Tag: Baroque

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Recording

Bruhns: Complete Cantatas

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Harmonices Mundi, Claudio Astronio
139:06 (2 CDs in a jewel case)
Brilliant Classics 95138

[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ven though 20 years have passed since I first heard these works, which were recorded as part of Ricercar’s “German Baroque Cantatas” series, I have loved them. Perhaps even more than Buxtehude, Bruhns embraced both the French and Italian styles of the day and, combining them with extraordinary talents for word-painting and counterpoint, produced some utterly beguiling music. These new set has many virtues (not the least of which are the tenor singers), and at Brilliant’s low price it would be a shame not to add them to your library; it would be remiss of me, however, if I did say that there are voices here that are not to my taste, and surely cannot compete with the earlier sets. The texts are printed in the original languages only (one can forgive a bargain label for this!), and there is some serious clutching at straws in the accompanying essay (and its translation – what on earth are “acute notes”?) If you do not know these works, with this release you have no excuse for not getting to know them!

Brian Clark

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Categories
Recording

Cazzati: Mass & Psalms op. 36

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From Bologna to Beromünster
Voces Suaves, Francesco Saverio Pedrini
61:55
Claves Records 50-1605
+two intonations by Sebastian Anton Scherer

[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ver since I became interested in 17th-century music the name of Maurizio Cazzati has been a familiar one, but I have never actually heard any; the present recording, which presents the Kyrie, Gloria and Credo printed in the composer’s op. 36 set of 1655 as a Messa Concertata  (without Sanctus or Agnus Dei) and two psalms (of the five printed) and the Magnificat. The original also includes a setting of Domine ad adiuvandum. All of the vocal music is scored for five voices (two sopranos), four instruments (rather unusually for the period a single “alto viola” joins the two violins) and three ripieno voices with continuo. Some of the other pieces in the print call for fewer voices, or no concertato instruments. A bassoon is included on the basis that some northern reprints of the publication included such a part. In order to show of the sound of the original organ in the church where the very fine recording was made (in Beromünster, which explains the CD’s sub-title…), two short pieces were added by the south German composer, Sebastian Anton Scherer. The music is glorious and gracious for the voices; the singers blend well, and the violinists especially have fun ornamenting Cazzati’s flowing lines, especially in triple time passages. I sincerely hope the same forces will now tackle the remainder of the print, as there is still plenty of fine music waiting to be heard!

Brian Clark

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Categories
Recording

de Castro: Trio sonatas op. 1

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La Real Cámara
57:26
Glossa GCD 920314

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hese ten trio sonatas from Castro’s 1695 Bologna publication Trattenimenti armonici  are delightfully inventive and unsurprisingly reminiscent of the trumpet music emanating from that city at roughly this time. The performers inventively alternate a continuo theorbo and guitar, although perhaps less imaginatively a harpsichord is also invariably present. The playing is generally tidy and musical, with appropriate degrees of passion and rhythmical whimsy. Lead violinist Emilio Moreno provides an exhaustive and very readable programme note. But now comes a considerable and unexpected BUT. Those of you who glance at the star ratings before reading the review will be surprised at my two-star rating for this Glossa recording. Glossa recording are normally of the very highest standard of clarity and depth, but there is something very far wrong here. The recorded sound is very shallow with a very narrow dynamic spectrum and suspiciously drops away instantly when the instruments stop playing. Has it been misguidedly fed through some filter? I am at a loss to account for it, but it is clear that La Real Cámara and Castro have been very poorly served by the Glossa engineers. As a dedicated reviewer I persisted to the end of the CD to see if the sound quality improved or if I got used to it, but actually it sounded more and more ridiculous, and I am afraid there is no way round the fact that this odd shortcoming is bound to limit anyone’s enjoyment of this CD.

D. James Ross

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Categories
Recording

Dowland: Lachrimae or Seven Teares

Modern floral

Phantasm, Elizabeth Kenny
57:00
Linn Records CKD 527

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen in his programme note Phantasm’s director Laurence Dreyfus describes Dowland’s Lachrimae as ‘the most sensuously tuneful hour of music ever written’ this is no small claim, but at the same time it is hard to contradict. The organic (in another age you could say symphonic) development of motifs, the constant attention to melodic beauty, the stomach-churning harmonic volte faces make the complete publication a masterpiece, a fact of which its composer, who afterwards signed himself as ‘Jo:dolandi de Lachrimae’, was clearly aware. This fine new recording by Phantasm speaks of extensive experience with this repertoire, while the vital contribution of lutenist Elizabeth Kenny is also wonderfully idiomatic. The first work ever published for notated lute and viols, Lachrimae was the father to a whole clutch of worthy offspring. The classic recording of this music is the 1985 account for BIS by The Dowland Consort directed by legendary lutenist Jakob Lindberg, and some direct comparisons are instructive. The earlier recording adopts more measured tempi, particularly in the pavans, taking some eight minutes longer over the complete recording, and this to my ear imbues their interpretation with a timeless magnificence. The Phantasm account is more flexible, with rushes of passion, but with some passages which to my ear are simply rushed.

The new recording benefits from Linn’s superlative modern recording quality, although the BIS recording is both more ‘toppy’ and ‘bottomy’, emphasizing the fundamental and occasionally shocking harmonic shifts. Lastly both recordings wisely resist the temptation to enhance the lute sound, allowing it to blend beautifully with the viol textures – I would say that Lindberg’s tone is marginally more prominent than Kenny’s, although given BIS’s pledge to reflect natural sound balance in their recordings we must assume he simply played louder. In the more animated movements later in the publication, there is definitely more definition in the Linn recording, as well as bolder and more daring playing from viols and lute. Rather randomly, Phantasm almost run some tracks together including the seven Lachrimae pavans, but also some of the later movements – it may be that I am too used to The Dowland Consort’s spacious account, but I found myself in need of an intellectual break occasionally. There is no doubt that this new Phantasm recording is a valuable addition to our understanding of this remarkable publication, and Dreyfus and Kenny’s excellent programme notes give us further valuable players’ insights into this extraordinary music.

