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Nuits blanches

Karina Gauvin Nuits blanches CD cover

Airs d’opéra à la cour de Russie au XVIIIe siècle
Karina Gauvin, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Alexander Weimann
TT? ca. 58:00?
Atma Classique ACD2 2791

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Although subtitled (in French) ‘Arias from the 18th-century Russian court’, the CD under consideration, in fact, includes little with a direct connection to the court, in contrast to Cecilia Bartoli’s ‘St Petersburg’ (Decca). That included music by Francesco Araia (1709-c.1770), who can be considered the father of opera in Russia, and Hermann Raupach (1728-1778), the father of Russian language opera. Neither feature on the present not-so-generously-filled disc, the greater part of which is devoted to extracts of operas first given in Italy by the Ukrainian-born composers, Maxime Berezovski (1745-1777) and Dimitri Bortnianski (1751-1825), and Gluck, extracts from whose Armide are included for the tenuous reason that Berlioz introduced it to Russia, long after the death of its composer.

Berezovski’s credentials as an ‘Italian’ opera composer are impeccable. In 1766 he was sent at the expense of the Russian court to Bologna study under Mozart’s mentor, Padre Martini, being awarded the diploma of the famed Accademia Filarmonica. His Italian sojourn concluded with a successful production of his opera Demofoonte in Livorno in Carnival 1773. Today only four arias survive, two of which are performed here by Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin. Particularly impressive is ‘Misero pargoletto’, sung by the Thracian prince Timante as he reflects on a letter that appears to prove that his young son was unsuspectingly born of an incestuous relationship (he wasn’t, of course). Set in contrasting moods of reflective horror and dramatic exclamation, the aria makes interesting use of da capo form.

That the name of Bortnianski is rather better known is accounted for by his splendid a cappella church music, mostly composed during the period of his tenure as director of the imperial chapel choir. Prior to that, his career followed a similar trajectory to that of Berezovski. In 1769 he followed his compatriot to Italy, where he may have studied with Galuppi, who had only recently himself returned from a highly successful period in St Petersburg. While in Italy Bortnianski composed three drammi per musica, of which three extracts from Alcide (Venice, 1778) are given here. The first is an aria in which the young Alcide (Hercules) having been led to a crossroads at which he must choose between the difficult, rocky route of virtue and the easy track of pleasure is torn between the two, the aria effectively dramatising the conflict, a long accompanied recitative that brings more agonising over the choice that must be made. Finally comes a gracious lyrical andante in which Hercules expresses his thanks to the gods for guiding him on the right path, which is of course virtue. The story will be familiar to many readers from settings by Bach and Handel. All three extracts, pleasing if not especially memorable, testify to a thorough assimilation of the Neapolitan style then dominating European music. Le faucon is a later work, one of three opéras comiques composed for Crown Prince Paul, into whose service Bortnianski entered after his return from Italy. Despite the genre and language, the gracefully flowing and felicitously orchestrated through-composed aria ‘Ne me parlez point’ remains thoroughly Italianate in style. The brief orchestral pieces by Domenico Dall’Oglio and Fomine are unremarkable.

All this music is very well sung by Karina Gauvin, whose lustrous full-bodied soprano here seems in better shape than when I last heard her live. She is particularly suited to the role of Gluck’s Armide, the extracts including the big scenas ‘Enfin, il est en mon puissance’ and the end of the opera ‘Le perfide Renaud me fuit’. The latter is built to a powerful climax, well supported by the Vancouver-based Pacific Baroque Orchestra, admirable throughout under the direction of Alexander Weimann, who contributes a rather tinkly-sounding fortepiano continuo. Even if it doesn’t quite do what it says on the tin, this is an enjoyable disc that will certainly appeal to admirers of the singer and anyone interested in exploring the outer boundaries of 18th-century opera.  

Brian Robins

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Recording

J. S. Bach: Orgelbüchlein BWV 599-644

Stephen Farr Bach Orgelbüchlein CD cover

Stephen Farr (T. H. G. Trost organ, Stadtkirche Waltershausen)
79:02
Resonus Classics RES10259

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In the time of lockdown, music that echoes an underlying structure that is bedded into our subconscious seems somehow more necessary. The philosophical and mathematical sides of Bach’s creative genius provide patterns of order and stability that give confidence to those who feel all at sea in the present uncertainties, so a new recording of Bach’s Orgelbüchlein starts with an advantage. In the Orgelbüchlein, Bach uses the framework of the Lutheran liturgical year to order a number of exercises on the myriad different ways in which to prelude the Lutheran chorales appropriate to the seasons of the year and major themes of Lutheran piety, and listening to all 46 tracks of Stephen Farr’s CD in just under 80 minutes provides a patterned experience that has its own satisfying internal logic, though the surviving numbers in the Orgelbüchlein represent only a fraction of the 164 pieces that were planned, as the many blank pages in the autograph attest.

