Tag: Chamber music

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Basevi Codex

CD cover Basevi Codex Dorothee Mields Boreas Quartett Bremen

Music at the Court of Margaret of Austria
Dorothee Mields, Boreas Quartett Bremen
61:30
audite 97.783

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The Basevi Codex is a music manuscript associated with the Mechelen Court of Margaret of Austria, produced by the famous Alamire workshop and containing mainly secular music by such big names of the early 16th century as Pierre de la Rue, Loyset Compère, Antoine Brumel, Matthaeus Pipelare, Johannes Ockeghem, Alexander Agricola, Johannes Prioris, Jacob Obrecht, Heinrich Isaac and Johannes Ghiselin. The Boreas Quartett of Bremen are a superb recorder quartet, who give beautifully nuanced instrumental performances of some of the material, while also blending wonderfully with the voice of Dorothee Mields – one of my favourite moments of the whole CD is in the account of de la Rue’s Plorer gemier where Mield’s voice magically emerges from the recorder ensemble texture singing the Requiem cantus. This enchanting blend amongst the recorders and in turn with the voice is a major asset of this revelatory CD. The account of three movements from Obrecht’s Missa Fortuna desperata highlights the expressive potential of this combination of recorders and voice, and makes a very plausible case for the performance of this fine music in a secular chamber context.

D. James Ross

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Vivaldi: Cantatas for soprano 1

CD cover Vivaldi cantatas for soprano 1 Arianna Vendittelli

Arianna Vendittelli, Abchordis Ensemble, Andrea Buccarella
62:42
naïve OP7257

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It cannot be stressed too often just what an extraordinary project Naïve’s complete Vivaldi Edition is. With their striking, sometimes bizarre covers featuring models – this one a very 21st-century young woman adorned with a ruff and blossom in her tousled hair – each CD adds to a total of issues that with this addition devoted to soprano cantatas reaches volume 68.

By definition the Edition has introduced many new works to the catalogue, but Vivaldi’s 30-odd cantatas have in general been reasonably well represented on record and all six here (RV 650, 652, 669, 667, 660 and 665) are or have been previously available on CD. That is not to detract from the present issue, which, while not flawless, has a great deal to recommend it. Not the least of the appeal comes from the beguiling quality and personality of Arianna Vendittelli’s soprano, which heard at its best gives to these pastoral cantatas of love in its various guises an empathy and seductive warmth that is irresistible and frequently touching. Ornaments are neatly turned and passaggi negotiated with an agile ease, though I fear as so often it is necessary to report there is no convincingly articulated trill to be heard, though Vendittelli deserves credit for at least attempting this most elusive, but essential of decorations.  

If only that were the whole story, but sadly it is not. In common with so many singers today Vendittelli exercises less than perfect control over her higher register, which is too often unevenly produced. This is particularly in evidence in the most ambitious and outstanding of these cantatas, ‘Sorge vermiglia in ciel, la bella Aurora’ RV 667. In four movements alternating recitative and aria, it is, as it not uncommon, the complaint of the lover whose affections are not returned but who will still remain faithful to the loved one, in this case Sylvia. The passion and fervour are barely contained and the cantata, which concludes with a full-blooded aria di furia was obviously written for an exceptional virtuoso castrato or soprano, with expansive often awkward vocal leaps in all four movements. The opening recitative allows Vendittelli to reveal impressive chest notes in the lower register, but in the aria ‘Nasce il sole’ the lack of control is cruelly revealed, with the difference in volume between the chest notes and upper head notes running counter to everything we know about the technical requirements of the day (cf. Tosi). Yet what is disappointing is that both here and elsewhere Vendittelli shows she has a lovely mezza voce perfectly capable of ‘touching’ (Tosi’s word) upper notes. There’s an especially noteworthy example in the final aria, ‘Vedrò con nero’ from the delightful lighter cantata ‘La farfalletta s’aggira al lume’, RV 660. Here the word ‘splendor’ is positively caressed on its final appearance with each repetition. I relish, too, the undulations of the B section of this aria, with their little hints of portamento.

The singer is given well-played continuo support by the members of the Abchordis Ensemble (here harpsichord or organ, cello, chittarone or archlute) and bassoon (in slighter RV 669 and 665), but it is not always tastefully judged. This applies particularly to movements where the plucked instrument is given full reign to make a tiresomely over-intrusive contribution, while the introduction to the opening aria of RV 660 sounds positively twee rather than capturing Vivaldi’s delightful evocation of flitting butterflies and meandering bees. Nonetheless, and as stressed above, Vendittelli brings to these cantatas much that is to be cherished and relished. For that reason the CD is welcomed as yet another valuable addition to the Vivaldi edition.    

