Category: Recording

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Telemann: Concertos and Ouverture

Lauzer and Lussier play Telemann with Arion Orchestre Baroque on Atma classique

Vincent Lauzer recorder, Mathieu Lussier bassoon, Arion Orchestre Baroque
60:03
Atma ACD2 2789.

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With “just” over an hour’s worth of music to savour here, we are treated to a vibrant and salient reminder of the fluent and mellifluent composing skills of this versatile master of mixed music tastes and guises. The extensive Ouverture-suite closing this disc provides ample proof of both qualities cited above with its refined subtleties and idiomatic twists… it really is akin to Lully with a twist or tweak or three!

It was J. A. Scheibe in his Critischer Musicus (1745) that pointed out Telemann’s prowess and impetus to popularise the ouverture-suite form in Germany and this area was cultivated from quite early on in his career. This fine G-major Suite belongs to a select group that takes us through ten well-crafted, beautifully contoured movements. The amazing flow of musical ideas, clever with subtle touches, displays an ability that Lully and others would have been very proud of. The suite most likely hails from the composer’s Frankfurt period.

After a perfectly observed Ouverture, we set off through the various movements, beginning with “Les Augures” (Omens/Signs) which poses the question, “good or bad?” And there is a brief hint of wincing to be heard! Possibly an allusion to scenes in the stock market on the first floor of his Frankfurt mansion? Splendid examples of the French dance forms feature too, not only a neat, formal Rondeau, but later a Gavotte en rondeau, all attesting to Telemann’s familiarity and playfulness with these dances. The transition is a real delight; going from 4. Entree into 5. La Joye, one feels the processional, joyful flow. Equally, when the emotional “brakes” are applied this overflowing buoyancy, the Sarabande and Plainte find a melancholic mood like tragic operatic nadirs. In many Suites the Gigue is a final fling, but not her;, the closing triple Menuets I-III  add curtain-falling elegance to the musical trajectory. The playing by Arion Orchestre Baroque under Alexander Weimann is first-class, crisp, vibrant, and alert to the subtle dance mannerisms with “twists”. The two concerti expose the brilliant combined talents of Vincent Lauzer on recorder (who, with that blistering ease “à la Steger”, is yet another dazzling virtuoso on his chosen instrument!) and the equally gifted Mathieu Lussier on bassoon in the F-major work, which opens in quasi-pastoral mode, their superbly interwoven dialogue is captured with great relish and responsiveness;, especially in the final Allegro. The overall playing standard is as expected, exceptionally high, and the recorded sound many could merely envy! Viva Arion! 

David Bellinger

Bravo to Dr Ian Payne (Severinus Press) for conflating the various copied versions for the first edition of the Suite used by Arion for the present recording

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Recording

Monteverdi: Orfeo

Monteverdi Orfeo I gemelli Gonzalez Toro

Emiliano Gonzalez Toro Orfeo, Emőke Baráth Euridice/Musica, Natalie Pérez Messaggiera, Alix Le Saux Speranza/Pastore iii, Jérôme Varnier Caronte/Spirito, Mathilde Etienne Proserpina, Nicolas Brooymans Plutone/Pastore iv, Fulvio Bettini Apollo/Spirito/Eco, Zachary Wilder Pastore i/Spirito, Juan Sancho Pastore ii/Spirito, Alicia Amo Ninfa, Ensemble Vocal de Poche, I Gemelli
97:00 (2 CDs in a single case within a card folder with booklet)
naïve V 7176

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From the opening triple statement of the Toccata, crisply articulated and introducing variants of instrumentation for each stanza, it seems likely that this will be an imaginative version of Monteverdi’s first opera. And so it proves. It is the brain child of tenor Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, who not only sings the title role but directs his recently formed (2018) and excellent early music ensemble I Gemelli. In a note in the booklet Toro explains that it has been a career-long ambition to stage Orfeo, an ambition fulfilled in 2019 when it was given in Paris and Toulouse in a production by Mathilde Etienne, who not also sings a gently persuasive and touching Proserpine but is also responsible for an exceptionally scholarly booklet note. The present studio recording is based on those performances. 