What sort of pedagogical exercise is this? The preludes range from the relatively simply structured if elaborate pieces where the chorale melody is clearly heard at the top of a polyphonic texture like BWV 601 Herr Christ, der ein’ge Gottes-Sohn or 625 Christ lag in Todesbanden through the more elaborately decorated works such as BWV 622 O Mensch bewein or BWV 634 Liebster Jesus, wir sind hier to the even more complex or inventive BWV 608 In dulci jubilo or BWV 629 Erschienen ist der herrliche Tag, where the chorale – heard in canon at a bar’s distance – is given a kind of acoustic echo. Then there are those that use an ostinato phrase like BWV 615 In dir ist Freude or BWV 637 Durch Adams Fall to punch out the key theme or the more complex canonical structures of BWV 611 Christum wir sollen loben schon with the chorale in the alto and free-running imitation in the other parts or BWV 624 Hilf Gott, dass mir’s gelinge with its additional obbligato line in running triplets from beginning to end under the chorale in canon at the fifth. Some have reminiscences of Pachelbel’s chorale variations like BWV 632 Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend’, or Bach’s own trio sonatas like BWV 639 Ich ruf’ zu dir. All this gives an infinite variety as well as stretching the organist’s technical capabilities.

As always, Stephen Farr’s playing is faultless; but his choice of instrument here doesn’t make it easy for him. Instead of a more compact and responsive instrument such as was available to Bach in Weimar during the time when the bulk of the Orgelbüchlein was written, he chose the large (and somewhat unwieldy) organ by Trost that dates in the main between 1724 and 1730 in the more developed Thuringian style where many ranks clearly have to be coaxed into speech.

This famous instrument, conserved in the 1990s and sampled for Hauptwerk, gives him almost unlimited tonal and aural possibilities, and the large number of 8’ ranks in every department can be used either singly or in combination to give subtle shades. And the slow-speaking Pedal can cause problems on certain notes, and he quite often needs to couple it to the Brustwerk to aid its clarity. The booklet gives the specification and detailed registration for each piece, which is splendid and there is additional information available on www.organartmedia.com/en/heinrich-gottfried-trost. In his notes, he admits that the organ is hard to play, and makes a good case for his performance choices. The booklet is a model of clarity and information and sets Farr’s realisations within the performance tradition well presented in Nigel Simeone’s essay.

As always with Stephen Farr’s recordings, this is model of how to do it, and those who have his Clavier-Übung III on the Trinity Cambridge Metzler or the Chorale Partitas on the Sussex house organ by Aubertin will need no further encouragement to get this outstanding CD.

David Stancliffe

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Recording

Aliotti: Il Trionfo della Morte

Aliotti Trionfo della morte CD cover

Les Traversées Baroques, Etienne Meyer
94:52 (2 CDs)
Accent ACC 24368

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I wonder if Aliotti, the composing Franciscan friar from Palermo, had seen the fresco “Il trionfo della morte” in the Scafani Palace in the city of his birth and early years. Death, furiously mounted on a wild skeletal horse is dishing out arrows and striking down the privileged orders of society – Franciscans included – whilst sparing the common folk and musicians. It is difficult to imagine not, as this eponymous oratorio evokes the wildness and drama, and possibly sympathies, of this striking image from two centuries earlier. It bursts onto the scene with all the bounce of the baroque, and the energy continues unabated throughout – albeit through a spectrum of moods and pace. The particular elaboration of the theme taken by the oratorio is the origin of the triumph of death: the fall of Adam. It allows this two-CD extravaganza to explore every angle and nuance of the battle between reason and passion, hope and regret, good and evil. The characterisations rendered by the singers capture the tensions and vacillations perfectly – it is so wonderful and refreshing to hear performers entirely given over to the projection of the characters’ inner debates and torments, without a hint of staginess. The technical quality of the singing, playing and recording is extremely impressive: sparkling and immediate. I mentioned the energetic and attention-grabbing opening, where against the overall energy are lyrical, repeated falling phrases which presage the forthcoming story, and beautifully played by the outstanding cornettists. Also worthy of note is the end of the prima parte; the Coro di Demoni Furie Feroci – you can imagine! – culminating in a clever musical falling to earth, matter of fact, but shocking. Another is the heart-rending lament of Eve in the realisation of what has just been precipitated. In shades of Ovid’s telling of the Arethusa and Alpheus metamorphosis, she wishes to liquefy herself and disappear, trapped in a cloying whirlpool of circular harmonies from the viols; a metaphor which therefore spans the parallel religious and humanist worlds of Aliotti’s lifetime. I thoroughly recommend this recording to anyone – it is a must-listen of wide appeal.

