Tag: Baroque

Les Witches
68:30
Alpha 323
Music by Bleyer, Borchgrevinck, Gistou, Hume, Lorenz, Maercker, Maynard, Pedersen, Robinson, Scheidt, Schop, Simpson & Vierdanck

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he star of this 2008 recording of music associated with the court of Christian IV of Denmark is undoubtedly the Esaias Compenius organ of 1610, which features on several of the tracks. Originally built for the royal court, it was clearly intended to play with other instruments, and Freddy Eichelberger charms some wonderful sounds from it in solos and in consort with the other instruments. Music by the maverick Tobias Hume and by Samuel Scheidt features as well as work by the less familiar composers, Robert Simpson, Thomas Robinson, Nicolaus Bleyer, Mogens Pederson, Johann Lorenz, Johann Schop, Johann Vierdanck, Matthäus Maerker, Melchior Borchgrevinck, John Maynard and Nicolo Gistou. Their names suggest the eclectic nature of the Danish court at the time and its close associations with England, Scotland and continental Europe. The music includes Pavans and Galliards among other dance forms and domestic sacred instrumental pieces – the two settings of the Lord’s Prayer are redolent of the Lessones on Psalms  being composed at the time in Scotland – and the range of wind and stringed instruments offered by Les Witches ensures that the ear is always thoroughly entertained. The CD creates a beguilingly colourful picture of Christian IV’s court, thronged with gifted musicians and featuring the crowning glory of the characterful Compenius organ. The only disappointment with this CD is the programme note which takes the form of one of these staged conversations among the performers – heavy on impressions and light on information – which I always find maddening. Thankfully their day seems to have largely passed!

D. James Ross

Guillemette Laurens, Le Poème Harmonique, Vincent Dumestre
64:22
Alpha 320

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]eleased as part of a retrospective series from the Alpha label, this CD of the music of Bellerofonte Castaldi is in many ways entirely representative of the label’s achievement. Seeking to bring the work of unfamiliar composers to wider attention in performances which are true to the values of these composers, in 1998 this recording was Alpha’s first release as well as being the first recording by Le Poème Harmonique. A wandering poet/composer exiled from Modena for a revenge murder, Castaldi’s life may be the ideal subject for a novel but did not lend itself to making its composer’s music well known, but coming fresh to his output I found it stimulating and engaging. A major factor in this is the expressive singing of Guillemette Laurens, a singer at her absolute prime on this CD, while the fresh and inventive soundworld conjured up by instruments of Le Poème Harmonique is constantly intriguing. This recording, nearly twenty years old, stands up very well indeed with a clear true recording and a thoroughly convincing approach to the constantly shifting world of authentic vocal style and accompaniment.

D. James Ross

Mojca Erdmann, Dominik Wörner SB, Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki
63:25
BIS-2191 SACD

[dropcap]V[/dropcap]ol. 7 of Suzuki’s Secular cantatas explores the scoring of the Peasant Cantata  that has soprano and bass soloists and a flute and horn in addition to strings and continuo, and so couples it with the two secular cantatas that set Italian texts, Non sa che sia dolore  which has prominent flute obbligati  with the soprano and Amore traditore  for the bass.

The potpourri of folk music, tavern songs and social commentary in the ‘Peasant Cantata’ provide Bach with a licence to step outside his normal, serious style and let us see something of his social life and more rustic context.The music is tuneful, but rarely moving. I found Erdmann a more convincing soloist in this semi-operatic burlesque, with her nimble voice and dramatic sense of expression, and certainly she is very at home in the anguish of leave-taking that is the core of Non sa che sia dolore. Wörner’s background is in church music, and hitherto I have heard him most under Suzuki in the church cantatas. This suggests to my ears he is rather too ‘correct’ in a role where a certain amount of rustic jollity, rolling in the hay and raising a glass could do with a more plummy sound: he sounds a bit prim for his more racy lyrics! I though he was better in Amore traditore.The playing – specially the flute and horn (as well as the unattributed Dudelsack) – is fine, without, in the strings especially, quite capturing every dramatic innuendo. Suzuki’s players don’t, as far as I know, play many Mozart operas and you really need that sense of underscoring the drama that those who play in opera pits absorb over time.

But this is a worthy part of the Suzuki oeuvre, and given that there are few recordings of all the secular cantatas, will be widely welcomed.

David Stancliffe