Tag: Baroque

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Finger: Music for European Courts and Concerts

Finger: Music for European Courts CD cover

The Harmonious Society of Tickle-fiddle Gentlemen, Robert Rawson
66:47
Ramée RAM1802

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The most striking aspect of this fabulous recording is the amazing diversity of Finger’s music. Having previously only known his sonatas for two pairs of treble instruments and continuo, it was a revelation to hear him move from almost Purcellian in the opening vocal exhortation into a Schmelzer-like sonata for three choirs, then a much more modern sounding Sonata a5 with Handelian counterpoint, a Lullian Chaconne a4, some French-inspired but English-sounding music for The Mourning Bride, and so on. His Sonata 9 is a re-working of “How happy the Lover” from Purcell’s King Arthur. The final track, “Morpheus, gentle god”, is scored for four voices with recorder consort and continuo, and reveals how effective Finger was at setting English – no wonder he was shocked at coming fourth (of four!) in the competition based on The Judgement of Paris.

Throughout the recording, the Tickle -Fiddlers are in very fine form, vocally and instrumentally. The speeds seem ideal, the recording bright, and the booklet notes are informative without bcoming stodgy. All in all, a most enjoyable experience – I hope Rawson & Co. will seek out more gems and share them with us!

Brian Clark

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Awesome Organ

Cover of Awesome Organ CD

Best loved classical organ music
74:57
Naxos 8.578179

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This CD is a compilation of recordings dating back as far as 1988 of some organ favourites (there’s a movement from a Handel organ concerto (originally conceived for the harp!), two from Poulenc’s organ concerto and – inevitably – some Widor) alongside Baroque “hits” like Bach’s celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D minor (rather ironically, given its heritage) and some less familiar stuff like a Prelude in F by Buxtehude, a Toccata in E minor by Pachelbel and a Prelude and Fugue by Böhm. So it’s a nice selection of works for the instrument, albeit probably not (in the strictest sense) for our readers – especially since the “comprehensive booklet notes” promised on the back of the CD are typical Naxos fare.

Brian Clark

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Bach: The Well-Tempered Consort – I

Cover of Phantasm CD of Bach transcriptions

Phantasm
66:55
Linn CKD 618

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Not since I was captivated by Fretwork’s Art of Fugue, have I so enjoyed Bach on a viol consort. The playing on this CD is quite excellent and the music chosen translates well into playing by a consort. This medium for Bach’s polyphony seems in entirely natural succession to the great English consorts of Jenkins, Lawes and Purcell as the style and techniques developed by Byrd and Gibbons move into the heart of the Baroque.

The disc starts and concludes with Ricercars from the Musical Offering and in between there are a number of transcriptions mainly, though not entirely – there are some versions of fugues for organ and some chorale preludes – from Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier, hinting that a companion volume will appear. For a taster listen to track 12 (Fugue No 24 from Book I, BWV 869 in B minor), and the clarity and innate reciprocity of the fugal movements (in particular) will demonstrate how apt this medium is for giving us both a domestic-scaled and yet rich and sensuous performance.

Their take on the great E flat fugue from the end of the Clavier-Übung III is interesting: the final section goes at the lick its time signature implies, and they play it in D so to those used to hearing it at 415 aren’t too thrown. It is a long way from a rumbling performance on a cathedral organ – and as invigorating as the C major fugue BWV547, which is light and faster than I had ever conceived it on the organ. These performances will make you look at music you thought you knew well through new eyes. But it is also music-making of the highest quality; I found the five-part chorale prelude An Wasserflüßen Babylon (BWV 653b) with its double pedal scoring particularly satisfying on viols as the interplay between the parts develops, in spite of this being a chorale prelude with a very distinctive ‘solo’ feel to the chorale melody as the topmost part.

Perhaps this is because the reverse principle of sourcing material for chorale preludes is already well-established by Bach himself who most obviously transcribed movements from his cantatas into the Schübler Chorales for organ, published late in his life.