D. James Ross

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Categories
Sheet music

Handel: Te Deum for the Victory at the Battle of Dettingen, HWV283

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Edited by Amanda Babington
Bärenreiter BA10706, 2015
xiii+140pp, £30.50
Vocal score BA 10706-90, 2015
ix+84pp, £12.50
Parts: Wind set £30.50, organ £15, strings £4.50 each

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he edition is essentially based on the composer’s first draft, which in this case needed no second draft; the end is missing but was later replaced by John Christopher Smith Jr. There is no critical commentary, but it is hardly needed.

George II was present at the Battle of Dettingen on 27 June 1743. The music was completed by the end of July (thus overlapping with Semele). Five rehearsal took place from 26 September to 18 November, the last being “rehearsed before a splendid Assembly in Whitehall Chapel” (i. e., The Banqueting House). There is a complex mixture of borrowings from a Te Deum  setting by Francesco Antonio Urio (c. 1630-c1720). Three copies of that work survive, one of them perhaps the one acquired by Handel in 1706; it would be useful if the Urio sections had been listed somewhere, or perhaps indicated in the new edition.

This is an excellent edition, with performance material very reasonably priced. So far the Utrecht Te Deum  (with its matching Jubilate) is the most popular of Handel’s settings, but this new edition will perhaps encourage choirs to think about programming it in their concert schedules.

An alternative is available from King’s Music / The Early Music Company, which was published in 2009: A4 score £25, B4 score £30; vocal score £9; set of parts £50 with extras at £4 each.

Clifford Bartlett

Categories
Sheet music

Rameau: Airs d’opéra: Dessus/Soprano – vol. 2

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Edition de Sylvie Boissou, Benoît Dratwicki, Julien Dubruque
Coédition Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, Société Jean-Philippe Rameau, Bärenreiter-Verlag
BA9192, 2015.
182pp, £38.50

(Also Airs d’opéra: Tenor – vol. 2; BA9197, 2015. 152pp, £38.50)

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here are 28 items in the soprano selection and 21 for the tenors; this is good value for study and learning the vocal parts, and the print is quite clear enough for practical use. I suspect the piano will be used more than the harpsichord. However, the publisher should make scores and parts available for each aria as required; serious learners of this repertoire and style will want to move from keyboard accompaniment to the full orchestral texture. The layout is excellent, and the first page of each item has the title and then introductions and the text in both French and English. It is slightly disppointing that there is no difference in the price of two books, one of which has 30 fewer pages.

BClifford Bartlett

Categories
Sheet music

Geminiani: 6 Concertos Op. 7, H. 115-120

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Edited by Richard Maunder
Ut Orpheus, 2016
vi+161pp, £31.95

[dropcap]K[/dropcap]ing’s Music / The Early Music Company have sold facsimiles of the opus-numbered works for 20 years or more, including op. 7, so having a clear, modern score is very useful for reference. The preface is laid out in small print, but most of the second page is blank: larger printer filling the space would have be easier to read. There is a table or ornaments. The score is rather small, too: it will not be much use if you are a conductor, though it will be valuable for students. The KM / EMC facsimile parts cost £50. Some think op. 7 is weaker than the earlier sets. Previous volumes in this series were by Christopher Hogwood.

Clifford Bartlett

Categories
Sheet music

Nicola Fiorenza: Konzert in c-Moll für Blockflöte, Streicher und Basso continuo…

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Herausgegeben von Dario Benigno
Doblinger D20.283
42pp, £15.50

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] wonder if Nicola  (as named above the work) is a mistake, since the Vorwort  and Preface  both give the name as Nicolò. There is a similar difference in the composer’s dates (either 1700 or “after 1700”). He was born in Naples and became cellist in the court orchestra. The layout is treble recorder, three violins, viola and cello, but in fact the original heading was violetta, a five-stringed viola da gamba: I hope that when the parts are available, there will be separate parts for the gamba as it stands and the figured bass line. There are four movements: Largo amoroso, Andante  (particularly long), Largo  (in F minor) and Allegro. It is an interesting piece and I would love to hear it some time.

Clifford Bartlett

Categories
Sheet music

Händel: Organ Works

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Compiled after the Urtext of the Halle Handel Edition  by Siegbert Rampe
Bärenreiter, BA 11226, 2016
ix+49pp, £20.50

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] am suspicious of the title. The five items in the HWV 400s are primarily for harpsichord, though the fugues HWV 605-12 are for organ or harpsichord. No. 13, “O the pleasure of the plain”, is a reduced version of the first chorus from Acis & Galatea, but it needs two hands and two feet and goes down to the G below the normal pedals (which were very rare at the time), and why is it so short? Finally, Jesu meine Freude  is a straight three-part setting with the melody in the alto, with a two-bar link into a second verse with the melody in the treble. I’m sure the volume would sell better if a more flexible title had been used, offering the repertoire as suitable for harpsichord AND organ.

Clifford Bartlett

Categories
Sheet music

Filippo Sauli: 6 partitas for Mandolin

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Edited by Davide Rebuffa
Ut Orpheus, 2016.
X + 38pp, €16.95

Sauli was a theorbist in the first decade of the 18th century at the Hapsburg court in Vienna. The six MS partitas were written in French tablature, but the edition is on a single treble clef in two voices. The length varies from three to five dances. It is likely that bass lines were available: no. 5 is printed thus as an appendix.

Clifford Bartlett