The promise of the Toccata is maintained in a Prologue that is beautifully delivered by Emőke Baráth’s La Musica, each stanza of her varied verses in the recently-arrived stile recitativo inflected with real understanding of the text and incorporating little touches of ornamentation. With the arrival of the chorus that will play a major role in the wedding celebrations of Orfeo and Euridice, the opera moves to its Janus-like stance of looking both forward and backward. While the big opening chorus, ‘Vieni Imeneo’ is homophonic, many of the choruses are madrigalian and here Toro has clearly differentiated them by employing an outstanding one-per-part ensemble drawn from his soloists. It is a measure of how Toro has obviously thought deeply about the opera when he drops the continuo accompaniment entirely for the final lines of the tragic conclusion of act 2 – ‘Ahi caso acerbo …’ (Ah, bitter blow…), thus providing a stunning peroration and compounding further the profound emotional impact of all that has happened since the arrival of Messaggiera (the excellent Natalie Pérez) with news of the death of Euridice. Momentarily looking back to the wedding festivities, I do feel Toro takes some of the madrigalian choruses too swiftly, ‘Lasciate i monti’, being a particular example.

Emiliano Gonzalez Toro is a rare example of a singer seemingly equally at home in French and Italian Baroque opera. In some ways Orfeo, with its continuous stream of recitative, arioso and choruses is closer in outline to the French style, doubtless one reason Toro is so fond of it. He brings to the role only not a an exceptionally well-produced voice of great beauty, but a temperament well equipped to intensify (and release) emotion when called upon to do so. This feature is at its peak in act 3, of which of course the great florid outpouring of ‘Possente spirto’ forms the axis of the opera, not for nothing placed at its exact central point. Like all self-respecting Orfeo’s Toro of course sings Monteverdi’s heavily ornamented version and needless to say sings it well, though he does tend to skate over some of the very dense, fast moving passaggi. It is in fact perhaps the major weakness of the set that none of the singers is totally satisfying in respect of ornamentation. This defect is particularly acute at cadences, invariably left unadorned and thus leaving endings pallid and uninteresting. Returning to Toro’s Orfeo in that critical third act, it is at moments of heightened emotion that it is at its most truly compelling. Listen for example to the hopeless desperation in the voice at the end of Speranza’s aria; ‘Dove, ah, dove t’en vai’ … (Where, o where are you going …). At the end of ‘Possente spirto’ Monteverdi’s ornamented version finishes on the words ‘O de lei mei luci sereni’… (O clear light of my eyes…). At this point Orfeo’s use of his musical prowess to seduce Charon (Jérôme Varnier) ends and the poignant, bitter truth takes over; it’s a moment Toro takes full advantage of, as he does the great outburst of passion after Charon’s response, ‘Ahi, sveturato amante…’ (Alas, unhappy lover that I am …

There are many other moments in Toro’s performance that might be highlighted, and I’m sure it will repay further study. Equally impressive is the care with which he has ensured that all his excellent cast has been carefully coached to remember the critical maxim in this music – prima le parole, poi la musica. Were it not for the lack of ornamentation this might have become my favourite version, but it is an important flaw. It is salutary that for a more stylish approach to embellishment it is necessary to go back to Nigel Rogers’ 1984 outstanding recording on EMI, interestingly another version where the Orfeo also undertook the musical direction (with Charles Medlam).

Brian Robins

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Recording

Dowland: A Fancy

CD cover of Bor Zuljan Dowland lute recital

Bor Zuljan lute
65:57
Ricercar RIC 425

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For his debut solo recording, Bor Zulyan presents a programme of music by John Dowland (1563-1626), concentrating particularly on fantasies (eight altogether) offset with pieces of a less melancholic nature. He begins with “A Fantasia” from Jane Pickeringe’s lute book (fols 23v-24r), included by Diana Poulton as no. 71 under “Pieces of uncertain ascription”. (There is no attribution in the manuscript.) It is a stark opening to a CD – silence is broken by a solitary semibreve h on the first course, followed by two minims at the same pitch. This is the beginning of a slow descending chromatic scale, a theme similar to Dowland’s Forlorn Hope Fancy. Zuljan sustains the piece well through its contrasting sections: the theme now in semibreves, now in minims, supported by tripla crotchets in the bass, with fast semiquavers above, down the 7th course to the lowest note of the instrument, and finally above harmonies of mainly subdominant and tonic.
 