Hearing the reverse transcriptions is somehow neither surprising nor improper. Phantasm’s new recording home in Berlin has fine acoustics, and this CD is beautifully recorded, so we can look forward to the companion volumes eagerly.

David Stancliffe

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Recording

Back to Bach

Kei Koito CD cover

Famous Organ Works
Kei Koito (Arp Schnitger Organ (1691/92, Martinikerk, Groningen)
70:45
deutsche harmonia mundi 1 90759 15582 0

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This is the next CD in the series of recordings released by Kei Koito on finely conserved period organs. This time it is the turn of the Arp Schnitger organ in the Martinikirk in Groningen in the Netherlands. The booklet has the organ’s specification, but you need to download the registration chosen for each work from Koito’s website. This is a small inconvenience for something that not only enhances the listener’s experience of the works played but gives an insight into the kind of tone-colours available of one of the most spectacular surviving organs of the period.

The instrument has a complex history: a gothic organ of 1450 was altered in 1482, and then altered in Renaissance style in 1542, added to in 1564 and 1627-8, altered in 1685-90, then substantially rebuilt and enlarged with enormous 32’ Principal pedal towers by Arp Schnitger in 1691-2 after various disasters. In 1728-30 it was given a new Rugpositief by Schnitger’s son and Hinz, and again repaired and enlarged by Hinz in 1740 after subsidence. Then between 1808 and 1939, when the action was electrified, it was altered and substantially re-voiced, so that the historic origins of the organ became scarcely discernable. A major work of restoration was then executed over more than an eight-year period between 1976 and 1984 by Jürgen Ahrend to bring it back to its supposed 1740 shape and sound, with the advice of Cornelius Edskes. The result is very fine, but it has none of those slight variations between notes that make many organs surviving in more or less their original form so melodically fluent, and is a characteristic of – for example – a careful reproduction of a 1720s Denner oboe.

I have not had the opportunity to examine the organ in detail myself, but the photographs on the website make it clear that the frame and action are entirely new and much of the pipework has been re-voiced (again). Of the 53 stops, 20 are in origin Schnitger or earlier, 14 are from the eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries and 19 are entirely new. 

Koito plays a good mixture of pieces opening with the Dorian Toccata and Fugue (BVW 538) and finishing with that in D major (BWV 532). In the middle there is the early G minor Prelude and Fugue (BWV 535) and the G major (BWV 550). Among the interesting other pieces are the trio on Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan – only recently added to the canon – and the trio on Wo gehest du hin after Cantata 166ii, while there are choral preludes on An Wasserflüßen Babylon (BWV 653), Nun danket alle Gott (BWV 657), Komm Gott Schöpfer Heilige Geist (BWV 667), O Lamm Gottes unschuldig (BWV 656) and Herzlich tut mich verlangen (BWV 727). Two Fantasias complete the programme – super Jesu, meine Freude (BWV 713a, 1&2) and Ein fest Burg ist unser Gott (BWV 720) with the rare hints in the autograph for registration. Together they make a varied recital and show off the organ splendidly. As with her previous CDs, the playing is neat and the recording excellent.

As far as her playing is concerned, Koito can be utterly focussed on the rhythmic clarity like in the Dorian Toccata and Fugue, or very subtle – listen to how she phrases the opening of the fugue in the G major (BWV 550), where later she negotiates the tricky passagework in measures 140-143 without missing a trick. And the registration with the Hinz Hobo of 1740 and its tremulant in BWV 584 contrasts elegantly with the opening of the Fantasia super Jesu, meine Freude, where the 2’ Octaaf on the pedal for the choral balances the Rugpositief 4’ Speelfluit beautifully. And the build-up through the verses of O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig (BWV 656) is beautifully registered, and the shading possible on an organ like this with seven manual and five pedal reeds allows for an almost infinite variety of tone as well as subtle changes in volume.

