Tag: Chamber music

Ensemble la Française
71:07
musica ficta MF8034

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Inspired by Telemann’s superb examples, a handful of French composers wrote quartets for the flute/violin/viol/bc combination. Guillemain, one of the most notable violinists of his day, actually wrote two sets, his Op.12 and then this set Op.17 (1756), elaborate re-workings of his Op.13 harpsichord and violin Pièces. He set out to create Conversations galantes et amusantes and absolutely succeeded in this aim. The music is endlessly engaging and there is a real sense of joy in the performances, particularly in the little moments where one instrument offers a musical contradiction to others already playing. And it’s not all froth. Lovers of counterpoint (like me!) will not be disappointed.

And the booklet gives us what we need in decent English (as well as its original French). Hallelujah!

David Hansell

Tedi Papavrami
138:00 (2CDs in a card triptych)
Alpha 756

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Seventeen years on from his first recording of the Sei Soli, Tedi Papavrami, the Albanian and French educated violinist playing a fairly new violin by Christian Bayon (Lisbon 2015) and using a bow by Jean Marie Persoit (Paris c.1830) found himself in lockdown returning to Bach. With many concerts cancelled, and a violin that was making what he described as a ‘more luminous sound’ than the one he used for his recording in 2005, he chose the Arsenal at Metz to make a new recording that was more spare, and pruned of showy excesses.

Jacques Drillon, writing in the liner notes quotes the film director Robert Bresson as saying, ‘One does not create by adding, but by subtracting’.

The lockdown return to Bach has given Papavrami a sharpened sense of the essential nature of these remarkable pieces, where the bass is always implied, though never stated, and less is somehow more. So this is a new and leaner Papavrami, dispensing with vibrato for the most part and positioning himself in the space between Milstein and Kuijken, but eschewing the bravura and showmanship associated with an earlier generation of famous solo violinists.

He plays a modern instrument at A=440, so in no way is this an ‘early music’ performance and cannot be compared with the light-fingered, dancing recordings made by Rachel Podger. Instead, we hear a sober and thoughtful account with no frills that lets the music speak for itself rather than showcase an individual’s personality. By contrast, I find Jacques Drillon’s booklet essay – apparently delving into the changing mindset of Papavrami to explain his new take – rather personality-centred. It diverts us from the music, with the many questions that the Sei soli raise – three Italian-style sonatas and three French-style suites – only glancingly mentioned.

But there are other good points: the giving (rather than resonant) acoustic of the Arsenal in Metz (where Christine Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata recorded their Monteverdi Vespers in 2010) is splendid, and the pacing and attention to phrasing is all good. But my own preference is for a lighter bow-stroke and more attention to the harmonic superstructure offered by a less equal temperament.

David Stancliffe

Ludus Instrumentalis, Evgeny Sviridov
69:57
RIC 426

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This well-played CD collects the surviving trio sonatas of Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, and begins with one formerly attributed to his teacher, J. S. Bach, when it was known as BWV 1037: we soon see why. Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was introduced to Goldberg as a child keyboard prodigy at Dresden in 1737, when he had been brought there aged 10 by Count von Keyserlingk from his natal Danzig. It was probably W. F. who supervised his initial studies in Dresden, though Johann Sebastian certainly taught him after he moved to Leipzig in 1746 and the set of variations for the insomniac Keyserlingk bears his name.

Goldberg died of consumption in 1756, having lived in Leipzig and then after moving back to Dresden on Keyserlingk’s return in 1749, before entering the service of Count Heinrich von Brühl in 1751, where he composed virtuoso harpsichord concertos in the gallant style and a number of chamber works. His surviving cantatas, written when he was 15 (and also recorded by Ricercar), ‘display an astonishing skill in the use of imitation and fugato’ when writing for chorus. J. F. Reichardt, writing at the end of the 18th century, placed him on the same level as Bach and Handel.

Many of these techniques are displayed in these chamber works, which include four trio sonatas, a prelude and fugue in G minor and a sonata for two violins, viola and basso continuo in C minor.

Ludus Instrumentalis is a group of young players led by Evgeny Sviridov who have made some Youtube videos to illustrate their work. Their instruments are fully listed in the liner notes, and their mellow harpsichord is by Zander (2017) after Dulcken. I find the balance excellent and the playing attentive, bringing out the counterpoint well and allowing us to hear the detail as the melodic interest shifts among the instruments.

I found this CD an eye-opener. Goldberg’s writing is astonishingly more like Johann Sebastian’s than anyone else among their contemporaries. Included is a Prelude and Fugue which illustrates what the 48 might look like if they had been written for this standard chamber combination rather than a keyboard. And even if the other trio sonatas show more chromaticism and display a more tortured and involved counterpoint as Goldberg explores a more gallant approach to thematic material – this sometimes seems to herald the approach of a more romantic period – the facility in part-writing is assured and those who do not know this music will learn a lot about where music might have gone had this extraordinary talent not been snuffed out at the age of 29.

You will enjoy this CD, as well as being surprised by Goldberg: please listen to it.

