early music review

Ricercar Consort
Mirare MIR237   (54′)

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his recording – despite its relative brevity – left me exhausted; there is nothing tiring about the playing, which is absolutely first rate, but the music is just so intellectually demanding, or at least I allowed it to be so, teasing my brain with all its ingenuity! Of course, I could just have kicked back and enjoyed the experience as entertainment, but for some reason these perfectly shaped and effortlessly balanced performances “drew me in” and, once in the spider’s web, there was no escape. This is not the first Musical Offering to be reviewed in these pages, nor will it be the last to be written about in a critical way, but I am sure this version will find many admirers in the Bach fraternity, and I will not be surprised to see it among this year’s award winners.

Brian Clark

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Guido Kraemer, Frederik From, Bjarte Eike, Peter Spissky violins, Antoine Torunczyk oboe, Concerto Copenhagen, Lars Ulrik Mortensen
55:10
cpo 777 904-2

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f your initial reaction (like mine, I confess) was, “oh no, not another recording of these concertos!”, time to dispel fears of being anything other than captivated by a series of interpretations that are as finely nuanced without the slightest hint of micro-management as you are ever likely to hear. In the slow movement of the A minor concerto, for example, Frederik From (the only one of the quartet of solo violinists of whom I had never heard!) makes the semibreves the most interesting notes of the piece, by nourishing them as the bar passes with an ornament called vibrato – never was it better applied! His approach to the outer movements of the same work is typical of the COCO’s Bach; every detail is in its rightful place and no fuss is ever made of any particular note or phrase – I have never heard the pause halfway through the final Allegro assai and the pick-up from the basses and violas handled so neatly; I suppose that’s how Bach must have intended it to sound. His rendition of the E major concerto is every bit as impressive, and again it is in the slow movement that he excels – his first entry is guaranteed to raise a few eyebrows. The soloists in the double violin concerto are Peter Spissky and Bjarte Eike, while the final work on the disc features Manfredo Kraemer and Antoine Torunczyk. The same virtues of From’s solo concertos pervade both – effortless virtuosity and evenness of tone across the range of the instrument, beautifully paced with room for free ornamentation and no sense that everything is being centrally controlled. I understand this may not be everyone’s idea of heaven, but it’s pretty close for me. My only regret is that the disc is so short – elsewhere in these pages I have sometimes argued that too much of a good thing is perhaps not a good thing, but with these musicians on this kind of form, I’d take my chances!

Brian Clark

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Luca Guglielmi
60:07
cpo 777 930-2

[dropcap]G[/dropcap]uglielmi has recorded this selection of works on five different instruments over three years to 2011. He uses a copy of a 17th-century Italian harpsichord by Michele Barchi for Frescobaldi and a Philippe Humeau copy of the Russell Collections 1638 Ruckers for Buxtehude. There are also three original North Italian organs, built between 1695 and 1752 which provide a variety of registrations for Frescobaldi. The playing is excellent, displaying fluency and a refined sense of each composer’s style. Buxtehude’s harpsichord music is much less known than Frescobaldi’s and the comparison is not quite equal in terms of variety or depth, but Guglielmi includes a couple of pieces by the former which are often played on the organ (the Praeludium in G BuxWv 163 and the Toccata in G BuxWv 165). He also plays an attractive Canzona, BuxWV 166, on organ flutes. The extended Cento partite by Frescobaldi, with its constantly changing tempo relationships, is handled with aplomb. That composer’s Ave Maris Stella versets are somewhat surprisingly paired with the solo verse settings from Monteverdi’s Vespers, sung by Jenny Camponella; the result is not as incongruous as it might sound. Overall this is a very satisfying recording.

Noel O’Regan

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Brecon Baroque, Rachel Podger
136′
Challenge Classics CCS SA3651S

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ny new recording of L’Estro Armonico is most welcome! There simply is not a weak piece among the 12 concertos for one, two or four violins, with or without obbligato cello and continuo – truly, it is a virtuosic display of Vivaldi’s talent, both as composer and as performer; the first time you hear the stratospheric string crossing at the end of the tenth concerto (the one Bach converted into a concerto for four harpsichords), you cannot help but be taken aback. With a group of Brecon Baroque’s calibre, you just know that the playing will be brilliant (in its true sense), and that there will be plenty of energy between the players and in the performances themselves.

As in a previous release, I was especially struck by the very focussed sound of the violas – no shrinking violets here, especially when they are the foundation of the ensemble. I was not, I’m sorry to say, as impressed by the presence of three continuo players; the eighth part-book is not, as Timothy Jones says in his note, for ‘continuo e basso‘ (his quotation marks, suggesting that this is what Roger printed), but “Violone e Cembalo“; now, if the whole premise of L’Estro Armonico is that each partbook was for one player (or, in the last case for a keyboardist with a bass player reading over his/her shoulder – does this ever happen nowadays?), then we should have nine performers, but instead we have 11. In her introduction to the disc, Rachel Podger writes that it is not “often do you witness four violins trying to outdo each other!” – here there are several places where they cede the limelight to the keyboard player, and even a few where it’s the lutenists who improvise in the spaces between chords. Now, I appreciate why it might seem like a very good idea to vary textures over the span of two CDs (and yes, I did listen to them both several times right through!), but I would rather have had just one continuo instrument per concerto, and – if I’m brutally honest – I don’t think I need strummed chords to add to the energy levels; the gypsy moment at the end of the slow movement of the third concerto was excitement enough. I really don’t want to sound too negative, though; I will be very surprised if this doesn’t win awards, too…

