Tag: Chamber music

Seventeenth-century music from Venice to Dalmatia
The Marian Consort, dir. Rory McCleery | The Illyria Consort, dir Bojan Čičić
58:26
Delphian DCD34260

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The premise behind this excellent recording is simple: it traces the musical connections between Venice and its dominions on the Dalmatian coast. The detailed booklet describes the historical background and the music presented. And what music! The five singers of The Marian Consort are individually very stylish singers, not afraid of using vibrato ornamentally but never allowing it to impact the tuning of their faultless ensemble singing. The aptly named Illyria Consort provides both the harmonic support the singers need in their solos and duets, and the glitter in the larger pieces, with Čičić’s violin and Gawain Glenton’s cornetto stylishly improvising around their lines. I was surprised to discover that only four of the 18 tracks are premiere recordings, but then with music of this quality (and there are some stunning pieces, such as Jelich’s beautiful tenor duet, Bone Jesu) it should not have come as a shock. Topped an tailed by arguably the best-known Dalmatian composer of the day, Francesco Usper (aka Sponga), this disc deserves all the awards it will undoubtedly garner.

Brian Clark

Caroline Champy Tursun mezzo-soprano, Ensemble Baroque de Toulouse, Michel Brun
61:02

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This CD features Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater RV 621, sung by mezzo-soprano Caroline Champy Tursun, who also supplies a selection of arias from Bajazet, Giustino, Farnace and Orlando furioso, while the ensemble’s director appears as flute soloist in the flute Concerto Il Gardellino and the strings contribute the Sinfonia al Santo Sepolcro Rv 169. Recorded using a system called ECA in the Chapelle Notre-Dame-d’Alet, the performance is extraordinarily vivid – to my ear, unsettlingly so! As most of the orchestral playing is one-to-a-part and the default approach is distinctly ‘choppy’, I found the occasional legato sections, as in the slow movement of the flute concerto, a blessed relief, while much of Tursun’s singing was also pleasantly musical. The presentation of the package is distinctly odd – I still haven’t found a record label or a number, so have stated the group’s website in its place, although that doesn’t appear to be on the package either. The single CD is attached to the bottom of a box, which accommodates a huge folded sheet of programme notes, like a motoring map and for all its size only in French. Of course, this eccentric presentation need not put anyone off purchasing this CD, except that it is a reflection of the eccentricity of the performance, which seemed to go out of its way to distort Vivaldi’s music in a variety of ways. I have mentioned the persistent choppiness, and in the Sinfonia Al Santo Sepolcro a rather arch approach to the legato texture made this piece sound equally eccentric. Poor Vivaldi seems particularly open to ‘interpretation’, to the extent that it is quite unusual to hear his music given a good straightforward performance. It is probably true that Vivaldi is played too much, but rather than finding some new spurious approach to his music, why not turn to his less frequently played contemporaries? The present forces could easily have presented fine performances of these pieces, but seemed too intent upon being quirky.

D. James Ross

Motets by Hasse and Porpora
Clint van der Linde, Les Muffatti
69:07
Ramée RAM 2012

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Loosely based around a ‘grand tour’, undertaken and recorded in a diary between 1713 and 1715 by one Corneille-Jean-Marie van den Branden, an aristocratic Netherlander, this collection of Neapolitan and Venetian music is of particular value for including first recordings of motets by Hasse and Porpora. Porpora’s Nisi Dominus is indeed housed in a collection in the archiepiscopal archives in Mechelen that has been linked to van Branden, having been presented by him to cathedral there. Scored for solo alto and strings, it must therefore be an early work. There are five movements, the second of which, ‘Vanum est vobis’ has an elaborate violin solo, while ‘Gloria patri’ springs a surprise by unexpectedly changing metre to triple time to carry the motet to a brightly exuberant peroration.

Of greater interest is the other first recording, a setting by Hasse of highly dramatic verses, Hostes averni (‘Foes roaring with infernal rage’), again set for solo alto and strings. The extensive opening aria reflects the text, a surging, driving movement with bravura writing for the singer underpinned by fierce scalic passage work for the orchestra. An intense accompagnato follows, this quasi-operatic motet concluding with a totally contrasted aria (‘Blanda in prata’) typical of the mellifluous sweetness that earned Hasse the soubriquet ‘il divino Sassone‘ in Italy. In addition to the premieres, Porpora is at his most beguiling in a Salve Regina (the opening is pure ecstatic balm), while Hasse’s Alma Redemptoris Mater attempts successfully in its ability to seduce the senses. Finally, to return to the Branden connection, there are two of Vivaldi’s brief string concertos, RV 154 in G minor and RV 136 in F. The traveller records being taken by Vivaldi to a concert at the Pietà.

The programme, then, is an interesting one, the performances regrettably less so. Clint van der Linde is a South African countertenor whose tone is generally pleasing, though upper notes have a tendency to be a bit hooty and intonation is not always completely secure. Where however he is ill-equipped for these works is the lack of technique to do full justice to works composed for virtuoso castrati. While passaggi are capably sung and cantabile lines nicely sustained, ornaments in general are poorly articulated and there is no trill, an absolutely essential piece of technical equipment in this music if it is to make its full effect. Perhaps most damagingly of all, van der Linde’s diction is so poor as to at times give the impression that he is singing vocalises. This lack of projection and clarity is critical in music that oozes the fervour and theatricality of the counter-Reformation from every pore. The neatly turned orchestral playing both in accompanying the motets and in the concertos is of a high standard, but in serious need of a shot of Mediterranean brilliance and colour. It reminds me of what we thought of as stylish Baroque playing before the best Italian groups wrested back their repertoire from northern Europeans.

In sum, if you mainly enjoy your music as background or in car the disc will make for a pleasing experience; if you look for something that probes more deeply then it may not be for you. But van den Branden’s travel diaries sound fascinating, a kind of Dutch Burney avant la lettre.

Brian Robins