David Stancliffe

OVNI Baroque
Emmanuelle Dauvin violin & organ
60:45
Hitsura HSP 007

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This unusual CD explores the real and implied harmonic resonances in selected works by Biber and Bach. The performer is the French violinist Emmanuelle Dauvin, who while exploring the Bach works for solo violin found herself fascinated by the polyphonic implications and was led back to Biber’s sonatas and their sparse bass lines. How could she bring out the implied harmonic structure line in Biber’s Rosary sonatas with their extravagant and varied tuning? OVNI Baroque is short for “Orgue & Violon Nouvelle Interprétation”, and this takes its inspiration from her hero, Nicholas Bruhns, who was said to have played the organ and violin simultaneously.

How is that possible? Her answer is to use her feet, as Bruhns is said to have done. And so, beginning with the pedal points held in Biber’s Annunciation Sonata, she began playing some simple pedal passages as she played the violin. In addition to the Partita BWV 1002, she includes one piece of Bach, BWV 1023, the ‘Sonata a Violino solo col Basso’, where she plays the slow moving bass line on the organ, leaving its implied harmonies to be suggested by the rich harmonic overtones of the Montre 8’ – or is it the Pédale 8’ Basse? – and the church’s acoustics combined, and I had half been expecting her to add some of the implied bass line in the Partita prima a violin solo senza Basso (BWV 1002) which she divides into two, but she plays it straight, and is clearly committed to HIP.

She plays an instrument by Fabien Peyruk after Amati (2015), but switches for the Nativité sonata to a violin by André Mehler after Stainer (2010). The organ in the church at Guignicourt (Aisne) was built by Jean Daldosso in 2003, and is in the north transept whose details you can see on this website:

https://www.villeneuve-sur-aisne.fr/decouvrir-guignicourt/lorgue-jean-daldosso

And the playing? I found the recorded sound in the church harmonically rich and curiously satisfying. The clear and firm basso feels quite sufficient in the Biber sonatas, and I applaud her attention to the basic resonance of the church. It is an interesting take, and easy to listen to. The accompanying glossy booklet has a quality feel to it, but manages to say very little about the music and a great deal about Dauvin’s feelings. It is a very French experience, and violinists in particular will be intrigued.

David Stancliffe

Myriam Rignol viole de gambe
73:98 [sic] + 81:36 (in a card triptych)
Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS040

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Myriam Rignol plays with Les Arts Florissants, Raphaël Pichon’s Ensemble Pygmalion and The Ricercar Consort (Phillipe Pierlot) as well as a number of other classy groups and has recorded the Bach ‘cello suites – pour le viola de Basso as the earliest copy by Kellner from 1726 indicates – on the viola da gamba. In spite of the title given to this recording project and the many photographs of Versailles and of Rignol there with her instrument, the recording was made last November in la Cité de la Voix de Vézelay.

She points out in a conversation in the booklet that for the very French-style suites, Bach might well have had the sound world of the gamba and its noted French exponents in mind. And in his foreword, Giles Cantagrel rehearses how uncertain we are about just what the violoncello was becoming in the early years of the 18th century. We know that Bach disliked the stiff way in which the ‘cello was played in Leipzig, and preferred a more viola-type of instrument to play passagework more lightly. Was this a bassetgen (which Gerber said Bach had invented around 1724 for just this purpose – the so-called viola pomposa – one of which was in Bach’s possession when he died) or the violoncello da spalla or the violoncello piccolo? Certainly, the final suite needs an instrument other than the present-day ‘cello, so why not use the favoured French instrument for these very ‘French-style’ pieces?

And the results seem to justify this choice. Not only is her French viole de gambe a fine instrument in its own right (and although photographed several times, there are no details of its maker or provenance), but it gives life to the implied polyphony of so much of the music in a new and convincing way in her capable hands. She plays unfettered by a tradition of interpretation, and the freedom and lightness she brings suits the dance-like quality of the music well: it is about as far from Pablo Casals as you could get! I like it a lot, and hope that other gamba players will want to embrace the ‘cello suites in their repertoire.

David Stancliffe

Anne Schumann violin, Klaus Voigt viola da spalla, Sebastian Knebel harpsichord
67:40
GENUIN GEN 21738

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Recorded in the pleasingly resonant acoustic of the Weinbergkirche Dresden, these six violin sonatas by the Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt court composer, Johannes Graf powerfully demonstrate the very high standards of music-making at regional courts of early 18th-century Germany. A near contemporary and friend of Telemann, Graf exhibits the former’s endlessly inventive imagination, at the same time defying categorisation as belonging to the school of Schmelzer or Biber. Consistently Italianate in flavour and regularly evoking the spirit of Vivaldi, these engaging pieces are played with great mastery by this gifted ensemble. Playing an 18th-century violin by Leopold Widhalm of Nürnberg, Anne Schumann produces a gleaming tone which adds extra power to her eloquent performances, while she is very ably supported by Klaus Voigt and Sebastian Knebel. Voigt plays a viola da spalla, a modern copy by André Mehler of Leipzig of an original instrument of 1730 by J C Hoffmann. Although it is hard to imagine from its rich bass tone, the viola da spalla is a relatively small instrument, played across the chest and held in position by a strap around the back. Perhaps an offshoot of the bowed continuo instruments of the previous century provided with a slot in their backs to house a toggle, permitting them to be carried and played in procession, the viola da spalla seems like the solution to any number of cello issues! These performances are exciting and wonderfully musical, and make a strong case for the importance in the history of music for solo violin of this nowadays practically unknown composer.

D. James Ross