Next is “A Dream”, Poulton no. 75, another piece of uncertain ascription, but very much in Dowland’s style. It has three repeated sections, and looks like a pavan. In the editorial notes to her edition of Dowland’s music, Poulton argues convincingly that it may be a setting of Lady Layton’s Pavan. Full marks to Zulyan for his own divisions added for repeats, which are stylish and tasteful.
 
There follows a third piece of uncertain ascription, “A Fancy”, Poulton no. 73. The opening motif is similar to “All in a garden green”, and there is much which reminds one of Dowland’s Fantasy 1a. The last section has an extraordinary tremolo passage which climaxes with Dowland’s characteristic ending of alternating subdominant minor and tonic chords. The manuscript stops the tremolo for those chords, but Zuljan, with acceptable artistic licence, keeps it going over the chords so as not to lose momentum until the final bar. Exciting stuff.
 
The excitement continues with “Can she excuse” and “The Right Honourable Robert, Earl of Essex, His Galliard”, which are essentially two different settings of the same galliard. However, I feel Zulyan plays them rather too quickly, and it’s all a bit of a rush. His timing is 2’55” for both, which averages out at slightly less than 1’30” each. This compares with David Miller at 1’58”, Nigel North at 1’55”, and Paul  O’Dette at 1’45”.
 
There is much to enjoy here – 18 tracks in all – including a spirited performance of the well-known “Lady Hunsdon’s Puffe” (with a surprisingly abrupt ending) and “Sir John Smith, His Almain”. The CD ends with “Farewell”, a fantasy with a theme involving an ascending chromatic scale, which may have influenced, or been influenced by, Thomas Weelkes’ madrigal, “ Cease sorrows now”.
 
In the liner notes, Zuljan includes a lengthy account of John Dowland’s life. I raise an eyebrow at “He was most likely born in 1563 in Westminster, London or Dublin.” On page 21 of her book, John Dowland, Diana Poulton gives two pieces of unequivocal evidence supplied by Dowland himself that he was born in 1563, and she shows that Dr Grattan Flood’s idea that Dowland was born in Dalkey, Co. Dublin, is pure fancy.
 
Zulyan plays an 8-course lute in F (at A=440) after Venere (1582) built by Jiří Čepelák (Prague, 2012). It has a well-balanced sound with clear, bright treble notes. The strings are in gut, made by Davide Longhi from Corde Drago. The overall sound is pleasant on the ears, particularly in the bass with the characteristic sound of gut, and one can forgive an occasional over-exuberant open 6th course played for final chords of G major.
 
Zulyan has an impressive technique, and shows much sensitivity in his playing. I look forward to his next CD.
 
 
Stewart McCoy
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Recording

Picchi: Canzoni da sonar con ogni sorte d’istromenti

CD cover Picchi Canzoni da sonar

Concerto Scirocco, Giulia Genini
71:29
Arcana A476

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Published in 1625, Picchi’s 19 Canzoni da sonar range from duets with continuo to full two-choir pieces. Rather than always stick to the composer’s suggested scorings, Concerto Scirocco switch one of a pair of violins for a cornetto; this helps to vary the soundscape, of course, and it seems churlish (given such fabulous performances) to suggest that that might not be what “con ogni sorte d’istromenti” means. My only other (minor) gripe about the performances is the use of the piercing soprano recorder; as a recorder player myself, I really do not enjoy the way it slices through the texture – give me a more mellow tenor instrument any day. Although the duo and trio sonatas with their kaleidoscopic structures are very pleasant, for me Picchi really comes alive when he has four melody instruments (or more) and the three six-part canzoni are fabulous pieces, displaying the composer’s ample talents as a contrapuntalist but not in an arcane way, rather in conjunction with easily memorable melodies. In the two-choir pieces, two pitch equal choirs against one another (in these performances strings against wind in one, and two mixed choirs in the second) and then a high choir against a lower one. Over the course of more than an hour, listening to the texture grow and enriching is wonderful, though I’m not sure Signor Picchi had that in mind! Hats off to Concerto Scirocco for sustaining my interest – but for your next recording, please, please ditch the high-pitched recorders!

