Tag: Baroque

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Handel: Samson

Box cover of Dunedin Consort's recording of Handel's Samson

[Joshua Ellicott Samson, Jess Dandy Micah, Matthew Brook Manoa, Vitali Rozynko Harapha, Sophie Bevan Delila, Hugo Hymas An Israelite, A Philistine, Messenger, Mary Bevan A virgin, An Israelite woman, A Philistine woman, Fflur Wyn A virgin, A Philistine woman, Tiffin Boys’ Choir, directed by James Day], Dunedin Consort, John Butt
204:14 (3 CDs in a cardboard box)
Linn CKD 599

In some ways the most remarkable thing about this recording is that it exists at all. Not many projects requiring a week’s recording time make it to disc these days so congratulations and thanks to those who have provided the funding and/or taken the financial risk, for it really is a major undertaking that requires eight soloists; additional singers for the chorus including trebles for the top line; and an orchestra in which horns, trumpets, oboes and bassoon join a relatively large body of strings and the keyboard continuo. And the choruses were all recorded twice! The discs include Handel’s standard scoring of adults with the boys adding richness to the top line, but also available for download is a performing option which Handel seems to have used from time to time – ‘just’ the soloists singing together with an extra ripieno alto to balance the sections.

The booklet, too, is pretty lavish though in English only. We are offered two excellent essays – on the work itself and on performing issues, the full text (and there’s a lot of it) and the usual performers’ credits. I do wish that these (for the singers, at least) weren’t quite so formulaic: only two get beyond the standard lists of prizes, roles and conductors.

Few of us will know Samson as well as we should – a shame, for it gives us Handel on fine form not only in the content of individual movements but in the way in which he subverts our musical expectations to engage and re-engage our attention. The ‘plot’ is a sequence of tableaux and philosophising rather than pure narrative drama and the music makes considerable demands on the performers, not least of stamina. Joshua Ellicott as Samson draws us in to his world, rather than shouting about it, and really does sing most beautifully. He and all his colleagues exhibit some fine diction, especially in recitative – and it’s not often I find that I want to say that. I do think that all the singers have moments when their vibrato gets away from them but this is less of an issue than on many CDs I have recently reviewed for EMR. The orchestra is also a classy act and John Butt has a sure hand in matters of musical pacing.

So if you don’t know Samson, you should make this your way in. This release is unlikely to be surpassed – or even competed with – for some time.

David Hansell

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Dandrieu: Magnificats Vol. 1

Cover of Dandrieu organ CD

Jean-Baptiste Robin Grandes Orgues 1710 (Chapelle Royale – Versailles)
70:51
Versailles Spectacles CVS023

With all due respect to both composer and performer, this CD is all about this organ though the combination of the music and the instrument for which it was arguably written is also a point of some significance and interest.

The Versailles organ was developed by three generations of the Clicquot family during the 18th century (1711, 1736, 1762) and was spared damage and removal during the revolution. However, work in 1872 and 1935 changed its character to the point at which a new spirit of ‘authenticity’ required complete dismantling in 1989 and a comprehensive rebuild to restore the 1711 voices. These are distributed over four manuals and pedal and can deliver all the characteristic registrations of the Classical French school. As one of the resident organ team, Jean-Baptiste Robin understands the instrument perfectly though doesn’t quite give us the full tour. Like most modern players he is not quite brave enough to include the tremblant fort in the Grand jeu, though if that wouldn’t work on this instrument where could it?

The music – 33 movements averaging about 2 minutes each – is a mixture of liturgical styles (it would have been good to include the chant for at least one of the Magnificats) and more ‘popular’ sets of variations on carol tunes, together with a few odds and ends. It’s all attractive, and at times positively imposing, and is given sympathetic and stylish performances by J-BR. I don’t always warm to his approach to inégalité, though what he does is a perfectly reasonable choice from the range of options.

The booklet (in French, English and German), notwithstanding a few lumpy translation moments, is luxurious with notes on the music, player and instrument and several striking pictures. A further release will include Dandrieu’s transcriptions for organ of his own chamber compositions. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait too long for this sequel, and fingers crossed for the tremblant fort!