Brian Robins

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Con arte e maestria

CD cover Con arte e maestria Oliver Webber

Virtuoso violin ornamentation from the dawn of the Italian Baroque
Monteverdi String Band In Focus, Oliver Webber, Steven Devine
78:45
resonus RES10282

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It has become apparent that Italian music composed towards the end of the 16th century and in the early part of the 17th century was almost invariably intended to be lavishly ornamented in performance. Tantalisingly, but also mercifully for players aiming for historically informed performances of this repertoire, some composers and players occasionally wrote out the divisions they were clearly using all the time, while a number of theoreticians wrote treatises with examples of ornamentation. One such, the Selva di varii passagii by Francesco Rognoni, gives us the heading for this CD as the title ends con arte e maestria. The violinist Oliver Webber and keyboard player Steven Devine, individually and together, apply these treatises to a variety of appropriate pieces, as well as performing versions of works which have survived in ornamented forms. In addition, Webber supplies a couple of improvised showpieces ‘in the style of Bassano and Monteverdi’ – there can be little doubt that once the early violin virtuosi had mastered the art of ornamentation, in a sense recreating the original works, they would have been emboldened also to improvise more freely in the style of the time, as we know for a fact all the great keyboard masters did. I still remember my astonishment at leafing as a student through Ganassi’s Fontegara, a guide to ornamentation from the earlier 16th century, with its blizzards of scales and other written-out ornaments, including trills in thirds and fourths – who does those? While we can never be absolutely sure how performances sounded in the historical past, Webber and Devine have done an excellent job of thinking themselves back into the role of early Baroque virtuosi, and their performances of this repertoire, encrusted with ornamentation, is musically convincing and thrilling. The nearest parallel to this ‘living art’ of ornamentation must be the aleatoric nature of some jazz idioms, but of course the difference is that we can hear how the latter worked in performance. Webber and Devine apply their consummate technical skills and flawless musical instincts to bring this vital performance technique vividly back to life – and with considerable ‘art and mastery’. 

D. James Ross

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Ich schlief, da träumte mir

Anne Marie Dragosits Ich schlief, da träumte ich

Anne Marie Dragosits harpsichrod
65:00
encelade ECL 2002

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This imaginative programme of movements associated with sleep and night-time in general from the late Baroque period features a wonderful harpsichord by Christian Zell and the equally impressive playing of Anne Marie Dragosits. Some purists may object to her extraction of individual movements from larger works by these German composers, but in reality many of these are pieces which are rarely played in their entirety anyway, and I found myself more intrigued by their shared and contrasting moods and idioms than by their lack of musical context. If sometimes the mood is slightly ‘souped up’ by Dragosits’ occasionally mannered presentation and changes of stops in mid-piece, I found myself less critical of this than you might expect, and by contrast I was engaged by the range of timbres she found in her remarkable instrument. Also, we shouldn’t underestimate the avant garde nature of some of this music from the late Baroque, a period when keyboard composers particularly were experimenting with unexpected harmonic progressions and melodic lines – perhaps they too were keen to emphasise these features in their performances. It was curious to find the constituent materials of the harpsichord – ‘diverse wood and metal, ivory, tortoise-shell’ (both mercifully long dead) – listed in the notes, but as the several illustrations in the booklet reveal this is a stunningly handsome instrument to look at as well as to listen to.

D. James Ross

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Lully’s followers in Germany

Lully's followers in Germany

El Gran Teatro del Mundo
68:24
Ambronay AMY314

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At first glance it may seem odd to have a Telemann ouverture-suite alongside works by the first-wave of lullists in germanic lands, but this is a perfect lesson in musicology, where the date that a work was copied does not imply its actual date of inception. This particular suite (TWV55: Es4) belongs to a small handful to have been transmitted through keyboard settings, some just a few movements (TWV55: E1 and E2) that long pre-date the copied versions; here we know that Bach’s eldest brother, Johann Christoph made a complete keyboard copy in the “Andreas Bach book” c.1708-12. Thus, the original may be from Telemann’s student days in Leipzig (1701-5) or when he was in the employ of count Erdmann von Promnitz at Sorau (1705-8). Compilations of Lully’s works first began to appear in 1682, when Jean Philippe Heus published two collections called: Ouvertures avec tous les airs, extracts from Cadmus et Hermione and Persée.

These works were the creative catalyst for the succession of germanic Lullistes to begin to capture the livel y“theatrical style” and place it into their own compositions; Kusser, Erlebach, Fischer, Fux, Muffat, Aufschnaiter and Steffani did just that. The early Telemann suite fits into this timeline just behind the first-wave of composers. Muffat studied under Lully for six years, and absorbed a great deal from source. This was at the very beginning of the vibrant cosmopolitan blend in music known as vermischter Geschmach or Gouts Réunis (“Mixed Taste”).

