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Recording

Mancini: XII Solos, London 1724

CD cover of Mancini XII solos Armonia delle Sfere

Armonia delle Sfere
115:46 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
Tactus TC 671390

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These ‘Solos for a Violin or Flute’, (incidentally not ‘a Violin of Flute’ as it appears on the cover and back of the CD) are actually fully-fledged sonatas in four movements, and some of the most ambitious and successful chamber music Mancini composed. Famous during his lifetime for his operas and church music, Mancini operated in the musically rich environment of Naples, and is sadly one of the many such composers whose reputation has suffered an almost complete eclipse in ensuing centuries. On the basis of these solo sonatas, it is hard to see why this is: they are charmingly accessible, consistently inventive and idiomatically written for the recorder. Daniele Salvatore by alternating two treble recorders with a voice flute, a sopranino recorder and a transverse flute, dispenses with the need for the violin alternative option. I find his vibrato (particularly in the free unaccompanied introductory episodes) a little extreme, and he has the annoying habit of occasionally overblowing so as to ‘jam’ high notes, although elsewhere he plays more sympathetically and has an impressive technique. Two of Mancini’s keyboard toccatas, essentially study pieces rather than concert works, provide a little textural variety, while the move to sopranino recorder and the introduction of a guitar into the continuo ensemble really switches things up a notch for the final sonata. It is good to see Italian ensembles exploring their considerable national Baroque heritage, and Mancini sounds likes a composer worthy of attention.

D. James Ross

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Mozart: Serenades

CD cover Mozart sereandes McGegan Capella Savaria


Capella Savaria, Nicholas McGegan
69:30
Hungaroton HCD 32850

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These performances of the Haffner Serenade K250/248b and the Serenata Notturna K. 234 are part of the complete recording of music by Mozart for solo violin and orchestra played by Zsolt Kalló and the Capella Savaria. As the relatively low Köchel numbers suggest, these are works from Mozart’s Salzburg period, but already the young Mozart seems dissatisfied to write conventional Unterhaltungsmusik, incorporating unexpected movements featuring solo violin, which he may well have played himself. One of these is the perky trio to a darkly foreboding minuet, which would not be out of place in one of the late great symphonies. It is not difficult to picture the young genius already chafing at the bit of his conventional role in Salzburg and longing for the challenges of Vienna. The Bartók Concert Hall in Szombathely provides a nicely resonant acoustic for some delightfully idiomatic playing from the Capella and their soloist. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the Capella Savaria was the first period instrument group in Hungary, and has traditionally harnessed the innate talents of this very musical nation in the service of period performance.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Edinburgh 1742: Barsanti & Handel, Parte Seconda

CD cover Edinburgh 1742 Ensemble Marsyas Parte seconda

Ensemble Marsyas, Peter Whelan
51:51
Linn Records CKD 626

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This is the second of a pair of CDs evoking the lively world of the 18th-century Musical Society of Edinburgh and bringing us the balance of Barsanti’s op 3 Concerti Grossi, those featuring solo trumpet and two oboes, as well as another four of his Old Scots Tunes and music by Handel. Barsanti’s treatment of the wind instruments in these Concerti Grossi, published in Edinburgh in 1742 just before the Jacobite Uprising, sounds very classical in style, alternating them as a section augmented by timpani with the strings. Perhaps more innovative still and unexpected are the more structurally free slow movements. The four Old Scots Tunes are charmingly played by Colin Scobie – a member of the Maxwell and Fitzwilliam Quartets, in encore slots Colin frequently demonstrates his considerable traditional fiddle skills, and these are very much to the fore here as he is joined by Elizabeth Kenny on the Baroque Guitar for stirring accounts of ‘Dumbarton’s drums’, ‘Ettrick banks’, ‘The bush aboon Traquair’ and ‘Cornriggs are bonnie’. Handel’s Overture to ‘Atalanta’ serves to illustrate a very different treatment of the trumpet and indeed a very different style of composition, notwithstanding that Handel and Barsanti were contemporaries and acquaintances. These works by Barsanti, in an edition from Prima la Musica, provide a valuable counterbalance to our sometimes Handel-dominated and London-centric view of the mid 18th century, and it would be interesting to hear accounts of his later publications, which include a set of six motets for five or six voices and continuo (1750) and his Trio Sonatas op 6 (1769). On first listening, I found the recorded sound a little cramped, but then the Musical Society concerts were presented in the ‘upper room of St Mary’s Chapel, Niddry Wynd’ until 1763 when they moved into the superb surroundings of St Cecilia’s Hall. At any rate, I soon adapted my ear, and the amount of detail captured in the recordings is indeed impressive.