Stephen Cassidy

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Recording

Telemann: Frankfurt Sonatas

Telemann Frankfurt Sonatas Aparté CD cover

Gottfried von der Goltz violin, Annekatrin Beller cello, Torsten Johann harpsichord/positive organ, Tomas C. Boysen theorbo
Aparté AP21
66:01

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This is only the third time these finely crafted sonatas, reputedly Telemann’s first publication, have appeared on CD (Stephan Schardt got there first for MDG in 2014 and Valerio Losito followed on Brilliant Classics in 2017). Spearheaded by the impressive skills of Gottfried von der Goltz, you can sense the sheer artistic relish and appreciation for the neat progressions through the boldly contrasting movements which offer some vivacious artistic flourishes, as well as moments of great theatre and pathos. By this time, Telemann had written about 10 operas for Leipzig, and you can hear the wistful, lovelorn motifs in the slower movements lifted directly from the stage. This delightful set of six sonatas was dedicated to Prince Johann Ernst IV of Sachsen-Weimar (who sadly passed within a year of their publication), the foreword grandiloquently noting at the very bottom in French: At the author’s expense!

The truly wonderful continuo team here is allowed to star alongside the dominant violin part, and do all share the limelight at some stage. The use of a positive organ really hits the mark with a particular reverence and piety. These works flow between the two kinds of sonata style with a well-measured intensity and balance. The high-flying runs of semiquavers in the finales of Sonatas III and IV are a touch of free-flowing virtuosity. With a perfect feel for tempo and the desired application of Affekte, the ensemble navigates these cleverly conceived sonatas with intelligent application and balanced variation.

A very fine, well-balanced interpretation all round. We fervently hope they might decide tackle the long-languishing 1718 set, awaiting full premiere status, before too long!

David Bellinger

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Recording

Graupner: Das Leiden Jesu

Volume 3 of Graupner: Das Leiden Jesu CD cover

Passion Cantatas III
Ex Tempore, Mannheimer Hofkapelle, Florian Heyerick
69:27
cpo 555 230-2
GWV 1119/41, 1124/41, 1126/41

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This is the third instalment of a series of selected Eastertide cantatas by Christoph Graupner to appear on CPO, based on the refined texts of the pastor, theologian, polymath Johann Conrad Lichtenburg (1689-1751) who besides interests in philosophy, mathematics, astronomy and architecture, was a very gifted religious poet – librettist, who wrote some 35 annual cycles, I. e., over 1500 sacred texts! He studied at Leipzig and Halle, the latter a bastion of pietism, which took hold in Germany in middle of the 18th century. Of the 1400 extant Graupner cantatas, some 1190 are from the most able quill of J. C. Lichtenburg; obviously a fruitful collaboration was at work! These cantatas from the 1741 cycle described as “Betrachtungen” (contemplations/reflections) on the circumstances surrounding the “Versöhnungsleiden” redemptive/propitiatory sufferings of our Saviour. The definition used here for “Reflections” shows alert respect for the prevailing Passion-oratorio format, and feels equally influenced by the text of B.H.Brockes’ Passion-oratorio set by many composers of the age; there are also hints of the other famous theologian, librettist, pastor Erdmann Neumeister (1671-1756) who had previously helped shape the incipient cantata for.

The CD opens with the work for the last Sunday (Estomihi) before Passiontide itself, with some strikingly original strokes of declamatory expression, more akin to an actual Passion’s chorale workings than a mere cantata. Some very bold, original writing, one might say in a hybrid style?

Not only are the thematic details well-observed with pertinent word-painting, but the attention to deftly applied instrumental colours depicting each of the subsequent tableaux, is most befitting, from two oboes, strings* and continuo in GWV1119/41, next we have flute, two oboes, bassoon and strings in GWV1124/41, and finally flute, three oboes and strings in GWV1126/41; the oboes are richly sonorous and plaintive.