One other feature that makes this such a good recording is of course the acoustic and the way this is handled by the recording engineer. When I first heard the surviving organs in the Netherlands in the late 1950s, I was astonished at the reverberation in many of the churches and wondered at the clarity that seemed to be possible. The amazing blendability of numerous ranks of upperwork, voiced on what seemed then to be astonishingly low wind pressure, seemed to be a gift of many of the barn-like buildings and so very unlike the screaming upperwork that the advanced classical merchants were pedalling as “Baroque” in England.  These days we are lucky to have creative artists working painstakingly at the conservation of these extraordinary survivals, and the Martinikerk organ in Groningen has no fewer than nine known organ builders responsible for the instrument over the years, even if we think of it mainly as the creation of Arp Schnitger. Would it sound so stunning if it were relocated to a dry concert hall acoustic?

David Stancliffe

We have received a second review of this disc.

Don’t be put off by the populist title of this CD. Although some of its contents are well known, there are less famous pieces too and the whole makes a highly satisfactory recital on the historic organ in Groningen’s Martinikerk, one of the largest survivals of the baroque period. Dating originally from the 15th century – and retaining some of those pipes – it was rebuilt many times, most famously by Arp Schnitger and his son in the period 1692-1729. Subsequently neglected, it was restored to its 1740 state by Jürgen Ahrend in the early 1980s and is once again a splendid instrument. Koito is not phased by its history, or its size, and produces a varied palette of registrations which shows it off to advantage, helped by the sound engineers who have successfully dealt with the challenge of reproducing it with both resonance and clarity. She plays four big Preludes/Toccatas and Fugues (including the Dorian), two Fantasias and five Chorale Preludes, plus a couple of charming Trios. I particularly enjoyed An Wasserflüssen Babylon BWV 653 which showcases a beautiful sesquialtera and a flute, and the Fantasia on Ein feste Burg BWV 720 which exploits the reeds. The big pieces on full organ are impressive too, especially the final Buxtehudian Prelude and Fugue BWV 532. Tiner notes are informative about the music though, strangely, not about the organ. Indeed, one has to search quite hard to find a mention of the instrument at all, only in very small print on the back cover, which seems odd given its importance. We are directed to Koito’s own website for further information and reflections, including a full list of registrations for each piece. Overall, this is a very satisfying recording.

Noel O’Regan

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Kuhnau: Complete Sacred Works Vol. 5

Cover of Kuhnau CD

Opella Musica, camerata lipsiensis, Gregor Meyer
67:33
cpo 555 260-2
Erschrick mein Herz vor dir, Gott sei mir gnädig, Ich habe Lust abzuscheiden, Singet dem Herrn, Weicht ihr Sorgen

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This CD continues this outstanding series in which all of Kuhnau’s surviving choral music is presented. The booklet promises that Breitkopf & Härtel will publish the material, which is good news for performers. Their counter tenor, David Erler, is working on editing the material for Breitkopf.

In many ways, the first cantata Gott sei mir gnädig nach deiner Güte – a setting of Luther’s translation of Psalm 51, Miserere mei Domine – is the richest. The texture is enhanced by 5-part strings and the dense chromatic word painting marks it out as one of Kuhnau’s masterpieces. The singers sing equally well as a group and individually, and the emerging arioso/recitative gives an indication of where expressive text-setting in the period before discrete recitative. By contrast the jolly Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied seems less exciting: it is an ingenious composition, but the trumpets and drums stray little beyond the tonic/dominant fanfare style, and certainly there is no hint here of the amazing melodic trumpet parts that were to transform Bach’s more celebratory cantatas.

But all the music here is well worth hearing, and there is much to learn from the way in which these cantatas are performed. There is a single choro of singers, one-to-a-part; and the same of strings. Behind this edifice of sound rises the rich voice of the organ – again the Silbermann organ in the Georgenkirche in Rötha (where the recording was made) which Kuhnau inspected in 1721, the year before he died. Other voices – an oboe, a traverso and the pair of trumpets – add colour, and the fagotto as a bass instrument with the string choir as well as the lute hark back to the favoured bass line of Schütz before the violoncello assumed such a dominant role in the developing Baroque orchestra and the 16’ violone became a sine qua non.