D. James Ross

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Recording

The Complete Fitzwilliam Virginal Book

CD cover Belder Complete Fitzwilliam Book Brilliant Classics 15 CDs

Pieter-Jan Belder
978:46 (15 CDs in a card box)
Brilliant Classics 95915

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If ever a project deserved the term magnum opus this complete recording of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is it. This remarkable volume contains 297 pieces and was compiled towards the end of the Tudor period by Francis Tregian – in the manner of musical history, the books doesn’t bear the name of this intrepid individual, who is thoroughly deserving of our gratitude, but that of an aristocrat, the 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam, through whose hands it briefly passed in the 18th century. Pieter-Jan Belder, a van Asperen student, has form as regards complete recordings, having previously committed the complete keyboard sonatas of Scarlatti as well as the complete keyboard music of Rameau and Soler to disc, with further ambitious ‘integral recordings’ in his diary. A comprehensive programme note by Jon Baxendale proves an indispensable guide through the music and its composers. I had honestly anticipated that the quality of the music in such a huge volume might prove variable, and as the project began with Belder recording his favourite composers, only later opening out over the next eight years into a complete recording, I feared that I might be left with the dross at the end. Not only does there seem to be no dross, but astute programming means that the attention is held thoroughly throughout each of the individual CDs. The repertoire varies from really quite slight miniatures to works of symphonic proportions, which seem in some cases to cry out for orchestration. If occasionally sets of variations outlive their welcome, this is by no means the fault of the performer, but rather that of the composer or perhaps just the comprehensive taste of the time. Much more frequent than these moments of ennui are the regular delights of unexpected harmonic and melodic turns of phrase, passages of stunning beauty and quirky examples of the composers’ wit and invention. In all, 25 composers are represented, some of them household names from their contributions to other genres such as Byrd, Gibbons, Tallis, Tomkins, Parsons and Philips, others chiefly known for their keyboard music such as Bull and Farnaby. Belder’s approach has been commendably flexible, ‘cheating’ where he feels necessary regarding period fingering, and taking an imaginative intuitive approach to ornamentation. The playing throughout is impeccable, but also more importantly persuasive and engaging. Although a few pieces are played on virginals and muselar, and even a couple on chest organ, the instruments of choice are modern copies of Ruckers harpsichords, most notably an Adlam Burnett 1980 copy of the famous 1638 Ruckers in Edinburgh. This latter instrument has a deliciously full mellow tone, and probably is indeed the ideal vehicle for this music. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t express a couple of tiny reservations, namely that the way the project developed means that this Burnett/Ruckers harpsichord only appears in time for the later CDs and so we don’t get to hear the major works by Bull and Philips on this fine instrument. My second comment slightly negates this, by pointing out that most of the instruments, including the Burnett/Ruckers, are slightly later in period than the music, and when we hear the couple of tracks for which Belder uses virginals we are in a very different sound world. I admit it his hard to imagine some of the more ambitious works limited to the virginals, but on the other hand, some of the slighter works sound a little overblown on the Burnett/Ruckers harpsichord. Whatever my tiny reservations, I found this collection utterly enthralling, and Belder’s imaginative and consummately musical playing, as well as the consistently vivid recordings made in the sympathetic acoustics of a selection of Dutch churches, helped turn what could easily have been a bit of a chore into a complete delight.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Couperin: Suites Royales

CD Encelade Couperin Suites royales

Claire Gautrot viola da gamba, Marouan Mankar-Bennis harpsichord
76:00
encelade ECL 1902

It is understandable that Couperin’s keyboard oeuvre should over-shadow the rest of his output but the chamber music is scarcely disappointing! Here we have two suites originally designated for viol avec la basse chiffrée (pub. 1728) and one of the 1722 Concerts Royaux, for which any suitable melodic instruments can be used. Each suite is followed by a complementary movement from the harpsichord livres.

I regularly question the need for the multiplicity of continuo instruments we often hear in this repertoire so it is something of a relief to note that in this recital a harpsichord shows that it can do the job on its own – and rather well. Variety of texture, in particular, is used to great effect and the recorded balance is unfailingly excellent.

