlag as an up-to-the-moment take on how to do the cantatas.

The pair is well-chosen: both are the results of the routine into which Bach’s new appointment at Leipzig threw him, and show the composer adapting compositions from the Weimar period to novel contexts. Both are substantial works in two parts. Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (BWV 21) was probably originally composed as a test piece for a post in Halle in 1713, from which Bach later withdrew. He used it for the 3rd Sunday after Trinity in 1714, again for a trial in Hamburg in 1720 in D minor, presumably in Cammerton, and it was included in the first cantata cycle of 1723 on June 13th, reworked for C in – presumably – Cammerton. The original key in Weimar seems to have been C at Chorton, and by 1723 in Leipzig it was back in C, but at Cammerton, with four colla parte trombones in movement ix. It has everything: the division of the singers into soli and tutti, an opening sinfonia with a solo oboe, a soprano/bass duet between the soul and the vox Christi, illustrative writing, a recitative accompanied by two oboes da caccia, and a blazing finale with a choir of trumpets – a veritable showcase of styles and techniques.

Only a few weeks later Leipzig heard BWV 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, which was written originally for the fourth Sunday of Advent 1716 in Weimar, of which nothing survives except the opening chorus. For its re-use for the feast of the Visitation, 2nd July 1723, Bach retained Salomo Franck’s arias but composed three recitatives incorporating Marian allusions and the celebrated extended setting of the chorale we know as Jesu, joy of man’s desiring, repeated at the end of both parts. This extended chorale setting, where the lilting 9/8 melodic material of the ritornelli is derived from the chorale itself, is the first of such extended settings of final chorales which provide occasional, more elaborate alternatives to the plain four-part setting. Was it Dame Myra Hess, frequently playing a transcription for piano in her war-time concerts, who so popularised it among English speakers?

In general, the performances are fine: the tempi are good, the text is clear and the playing of a high quality, with 4.4.3.2.1 strings plus oboes, trumpets and a quartet of trombones. But there are two caveats: first, I found the tone of this harpsichord brittle and at times over-obtrusive; no details are given of any of the instruments played, and either the harpsichord was recorded too closely or the instrument was too jangly. Secondly and more importantly, Rademann persists in using a quartet of ‘soloists’ who take no further part in those chorus numbers in which they led off with the parts marked ‘solo’ once the parts are marked ‘tutti’ and doubled by instruments. Even if Rademann – like most German conductors – refuses to accept that these cantatas were sung with one voice to a part, plus ripieno singers on occasions, surely he must recognise that to start a chorus with single soloistic voices and then to silence them when tutti is marked in the score is nonsense. Some of solo voices – Nuria Rial and Benedikt Kristjánsson – would blend with other singers perfectly well, others – and particularly the contralto, Wiebke Lehmkuhl – would not. Her voice – rich and dark though it is – is peculiarly unsuited to Bach. This exposes the dilemma for conductors: if you can’t follow the logic of the scholarship as well as the musical plusses that says “Bach’s primary group of singers – the Concertisten – sing everything: add to them some ripienists if you like in choruses unless it specifically says ‘solo’’, then either choose soloists who will not stand out in the tutti like a sore thumb and make them sing everything, or get single voices from your ‘choir’ to do the incipits if you want different ‘soloists’ to sing the recits and arias.” But both on the grounds of scholarship and plain musicality, Rademann’s solution simply does not work.

This fairly major cavil apart, this would be a good CD to give someone who has no idea what a Bach Cantata is, and needs an introduction; but it will help perpetuate a now rather dated style of performance in which vocal timbres and ensemble skills have not kept pace with the strides taken in the past fifty years by wonderful period instrumental players.

David Stancliffe

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Monteverdi: Daylight

CD cover Monteverdi Daylight Concerto Italiano Alessandrini

Stories of songs, dances and loves
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
61:47
Naïve OP7366

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This collection forms an ancillary to ‘Night. Stories of Lovers and Warriors’, which was performed live and recorded to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Monteverdi’s birth in 1567. In an introductory note Rinaldo Alessandrini suggests that this disparate programme is perhaps not intended for purists. Well, I’ve been called a purist – a term incidentally that I do not take to be derogatory – on more than one occasion and found the CD totally irresistible.