But the attention of the players and singers to each other – the way phrases are tossed between singers and players – gives the music both the intimacy and the clarity that is a hallmark of their style.

I reviewed Vol III of this project in March 2018, and I think that the soprano tone is better than it was – less 20th century in style. That’s a plus in my book.

David Stancliffe

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Bach: Metamorphose

Cover of Neobarock Bach CD Metamorphose

NeoBarock
55:55
ambitus amb 95 606

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This CD is one of those many available in recent years that give us the supposed original of works by J. S. Bach that are known from later parodies, versions or arrangements by the composer. They increase the availability to – in this case – string players of works that might only be known to us in fuller or more varied combinations of instruments. In this case all four reconstructions are for two violins and basso continuo, the classic trio sonata combination for which Bach seems to have written nothing in spite of the fact that his obituary declared that he left ‘a large amount of other instrumental pieces’.

Probably the best-known work to receive this treatment is BWV 1043, the double violin concerto in D minor. In a substantial essay, the moving spirit of NeoBarock, Maren Ries, makes the case for the concerto version being a later adaptation, where nothing substantial is added to the doubling violin parts in the tuttis, and the viola adds only such harmonies as are implied by the bass, and indeed nothing is lost in their trio sonata version.

The playing is neat and spirited, and I never found myself wishing for the large backing group. In terms of the clarity of the composition and the engagement of the players, this opening movement version sounds much like the ritornelli in the tenor aria in Part IV.6 of the Christmas Oratorio, Ich will nur dir zu Ehren leben. Nor does the second movement with its minimal string chords lose anything. I found some of the sudden ritardandi surprising, but elegantly managed, otherwise I think the most ardent HIP purist will find nothing except delight in this version.

The same goes for me in the adaptation of the violin sonata in A (BWV 1015). While playing this, I never found it possible to balance the violin part with the right hand of the harpsichord as I am sure it should be. In those trio sonatas that are so many of the arias for voice and a single obbligato instrument in the cantatas, I have been keen to explore similarity in dynamic range with distinctiveness in tone colour. So I welcome a version that puts the two melodic lines on instruments of similar dynamic range, but wonder about tonal contrast. Would an oboe d’amore or a traverso be worth a try here? Series VII Band 7 of the NBA gives us five reconstructions of presumed solo concerti: might the editors consider the reverse process and be ready to include the reconstructions of supposed original chamber works?

The other works here are versions of BWV 1029 and 1028. We already have Bach’s own version of 1027 for two traversi and continuo in BWV 1039, and there is good circumstantial evidence that the others have earlier versions along the lines of those offered here. The essay is wholly plausible, and I hope that some of the other material in the Bach-Archiv will find varied life in chamber music versions. I enjoyed La Tempesta di Mare’s versions of the trio sonatas for organ when they came out, and hope that other groups will take up the challenge.

David Stancliffe

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Sheet music

Manuel de Sumaya: Villancicos from Mexico City

Cover of Recent Researchs 206 Sumaya Villancicos

Edited by Drew Edward Davies
Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, 206
xliii, [6 plates] + 231pp.
A-R Editions, Inc. ISBN 978-1-9872-0202-1 $275 (Violin parts available $14)

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Manuel de Sumaya (c. 1678-1755) was chapel master at the cathedral in Mexico City from 1715-39 and the 32 complete works in this impressive volume (plus transcriptions of two further fragments) date from this period.

The villancico form has a verse and refrain basis. Sumaya’s Mexico city pieces include 14 for one “choir” (of between two and four voices, two with added violins), 14 more for two “choirs” (four to eight voices, again two with strings), and four for three “choirs” (11-12 voices). It is difficult to look at music for choirs where the bottom line of each is called bass and the rhythm mostly matches the voices above (and thus diverges from the basso seguente at the bottom of the texture) and not assume that these lines must have been sung too; but that is superimposing European expectations – played by the instruments Davies suggests in his detailed introduction, the lack of a texted bass part might be irrelevant.