The disc opens with a fairly well known G-minor sonata (concerto grosso) from Muffat’s “Armonico tributo”, given a rather playful interpretation with fewer strings than we may have been accustomed to hearing, yet with attractive additions of oboe and recorder and an actively strumming theorbo to bolster the basso continuo section. The overall effect is much slighter, and the graves aren’t in any way onerous or overbearing.

Next the splendid Suite no1 in C from Fischer’s Journal du printemps (1695), again a lovely flowing, dulcet interpretation which makes for very clear melodic lines, especially in the unfolding final chaconne. Following on, another later Muffat work Nobilis Juventus from his 1698 Florilegium Secundum which does have a certain theatrical flair, well captured by the ensemble’s delicate tones.

Closing with the (nine-movement!) Telemann suite, originally for strings, we can hear the neat interplay of French, Italian and Polish elements from an early date. The Entree is a direct adoption from French opera, often employed for scenic changes. The menuets are wonderfully done here, before a far-too-ponderous, introspective reading of the loure (twice as long as the version on Carus 83.337!) followed by a vibrant italianate gigue, and a fine set of the bourrees. Next, a playful, neatly done polonaise and cheekily inserted “prelude” (Not original, not needed!) before the Aria, which I again felt was in too slow to be fully emotive. Lastly – in vivid contrast – the blithesome passepieds.

All are played with a polished delicatesse and relish, just waning in the latter slower movements of the final suite, yet overall capturing the essence of the emergent “mixed taste” with cosmopolitan flair.

David Bellinger

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Mozart: Sonatas for violin & piano

CD cover Mozart sonatas for violin and piano Hanson Arthur

K. 301, 304-306, 454
Peter Hanson violin, Andrew Arthur fortepiano
79:07
resonus RES10281

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It must be something of a disappointment to violin players that so much of the music that Mozart wrote for their instrument is from his youth, and that these early sonatas and concertos sound a little trivial. This is thrown into further relief by the wonderfully idiomatic writing for violin in his larger-scale chamber music and in the superb Sinfonia concertante. The renowned period violinist Peter Hanson teams up here with the equally celebrated fortepianist Andrew Arthur in effervescent performances of three of the six sonatas ‘for harpsichord or fortepiano with accompaniment for a violin’ K 301, K304 and K305. The balance in interest between the two instruments is not quite as clear-cut as the title suggests, but it does mean that the fortepiano takes a relatively active part in proceedings. Composed for and played by Maria Elisabeth Auguste, Kurfürstin of the Palatinate, with Mozart at the keyboard, the violin part places moderate technical demands on the aristocratic protégé, and yet there is a feeling that this relatively superficial music is designed to present Maria in a flattering light and to promote Mozart’s application for a job. With the fourth Sonata performed here, the later Bb major Sonata K454, we are in a different world entirely. Composed for the professional violin virtuoso, Regina Strinasacchi, a product of the rigorous training at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice associated previously with Vivaldi, this music is much more technically and intellectually demanding. It has a particularly exquisite and inventive Andante, but is generally in a different league from the earlier pieces. As I have suggested, the performances by Hanson and Arthur are impeccably musical and charmingly involving, even in the lighter early material, but they truly come into their own in the K454 Sonata, where Mozart provides them with something to get their teeth into.

D. James Ross

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Prisma: Il Transilvano

CD cover Ambronay Prisma Il transilvano

Musical bridges between Italy and Hungary around 1600
Works from the Codex Caioni and Hungarian folk music
57:55
Ambronay AMY312

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This beautifully performed CD alternates Italian music of the late Renaissance with traditional Hungarian music. What it doesn’t do, unsurprisingly, is provide ‘musical bridges between Italy and Hungary around 1600’. The Transilvano of the title illustrates the problem. It is borrowed from a famous organ treatise by Girolamo Diruta (Venice 1593) dedicated to Sigismond Báthory, Prince of Transylvania, but of course the music the group plays from this collection, notwithstanding some ‘Hungarianised’ divisions, sounds entirely Italian. So too the music from Codex Caioni which makes up most of the rest of the Italian component. Amongst others, Renée Clemencic has demonstrated that there is Hungarian music from this period, but the Hungarian traditional music here, beautifully evocative as it is, seems not to be from 16th- or 17th –century sources. As long as you are not looking for some magical musical ‘bridge’ between 17th-century Italy and Hungary, there is much to enjoy here, from the plaintive Hungarian violin airs and the lovely singing of Franciska Hajdu in the Hungarian ballad Magos kösziklának, to the imaginative and fresh accounts of the Italian Renaissance repertoire. There is nothing wrong with playing the divisions in this early repertoire with a Transylvanian flair, but to my ear it still sounds entirely Italian.  