Brian Clark

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Oltremontano, Psallentes, Wim Becu
66:36
Accent ACC 24300
Music by Adson, Augustine Bassano, Byrd, Child, Fantini, Humfrey, William Lawes, Locke, Mersenne, Parsons + anon

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a triumph of style over substance. It must have seemed a good idea to put together a programme reconstructing the coronation of Charles II in Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661, packaging it with the glamorous painting of the enthroned king in his coronation robes. But someone needs to have done their homework properly for a ‘reconstruction’ of this sort to be more than a cynical marketing ploy. A good deal is known about the music that was performed for the coronation (the evidence is conveniently assembled in Matthias Range’s book Music and Ceremonial at British Coronations: From James I to Elizabeth II (Cambridge, 2012)), so I can say with confidence that none of the choral pieces recorded here were sung on that day. Furthermore, a feature of the service was the participation of the newly-formed Twenty-Four Violins (for which Henry Cooke wrote two new anthems, ‘Behold, O God our defender’ and ‘The king shall rejoice’), but the CD only uses cornetts, sackbuts and organ, with the occasional trumpet fanfare. Bizarrely, Pelham Humfrey’s setting of ‘The king shall rejoice’ is recorded rather than Cooke’s, and with winds rather than strings.

Also, most of the music chosen to represent what was played during the coronation banquet in Westminster Hall is hopelessly old-fashioned for 1661 (it is mostly by Elizabethan or Jacobean composers), is in an inappropriate idiom, or is played on the wrong instruments – or all three. We can imagine Charles II, who ‘had an utter detestation of Fancys’ according to Roger North and loved the fashionable French-style dance music played by his Twenty-Four Violins, choking on his food had he had to listen to cornetts and sackbuts playing Byrd’s Browning or a six-part fantasia by William Lawes. Just about the only pieces that justify their place on this CD are Matthew Locke’s five-part dances ‘For his Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornetts’, possibly written for the king’s entry into London the night before the coronation, but they have been recorded many times before. All in all, this CD is a missed opportunity. I might have recommended it simply as an anthology of 16th- and 17th-century English music were it not for the fact that the choral pieces chosen are mostly rather poor, the choir’s words are difficult to understand, and the tuning of the cornetts and sackbuts is sometimes sour.

Peter Holman

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Miriam Feuersinger, Franz Vitzthum, Klaus Mertens ScTB/Bar, Collegium vocale Siegen, Hannoversche Hofkapelle, Ulrich Stötzel
58:04
hänssler Classic CD 98.047
TVWV 1: 243, 284 & 413

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he three works here (all in world modern premiere recordings) come from the cycle that Telemann published for 1748–49, the so-called “Engel-Jahrgang” to texts by Erdmann Neumeister, all following a five-movement pattern: chorus, aria, recitative, aria and chorus/chorale. The first cantata on the disc Der Herr lebet for Easter Sunday shares the spoils between the three soloists, while in the others, Ehr und Dank sey Dir gesungen for Michaelmas and Der Geist giebt Zeugnis for Whitsun, the central movements are all for solo bass and alto respectively. Of the three cantatas, the last was my favourite, especially the second of the arias, “Geist des Trostes und der Gnade”, in which the soloist is not only accompanied by the strings but also by the two trumpets and timpani that feature in all the cantatas of the set. The choir sing well, but the booklet does not list names, so it is impossible to say how many are on each voice; nor are the players named. The texts are laid out alongside a nice English translation, but it is a pity that the Biblical quotes are printed as pseudo poetry, while the verse patterns of the arias are obscured by arbitrary line breaks. It is a pity, too, that there is not more music for Miriam Feuersinger, as she has a lovely voice for this repertoire. This is the second Telemann recording from these forces; I hope there will be more!

Brian Clark

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Laura Antonaz Assalone, Elena Biscuola Achitofele/Joabbe, Alberto Allegrezza Consigliere, Mauro Borgioni Davide, Elena Bertuzzi Testo, Ensemble “Les Nations”, Maria Luisa Baldassari
63:34
Tactus TC 630302

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ssalone was one of no fewer than four oratorios which were performed at the Modena court of Francesco II d’Este in 1684 – Colonna’s setting of the story of Judith was among the others. Francesco Lora (who edited the music) writes an illuminating note, not only on the work in question but also about the political importance of oratorio performances in Modena. Five singers take the six roles (Lora seeing no problem with the alto taking two such unrelated roles), and combine in the three short choruses. They are stylishly accompanied by a one-to-a-part band including solo trumpet, but no pluckers. Most of the singing is good, though I found some of the ornamentation in the repeated verses a little artificial for my liking (as if someone has sat down and composed them, and utterly obscured the original in the process). The playing, on the other hand, is impeccable – the duetting violinists are a perfect match, and the trumpet adds lustre to the texture. To have been written about so much, Colonna’s music must have been good – it is a pity we get so few opportunities to hear it!

Brian Clark

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Just two minor quibbles with the notes – as far as I know, durchkomponiert is not yet an English word; the correct translation is “through composed”, and the Italian Testo character would not be referred to as “Text”, but rather as “the narrator”…

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