Brian Clark

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Recording

Animam gementem cano

CD cover of Animam gementem cano Biber and Tuma

Tůma: Stabat Mater; Biber: Requiem
Pluto-Ensemble, Marnix De Cat, Hathor Consort, Romina Lischka
61:34
Ramée RAM 1914
+Sonatas by Biber & Schmelzer, Partita by Clamer

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Tůma set the Stabat mater text several times; this recording features a previously unrecorded version, which the director of the Pluto-Ensemble came across in a library in Ottobeuren. Like Biber’s F minor Requiem, it is performed in the round with solo singers and one-per-part ripienists, single strings (with gambas playing the middle parts) and trombones and a “proper” organ. The recording captures a glorious sound, voices and instruments well blended in a warm but not overly resonant acoustic. As De Cat says during the YouTube video the group made for the launch, the violin floats above the texture – and Sophie Gent’s playing is angelic. In between the two pieces with voices, we hear sonatas in G by Biber and his fellow fiddler, Schmelzer, which in turn sandwich a four-movement Partita in E minor by Andreas Christophorus Clamer. I am not usually a fan of mixing violins and gambas in this repertoire, but I must confess that the Hathor Consort make a very convincing case for me broadening my mind! All in all, this recording takes us deep into the soul of the late 17th century and it is a marvellous and cathartic experience!

Brian Clark

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Recording

The Berlin Album

Ensemble Diderot play music from mid-18th-century Germany

Ensemble Diderot
69:19
Audax Records ADX13726

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Like many others who review the recordings that seem to flow unendingly from Audax Records, I really struggle to find words to match not only the super-stylish performances (which are worth paragraph after paragraph on their own) but also the immaculate recorded sound, the casually informative booklet notes inside the instantly recognisable fold-out covers, and the admirable (and rewarding) desire to seek out truly worthwhile works by composers thus far relegated to the footnotes of musical history that deserve to be better known. In this particular case, alongside relatively well-known composers of the “Berlin school” (G. A. Benda, J. G. Graun, J. G. Janitsch and J. P. Kirnberger) one of the musicians rescued from obscurity is the sister of the Prussian monarch (Frederick “the Great”) who, once his bullying father was out of the way, essentially created the musical scene in his capital – Princess Anna Amalia – and another is Johann Abraham Schulz (both of them were Kirnberger students and therefore very capable contrapuntalists).

What I especially love about this recording is that Ensemble Diderot do not shy away from the cadenzas that are hinted at in the sources but rarely embraced as they are by these performers (including the fortepianist!) The interplay between the two violinists is as electrifying as usual and the continuo team don’t so much support as caress and coax even more energy from them. Of the recent albums with geographical themes, I have by far enjoyed this the most; perhaps because I am a great fan of the repertoire. Rarely, though, have I heard it played so absolutely convincingly – I wonder if Benda and Graun, Janitsch and Kirnberger ever sounded as good!