D. James Ross

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Time Zones: Satie, Scheidt

CD cover Satie Scheidt Time Zones Lautten Compagney

Lautten Compagney, Wolfgang Katschner
70:34
deutsche harmonia mundi 1 94398 07952 3

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The wonderfully energetic accounts of the instrumental music of Samuel Scheidt as well as some of his sacred music in instrumental performances are well worth buying this CD for. The very conscious scoring of this music provides a huge number of different timbres and textures from a large consort of wind string and percussion instruments, and while some might doubt whether this degree of processing ever happened in Scheidt’s lifetime, the results are compelling and delightful. The pairing of these performances with the quirky, haunting and slightly weird music of Erik Satie may seem eccentric, and indeed it is. A saxophone is added to the pantheon of early instruments to create equally heavily processed accounts of what in most cases were piano pieces. Due to these clever arrangements by Bo Wiget, these too are constantly intriguing, while the excellent musicianship of the members of Lautten Compagney ensures that they are all utterly convincing. Once the programme gets underway, the juxtaposition of Scheidt and Satie, particularly the former’s motets and the latter’s Pièces Froides, is genuinely uncanny. However, I am not sure that it is a juxtaposition that throws any additional light on either repertoire, and tempting as it is to do something just because it is possible, the eccentricity of mastering 17th-century instruments so completely that you can play 20th-century repertoire seems something of a non sequitur. I don’t want to sound a HIP bore, and this CD is a lot of fun, and all of the arrangements and performances are stunningly effective.

D. James Ross

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Englishman in Tyrol

CD cover of Englishman in Tyrol

Viol music by William Young
Enemble Art d’Echo, Juliane Laake
64:02
Querstand VKJK 2003

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One of the most celebrated gambists in his own lifetime and for some time after, the reputation of William Young has since declined into complete obscurity. Spending his life at the court of Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Innsbruck, Young had probably travelled with his employer from the Netherlands, where he was previously governor, having perhaps sought asylum there earlier in the 17th century from Cromwellian England, where his Catholicism would have made life dangerous. His quirky music for strings, mainly viols, while not as eccentric as that of Tobias Hume, recalls the nonconformity of that itinerant Scotsman – is it possible that the absence of any trace of Young in England may suggest that he too might have been a Scotsman? At any rate, Young proved indispensable at the Tyrolean court, taking centre stage at several large-scale celebrations. The present CD with its excellent programme note and varied and beautifully played programme, presenting a cross-section of Young’s work and peppered with world premier recordings, does much to restore this remarkable musician’s reputation. But what is it about musicians left to their own devices in recording studios? This CD has a bonus track of free improvisation at the end, which turns out to be a riff on Sting’s ‘Englishman in New York’, but which sadly adds nothing to the project. Worse still, was the oddly ungrammatical title substituted for the more natural ‘An Englishman in the Tyrol’ simply to facilitate this bit of self-indulgence? I forgive them, because the rest of the CD and its presentation are so good.

D. James Ross

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Uccellini: Sonate op. 4 – Michelangelo Rossi: Toccate e Correnti

CD cover Arparla play Rossi and Uccellini

Arparla (Davide Monti violin, Maria Christina Cleary double harp, Alberto Rasi gamba, violone, Rogério Gonçalves dulcian)
79:25
Stradivarius STR 37166

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This delightful programme, thought up and researched during lockdown, juxtaposes sonatas for solo violin and continuo by Marco Uccellini with toccatas and correnti by Michelangelo Rossi, scored for organ and harpsichord but played here on arpa doppia by Maria Christina Cleary. The harp also combines forces with a viola da gamba/violone and occasionally a dulcian to provide the continuo for the Uccellini, and proves a wonderfully effective member of the continuo team. The first seven of the 14 sonatas for violin and continuo of Marco Uccellini’s opus 4 have character names which determines their nature. While Uccellini arrived in Modena in 1630 and stayed for the rest of his life, Rossi is only known to have made a flying visit in 1638, and it is not even known whether the two met, although it seems unlikely that two such renowned violin vituosi would not have sought one another out. The arpa doppia, with its enhanced ability to play the full gamut, comes into its own in Rossi’s daring Toccata settima, with its chains of chromatic scales. This imaginative music from the first half of the 17th century is beautifully and very musically played by the musicians of Arparla, and it comes as a revelation how versatile a consort member the harp can be as well as how pleasing a solo instrument. This project is an encouraging example of how the enforced inactivity of lockdown can bear rich fruit.

D. James Ross