Categories
Recording

Vivaldi: Musica sacra per alto

Delphine Galou A, Accademia Bizantina, directed by Ottavio Dantone
59:47
Naïve OP30569

As the massive Naïve Vivaldi edition starts to reach its later stages – this is volume 59 – it is inevitable that there will be issues that have the feel of tidying-up loose ends. This is one such, a collection of sacred works including two introdutioni, solo motets that lead to a Mass section or Vespers psalm, the Salve Regina, RV 618, a brief antiphon Regina coeli, RV 615 and the Vespers hymn Deus tuorum militum, RV 612. In addition there is the Violin Concerto in D for the Feast of the Assumption, RV 582, composed, like the rest of the programme with the exception of the hymn, for the Pietà. With the exception of the motet Filiae maestae Jerusalem, RV 638, a sombre masterpiece that formed an introduction to the Miserere, none are particularly well known, though all the vocal works were of course included in Robert King’s complete traversal of the sacred music for Hyperion.

It is the two introdutioni, both designed to precede settings of the Miserere (of which there are no extant examples by Vivaldi) sung at Tenebrae in Holy Week, which form the substance of the disc. RV 638 is an especially striking work with a text concerned with the events of the Crucifixion’s ninth hour, with outer accompagnati, one of moving intensity, the other a powerfully dramatic episode depicting ‘shattered rocks’ and the renting of the veil of the Temple, framing a delicate, pain-soaked aria. The performance, as throughout the programme, is outstanding. In the aria Galou, who I continue to think of as an alto, rather than the contralto label Naïve use, sings with fluent ease and evenly produced tonal beauty across the range, displaying real insight and sensitivity for the text, while shaping the cantabile line with the utmost musicality. In the da capo her discreet embellishments are finely turned, while her husband Ottavio Dantone provides admirably well-judged and finely balanced support. In the accompagnati both find the drama inherent in the highly potent text.

Like RV 638, Non in pratis, RV 641 was also written as an introduction to the Misere and also has a text related to the Crucifixion, though the opening plain recitative seems to draw its inspiration from the Song of Songs. Here an accompagnato and extended aria are framed by plain recitatives, the final one being directly addressed to the suffering Christ as a plea for mercy. Again the aria conveys a mood of infinite sorrow, the double string orchestra effectively used to imitate cascades tumbling over each other, perhaps an illustration of the text’s ‘torrent of blood’. In the B section the winding upper strings unsupported by bass convey a sense of being lost in mystery, the playing of Accademia Bizantina absolutely lovely, the singing of Galou profoundly touching. None of the other vocal works match the motets. The hymn is a brief, simple setting for alto and tenor (Alessandro Giangrande) in which Vivaldi set the three odd verses, the even ones of which would have been sung in plainchant. Given that the disc is quite short measure it would have been agreeable to have those to form a contrast.

The finely judged gradual crescendo at the start of the Salve Regina could well be used as a fine example of the care that Dantone brings to all he does, while the long, languid melismas of the opening aria are again beautifully shaped by Galou, whose veiled tone is most effective. Again, ‘Ad te suspiramus’ (iii) turns the focus on the sheer beauty and contrasts of tonal colour of Galou’s singing, while the second and fourth section bring a sense of heightened urgency. The final vocal work, Regina coeli is sung by Giangrande, here ostensibly as an alto, though the awkward break in the voice only emphasises the fact that he is naturally a tenor, rather than a countertenor.

The Violin Concerto in D is a fine work in three movements calling for considerable virtuosity from the soloist, which it here gets from Alessandro Tampieri, whose playing of the florid passage work in the opening Allegro and the capriccio section of the final movement is outstanding. Perhaps more impressive still is the sense of hazy poetic mystery he brings to the central Grave, with its high lying line unsupported by bass and only minimal touches of accompaniment. This is a highly rewarding addition to a unique series, particularly valuable for the two motets.