David Hansell

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Jean Baptiste Loeillet: Trio Sonatas

Loeillet Trio sonatas CD cover

Epoca Barocca
61:10
cpo 555 143-2

Sometimes it’s enough to write music that is well crafted, if not especially striking, and then get someone to play it with sensitivity, style and a sense of purpose. Jean Baptiste Loeillet did just that and in Epoca Barocca he has found his ‘someone’. Arguably, these trios provide pleasure for the players rather than excitement for the listener, but if you can experience enjoyment without excitement then this is for you. The balance between flute and oboe is good, the musical relationship between them intimate and complementary and all aspects of the performance are delicately judged. With one possible exception. I’d have been quite happy to hear the whole programme with just cello and harpsichord on the continuo line. Here we have from time to time and in addition to those, bassoon, organ and theorbo. The music doesn’t need these further colours, however: there is more than enough attractiveness in the top lines. I also found myself wondering how often a bassoon was actually used as a continuo instrument in chamber music.

The booklet (in German and English) offers a good and informative essay about the music and the basic information about the ensemble.

David Hansell

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Kapsberger: Intavolatura di Chitarone

Jonas Nordberg Chitarrone theorbo music CD cover
Jonas Nordberg theorbo
69:45
BIS Records BIS 2147 SACD
 
Kapsberger’s music for the chitarrone, the instrument otherwise known as the theorbo, is quintessentially baroque, extravagant, unpredictable, and highly expressive. For the present CD Jonas Nordberg has selected music from the Libro Primo (1604) and the Libro Quarto (1640). He begins with Toccata prima from the Libro Quarto, an extraordinary piece of music, with exciting 6- and 7-note chords interspersed with resonant campanellas, exceptionally fast slurred roulades, chordal passages with sudden, surprising shifts of harmony, supported by the satisfying, rich tone of the long diapason strings. I like Nordberg’s interpretation, playing the fast notes very fast indeed, yet holding back for tender moments in chordal passages.
 
Next from the Libro Quarto comes the first Passacaglia. Apart from some running passages towards the end, the notes of the ground are very much in evidence, clear, solid, and irrepressible. Meanwhile the higher notes move on apace, enhanced with many ornaments. Gagliarda Prima consists of two sections, each of which have repeats in style brisé. Nordberg plays the first time through each section twice, and saves the brisé repeats until the end. Gagliarda octava has three sections; the first and third are conventional by Kapsberger’s standards, but the second section has a different mood, where the melody creeps up and down chromatically. The second group of pieces ends with a jolly Canario based on a simple Bergamasca-like chord sequence. I think Nordberg takes it a bit too quickly, if only because the campanellas of bars 11-12 are so quick they lack clarity.
 
From the Libro Primo comes the well-known ground, Aria di Fiorenze, with ten variations. Nordberg creates an overall mood which is satisfyingly gentle with subtle nuances. The carefully placed chords of C major involving a high e’ on the third course are particularly pleasing. Each variation has its own character, for example the fifth consists of running passages, the sixth has rolled four-note chords, the seventh has super-quick roulades between chords, and the eighth has triplas. Nordberg loyally observes Kapsberger’s signs for rolled chords and ornaments. Kapsberger marks four-note chords to be rolled or arpeggiated, because he only used the thumb and two fingers of his right hand. When four-note chords occur only here and there in a piece, Nordberg rolls them, but in the sixth variation they occur throughout, so Nordberg arpeggiates these to good effect. The roulades in the seventh variation require considerable dexterity, but Nordberg is equal to the task, playing them quickly, evenly, and without losing sight of the overall architecture. I am impressed with his virtuosity. With such excellent playing, it is unfortunate that Nordberg comes unstuck towards the end of the eighth variation. There is, in my opinion, a crotchet rhythm sign missing from the original source at the very end of the penultimate stave, causing Nordberg to charge on at double speed with quavers for the next few notes. In fact I think all the rhythm signs from there to the end could do with some pretty drastic editing to make musical sense of what I believe should be a straightforward passage with regard to rhythm. Another problem arising from reading the facsimile occurs in Toccata 9 from the Libro Quarto: the chord at the start of bar 6 has a low E notated as a number 9 above the stave. Nordberg does not play it, and I wonder if he misread it as a minim rhythm sign, even though the actual minim sign is notated immediately above it. Not to worry. The absence of one insignificant bass note does not stop me enjoying all the other notes of this well-played piece.
 
There follows Ballo Primo from the Libro Quarto, a suite of four dances, three of which have style brisé repeats. Kapsberger’s well-known, oft-played Toccata Arpeggiata consists of a series of chords, each one marked with his sign for arpeggiation. Nordberg arpeggiates the notes of each chord quickly and not necessarily in strict time to create a flurry of notes, but he is careful moving from one chord to the next, giving the piece shape with well-arched phrases. Kapsberger’s Battaglia from the Libro Quarto is a long piece lasting over eight minutes. Nordberg’s playing of it is characteristically clean and expressive, although I wonder if a little more aggression might be in keeping with the title of the piece. The CD ends with the eponymous Kapsberger, variations on an eight-bar ground, with pleasing campanellas.
 