And so is the playing. The plangent tone of the viol, its infinite capacity for tonal shading and ability to convey delicate filigree makes it an ideal voice for this exquisite music. I defy anyone not to be tempted to repeat Pompe Funèbre, possibly more than once. So, if you share my love of the French Baroque, and even if you don’t, this is very rewarding listening, helped on its way by a sensible and quite substantial essay (in French and English).

David Hansell

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Recording

Le coucher du roi

CD cover Le coucher du Roi


thibault Roussel theorbo and director
Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS029
74:00 (CD) 59:00 (DVD)

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The conceit here is that, in the evening of both the day and his life, the aged Louis XIV has summoned his favourite musicians to play him his favourite music as part of the formalities surrounding his retiring for the night. So we have a lovely programme of (mainly) short pieces by the usual suspects: Lully and Lalande, of course, but also Lambert, de Visée, Marais and even that relatively youthful upstart, François Couperin. The instrumentation includes voices, flutes, strings and assorted pluckers in a wide variety of ensembles and solos, offering a rich panoply of sumptuous sounds – three bass viols, two viols with singer and theorbo etc., etc..Quite frankly, this ensemble can come and play to me at any old time of any day! The performances are unfailingly lovely and show great commitment to a repertoire that is still a mystery to many. Yes, I’ll probably have a growl about some questionably over-staffed continuo departments, but the growls will be quiet ones.

The DVD contains some of the repertoire from the CD but also additional pieces (fine chamber music by Hotteterre and Dornel, for instance), all filmed in various atmospheric locations within the Château de Versailles. And, in contrast to some concert DVDs I have seen, someone has actually thought about what it looks like! The singers have memorised their music and, even if they don’t fully act their scenes, they do at least inter-act with each other in a convincing quasi-dramatic way. However, when the final credits roll brace yourself! The accompanying music is not allowed to finish but is chopped off mid-phrase as soon as the text ends.

The 72-page booklet (in French, English and German) offers the usual performer biographies and essays on the music that place it informatively in its context though say little about its content. There is no list of the music on the DVD though there are captions as it plays.

Overall this is a very good package, though that DVD end should never have achieved publication. A shame.

David Hansell

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Recording

Josquin: Motets & Mass movements

CD cover of hyperion Brabant Ensemble Josquin

The Brabant Ensemble, Stephen Rice
78:38
hyperion CDA68321

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The Brabant Ensemble specialises in bringing us music by neglected composers from the incredibly talented Franco-Flemish school which flourished between Josquin and Palestrina. We have it to thank for discs of revelatory music by the likes of Dominique Phinot, Thomas Crecquillon, Pierre de Manchicourt, Jean Maillard, Jacquet of Mantua and Jacob Clement. Its version of the latter’s sublime setting of Tristitia et anxietas alone justifies the choir’s existence, besides the numerous treasures on every other disc. They have also released a CD of neglected music by Palestrina, yet I found this strangely underwhelming, both as music and performance. Here they offer us music by the earlier bookend of this vibrant phenomenon.

The music on offer here consists of eight motets and two free-standing “mass movements”. The latter are easier to discuss and can be mentioned first: the Gloria de beata virgine and Sanctus de Passione. The Gloria is the more substantial of the two, a seemingly early, mediaeval-sounding work. The Sanctus is almost disconcertingly brief: even including an Elevation motet “Honor et benedictus” between the Sanctus itself and the Benedictus (scholarly opinion is that either the Elevation motet or the Benedictus would have been performed liturgically but not both, but the Ensemble rightly includes both for completeness and for the edification of listeners) the entire movement takes only 3’46. One can only agree with the eminent musicologist who described it as “unpretentious”.