Brian Robins

Categories
Recording

Diderot: The Paris and London Albums

The Paris Album
Ensemble Diderot
65:13
ADX 13717

The London Album
Ensemble Diderot
66:10
ADX 13718

Many readers will own and still enjoy the three London Baroque recordings from ca. 2005 that explored the development of the trio sonata in England, France and Germany. They ranged widely (the English repertoire went back to Gibbons), an approach which these new releases (a Dresden-themed disc is already available) complement by focussing on the later 17th century. There is only one repertoire overlap with LB – Rebel’s Tombeau de Monsieur de Lully–- and four world premiere recordings are claimed on each disc, all of them strong pieces. Keller’s Ciaconna in G major in the London programme particularly impressed me, not least because of its unusual bass line which naturally broadens the harmonic potential of the work.

That same disc also includes three sonatas by Purcell, all very fine but also already much-recorded. Was there no other suitable repertoire of quality? It’s hard to believe that, for example, Draghi’s excellent work was just a flash in the pan. The Paris programme resists the pull of the biggest name (just one sonata by François Couperin) but does give us two pieces by Brossard (whom we perhaps think of as a man who wrote words rather than notes) which are consistently engaging, especially when the bass viol is liberated from its continuo role to become an obbligato voice in the tenor register, a device also used by Blow in London.

I do applaud the ensemble’s straightforward approach to instrumentation – the two violins on the upper parts and just a harpsichord for the continuo realisation. The bass line enjoys the finesse of a gamba in the French programme and bass violin/cello in London but would an appearance by the gamba and perhaps a chamber organ in that programme have been appropriate? The actual playing is terrific – fantastic ensemble even at high speed and excellent tuning. There are a few flourishes from the harpsichord which felt a bit 18th century but that won’t stop me splashing the stars, not least because the booklet notes are for once decently written, decently translated and useful!

David Hansell

[Editorial note: In the early days of the online version of EMR, we allocated stars to recordings so that reviewers could be clearer about where they had found virtue and where they had found it wanting. (It also gave lazy readers a quick and easy way to decide if they wanted to buy it or not!) David rarely gave five stars in any category to any recording; for these two, he awarded the full quota across the board, so while he didn’t explicitly say so, I think you could say these two disc really excited him.]

Categories
Concert-Live performance Festival-conference

The Cesti International Singing Competition

Innsbruck 2019

The ten finalists. Winner Grace Durham is second from the left. Photo © Celina Friedrichs

For the past decade an important component of the prestigious Innsbruck Early Music Festival has been the singing competition named after Pietro Antonio Cesti, several of whose operas were premiered in Innsbruck during the period he spent there as a court composer to the Archduke Ferdinand Karl. 2019 also sees the 350th anniversary of the death of Cesti, an event that will be commemorated later in the festival season with a production of his opera La Dori, first given in Innsbruck in 1657.

The singing competition was inaugurated ten years ago as the brainchild of the Innsbruck Festival’s artistic director Alessandro De Marchi, with past prize winners including a number of singers who have gone on to make an international career, most notably Hungarian soprano Emőke Baráth, who will take the title role in La Dori. Such is the eminence of the competition today that this year’s edition attracted over 200 entrants, their number reduced initially to 99, then to the ten finalists who contested two rounds before the final, broadcast live and held before the jury and an audience on 8 August in the Grosser Saal of Innsbruck’s imposing modern Haus der Musik.

The format for the evening involved each finalist singing two arias, one taken from Alessandro Melani’s L’empio punito (Rome, 1669), which will be staged at the 2020 Festival with a role for the winner. The other was free choice, it being perhaps a little disappointing that the majority of singers rather unambitiously selected Handel arias. On offer were three major prizes awarded by an international panel of jurists, in addition to which there was an audience prize, a young artist’s prize and an engagement with Resonanzen, the early music festival held in Vienna each January. The roster of finalists was dominated by higher voices, including six sopranos (one a male falsettist) and two mezzos, with only a bass and a baritone to represent lower registers.