Stewart McCoy
 
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Recording

Vivaldi Con amore

Cover of Tafelmusik CD Vivaldi Con amore

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Elisa Citterio, dir
75:25
Tafelmusik TMK1039CD

For nearly forty years Tafelmusik, Canada’s leading period instrument orchestra, was directed by violinist Jeanne Lamon, but in 2017 she was succeeded by another woman violinist, the Italian Elisa Citterio. The present collection of Vivaldi concertos marks Citterio’s recording debut with the orchestra, and it is interesting to find that on the basis of it she has already put a strong individual mark. Citterio’s background includes work with all the major Italian period instrument orchestras and there are times here when we might almost be listening to Accademia Bizantina or Il Giardino Armonico. There is the same nervous, at times spiky, intensity brought to Vivaldi’s allegros, the same grand sweep to ritornellos, the same relishing of long cantabile lines, and the same careful dynamic gradations. Yet even in writing that I’m conscious of being slightly unfair to Citterio, since one of the principal positives of this outstanding set of performances is that they reveal she has a strong musical personality. There is hardly a routine moment here, no mean achievement when it comes to a batch of Vivaldi concertos. Take for example the popular Lute Concerto in D, RV 93, hardly a masterpiece and a work that can easily outstay its welcome. Superbly played throughout by Lucas Harris, the opening movement is here given an understated delicacy that introduces an unexpected aura of mystery. The following Largo is taken very slowly, but enriched by decoration from the soloist that gives the movement an improvisatory freshness, while the final movement is again unassertively presented, but distinguished by the precision of Harris’ fingerwork.

This freshness of approach is a feature of the whole programme, which has been well planned to include a diverse set of concertos that allows some of Tafelmusik’s outstanding players an chance to shine. Thus in addition to the lute concerto we are given violin concertos in C minor (RV 761), known as ‘Amato bene’, and E major, the well-known ‘L’amoroso’ (RV 271), the 4-violin Concerto in B flat, RV 553, a double oboe Concerto in C, RV 534, a bassoon Concerto in D minor, RV 481 and the Concerto in D for 2 violins and 2 oboes, RV 564a. The programme is completed by the overture to the opera Ottone in villa (Venice, 1713).

Among these works, the two minor key concertos are exceptional. The nervous intensity and restless spirit of the opening Allegro of the C minor Concerto are splendidly captured by Elisa Citterio, while the filigree of the marvellous central Largo, taken rather too slowly, is spun with affectionate elegance and the final Allegro played with a bright edginess that does not exclude moments of fantasy and bizzarrie also apparent elsewhere in Citterio’s playing. The bassoon concerto is another outstanding work, played quite superlatively by Dominic Teresi. In the opening Allegro the soloist alternates the slighty mournful tones unique to his instrument with gurgling passage work, while the chromatic dissonance of the succeeding Larghetto, a quasi accompanied recitative and love-sick aria, reaches depths of profound desolation.

My only reservations concern the tempo of largos; it is odd to find Citterio taking the Adagio non molto central movement of RV 564a at a faster tempo than most of them, while the familiar Italian fondness for over-intrusive plucked continuo is here particularly annoying in the central Largo of RV 553. Tafelmusik’s CD production people might also care to consider rather better notes than the scanty generalised effort included here. None of that detracts from the fact that this is the most stimulating and thought provoking CD of Vivaldi concertos I’ve heard in some while.

Brian Robins

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Sweelinck: Fantasias, Toccatas & Variations