Some of his translations of the texts are a little less literal than they could be, but a great help for performers is the fact that all of the verses are underlaid so there is no need for the mental gymnastics required with other editions on how to elide the various words ending and beginning with vowels so that the text is properly stressed! One of the strangest pieces is no. 20, for the feast of the Assumption, Hoy sube arrebatada. As well as a tenor voice, it features two violins with bass, as well as untexted treble and bass parts that make up “choir one”. As elsewhere, the string writing is more elaborate than that for voices; Davies’s suggestion that the untexted treble be played on a wind instrument (and the bass, too, presumably) might make sense of something that just looks quite odd!

In all honesty, I cannot see choirs queueing up to pay so much for what is a very worthwhile volume of interesting music, so I sincerely hope that A-R Editions can be persuaded to authorise off-prints for inclusion in concerts.

Brian Clark

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John Eccles: Europe’s Revels for the Peace of Ryswick

Cover of A-R Editions John Eccles Peace of Ryswick

Edited by Michael Burden
Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, 209
xxvii, [6 plates] + 97pp.
A-R Editions, Inc. ISBN 978-1-9872-0306-6 $180

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For those whose historical knowledge of the late 17th century is a little sketchy, the Treaty of Ryswick was signed at the conclusion of the Nine Years War, fought between France under Louis XIV and a Grand (and somewhat unusual) Alliance between Protestant England and Holland on the one hand and Catholic Spain and the Holy Roman Empire on the other.

Kathryn Lowerre (one of the General Editors of this “complete works of Eccles” sub series from A-R Editions) has written extensively about the piece and both its background and contents. Michael Burden’s fine edition supplements that with illustrations, a fully annotated (and, when necessary, translated) libretto (with those sections of Motteux that were omitted from performance in one of three appendices) and a thorough but remarkably short Critical Report.

As usual, my only reservation about the edition is the sometimes impractical layout; numbers 8 and 9, for example, cover two pages but they both have page turns – in the case of number 9, that means turning to play five bars and then turning back. Someone should think about the possibility that these volumes may not be destined to languish on scholars’ shelves and that musicians might be inspired by Anthony Rooley’s foreword to the edition and actually stage a performance; then all the hard work would finally be shown to have been worthwhile.

Brian Clark

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Sheet music

Purcell?: Oh that my grief

Cover of D109 Purcell Oh that my grief

Edited by Rebecca Herissone
viii + 16pp.
Stainer & Bell D109, £8.50

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In her extensive introduction to this 106-bar devotional song for three male voices, Rebecca Herissone makes a convincing case for re-assessing Philip Hayes’ role as a collector and copyist of Purcell’s music in general and for re-instating this to the catalogue of the composer’s canon in particular.

Given the amount of detail she gives, it is surprising that she decided to omit the figured bass symbols on the grounds that it was impossible to distinguish between Hayes’s 18th-century additions (as witnessed in his other transcriptions of Purcell sources that still exist) and what might have been in the original; I should have thought making that statement would have been enough explanation had she left them in rather than (rather shadily) using them “to inform choices in the editorial continuo part”.

She casts the piece as a “homosocial” duet for high and normal tenor voices with a bass joining in for a refrain (in which it really does very little that add text and rhythm to the continuo line). The angular melodies and piquant harmonies are typical of the composer’s style. It is a pity that the three-part section (which neatly fits on to two pages) could not have been laid out on a spread rather than have a page turn in the middle of it both times.