The reasons behind the selection of material for this disc are not clear. Presumably, the record is released to celebrate Josquin’s quincentenary, though this is only stated explicitly in some of the advertising material. While all the items have the imprimatur of inclusion in the New Josquin Edition, Stephen Rice’s enthralling notes observe that doubts linger over the authenticity of most of them. Also, three of the items – Huc me sydereo, Stabat mater and O bone et dulcissime Jesu – possess or are suspected of possessing one or two extra parts which may or may not originally have been composed by Josquin. There are certainly other mass sections securely attributed to Josquin, and even I know of one other motet which has an extra voice supplied by another composer, so I wonder whether there exists a substantial repertory of Josquin’s sacred pieces which have subsequently had one or two extra parts added by other hands. My concern is that the selection here seems to lack some focus. Perhaps that focus is the function of these three sumptuous works for six voices, but if so, what is the rationale behind partnering them with these other more spartan works? There is certainly no individual number – like for instance Media vita in a programme of motets by Sheppard – which functions as that focus or that is simply a showstopper. For all their inclusion in NJE it appears that the three motets that follow – Domine ne in furore, Usquequo Domine and Homo quidam fecit – have all had doubts expressed about their authenticity. This leaves the two remaining motets which start the disc – Mittit ad virginem and Alma redemptoris/Ave regina – and even the former, the very first in the programme, survives with a plausible alternative attribution, leaving only the latter with a clean bill of musicological health. Although individual items have many features to relish – dissonances in Stabat mater, gorgeous textures in Huc me sydereo plus rich harmonies, sensuous sequences and more dissonances to relish in O bone et dulcissime Jesu to pick a few at random – there remains the fact that, to the layman at least, some of these effects might have been generated by the inclusion of notes not originally put in place by Josquin himself. These works rub shoulders with the three works for smaller vocal resources, mentioned above, about which doubts have been cast against Josquin’s authorship. The programme is topped by the two works, only one of which is incontrovertibly authentic, in his favoured four parts and tailed by two undistinguished but authentic mass sections, also in four. Perhaps this is the point: to provide successive contrasting tasters of the basic Josquin, the luxuriously expanded but only partly authentic Josquin, the questionable Josquin, and back to the authentic basic Josquin. These stops along the line are individually rewarding but the journey itself lacks coherence – all a bit halting, or, if one is shuffling the sequence, a bit arbitrary.

Performances that seemed meandering and undifferentiated at a first hearing blossomed in most (not entirely all) cases during subsequent hearings to come over as sensitive to individual texts and sonorities, though passages in the works of four parts sound almost exaggeratedly sparse beside those in six – reflecting Josquin’s technique in composing for the smaller number of voices – and I defy any choir to make the Sanctus sound more than “unpretentious”. Meanwhile, there is uncertainty as to how much real Josquin we are hearing. Does it matter? This disc does not provide an answer, but it does provide much pleasure.

Richard Turbet

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Recording

Josquin: Inviolata

Jacob Heringman plays Josquin Inviolata

Jacob Heringman lute & vihuela
65:07
Inventa INV1004

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There have been many excellent recordings of lute music in recent years, and Jacob Heringman’s new CD of music by Josquin Des Prez (c.1450/1455-1521) is surely up with the best of them. Josquin’s music is sublime, and is enhanced by Heringman’s unhurried interpretation. There are no foot-tapping dance rhythms, no complex fantasies to amaze with virtuosity. This is sacred music – Marian motets –  by arguably the finest composer of his generation, and with it Heringman succeeds in creating a sound world of inner peace and serenity.
 
Lute intabulations are more than merely re-writing music in tablature. Skill is required in  deciding which notes to include, which to leave out, and which to decorate. In some cases, lutenists would use material from a vocal original as a starting point for creating an entirely new composition – a prelude or a fantasia.
 
In his excellent liner notes Heringman writes: “We know very little of the circumstances in which lute intabulations were played but they require a calm, small space, a refuge from the outside world where one might contemplate an inner one.” Such a place is St Cuthbert’s Chapel at Ushaw, where the recording was made. Its warm, clear acoustic is ideal for the lute. Heringman maintains that today’s lutenists should be as creative as their forebears were 500 years ago, and add something of their own to the music they play, rather than always slavishly recreate note for note the intabulations of others.
 
The CD begins with Heringman’s own intabulation of Josquin’s Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum, Virgo serena. It is a long piece – just short of nine minutes. All four voices are included in the intabulation. Heringman sustains it well, with tastefully restrained divisions, as it works its way through contrasting sections. The motet ends with some very slow chords for the words “O Mater Dei, memento mei. Amen”, not actually sung, of course, but imagined through the lute. Heringman uses a lute in E built by Michael Lowe, the lower pitch adding a certain gravitas.
 
Using the same lute, there follows an intabulation by Hans Gerle (published in 1533) of Josquin’s 5-voice Inviolata, integra et casta es. There are three sections. Gerle extends the range of the lute by tuning the 6th course down a tone for the sake of including all the low F’s. Alternative solutions could have been to omit them, include them an octave higher, or transpose all voices up a tone, which would set the piece uncomfortably high on the fingerboard of the lute. Re-tuning the sixth course of the lute seems the best option to me, although it results in some pretty weird chord shapes. Gerle omits some long notes, particularly where two voices are close in pitch. Almost all the divisions decorate the top part. They are for the most part formulaic and predictable, but nevertheless effective in sustaining the overall sound.
 