Sweelinck key board music CD cover Richard Egarr

Richard Egarr harpsichord
76:13
Linn Records CKD 589

This recording has all the signs of having been a labour of love for Richard Egarr who self-confessedly set out to to make the music vibrant and exciting, rather than what he sees as the non-expressive and detached (aka ‘colourless and academic’) way Sweelinck has traditionally been performed. I’m not sure that’s a fair judgement of all previous recordings but this one does certainly succeed in bringing the music to life. Beautifully recorded on Egarr’s own Ruckers copy by Joel Katzman at 393 Hz, with a close-up acoustic, it successfully recreates the sort of genial late-night domestic music-making among friends which Willem Baudartius described in Sweelinck’s Amsterdam house (referred to in Egarr’s sleeve note). The playing reflects that milieu too, never too showy but always firmly committed and showing a deep-rooted understanding of each of the genres represented. He starts with an extended Praeludium Toccata [Seiffert 21] which shows the full breadth of Sweelinck’s art and its debt to his English musical forbears. In some ways the four toccatas are the star pieces here, giving scope for both careful voice-leading and virtuosity. Five extended fantasias provide intellectual heft, including one on the hexachord which starts conventionally but ends in a riot of scales in all directions. The Fantasia Crommatica gets a particularly fine performance as do two sets of variations. The booklet gives us Egarr’s personal rationale for the recording but nothing much about the actual music. In this fine recording, he is probably entitled to assume that it can speak for itself.

Noel O’Regan

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Bach: Cantatas for Bass

Dominik Wörner sings Bach CD cover

Bach: Cantatas and Arias for Bass
Dominik Wörner, Zefiro, Alfredo Bernardini
62:17
Arcana A466
BWV56, 82, 158 + arias from BWV20, 26, 101

David Greco sings Bach CD cover

J. S. Bach: Solo Cantatas for Bass BWV56, 82 & 158
David Greco, Luthers Bach Ensemble
49:36
Brilliant Classics 95942

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It is entirely fortuitous that these two CDs with almost identical contents should arrive together for review. Dominic Wörner is a well-known name on German labels, and sings three cantatas here – BWV 82, 158 and 56 – together with the bass arias from BWV 22, 26 and 101. The model booklet has an essay by Peter Wollny and the texts in German, English and French. At the front are precise details of the tracks with who plays what in which cantata and on which instrument, and full details of the makers and dates are given. Zefiro uses single strings, a harpsichord in addition to the organ and Bernardini provides direction.

David Greco, an Australian who has sung with the Westminster Abbey choir and the Sistine Chapel choir, sings with an ensemble of (largely) ex fellow-students of the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, many of whom play in Groningen’s Lutheran Church. The director of the ensemble and organist Tyman Bronda was instrumental in this church getting the organ-builder Bernhardt Edskes to remake the lost organ originally built by Arp Schnitger in 1699-1717 for the church in which he worshipped when in Groningen. There is an interesting website on this organ, which makes sense of Schnitger’s various additions and restructurings made over a period of 18 years. It is tuned to A=415Hz and stands in a broad west gallery, with an additional detached console so that the director can play the recits and arias at least. Photographs on the website indicate that this console is a single manual with only 8’, 4’ & 2’ and the only thing I found disappointing in this recording was that I did not hear more substantial organ sound, even in the concluding chorales. No details are given of the other instruments, but a theorbo or archlute forms an audible part of the basso continuo.

The programmes on both CDs are identical save that Wörner’s disc includes the bass arias from BWV 20, 26 and 101, bringing the timing up to 62’17 as opposed to Greco who sings only the three complete cantatas and so is well under the hour. So, at first sight, the bonus of hearing Bernardini play the sparkling obbligato in BWV 20v and the three oboes (or two plus taille in 101iv) in 26iv makes the choice obvious.

However, several things make me want to recommend the CD by Greco and Bronda. First – and most fundamental – is the singing. While Wörner is well-practised in this repertoire, Greco’s clarity of diction and elegant, vibrato-less baritone tone win for me over Wörner’s more substantial bass sound. Second, the instrumental playing. I admire Berardini’s playing and direction and Zefiro’s wind band is splendid, but listen to the beautifully balanced violone in the last movement of BWV 82 from the Groningen Luthers band, who also use single strings; and the obbligato violin in BWV 158ii played by Joanna Huszcza is stunningly beautiful and a model of how to partner a voice in Bach’s cantata writing, as is the oboe playing of Amy Power in BWV 56iii.

What a lot we have to learn about how to perform Bach cantatas, and while there is no one ‘right way’, you can gain immense insight from listening to two versions side by side. Why, I wonder, did the Groningen group not give us the soprano chorale in BWV 158ii with the Sesquialtera on the organ rather than with four soprano voices and a doubling oboe which plays no further part in this puzzling cantata, if they judged the line to be in need of a boost? Perhaps they tried it – but it would have displayed the virtues of playing cantatas around a more substantial organ.

