early music review

L’Achéron, François Joubert-Caillet
68:09
Ricercar RIC360

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]cheidt published these dances in two volumes in 1621, and in the title to one of the volumes recommends that they be played with viols and continuo. They are in four and five parts, resembling the collection from about the same time of J. H. Schein, also in four or five parts, and also suitable for viols, published a few years earlier. Polyphonic textures, dance rhythms, the opening Canzon super Cantionem Gallicam Italianate in style, reminiscent of the expatriate Englishman William Brade, whose volume of dances was also published in Germany at this time.

The playing is sonorous and articulate, expressive, the texture enriched by the continuo team of harp, theorbo (who also doubles on lute and cittern) and two keyboard players who play organ, virginals and ottavino. The viols, copies of Jaye, are beautifully matched. Their consort bass imparts a richness and depth to the sound. I think it has a bottom GG string, which would imply quite a big instrument.

Scheidt’s music is brilliantly inventive, the four-part pavan which follows the opening canzon treats its themes sequentially, building to an impressive climactic dotted rhythm in the final section. They vary the instrumental texture from time to time, introducing the Courant just for treble viol and lute, repeated by the full four-part consort. Each dance type is characterised in the music, and supported by the playing, particularly in the a minor pavan, in the second ‘suite’, a gorgeous piece with lovely melodies, some sections in triple time, sequential with dialogue-like interchanges between tenor and treble. The Galliard of this suite is particularly attractive, brief but quite dense in its ideas. Contrasting sections call for very smooth, lineal playing followed by vigorous dotted figures, beautifully expressed by the consort. The suite concludes with a Canzon ad imitationem Bergamasca Anglica à 5, virtuoso exchanges between equal instruments, contrasting sections, an enchanting piece, brilliantly played. I’m mystified by the title – I found it more Italian than English.

I would have liked a bit more information about the instruments – particularly about the ‘consort bass’, its string length and tuning, maybe pictures would have been enough. The booklet notes however are excellent, and the illustrations from Praetorius give an appropriate context, being exactly contemporaneous with the music. This is a minor point, the recording is very enjoyable, the music continuously gripping, often moving, and the playing is terrific. Highly recommended.

Robert Oliver

Sit Fast viol consort
66:46
Eloquentia EL1549
Unfinished Fantazia, three Fantazias a3, nine Fantazias a4, Fantazie Upon one note, In Nomines I & II

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here are many recordings of these pieces from which one can choose. All six of those that I have heard to date are excellent in their own way: techniques more than adequate to the demands on the players, well-thought out renditions, lovingly played. What sets this one apart is the intensity generated by restraint – every choice dictated by the music itself.

Sit Fast play with exquisite poise, no exaggerated mannerisms, few added ornaments and only a very occasional use of vibrato. They vary the tempo within sections, following Purcell’s directions (‘Quick’, ‘Drag’) despite his writing the tempo changes into the note values. This is particularly effective in Fantazia 6 with its very chromatic ‘Slow’ which they take very slowly but with beautifully controlled soft playing, as, within the space of 17 bars, it migrates from C major through B flat minor to a cadence in F major, rapidly building an intensity of melancholy for which the poignant sound of the consort of viols is so appropriate.

The balance favours the bass viol, perhaps because the player, Josh Cheetham, is a strong player anyway, but not to the extent of masking the tenors in the 4-part pieces. The treble viol (Atushi Sakaï) displays controlled restraint, which lets the intensity of the inner parts through the texture, always unexpected, making you sit up and pay attention. Purcell’s youthful imagination seems to respond to an inner ‘dare’ – to question what might be possible, then pushes boundaries of chromaticism and dissonance as far as he can and then further. No wonder Handel found his music so striking.

The disc opens with a completion of the unfinished 4-part fantazia no 13, and then plays the rest in the order in which they occur in the autograph manuscript – the sole surviving source for these amazing works. The last of the 4-part fantazias, composed on 31st August 1680, despite, presumably, the heat of the summer, is on the surface, the most restrained. Its stately opening, the parts enter in normal polyphonic succession, no abrupt changes of tempo, just cunningly disguised morphing from flat to sharp keys and back again, no macho youthful showing off, just a subtle and sublimely expressive taming of the harmonic questions he had be asking all along.

Then we come to the coup de grace – the Fantazie Upon one note – did he have someone in mind for this, an incompetent but eager Royal perhaps? Or is it another ‘dare?’ Whatever the impetus, a masterpiece resulted. That leaves the two In Nomine settings, in six and seven parts respectively, leaving this listener at a loss for words – an advantage in a reviewer, no doubt. Highly recommended, even if you already have Fretwork and Phantasm and all.