Brian Clark

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Recording

Extra Time

La Serenissima play Vivaldi, Albinoni, Brescianello, Matteis

La Serenissima, Adrian Chandler
72:14
Signum Classics SIGCD641

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This splendidly refined recording does feel like an “extended” Part 2 programme, or follow-on from the marvellous “Godfather” which duly reaped wide-spread accolades and glowing punditry; now continuing in a similarly rich vein of fascinating and varied baroquery, including Nicola Matteis the Younger’s impressive and richly scored (four trumpets and drums, etc.) “balletic” insertions into Antonio Caldara’s operas for Vienna; music as diverting and distracting, as it is charged with a processional flair; no doubt some clever scene changes were made during these episodes. This along with healthy doses of core Vivaldi to provide the fillings between the smart, brassy outside wingers! These include Albinoni’s slick Sinfonia with two trumpets for his opera La Statira. This is all grist to the musical mill for La Serenissima, who follow in the wake of their star players. The ostensibly Italianate violinistic passages are unforced and polished with perky tutti replies. On Pages 10-13 in the CD booklet, we read the amazing composite details of the various recording dates of these works. How the cleverly this “jig-saw puzzle” comes together with over-arching practicality and miraculous synchronicity for over an hour’s worth of noteworthy pieces. G. A. Brescianello continues to supply delights in that high-flown italian style, possibly finding – beyond the obvious Vivaldian expression – the absorption and impetus of certain elements from E. F. Dall’Abaco vicariously rubbing off when he played alongside him in Munich; the fine Largo in the rather tuneful G major violin concerto displays a special operatic calibre that stops you right in your tracks! With the Vivaldi Concerto in F for the “Solemnity of St. Lawrence” (composed around 1727), the contrasting movements are tackled well, with the flashy solo peaks of the first movement, a rather apt solemnity in the second, and overtly joyful third: Allegro non molto, where the second violins seem to chime together with festive bell-like tones between the brisk ritornello theme. This line-up of works, the incredible providence of it all coming together strand by strand, and the splendid, collated effect of these highly entertaining works, with new sonorous treats, again around three bold, brassy pillars, combining some familiar pieces with a generous host of new ones to savour; the playing on “extra time” leads to yet another “Golden goal” for La Serenissima and their continued striving to provide Top League baroquery! Bravi tutti!

David Bellinger

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Recording

J. G. Graun: Torna vincitor

Johann Gottlieb Graun vocal and instrumental music CD

Cantatas & Viola da Gamba Concerto
Amanda Forsythe soprano, Opera Prima, Cristiano Contadin
78:26
cpo 555 284-2

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There were three brothers Graun that became musicians, although only  Johann Gottlieb (1702/3-1771) and Carl Heinrich (1703/4-1759) became significant composers. Both served Frederick the Great at Potsdam, J G as leader of Berlin orchestra from 1740, while C H became Kapellmeister in the same year. Today C H Graun is much the better known largely due to his great success in Berlin as an opera composer, a genre in which his brother showed no interest in competing. Otherwise, the closely paralleled careers of the Grauns have caused musicologists not inconsiderable difficulties as to attribution of their instrumental works.

One group, however, that is not in dispute are the works Johann Gottlieb wrote involving the viola da gamba. He probably first discovered an interest in the instrument during his time as orchestral leader at Merseburg in the 1720s, where he came into contact with the gambist and violinist Hertel. However, it seems likely that the greatest influence on Graun’s attachment to the gamba was the virtuoso Ludwig Christian Hesse, whose father had studied with Marais and Forqueray in Paris. Hesse became a leading figure in the musical entourage of the Berlin court, where he worked alongside Graun from 1740 until 1761, presumably the period from which the majority of the former’s 27 known gamba works date.   

The present CD includes three of these works, two large-scale cantatas for soprano, viola da gamba and strings and a three-movement Concerto in A minor, a work that has also been recorded by the great Italian gambist Vittorio Ghielmi (Astrée). The cantatas sung by the American soprano Amanda Forsythe are premiere recordings. Their texts are by Metastasio and like the operas of his brother (who set several of the great poet’s librettos) totally Italian in style. Both owe much to the pastoral movement, the first, ‘O Dio, Fileno’, concerning the laments of the shepherdess left by her lover to go to war, the oft-employed metaphor comparing love and war fully exploited in the long accompanied recitative that lies at the heart of the cantata. The enchanting ‘Già la sera’ takes a lighter look at love, as the lover tries to entice his Nice to leave the fields and live with him on the seashore, his enticements articulated in two arias which describe the alluring charms of eventide on the shoreline. Again they surround a long central accompagnato in which Nice is told she can become both ‘shepherdess and a fisher girl’. The needs to involve the concertante role for gamba and the fact that arias are in fully developed da capo form gives them an expansive scope, the first of the former work alone lasting for over 14 minutes. The writing for gamba, especially in ‘O Dio, Fileno’,

is extremely demanding, featuring rapid passagework and virtuoso polyphonic chordal writing. Perhaps its most appealing contribution comes in the opening aria of ‘Già la sera’, where voice and gamba work in sympathetic imitation to delightful effect.