David Stancliffe

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Recording

Bach: Violin Concertos

CD cover of Bach violin concertos

Kati Debretzeni, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
70:15
Soli Deo Gloria SDG732

On this accomplished CD, Kati Debretzeni, the leader of the English Baroque soloists among other things, plays the violin concertos in A minor (BWV 1041) and E major (BWV 1042) as you would expect and then adds two reconstructions drawn from the harpsichord concertos – a new version of BWV 1053 transposed down a tone into D major with its singing siciliano middle movement and a version of BWV 1052 in D minor, which has long been posited as a violin concerto in origin.

Debretzeni recalls the moment in the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage of 2000 when the beautiful Trost organ in the Schlosskapelle in Altenburg that Bach had played and commented on developed a fault and they had to fit in a recording of BWV 146 the next morning before flying home. The first two movements of Cantata 146 with obbligato organ form part of what Bach used again in BWV 1052. A version of the final movement is in Cantata 188. She also reflects upon the large number of violin obbligati in the church cantatas with pleasure and clearly the interplay between these various sources has informed her judgment of how to reach back behind the decisively keyboard-style passagework with its built-in bass line to a plausible violin original which needs a reconstructed basso continuo.

I enjoyed her playing as much as her editorial additions and decisions. Spirited and rhythmically infectious, she is well served by her 3.3.2.2.1 colleagues from the EBS and the beautifully judged continuo playing of James Johnstone. The slow movements never loose momentum – how easy it is to degenerate into a maudlin self-indulgence – while the outer movements never collapse into a scramble. They are helped by the wonderfully warm acoustic of St Jude’s, Hampstead Garden Suburb where they recorded.

Like Debretzeni, I hope that her versions find their way into the repertoire of many violinists. Bach did not only quarry his ‘instrumental’ work for concerto movements but used material from the cantatas, whether sacred or secular, to provide the sounds of heaven, and from the number of recordings of ‘arrangements’ appearing now, I can see that the process of re-inventing Bach’s multiple versions is set to continue. When they are in the hands of players so immersed in the whole oeuvre as this, we have a good deal to look forward to.

David Stancliffe

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J B Bach: Orchestral suites

J B Bach suites cover of CD

Thüringer Bach Collegium
82:22
audite 97.770

These four suites by Johann Sebastian’s second cousin and near contemporary display his skill and invention. Cast in the form of suites with a series of dances, some movements feel more like concerti so close are they to the Italian and French models current in the cultured courts of the principalities of central Europe, where French cuisine and dress and Italian music were known.

From 1703, Johann Bernhard held the post of organist in Eisenach till his death in 1749, overlapping between 1708 and 1712 with Telemann. He was also harpsichordist to the admired court orchestra of Duke Johann Wilhelm of Sachsen-Eisenach.

J. S. Bach had copied out at least three of these suites for the Collegium in Leipzig, and it is because of this set of parts that Johann Bernhard’s music survives. The two Bachs were cross godparents to each other’s children, and Johann Bernhard’s ease with the French as well as the Italian style gives us an interesting glimpse of the cosmopolitan nature of this small Saxon court.

The competent players of the Thüringer Bach Collegium use single strings plus the director, Gernot Süßmuth’s solo violin and muster two oboes, a taille and fagotto, and one is heard playing recorder and traverso.

The performances are snappy, and sometimes a little rustic – some slapping of the instruments from time to time; but the major and in the end irritating fault is that the kontrabass is either miked far too closely or else just plays insensitively. With single strings, I would have been quite content with a violone or bass violin at 8’ pitch, but a substantial double bass thumping away – frequently joined by the harpsichordist’s lute stop – is an error of judgment and doesn’t blend with the rest of the band as it should.

The music was recorded in the Georgenkirche in Eisenach and from the photo in the booklet the players were standing just east of the font in which JSB was baptised. The essay (in German and then in English) on where this music fits into the high Baroque in Saxony is admirably informative. But there is no information on instruments or temperament, which would have been a plus. The ensemble has already recorded concerti by Prinz Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar on the same label, and is clearly performing a notable service in making this kind of court music available to a modern audience.

The music is novel, fills a gap in our understanding of court life in the early 18th century and is tuneful as well as original. If you can bear the kontrabass, you will enjoy this music.