Robert Oliver

Musikalische Compagney, Holger Eichhorn
69:38
Querstand VKJK1527

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he 21 tracks of this documentary CD are divided into five sections: hymns for “morning and evening”, Christmas, Easter, Whitsun and “psalms and Gloria”, separated by organ music (three pieces by Crüger’s Berlin contemporary Wilhelm Karges, and a fourth anonymous work). For each hymn, Holger Eichhorn (whose comprehensive booklet notes are full of valuable information) has chosen which verses and which versions will be performed, so different combinations of voices and instruments are heard within single tracks as well as through the sequence. While the four other sections have three hymns each (not all to texts by Paul Gerhardt, although he was Crüger’s most famous collaborator), Christmas has six (“because everyone loves singing them”, as Eichhorn puts it!) The CD consists of chorale tracks laid down in 1984 and others from 2015, while the organ music was recorded on an original instrument elsewhere in 2014. With solo voices (including boy sopranos) throughout, and “world premiere of the original scoring” printed everywhere, it seems Eichhorn believes that chorale singing was the reserve of professional singers and not congregations. While it is interesting to hear the music with the obbligato instruments, I am not convinced that that necessarily procludes proper choral singing, or indeed adults singing the melody in octaves while the “choir” sang the multi-voice settings; nor am I actually persuaded that this is how Crüger intended it to be performed/heard. Surely his books were printed and reprinted because they were used; at least some of the tracks should have explored other performance approaches. Perhaps a second disc is already in the making?

Brian Clark

La Tempesta, Patrick Bismuth
86:32 (2 CDs in a wallet)
NoMadMusic NMM024

[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ach of the seven suites that make up Biber’s HAA has its own character, largely dictated by the composer’s chosen scordatura for the two treble instruments. They are joined throughout on this new recording by theorbo and harpsichord or organ with extra contributions from cello, viola da gamba, violone and harp; sometimes there are harmonic realisations of the continuo line, sometimes these are merely played as supporting melodies. I largely enjoyed the performances, though the acoustic was a little too vast for the group, and I found some of the continuo playing slightly invasive (with Biber’s already complicated multi-stopping lines dialoguing, there is no need to have the accompanists vying for attention, too.) Compared to the booklet note, though, that is as nothing; quite apart from the most awkward translations (“For everyone’s listening pleasure, the ensemble offers a transfiguration of academic music without denaturing it”), I could have done entirely without Patrick Bismuth’s four pages relating the seven sonatas to the Creation or his likening Biber’s thought processes to the Mandala (“a sound environment, a set, made, however, of right angles, dots and circles”.) It is just as well the performances are so persuasive, though I am sure to remain faithful to The Purcell Quartet’s version for the time being.

Brian Clark

Biber, Baltzar, Telemann, Bach
59:58
NoMadMusic NMM018

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his recital begins and ends with descending tetrachords; Biber’s “Passacaille”, which Cohën-Akenine says, “served as the benchmark before Bach composed his Chaconne”, opens proceedings in fine style, if slightly too closely miked for my tastes – it is one thing to be aware of the performer’s presence, quite another to hear his every inhalation. I do wonder, though, for whom it was a benchmark? A quick check of the RISM online catalogue reveals not a single manuscript source of the work at all, which would suggest that only those wealthy enough to own a copy of the print or fortunate enough to encounter Biber himself would have known of its existence; the suggestion that this solo repertoire was widely available, known and played is surely untenable. Be that as it may, it is clear that virtuoso players with financial means (or contacts) did produce a wealth of music for their instrument and the two pieces by Thomas Baltzar are particularly welcome. Likewise, unmannered renditions of two of Telemann’s fantasias (no. 1 in B flat major, and no. 3 in F minor) confirm his rightful place among the masters of the medium. There is no arguing, though, that the Bach D minor Partita is one of the masterpieces of Western music, and Cohën-Akenine shifts up a gear for the immense challenges. It is particularly impressive that, in spite of all the extraneous noises, the bow strokes all come off without harshness, and the open strings ring pure throughout. I’m not going to say that I stopped hearing the breathing, but the musician’s communion with Bach was so intense that everything else was transcended. Next time, though, please do move the mikes!

Brian Clark

Modo Antiquo, Federico Maria Sardelli
69:00
deutsche harmonia mundi 8-88751-27852-3
RV52, 60, 552a*, 779, 813, 820*, Anh. 107a*

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he programme of this recording consists of a recorder sonata, a trio for two violins and continuo, another for violin, cello and continuo, a quartet for violin, oboe and organ with the “se piace” chalumeau, another for strings, a violin concerto and another for two violins. RV820 is the trio with obbligato cello, only recently added to the Vivaldi catalogue after Sardelli, the director of Modo Antiquo, identified it among downloaded material his wife was working on; he had already been occupied with dating the composer’s works and presenting the world premiere recording of that piece (as well as those of the Leuwen version of RV Anh. 107, and the “reconstructed” RV522a) provided an opportunity to put together an entire recital of early works. Playing one-per-part, Modo Antiquo have one plucker (theorbo and guitar) and keyboardist (harpsichord and organ); in the violin concerto, I would have preferred the double bass to drop out in the solo episodes. While most of the music-making is enjoyable, the booklet lets the enterprise down – Michael Talbot’s booklet note could have done with some proofreading, but the other “English” contributions are terrible; “The Young Vivaldi: a rivelation”??? So ignore the book and enjoy the music.

Brian Clark