When he came to introduce the prize awards, jury chairman Michael Fichtenholz (Zurich Opera and Karlsruhe Handel Festival) made the perhaps revealing observation that the jury wished them well on whatever path their career might take them, perhaps tacit recognition that on the evidence of what we had heard not all the finalists seemed likely ultimately to pursue a career in early music. Perhaps more predictable were the inevitable platitudes to the effect that all the contestants deserved a prize. In some senses Fichtenholz was right. The overall professionalism and ability to communicate and articulate text was impressive, as was the general technical level of achievement in such as generally well-articulated passaggi. However it could equally be argued that in other respects none of the contestants deserved a prize in an early music singing contest. Throughout twenty arias, only one singer (the eventual winner) came anywhere near attempting a trill, a basic requirement of Baroque singing technique, and we did not hear a single example of that most beautifully expressive and greatly prized Baroque ornament, the messa di voce. It continues to perplex me that singers looking to perform early music are sent out into the world so ill-equipped to do it justice in such respects. Poorly controlled vocal production was another of the problems for several of the singers with larger voices, while another matter to which some of them might also attend are disagreeable facial expressions that would not have passed Tosi’s dictum to avoid making an ugly face while singing.

The three lesser prizes awarded went to the same singer, the Austrian soprano Miriam Kutrowatz, the youngest singer in the competition and obviously a popular choice. Belying her age (22), she sang both her arias with a range of colour and nuance beyond most of her seniors, while also displaying a charming personality. She came very close to being my overall choice, though in the end my vote went to the Hungarian soprano Orsolya Nyakas, who sang her Melani aria with an engaging sweetness and character, while displaying absolute security and a touching emotional response to Melissa’s ‘Ah, spietato!’ from Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula. Her da capo ornamentation and cadenzas were also more stylish than those of most of her rivals. The second and third placed sopranos, Dioklea Hoxha from Kosovo and the Cypriot soprano Theodora Raftis both sang with great commitment if not always perfect control, but they are singers I would expect to find moving quite happily on to later repertoire. While feeling pride that the competition produced a British winner, mezzo Grace Durham will I suspect also be unlikely to follow an early music career, an impression underlined by her CV. The voice itself has a lovely warm and rounded quality, but though her singing of ‘Son qual misera’ from Hasse’s Cleofide had its impressive moments, I found myself disagreeing with the jury, finding some of her singing poorly controlled.

The Cesti Singing Competition, in which the singers were faithfully supported by members of the Cesti Orcestra under the direction of harpsichordist Mariangiola Martello, proved to be a rewarding, compelling and thought-provoking experience.

Brian Robins

Categories
Sheet music

Ballet Music from the Mannheim Court, Part 5

Edited by Paul Corneilson & Carol G. Marsh
Recent Researches in the Music of the Classical Era, 111
xxxii + 207pp, $375
A-R Editions, Inc ISBN 978-1-9872-0170-3

These excellent editions of Cannabich’s Les Fêtes du sérail (Corneilson) and Angélique et Médor ou Roland furieux bring this series to a fine conclusion. With 21 and 25 numbers respectively (not counting the overtures), these are substantial pieces which, with the help of two contemporary sources (one given in translation as the original is freely available online, and the other given side-by-side in French and English), the editors hope not only will orchestras pick up the music and perform it, but ballet companies will also take up the challenge of creating suitable choreographies for both sets. The scores feature all the instruments you’d expect to find in a classical orchestra, and Les Fêtes throws in a pair of piccolos and some percussion for good measure. The music mixes through-composed pieces with movements consisting of repeated sections and Da Capo structures; some have nuanced dynamics, others are left to performers’ discretion; both end with susbtantial Contredanses. Both editors provide excellent introductions to the works, as well as comprehensive editorial commentaries. RRMCE now has 111 volumes – what a monumental achievement!

Brian Clark

Categories
Sheet music

Michele Pesenti: Complete Works

Edited by Anthony M. Cummings, Linda L. Carroll, and Alexander Dean
Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance, 171
liii + 218pp, $350
A-R Editions, Inc ISBN 978-1-9872-0139-0

So there are a total of 36 surviving pieces by Michele Pesenti (c. 1470-c1528), of which only three are sacred. The remainder survive as settings in four parts (mostly with only the top part texted) or for voice with lute. This excellent volume not only provides performing versions of them all, but goes to great lengths to explain how the poetry of the time works (and how that has guided the editors to underlay the text in the most appropriate fashion), as well as detailed commentaries on and translations of them all. Two of the secular pieces are Latin odes. The works with lute give both tablature and staff notation versions, making this music accessible to all performers of this neglected repertoire – it would be intriguing to hear the various settings of the same text one after the other (definitely NOT in one of these “mix and match” programmes that is de rigeur at the moment!).