The A-minor Concerto displays some of the nervous energy associated with Empfindsamkeit and also features much bravura writing for the gamba. In the outer movements, an opening orchestral statement is taken up by the gambist, its themes developed by the soloist in passaggi, chordal counterpoint and so forth. The central Adagio plays with ambiguity by alternating major and minor. It’s a moderately appealing work, less enticing here than in Ghielmi’s more characterful performance. Amanda Forsythe has a bright, pure soprano capable of agility and also sustaining cantabile lines with assurance, but it is difficult to avoid the feeling that she might have been heard to greater advantage in a less resonant acoustic than that provided by what sounds to be a large hall in the wonderful 16th century Villa Bolasco at Castelfranco in the Veneto. The long reverberation period allows the voice to spread uncomfortably in the upper range, but even making allowances for that her performances fall some way short of ideal. Passaggi and ornamentation are too frequently articulated without depth and far too little attention has been paid to diction and interpreting the text, though ‘Già la sera’ is not without the merit of generalized appeal and includes some impressive mezza voce singing. An interesting disc, then, but not an essential one.

Brian Robins      

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Cesti: La Dori

Cesti's Dori performed at the Innsbruck Festival

Ascioti, Baráth, Lombardi Mazzulli, Enticknap, Sacchi, Accademia Bizantina, Ottavio Dantone
160:46 (2 CDs in a single jewel case with booklet in a cardboard sleeve)
cpo 555 309-2

(Innsbruck Festival 2019)

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Venetian opera of the second half of the 17th century was marked by a remarkable flexibility of form involving recitativo cantando (sung recitative of the type familiar from the operas of Monteverdi) arioso and aria, the last often in strophic form. Frequently all three were seamlessly integrated and alternated to create fast-moving action involving both serious and comic episodes in which text was rarely subject to all but a minimal amount of repetition. Even more than Gluck’s so-called ‘reform’ operas, Venetian opera came close to realising a prototype of Wagner’s ideal of the Gesamtkunstwerk over 200 years before he formulated it.

Although many composers were active in Venice and beyond during the period, two names in particular stand out: those of Cavalli and Cesti. Of the two Cavalli is today by far the better known, a number of his operas have been revived in more recent times. Pietro Antonio Cesti remains a more shadowy figure, this despite having composed two of the most successful operas of the entire century, Orontea and La Dori. His relative obscurity may at least in part be accounted for because his greatest successes were composed not for Venice – thereby leaving him less explored by writers on Venetian opera – but Innsbruck, where he served the Archduke Ferdinand Karl from 1652 until 1657, and Vienna, where he was put in charge of theatre music in 1666. Both Orontea and La Dori date from the Innsbruck period, premiered in 1656 and 1657 respectively, but both became widely performed throughout Italy, La Dori achieving at least 30 productions by the 1680s.

2019 marked the 350th anniversary of the death of Cesti, so for the Innsbruck Early Music Festival to, as it were, bring La Dori home for that year’s edition was a particularly felicitous idea, the results of which are now available on this set. I was fortunate enough to be there, happily one of the most exhilarating productions of a 17th opera I’ve yet to see, sympathetically staged, with outstanding lighting, and sumptuously and colourfully costumed, in keeping with its being set in Babylon. Quite apart from much outstanding music, La Dori has the advantage of a splendidly varied libretto of high literary standard by Giovanni Filippo Apolloni. The story is highly complex, involving an arranged dynastic marriage that is very nearly foiled multiple times both in the prehistory of the plot and during the course of the opera itself. At breath-taking pace we are taken through a series of events involving mistaken identity, disguise, love intrigues and comic interludes, the latter mostly involving that stock character of Venetian opera, the old nurse Dirce, a role sung here with comic relish by tenor Alberto Allegrezza. Cesti’s music runs a wide gamut between tuneful dance-like arias in triple time to ravishingly sensual love music and near-tragic solo scenas, sometimes in close juxtaposition. At the pivotal point in act 2 Prince Oronte, still seeking his Dori, but having been convinced she is dead, dictates to the slave Ali (Dori in disguise) a letter to Arsinoe, the woman it has been arranged he will marry in the stead of Dori. It is a poignant scene, handled by Cesti with sensitivity and consummate dramatic skill and beautifully sung and vocally acted by Rupert Enticknap (Oronte) and Francesca Ascioti (Dori/Ali).