There are two principal reasons for that. Firstly one can point to the consummate skill with which the programme has been assembled, bringing relevant music, much of it familiar, from across the whole of Monteverdi’s output and creative life to create a narrative. More on that anon. Then there is the sheer quality of the performances. Over the years the constitution of Alessandrini’s Concerto Italiano has inevitably changed, here indeed even since the recording of ‘Night’, but all five singers employed in the madrigals and other ensemble pieces are outstanding, blending superbly without ever losing individuality. The instrumental playing is equally impressive.

The programme begins with the Sinfonia that opens act 3 of Orfeo, thus providing a link to the earlier disc, which started in the same way, before the marvellous two-part madrigal ‘Non si levava … E dicea l’una sospirando’ (from Book 2, 1590), which depicts a Romeo and Juliet scenario as two lovers awaken to the dawn after a night of passion. This is music of the utmost sensuality, using exquisite dissonance to convey the blissful eroticism of the sentiments expressed in Tasso’s marvellous text. The mood lightens to a trio of three-part pieces, interspersed by instrumental works including the first of several dances by Biagio Marini – all urging shepherds and birds to rise and get the day underway. The singing here achieves a delicious lightness of touch that serves to mask the consummate execution of performance. Among other favourites too numerous to mention in detail are ‘Zefiro torna’ (Scherzi musicali, 1632) and the canzonetta ‘Chiome d’oro’ (Madrigals Book 7, 1619). Most of the items are brief but a sense of symmetrical structure is given by the inclusion of two scenes from the late operas, both concerned with the amorous exploits of servants. From Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria we get the flirtatiously playful scene in act 1 between Penelope’s maid Melantho and Eurymachus, beautifully sung and vocally acted by soprano Sonia Tedla and tenor Valerio Contaldo, which is counterbalanced by that for the innocent (or maybe not so innocent ) page Valletto and Damigella (damsel) from act 2 of L’incoronazione di Poppea, equally enticingly played out by soprano Monica Piccinini and tenor Raffaele Giordani.  There is a sense of exuberant, scintillating joie de vivre about the whole programme that would sweep away the bluest of moods. Recommended without reservation.

Brian Robins

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Regnart: Missa Christ Ist Erstanden

CD cover Regnart Missa Christ ist erstanden hyperion

Cinquecento Renaissance Vokal
64:45
hyperion CDA68369

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Having been poleaxed by the way Cinquecento’s excellent singing complemented the excellence of Isaac’s music on their previous release but having been less impressed by their previous disc of Regnart (2007), I approached this recording with circumspection. None required. Like the former, it is another superb recording of revelatory music. Regnart’s praises were being sung over four hundred years ago by none other than Lassus. Like the rest of us, the greatest creative artists can reveal lousy taste, or speak up for an untalented friend, or favour someone inferior to make themselves seem even better, but Lassus, about ten years Regnart’s senior, was bang on the money when he came to recommending him for advancement.

The two masses that take up most of this programme are best heard after the little hymn tunes on which they are based. In both cases, Regnart’s varied treatment of the tunes within his masses makes for two outstanding compositions; listening to them is spiritually rewarding and an aesthetic pleasure. This is well exemplified in the Gloria of Missa Christ ist erstanden. There is some fine sequential writing approaching the movement’s first close at “Patris”, followed by a well-judged slowing of tempo to a sumptuous cadence on “miserere nostri”, and an extended Amen brings the movement to a close with another gorgeous cadence. There are fine moments in other movements, with an excellent passage for three of the five voices in the Credo at “et iterum …”, and another striking cadence in the Sanctus at “tua”. Missa Freu dich is no less distinguished. The Credo is notable for some animated syncopation in the “Crucifixus” section, with further rhythmic vitality approaching the end of the movement. The Sanctus ends with a climactically high note on the last word “tua” for the countertenor. Perhaps most to be relished is the Agnus, with exciting dissonance at “peccata mundi” and a lovely cadence on “nostri”, repeated, to round off the entire disc, on “pacem”.

The three fillers are well chosen. Maria fein, du klarer Schein is a beautiful sacred song in five parts, while the other two works are later contrafacta of what were originally “light Italian love songs” according to the excellent notes by Erika Supria Honisch. She informs us that Ruhmbt alle Werck was originally “Vorrei saper da voi”. For those who are interested, the original of Wann ich nur dich hab was “Tutto lo giorno”, 1574.

This is a disc of glorious polyphony, especially memorable for its undulating phrases, sung superbly by Cinquecento, with not only a feeling of bracing air between the individual parts, but also, where appropriate, concentrated warmth during deeper sonorities.

Richard Turbet