This is a great example of scholars working together – thank goodness not all musicologists are as territorial as some I have encountered!

Brian Clark

Categories
Sheet music

Mozart & Haydn from Henle

Mozart: String Quartets Vol. 3 (performing materials)
Henle 1122 €32
Mozart: String Quartets Vol. 3 (study score) Edited by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert
Henle 7122 €22 [Also available for tablet]
Mozart: Piano Trio K. 442 (performing materials) Edited by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert with Piano fingerings by Jacob Leuschner
Henle 1379 €29.50
Haydn: Symphony in C, Hob I:82 (study score) Edited by Sonja Gerlach & Klaus Lippe with a preface by Ullrich Scheideler
Henle 9050 €13 [Also available for tablet]

Any new issues from G. Henle Verlag are to be welcomed. The latest consignment paired Urtext study scores of Mozart’s celebrated “Haydn” quartets with a set of performing materials (of which the Violin 1 part includes the prefaratory material and critical commentaries that enhance the score!), a piano trio consisting of not one but two completions of three fragments – the first by the composer’s friend, Maximilian Stadler, and the other by celebrated Mozart expert, Robert Levin – as well as the movement Stadler added to make a more balanced work (after discarding one of Mozart’s!), and finally another Urtext study score, this time of Haydn’s C major symphony, “The Bear”.

It goes without saying that the printing is beautiful and the paper of the highest quality. The typography is also exemplary, both in the detailed introductions and critical commentaries (in three languages!) and the music itself. Outstanding work at unbelievably reasonable prices!

Brian Clark

Categories
Recording Uncategorized

Festive masses from Lambach Abbey

St. Florian Sängerknaben, Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor
66:31
Accent ACC 24358

There are obscure composers and then there are the likes of Benjamin Ludwig Ramhaufski and Joseph Balhasar Hochreither! The latter was born halfway through the lifetime of the former and, mostly on account of the prominent trumpet parts, there is not much to distinguish their music; indeed, on a blind listening, I defy even a seasoned lover of 17th-century music not to assume it’s either Schmelzer or Biber… Such is the quality of the polyphony and the lyrical ease of the melodies. Combining boy’s voices with those of six men works very well and the instrumentalists clearly enjoy the chamber music feel. Gunar Letzbor’s quest for “true sound” typically gives a dry edginess to his recordings, but here the rather warmer acoustic allows the sound to blossom a little without detracting from the detail. I have enjoyed having this CD in the car for the past few weeks – it is bright and uplifting, and I highly recommend it.

Brian Clark

Categories
Recording

Er heißet Wunderbar!

Barokkanerne, directed by Alfredo Bernardini
67:38
LAWO LWC1169

This is a beautiful CD combining cantatas by three of the candidates for the vacant Thomascantorate with a concerto by a fourth. The one-to-a-part singing lifts the music by Fasch and Graupner to a whole new level when compared to performances by choirs who have hitherto been the only ones to champion the repertoire, especially with four such skilled singers in fine voice and instrumental partners whose lightness of touch elevates the sound even more. Cecilia Bernardini’s rendition of Telemann’s little-played Concerto in E minor with two obbligato oboes is very impressive – I swear she must use olive oil on her bow rather than resin, so even and effortless do the pyrotechnics for both hands sound (rather like a swan, serenely gliding by frantically paddling out of sight!) “Schwingt freudig euch empor” is one of my favourite Bach cantatas and this performance is right up there amongst the best I have heard.

All the more frustrating therefore to read “For who has heard of Graupner, or of Fasch, and do we in hindsight really take the nimble multi-arted Telemann all that seriously?” in the booklet notes. Such opinions are fine, but actually printing them in a booklet like this undermines years and years of work to restore these composers’ reputations even to public notice at all. And even if the note writer doesn’t have much respect, Herr Bach most certainly did, so perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned there.

And then there is “The [Fasch] cantata’s brevity (perhaps a world record here) may suggest that the performances in Zerbst were not a significant part of the service”… First, the piece in question survives in a secondary source so who is to know what had happened to it in transmission? Secondly, a letter Fasch wrote in 1752 reveals that he had been told that music was taking up too much of the services so he had to halve the length of the figural music – and in those days you did as you were told. Besides, on a major church feast, the service also included a Missa brevis with Credo, so pretty much the equivalent of three cantatas in one sitting. Not to mention a Te Deum with “unter Paucken und Trompeten”. A little knowledge is, indeed, a dangerous thing – maybe someone who actually knows about the music might be asked to contribute their next booklet essay.