At turns these works feel conventional, then surprise with clever twists, almost in a casual, experimental way, yet never straying far from elegiac or edifying. The chorales deserve a special mention, coming across as beautifully woven final flourishes; as with the famous last one on the CD (O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig am Stamm des Kreuzes geschlachtet). With more explorations of Graupner’s cantatas, we are beginning to see why he was indeed a worthy choice for the Leipzig post in 1722, and why his employer, the Landgraf of Hessen-Darmstadt, wanted to hold onto him. Florian Heyerick is a very alert and sensitive conductor, bringing the very best out of his choral and instrumental forces; the sopranos and basses seemed to me to really shine and excel.

This is a warmly recommended, third instalment of the Graupner/Lichtenburg cycle for Easter 1741 with some noteworthy additions to the Passiontide repertoire.

David Bellinger

(*Graupner specifies “Violette”, possibly a smaller member of the viola family; the Mannheimer Hofkapelle use violas)

NOTE: Apologies to the performers, the record company and the reviewer; this somehow fell through the cracks and is being published A YEAR LATE! Keen fans of Graupner may already have the 4th instalment in the series, since cpo released that to coincide with Easter 2020!

 

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Recording

Blancrocher – L’Offrande

Blancrocher L'Offrance cover for mp3

Pierre Gallon harpsichord
78:00
encelade ECL1901

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This is a brilliant programme. There’s quite a preponderance of slow tempi so perhaps you have to be in the right mood to listen straight through but the music is all very good as are the performances (to say the least).

Charles Fleury de Blancrocher was one of mid-17th-century Paris’s leading lutenists, though nothing he did in his life (as far as we know) brought him anything like the fame generated by his death: he fell down the stairs in his house at the end of an evening spent strolling with Froberger. Tombeaux were composed in tribute for harpsichord by Froberger (of course) and Louis Couperin and – less widely known – for lute by François Dufaut and Denis Gaultier (the Younger) and they, together with Blancrocher’s only surviving work, form the spine of Pierre Gallon’s recital. The lute music is played on the harpsichord in transcriptions either by D’Anglebert or by the player in a similar style with the exception of the Blancrocher which, appropriately, ends the disc and is, indeed, on the lute (Diego Salamanca).

Two harpsichords are used, tuned in a meantone temperament at A=411. The temperament lends itself to all the style brisé writing (perhaps that should be the other way round) in that we hear its character though the idiom ‘takes the edge off’ what would otherwise be some pretty pungent chords. The recording captures the sound of all three instruments faithfully. Through headphones, there are a few fingering noises from the lutenist though I did not find them intrusive.

The booklet essay (in French and English) is a little fanciful for my taste though not as bad as some. However, a few typos do suggest that someone could have done a better job. But everything else is top drawer: strongly recommended for both the programme and its execution.

David Hansell

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Recording

Couperin en tête à tête

Cover of Louis Couperin tete a tete CD

Duo Coloquintes (Alice Julien-Laferrière violin, Mathilde Vialle gamba)
54:18
Editions Seulétoile SEC01

This is an unusual recital – some might even rule it ‘out of order’ – but after initial doubts I enjoyed it. Essentially Duo Coloquintes (violin and viola da gamba) offer us the music that they imagine Louis Couperin might have written had he not played the harpsichord! So we have four of the suites arranged for the new forces, other music for both instruments solo and unaccompanied, and a final miscellaneous group by Couperin.

The arrangements are skilfully done, with just enough double-stopping to diminish any concerns about a ‘hole in the middle’, and the players perform with considerable finesse both as individuals and as a duo. All the ornamentation and inégalité feels very natural and the recorded sound too is well judged (domestic rather than ecclesiastical).

The booklet (French only) is an odd mixture of fantasy, fact and nice pictures. Just pour a glass of something, sit back and enjoy the music.

David Hansell

If you are inspired to follow David’s recommendation, you’ll have to track the disc down; my attempts failed after reaching the duo’s website

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Recording

Brillance Indéniable

Cover of Youssefian CD Brillance Indéniable

The Virtuoso Violin in the Court of Louis XV
Sonatas and Symphonies by Louis-Gabriel Guillemain
Alana Youssefian & Le Bien-Aimé
67:11
Avie Records AV2412

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This release came to me as a ‘reviewers’ package’ so it is not possible to provide the usual observations on the overall presentation and format. However, what I can say is that the supporting material I do have (in English only) is helpful and devoid of the ridiculous mistakes that have be-devilled many of the CD booklets I have seen recently.