Heringman plays tracks 5-10 on a vihuela in G by Martin Haycock. The lute and vihuela share the same tuning, and often it is possible for the same music to be played on either instrument. However, apart from the obvious difference in body shape, there is another important difference: the strings of the lute are spaced closer at the nut than they are at the bridge, whereas the strings of the vihuela are close to parallel. Parallel stringing helps with awkward stretches high up the neck, and enables a vihuelist intabulator to make fewer compromises in tracking the original voice parts. The shorter string length of Heringman’s vihuela also helps with difficult chords.
 
Tracks 5-11 are derived from Josquin’s Missa de Beate Virgine. First is an intabulation by Alonso Mudarra (c.1510-1580) of Kyrie I, which has sections marked “Josquin” (for example, the last nine bars) to show where the intabulation closely follows Josquin’s original, and “Glosa” for extra material added by Mudarra. For Kyrie II Heringman turns to another vihuelist, Enriquez de Valderrábano (fl. 1547), but rather than use the note-for-note intabulation on folio 85r of Silva de Sirenas, he plays Valderrábano’s Fantasia on 73v which parodies Josquin’s Kyrie II (Fantasia remedada al chirie). In a similar vein, Heringman includes a short prelude of his own based on Mariam coronans from the same mass.
 
For the last track of music associated with Josquin’s Missa de Beate Virgine Heringman plays an intabulation of Cum sancto spiritu by Hans Neusidler (c. 1508/9-1563) printed in Der ander theil des Lautenbuchs (1536). It tracks Josquin’s vocal original quite closely, with divisions added mainly to the top part, but not exclusively so. Neusidler’s divisions in this volume are faster and more complex than those in his earlier volume – Ein Newgeordent Künstlich Lautenbuch – and there are some semiquavers here and there. As with other intabulators working long after Josquin’s death, Neusidler sharpens some notes and modernises cadences, so Josquin’s archaic endings of submediant-tonic are altered to leading note-tonic, usually with fast divisions. The piece ends – as do many German intabulations – with an extra flourish to a reiterated final chord.
 
In his liner notes Heringman argues a strong case for modern-day lutenists not always to follow slavishly intabulations of the past, but be creative and make up their own. This he does to good effect in his own intabulation of Josquin’s Salve Regina. The CD ends with an intabulation of Josquin’s Stabat Mater by Simon Gintzler (c.1500 – after 1547). Heringman gives a sensitive performance of Josquin’s touching portrayal of the inexplicable grief experienced by Mary watching her son die in agony on the cross.
 
Stewart McCoy



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Recording

Royal Handel

Eva Zaïcik and Le Consort perform arias by Handel, Ariosti and Bononcini

Eva Zaïcik mezzo-soprano, Le Consort
64:59
Alpha Classics Alpha 662
+arias by Ariosti and Giovanni Bononcini

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Eva Zaïcik is a young French mezzo whose cv suggests she might have originally had ideas of becoming an early music specialist, but whose more recent work includes a debut as Carmen in Toulouse and appearances in Pique Dame and Eugene Onegin.  Having heard this CD my guess is that the latter type of repertoire is more likely to become mainstream for her. In full flow the voice is a richly opulent instrument, with a hint of edge to it in the middle register, which itself does not always sit in comfortable relationship with the soprano register. In Baroque repertoire Zaïcek’s voice is on this evidence at its most beguiling singing mezza voce, where the ear experiences a purity of tone and line not always apparent elsewhere. But in general terms neither her technique nor her approach to the mostly Handel arias on the present CD convince that she is truly at home with it. While there is an admirable flexibility and passaggi are in general well articulated, her approach to ornamentation is haphazard, cadences go unembellished and of course there is no hint of a trill. Not that Zaïcek is alone in that respect. As bad is her approach to text or more accurately non-approach. Contrary to the needs of these arias, the performances seem driven by the desire to make a beautiful, lustrous sound. Aria after aria passes with little attempt to explore its emotional core or meaningfully articulate its text.