Brian Clark

Categories
Recording

J. S. Bach: Sonatas for Viola [da Gamba] and Harpsichord

Antoine Tamestit viola & Masato Suzuki harpsichord
Arrangements of BWV 1027-9, and BWV 5iii

Peter Wollny writes the liner notes to these arrangements for viola and harpsichord to make the case for rearranging gamba music for the viola, Bach’s known preferred instrument for ensemble playing. But, apart from the obvious similarities in tessitura and the fun to be had playing the gamba parts on the viola if that is your instrument, there are not many convincing arguments. We can indeed imagine JSB picking up his viola and playing one of these pieces to improve his children’s keyboard skills, but . . . 

One of the casualties of these kinds of arrangement which is perhaps most obvious in the G major BWV 1027 sonata is that the tones of the viola are so luscious that the right hand of the harpsichord – recorded rather more reticently – doesn’t really stand a chance against the viola. This is not a true marriage of equal tones, as it is on a thinner-toned viola da gamba, nor does Tamestit on the ‘Mahler’ Stradivarius of 1672 he was loaned for this recording really display much HIP awareness. It isn’t just the rubati and the fulsome tone: it’s those little give-away tricks like swelling through long notes and giving us a concernedly subservient tone for the ‘less important’ counter-subjects.

The tenor aria BWV 5iii is one of the few that is likely to have a viola obligato; though no instrument is specified the part is written in the alto clef. But however much this is a true trio sonata, the right hand of the harpsichord only becomes a true partner for a few bars at the start of the middle section from bar 69 onwards.

They are both fine players, but not well matched here. They play at A=415, but there is no information on matters like temperament. Viola players may be glad to hear these plausible arrangements, but many listeners will think that Bach’s music is best served by his chosen scoring.

David Stancliffe

 

 

 

Categories
Recording

Schütz: Resurrection of Christ, Ostermotetten

La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken
57:00
Accent ACC 24355

Nine singers, three viol players, an organ and Kuijken, playing both violin and violone, combine to produce a splendid CD of Schütz’s Easter music. As well as the substantial Easter story (SWV 50) there is the early dialogue (SWV 443) and three other pieces that provide more motet-like settings.

By contrast with later conventions, the narrative in SWV 50 is sung against a web of viols which sustain – and occasionally improvise – chords; the effect in Kuijken’s austere but beautiful performance is not unlike a lirone. The hieratic nature of this modal declamation with its repeated and formulaic cadences contrasts with the character parts in the drama, which are almost always sung by duets or sometime trios. Cleopas alone sings with a single line, and one duet is scored with a single voice and a violin. This use of pairs of voices, with their dramatic imitative writing, chromatic harmonies and colourful characterisation bridges the distance between the Italianate world of Monteverdi’s and Grandi’s duet writing and the chamber music of the court at Dresden and Schütz’s own Kleine geistliche Konzerte. 

In chamber music of this style, all depends on the quality of the voices and the intensity of the musicians’ commitment. Both are of the highest quality here. There are no overblown gestures vocally, and no attempts to make the music sound grander with unnecessary doubling or additional instrumental parts. The voices are beautifully balanced and the tenors range from the low to the very haute-contre, blending perfectly. And the convention of using a pair of equal voices to represent the Vox Christi as well as other characters has that magical surprise-factor that two singers give when they join to represent the voice of God in Benjamin Britten’s Abraham and Isaac. The two singers in SWV 443 singing ‘Maria’ or ‘Rabbuni’ produce the same effect. Per contra, the singers in Ich bin die Auferstehung (SWV 464) and Ich weiss dass mein Erlöser lebt (SWV 393) look forward to Johann Michael Bach and the German tradition in the last quarter of the 17th century. What a great deal, geographically as well as temporally, Schütz spanned.

The texts are in German, English and French, and so is the characteristic note by Kuijken. There are no details of the instruments, pitch or temperament, but otherwise this CD is a model of clarity, quality and collaborative musicianship.

David Stancliffe