The programme contrasts three of Guillemain’s virtuosic Op.1 sonatas with three of his more genteel and ingratiating ‘symphonies’ – works scored for a trio sonata ensemble and thus attractive to a domestic market as well as being playable with doubled parts by an orchestra. The composer was quite a colourful character, it seems: a virtuoso player, but ‘crippled’ by performance nerves; a lover of fine food, wine and furnishings; a high-earner; yet ultimately brought low by debt and alcoholism. He died from (probably self-inflicted) stab wounds.

This starry ensemble plays splendidly, though I do wonder whether the cello pizzicato is composer-requested or moments of performer whimsy. This rococo/galant idiom can sometimes seem a little banal but here it never does. The flashes of high-octane virtuosity in the sonatas help, of course, but overall the charm – a much under-rated virtue – of both music and performances holds the listener’s attention.

At a time when such charm is especially welcome, this disc has proved to be a congenial companion.

David Hansell

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Albinoni: 12 Cantatas for Soprano and Contralto Op. 4

Cover of CD Albinoni op 4 cantatas for soprano and alto

Silvia Frigato soprano, Elena Biscuola alto, L’Arte dell’Arco
99:48 (2 Cds in a single case)
Brilliant Classics 95600

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As an amateur musician of independent means (his family’s paper business supported his initial musical career), Albinoni was able to approach composition without the need of financial success, allowing him a degree of creative freedom denied composers following a more hand-to-mouth existence. As his career as a composer of instrumental music, but primarily as an opera composer, flourished, he gradually dispensed with the financial prop of family money and with the soubriquet ‘amateur’. His opus 4, six cantatas each for soprano and contralto with continuo, his only published vocal music, seem to be early work of around 1700 when such pieces were in considerable vogue in Italy. It is a chastening thought that the opus 4 collection was lost until the early 20th century when a single copy was identified by Edward J. Dent – the situation had been complicated by the issuing of a pirate opus 4 of instrumental music by Albinoni! These cantatas are charming works dealing with a variety of love scenarios, and entirely distinct in style from the later operas. The featured singers – soprano Silvia Frigato and contralto Elena Biscuola – have beautifully appropriate voices, singing expressively and with elegantly discrete ornamentation, while the accompanying ensemble take the wording of the title page of the cantatas literally and feel free to reduce the accompaniment at certain points to either cello or harpsichord. These are wonderfully nuanced performances of utterly charming repertoire vividly captured by the sound engineer, Matteo Costa, and presented in an exemplary package by this excellent budget label.

D. James Ross

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The great violins: volume 3

Cover of The Great Violins vol. 3

The Klagenfurt Manuscript
Peter Sheppard Skærved, Antonio Stradivari 1685
142:10 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
athene ath 23206

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This series of CDs from athene each features a famous violin on which Peter Sheppard Skaerved plays appropriate repertoire, and the present double album features a 1685 Stradivari ‘violino piccolo’. The music seems to be a pet project of Skaerved’s, a manuscript from the mid-1680s of music for solo violin housed in the Landesmuseum Kärnten, Klagenfurt. Having worked with and performed the music for a number of years, Skaerved is able to talk with considerable authority about it in an extensive and intriguing programme note, and to speculate with a high degree of certainty as to its provenance. He is of the opinion that it is probably the work of one of the Benedictine nuns in the Convent of St Georgen am Längsee in Kärnten. The manuscript is notable for its extensive use of various scordatura permutations of tuning, and Skaerved speculates that his chosen Stradivari violin (from the collection in the Royal Northern School of Music in Manchester) was of smaller size not to play routinely higher (as in Bach first Brandenburg Concerto) but to be able to cope better with a variety of different scordature as in the present manuscript. His experience of playing this music on this violin has also suggested to him that the primary aim of the different scordature may not have been technical ease but the quest for different sonorities. Bearing in mind his speculation that this music is the work of a practising nun, we should also bear in mind the apparent religious significance of different tunings in the parallel work of Biber. As there is no attempt in the manuscript to group the mainly short dance movements into suites, Skaerved simply plays them in order, pointing out that with digital technology it is easy for a listener to construct their own suites if they wish! Perhaps unsurprisingly given its probable context, this is not amongst the showiest of this type of music for solo violin – this is probably music for the enjoyment of the player and possibly for a small select audience, in contrast to the music of the travelling violin virtuosi of this period, designed to stun and impress with its technical fireworks. Appropriately, Skareved’s Stradivari instrument produces a delicate if slightly shallow sound, but his intelligent readings and lyrical interpretations of these pieces make for rewarding listening.

D. James Ross