In keeping with the minimal instrumental forces customarily required for Venetian opera, La Dori is scored for continuo with two violins, whose role is near-exclusively confined to ritornellos. Ottavio Dantone has opted for a rather more generous orchestration, with three first and three second violins at times joined by recorders and a rich continuo group that includes the anachronistic addition of harp and chamber organ in addition to the expected bass strings, theorbos and harpsichords. Notwithstanding the continuo is deployed with such sensitivity and musicality that anything but the mildest censure is stilled, particularly in the face of direction that captures the essence of the work with unerring empathy and a thrilling sense of theatre. Dantone’s insistence on his singers devoting unusual attention to words is especially apposite in text-driven operas like La Dori and bears fruit in the vivid declamation in recitative and beautiful expressed Italian in cantabile music. His entire cast in fact does him credit. Emőke Baráth’s Tolomeo/Celinda (a woman playing a man disguised as a woman – I did warn you!) is sung with complete tonal security, while soprano Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli is a touching and impressive Arsinoe. The smaller roles are all exceptionally well taken. My only caveat is that I would have liked to have heard more ornamentation and for what is heard to have been more stylish and clearly articulated. That said this is one of the most musically and dramatically satisfying recordings of a Venetian opera available. La Dori deserves to be far more widely known; its pace, colour and variety would make it an ideal opera for Glyndebourne.

Brian Robins    

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Recording

Telemann: Die Kleine Kammermusik

CD cover of Telemann's Kleine Kammermusik

Manuel Staropoli recorder/flute, Gioele Gusberti cello, Manuel Tomadin harpsichord/organ
71:32
Brilliant Classics 95517

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Telemann was never one to shy away from offering flexible performance possibilities and this set of partitas displays just this, being his second foray into the world of publishing (Die Herbst Messe/Autumn Fair Frankfurt) in 1716, seeking to appeal to specific players. Initial suggestions in the Preface state “for violin, flute, or keyboard” but *Besonders aber vor die Hautbois! (*”especially for the oboe!”) This is most often how these “light and singing” pieces are explored, openly aimed at four of the finest oboists of the age: Francois Le Riche, J. C. Richter, P. Gloesch and M. Boehme. When Camerata Köln came to record these for cpo 999 497-2 in 1996, they opted for a clever selection of instruments including oboe, offering a fine sonorous spectrum.

This latest recording makes use of three gauges of recorder, including the soprano, and flute to negotiate the partitas in their original order. In the first and fifth partitas, the organ comes into the continuo group with cello, adding a less familiar sonority within these familiar works. I would have liked to have heard the C minor or G minor works with this instrument for added gravitas. The performances of these “light and cantabile” partitas on this recording, opening with B flat major’s “Con affetto” pulses along, yet, with some oft rather strident recorder tones and flickering flashes of organ, with passing interjections of cello, it feels blithe yet somehow a tad perfunctory from the very opening bars, which on oboe comes over much subtler and far more comfortably expressive. The lovely lilting “Dolce” (which the composer cunningly re-crafted into the aria Kehre wieder, mein Vergnügung from Die Satyren in Arcadien), is very hastily dispatched! For the next three partitas, the harpsichord is deployed, and one senses a return to more familiar modes of accompaniment and slightly better articulation in the solo instrument, yet somewhat missing are the more “rounded” legato tones heard on many other recordings. This tidy, punctilious approach makes for just a hint of a blasé effect with fleeting shrillness creeping in. The organ in the fifth partita does feel much better, paired here with the flute. Some slightly bolder phrasing from the solo instrument may have lifted these florid passages, which the continuo element do handle well! Many eminent oboists have demonstrated their prowess on these well-crafted works with vivacity, engaging clarity, and yes, at times warmly “vocal” tones; other instrumentalists must strive for this sense of responsive zeal and feel for the sensual, expressive scope. Having heard easily more a dozen versions, especially on oboe (Paul Dombrecht, Hansjörg Schellenberger). Oddly enough, some of the qualities missing in the execution of these partitas were to be found in the D major cello sonata which closes the disc. In conclusion, wouldn’t be my run-to set and might sit somewhere halfway in a fairly largish pile of previous recordings.

NB: Very spurious/erroneous musicology on Page 7 regarding the orchestral versions of these partitas needs some serious revision; I have been in touch with the CD Company.

David Bellinger