Brian Clark

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Charpentier: Histoires sacrées

CD cover of Charpentier Histoires sacrées Daucé

Ensemble Correspondances, Sébastien Daucé
160:51 (2 CDs + Bonus DVD)
harmonia mundi HMM 902280.81

There is a cornucopia of riches packed into this slim-line presentation, so much so that its full worth will surely only became apparent after it has been lived with rather longer than the demands of reviewing time allow. At its heart lie three of the Latin oratorios, or histoires sacrées (neither incidentally terms used by Charpentier himself), biblical or historical religious dramas that follow the format of a narration – which might be sung solo, by a small vocal ensemble or even a chorus – into which characters are given their own voice. It’s a model Charpentier adopted from the three years he spent in Rome (1662 to 1665) and particularly from what he learned from his close contact there with Giacomo Carissimi. The three works are Judith, sive Bethulia liberata, H 391 (1674-76), Cæcilia, virgo et martyr, H 397 (1677-78) and Mors Saülis et Jonathae, H 403 (1681-82). The two former, along with works appertaining to Mary Magdalene, form the contents of the DVD. This presents staged versions recorded in a concert held in the sumptuous surroundings of the Chapelle Royale at Versailles, providing a theme of three greatly admired women whose moral strength was held up as exemplary by the Counter-Reformation, a strong influence via the Jesuits on the works of both Charpentier and Carissimi.

There is no evidence that the Latin oratorios were staged, but strongly dramatic writing and, at times, content makes them a tempting proposition for a producer. The Versailles performance employs a single set with large Roman arches left and right of the back of the stage and two (rather too easily) movable rocks on which some rather ungainly clambering takes place. The same costumes, a mix of vaguely middle-Eastern influence and modern dress are used for both works. There is no attempt at period production, perhaps fortunately given that much of what action takes place is not convincingly projected. Not infrequently what we see conflicts with the text, most obviously at the critical moment of Holofernes’ decapitation, where the Biblical text tells us the Assyrian King ‘lay on his bed fast asleep, being exceedingly drunk’, but we see Judith pawing a half-naked figure who is very much awake. Conversely there are moments, often helped by excellent lighting, that are highly effective, the union of the martyred Cecilia with the crucified Christ creating a Bernini-like image totally in accord with the Counter-Reformation spirit of the piece. The performances of both oratorios feature outstanding solo and ensemble singing, Charpentier’s at times piquant or tortuously dissonant harmonies emerging in the latter with unusually telling force. The eponymous protagonists of the two oratorios, Caroline Weynants (Judith) and Judith Fa (Cecilia) are especially good, the former finding real sensitivity in the prayer before the extraordinary night scene in which she visits the camp of Holofernes. The highest praise also goes to the richly-toned alto Lucile Richardot, a deeply affecting Mary Magdalene in the tender elevation motet O sarcramentum pietatis, H 274 and Magdalena lumens, one of three motets composed by Charpentier for Mary’s feast day. To complete the programme’s dramatisation all three women are brought together in the three-part a cappella motet ‘Sub tuum praesidium’, in actuality an antiphon to the Virgin

Although the audio recording also includes the two oratorios, the motets are only on the DVD. The major addition to the CDs is Mors Saulis, a masterpiece on the subject of the death of Saul and his son Jonathan, the latter deeply mourned by David. It’s a topic to which Charpentier would return in his 5-act tragédie lyrique David et Jonathas, H 490 (1688). Despite not having a dramatic context the oratorio carries extraordinary theatrical power, most spectacularly in the scene between Saul and the Witch of Endor, superbly carried off here by bass Étienne Bazola and, again, Lucile Richardot. The mourning of David, ‘Doleo super te’ is in the tradition of the great 17th-century laments and done with great sensitivity by tenor Davy Cornillot.

Among the smaller works on the CDs are the impressive 8-part funeral motet ‘Plaintes des âmes du purgatories’, and three works belonging to the dialogus type, smaller dramatic works generally cast for two or three characters and continuo, the most impressive here being between Christ and Mary Magdalene (H 423), an exquisite little masterpiece than makes great use of Jesus’ famous words ‘noli mi tangere’ (touch me not).

As I said at the outset, such are the riches here that they demand much greater acquaintance; Charpentier is one of those rare composers to maintain an astonishingly high quality over the course of a large output. These marvellous performances – and I realise I’ve said nothing about instrumental playing (employing 17th-string technique) of the highest quality and completely idiomatic direction – will unquestionably repay deeper investigation and could well take their place at the core of a Charpentier collection.

Brian Robins