In this respect, the singer is hardly aided by her choice of accompanists. Le Consort is one of those small French ensembles bearing no relationship to the size of an average 18th-century opera orchestra. It is also characteristic of so many ensembles today in that Le Concert appears to feel it necessary to play quick music very fast and slower numbers excessively slowly. Thus an aria such as ‘Rompo i lacci’ from Flavio is taken so fast as to render it virtually meaningless, despite some agile passagework from Zaïcek, while the funereal tempo and emasculated rhythm adopted for ‘Ombra cara’ (Radamisto) leaves the aria as little more than a glutinous, sentimental wallow.  There are two compensating factors. One is that mezza voce, where the lighter tonal palette can produce exquisite results, nowhere more so than the central section and da capo of ‘Deggio morire’ (Siroe), where criticism is silenced, the listener seduced into luxurious immersion in the sheer beauty of the moment. The other is the inclusion of first recordings of arias by two composers that along with Handel also contributed operas to the first Royal Academy in London (1719-28), the source of the CD’s title. Both Attilio Ariosti and Giovanni Bononcini scored significant successes in its early years and ‘Sagri numi’ from Ariosto’s Caio Marzio Coriolano (1723) is a ravishingly lovely discovery, though as with all the cantabile numbers it is sentimentalized and taken too deliberately.

If the response to this CD is perhaps a little harsh at times, it stems from the depressing regularity with which so many of today’s younger singers seemingly come to Baroque repertoire as a kind of warm-up for bigger, later parts. Such singers need to be taught to recognise that Baroque opera has its own demands that need to be met if they are going to do it more justice than simply winning cheap applause from mainstream critics and audiences.

Brian Robins

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Tormenti d’amore

Soprano cantatas from 1740s Vienna

Philipp Mathmann, Capella Jenensis, Gerd Amelung
82:13 (2 CDs in a card triptych)
Querstand VKJK 2002
Music by Hasse, Porsile, Reutter the Younger & Scalabrini

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This set is centred around a collection of vocal music made by Prince Anton Ulrich of Saxe-Meinigen during the period he spent in Vienna, where he apparently arrived in 1724. Apparently, since the notes rather ambiguously tell us that the collection, consisting of nearly 300 vocal works, including over 170 chamber cantatas, were works from ‘Vienna’s musical scene composed between 1710 and 1740’. So the assumption would be that Anton Ulrich spent around 20 years of his life in Vienna. More importantly, many of the works in the Meinigen Archive are the sole surviving copy, including the best music in the programme, the two characteristically melodious and elegantly turned cantatas by Hasse. The cantata by Georg Reutter, the Court Composer of Vienna and Kapellmeister of St Stephen’s Cathedral who brought Haydn to Vienna, and the Neapolitan opera composer Giuseppe Porsile are less interesting, the former in particular also suffering from an excruciating anonymous text on the prevailing topic of the cantatas – tormenti d’amore, the torments of love.

In addition to the cantatas, the set includes two trio sonatas by Hasse and two sinfonias once surprisingly attributed to Hasse, but more recently established as the work of the Italian-born Paolo Scalabrini (1713-1803 or 6), the director of the travelling Mingotti opera company, who ended up as maestro di cappella in Copenhagen, where he composed at least eight operas, including several Danish-language works that helped establish native opera. They are pleasant enough routine Galant works in three brief movements but little more and assuredly not worthy of Hasse’s name being attached to them.

The programme itself is therefore not without interest, but sadly the performances rarely rise beyond the level of the efficient and in the case of the cantatas fail to reach that level.  Philipp Mathmann, confusingly described as a countertenor/soprano, is in fact a sopranist pure and simple. While the voice has an admirable purity and wide range, it is unfailingly hooty in its upper range, while also displaying deficient technique in several respects. Little ability to articulate a simple turn is shown, while more complex embellishment or ornamentation is rarely attempted. What truly compromises Mathmann’s performances, however, is his seeming lack of interest in the texts he is singing. None is a literary revelation but the whole object of the chamber cantata was to move the listener, evoking sentiment and emotion through expressive vocal gesture and realization of the words. Ignore that and you may as well be singing a vocalise, which is precisely the impression given here for much of the time.  

The instrumental contribution of Capella Jenensis is rather more enjoyable, though rhythms tend to plod in slower movements. The Hasse trio sonatas, in particular, are well played, with pleasing shaping of melodic lines from the two violinists and – in that in D, op. 2/2 – flautist. The programme, almost exactly the length possible today on a single CD, is extravagantly spread over two discs so it is to be hoped that some price concession is built in.

Brian Robins