Tag: Baroque

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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Opella Musica, camerata lipsiensis, Gregor Meyer
70:08
cpo 777 868-2
Daran erkennen wir, Es steh Gott auf, Mein Alter kömmt, Tristis est anima mea, Wenn euch fröhlich seid an euren Festen, Welt adieu ich bin dein müde

[dropcap]L[/dropcap]ike many composers of his generation (as well as the one following), Johann Kuhnau has long languished in the shadow cast by the giant who is Johann Sebastian Bach. A valiant effort by The King’s Consort to rectify that situation sadly came to an end, but this new releases shows that there is hope. David Erler, camerata lipsiensis’s alto, plans to complete a scholarly edition of Kuhnau’s complete surviving church music in time for the 300th anniversary of his death in 1722, and hopefully all of it will appear on cpo recordings of this high quality. The only piece to have appeared on disc before is the motet Tristis est anima mea, which Bach turned into Der Gerechte kommt um but Michael Maul, author of the excellent notes, suggests that actually it may not be by Kuhnau at all (the first attribution is dated 1823!), having so very little in common with the musical language of all the other surviving works (even conceding that huge quantities must have been lost over time), and is more likely to be by Antonio Lotti, who apparently sent Kuhnau music from Dresden. The other five works on the disc are cantatas for Easter (one opens the disc, the other closes it), the Purification of Mary (for tenor solo with a chorus as the last movement), Whitsun and the 24th Sunday after Trinity. This last is interesting as it is based on a funeral song by Johann Rosenmüller, who might have been Kuhnau’s predecessor as Thomaskantor, had he not caused a stir in the mid 1650s. camerata lipsiensis sing one to a part, and are accompanied by flute, oboes, bassoon, horns (especially made smaller instruments with trumpet mouth-pieces), trumpets, trombones, five-part strings (including “Kontrabass”), lute, harpsichord and organ. I especially enjoyed the festive music, with some neat singing and playing from all concerned, but – having listened to Ich hebe meine Augen auf earlier in the day – I kept thinking how old-fashioned this music felt. I look forward to having that impression corrected as the series proceeds, and I am sure the performers will love exploring the music as it becomes available.

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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[Veronika Winter, Alex Potter, Hans Jörg Mammel, Markus Flaig SATB]
L’arpa festante, Rien Voskuilen
78:11
Carus 83.337
Graupner Vergnügte Ruh Heinichen Herr nun lässest du
Telemann Ich hebe meine Augen auf, Ouverture TWV55: Es4

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he title of the disc is a slight misnomer – although Graupner, like Heinichen and Telemann, studied in Leipzig and participated in the city’s rich musical life, his impressive setting of Georg Christian Lehms’ Vergnügte Ruh was written in 1711, i. e. the year after he was “headhunted” to take charge of music at the court of Hessen-Darmstadt. No such worries about the Telemann piece, which is based on the earliest datable autograph source for a sacred piece by the composer. Veronika Winter and Markus Flaig sing the psalm beautifully (four of the six movements are duets, the others being arias). Pace Michael Maul’s otherwise excellent booklet note, Graupner’s cantata is not scored for two flutes (as given in the translation – he actually wrote Flöten, which would normally be given as “recorders”), two muted violins and two “violettas”; the surviving original material also includes traverso and two violas. Veronika Winter is outstanding; she sings the coloratura with extraordinary ease and takes great care to shape the sustained notes. Thought to have been written for his collegium musicum, Telemann’s Overture in E flat might be an assemblage of nine movements taken from a now-lost opera; seemingly group in threes (each set ending with a pair of dances), titles include Entrée and Aria. The text of the Heinichen work is built around the Nunc dimittis. Two “choral” movements (which both begin with declamation but move into fugue) present the words from St Luke’s gospel, while two arias for bass, one for tenor and a duet reflect upon similar texts. Musically, Heinichen frames the piece cleverly – the opening sinfonia’s second section is an instrumental presentation of the chorale with which the work ends, but before that the voices (initially accompanied only by continuo) have sung a chorale fantasy on the same melody. As a further attempt to contextualize Bach, this CD is a very welcome addition to the catalogue.

Brian Clark

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Ensemble La Ninfea
69:45
Raumklang RK 3308
Music by Chambonnières, Marais, Sainte-Colombe, Toinon & the Saizenay manuscript

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Man in the Iron Mask has been the subject of books, films and much speculation about his identity. He may just have been a valet but there have been claims that he was an illegitimate half-brother of Louis XIV, a disgraced French general or an Italian diplomat. The one certain fact is that he died in the Bastille in 1703 after more than thirty years in several different French prisons where elaborate precautions were taken to hide his identity. On the assumption that the prisoner was not just a servant but had access to music, German ensemble La Ninfea present a programme of French baroque music designed not to cheer the prisoner in his lonely cell but rather to reflect his desperate situation. There are pieces for two recorders and continuo, duets for two gambas, solos for recorder or gamba with continuo and two for solo theorbo. The prevailing melancholy mood is lightened by the occasional fast movement and in two sets of arrangements by La Ninfea of music originally adapted for theorbo by Robert de Visée. On the whole the programme flows nicely along with stylish performances of some beautiful music, but this is perhaps not a CD to listen to if you are already feeling depressed.

Victoria Helby

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Alex McCartney lute
Veterum Musica – details below the review
Suites in B flat, f and C

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]ené Mésangeau (fl 1567-1638) was one of the pioneers of what was to become the Baroque lute, not least through his experiments in lute tuning that led to the ‘standard’ Baroque lute tuning based around a D minor chord. After a time in Germany he returned to his native Paris and the Court of Louis XIII. Three Suites are included on this CD, in B flat, F minor and C, the latter Suite including two movements by an anonymous composer. Each suite opens with an unmeasured prelude following by groups of Allemandes and Courantes, finishing with Sarabandes or a Chaconne. The playing is sensitive and musical (albeit with a fair bit of finger noise), the acoustic adding a nice resonance to the sound, particularly in the many pieces at low pitch. The sleeve notes are minimal, and there is no indication of track or total timings – something to watch out for if you want anybody to broadcast tracks.

Andrew Benson-Wilson

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David Miller baroque lutes
68:21
Timespan TS1401
Sonatas 5 in d & 30 in g, Prelude & Fantasie in c, Prelude in D, Campanella in D, Passagaille in D, Giga in D

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he thoughtful and reflective mood of the opening D minor Prelude sets the scene for this enthralling CD of lute music by Silvius Leopold Weiss. I was introduced to the music of Weiss by David Miller in a Dartington concert in the mid 90s. An almost exact contemporary of J. S. Bach and Handel, Weiss spent time in Rome (alongside Handel and Scarlatti) before settling as lutenist to the Dresden Court. His visit to Berlin produced the ‘Famous Weiss’ comment from the sister of the future Frederick the Great. The two Sonatas (in practice, multi-movement suites) from the Dresden manuscripts are nicely contrasted, the simpler D minor suite forming a foil to the more substantial, elaborate and musically advanced G minor set. Of the six other pieces from a British Library manuscript, the Prelude in C minor, with its distinctive octave opening, shows Weiss’s imaginative use of harmonic modulation, a factor specifically mentioned in relation to a competition with Bach in Dresden. As the opening Prelude demonstrates, David Miller plays with a particular sensitivity to musical ebb and flow, as well as producing a beautifully rich and refined tone.

Andrew Benson-Wilson