David Stancliffe

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Sheet music

New sheet music from Ut Orpheus

Schickhardt Ut orpheus edition cover

Schickhardt: Principes de la Flûte avec Quarante deux Airs à deux Flutes
Edited by Nicola Sansone
vi + 43pp.
FL29 ISMN 979-0-2153-2555-5
£18.95 (UK retail; from website €16.95 + P&P)

After what must be the briefest introduction to notation ever (Schickhardt’s four tables with explanations in French and Flemish), and a fingering chart including trills, it is straight into the music. The first piece is all of six bars and played in unison; the second is shorter but has more notes and tonguing indications, then the third is already conceived in two voices, introduces binary form and only has tonguing marks for certain parts, then the remaining 39 pieces work their way through a variety of keys and dance styles as well as occasional through-composed movements. While the upper voice might “take the lead” more, it certainly does not hog the limelight; the composer is very careful to involve both players in a thoroughly musical dialogue. None of the pieces is longer than two pages, and the majority are far shorter, so these are study rather than recital pieces. That said, I can definitely see a market for this nicely printed volume.

Buchner Ut orpheus edition cover

Buchner: 2 Sonate a Tre from Plectrum musicum Op. 4 (Frankfurt 1662)
Edited by Nicola Sansone
iv + 16pp.
FL30 – ISMN 979-0-2153-2556-2
£21.95 (UK retail; from website €19.95 + P&P)

Ostensibly published as a set of sonatas for strings, the “Viola da braccio” part-book for these two sonatas (nos. 10 & 11 in the set) give the scoring as “Flautto vel Viola da braccio”, so the editor is correct to publish them as recorder music but sadly a little hopeful in describing the piece on the cover as “Treble Recorder in G” – unless, of course, that is a misunderstanding of the English usage of Treble in this context to refer to Alto. Printed originally in the soprano clef (middle C on the bottom line), the opening phrase of Sonata X extends to E which is below the instrument’s standard range. But worse is to come – just in case someone was screaming at the screen about fudging that note – as bar 67 has a D, and then bar 78 has a C. Sonata XI has the same range, so there is little doubt that the music is actually far better suited to a Tenor Recorder. Were I to have edited this piece for publication, I would have ignored that fact that there is a separate bass part, since it is identical to the continuo line; rather than fifteen staves per page with the (also identical) figured bass squeezed into the available space, the layout would be much more comfortable. The music is well worth playing, and groups programming – for example – sonatas and concertos by Telemann for the same line-up should not hesitate to deploy these as variety.

Chaconnes and Grounds Ut orpheus cover

Chaconnes and Grounds from English Baroque Masters
Edited by Nicola Sansone
v + 30pp.
HS253 – ISMN 979-0-2153-2542-5
£23.50 (UK retail; from website €20.95 + P&P)

The eight pieces in this very useful volume are by Thomas Williams and Gottfried Keller (one ground each) and Gottfried Finger (three grounds and three chaconnes), all of them taken from four volumes printed in Amsterdam at the beginning of the 18th century. The range of the solo part suites the treble (=alto) recorder perfectly and the music here is far more demanding than in the Schickhardt collection above. Violinists should not be put off, though, as there is much elegant music here which will help younger players in particular to find ways to differentiate between each iteration of the theme above which they must weave their filigree. Ut orpheus has already published the source books (FL2, FL6, FL11 and FL17), should you fancy playing more of the repertoire than variations on a bass! 

Coelho Flores de Musica Ut orpheus edition cover

Manuel Rodrigues Coelho: Flores de Musica (1620) Vol. I: Tentos (1st-4th tone)
ECHO Collection of Historical Organ Music [volume 3]
Edited by João Vaz
xxvi + 128pp.
ECHOM3 – ISMN 979-0-2153-2606-4
£56.50 (UK retail; from website €50.95 + P&P)

I am by no stretch of the imagination a keyboard player. That said, in order to develop something akin to a reasonable technique, I remember shutting myself away in a practice room at university and devoting hours to playing Andrea Gabrieli’s organ music; it had the perfect blend (from my perspective, at least!) of sustained chords and moving parts, limited harmonic movement and few – if any – demanding leaps (especially in the left hand). That is also how I would described the contents of this excellent volume which contains 12 Tentos (three in each of the four modes). The original (as shown in the facsimiles dotted throughout the book) was printed on four staves; in compressing them on to two, the editor has (to my mind) sometimes been a little too pedantic (why print a superfluous bar’s rest when there are two other parts vying for the space on the staff at the time?) and not pedantic enough at others (where a note is inflected in one voice but not in the other, if the second accidental is not in the original, should it not be bracketed as an editorial insertion?) One small quirk of the printing is the notation of triplets; instead of the standard chunky 3 over the middle of the figure, this volume prints small 3s over the first note of each group which, in keyboard music, made me think they were fingering instructions. These are, however, minor faults in such an excellent volume. If I had access to an organ (or even a piano!), I think I might be tempted to sit down and play these pieces!

Brian Clark