Tag: Chamber music

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Haydn: String Quartets, op. 76

CD cover of London Haydn Quartet Hyperion recording of op 76

The London Haydn Quartet
153:29 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
hyperion CDA68335

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Few other than benighted beings like record critics are likely to listen closely to all six quartets of Haydn’s opus 76 in one sitting, especially in performances as well endowed with repeats as these by The London Haydn Quartet. Yet to undertake such a task is to marvel again at the richness of invention and almost kaleidoscopic variety found in this remarkable set of works, composed as the result of a commission by Count Joseph Erdődy, the chancellor at the Hungarian court in Pressburg (Bratislava). Probably commenced in 1796, the year after Haydn returned from the second of his two London visits, they were completed the following year and published in London and Vienna in 1799. Curiously for such late works, the original autograph disappeared completely; the present recording employs those first editions.

In some ways, the set consolidates those of opp 71 and 74 that Haydn wrote in London, works in which Haydn took a genre previously identified with the salon into the concert hall. Like them, the quartets of op 76 contain many passages of almost orchestral sonority, the tersely powerful chordal passage that opens the Presto finale of No 3 in C being a particularly striking example. In other ways, it seems that even in his late 60s the mature Haydn is still probing, experimenting with new ideas. Both No 1 in G and No 6 in E flat for the first time have presto minuets that are scherzos by any other name, a new conception that carries through to the two quartets of op 77 (1799). Yet possibly the most notable aspect of all is the impression given time after time that here is a mature composer at the pinnacle of his powers, a composer happy to engage with supreme contrapuntal writing of a kind we sometimes fail properly to acknowledge in Haydn’s works – listen for example to the canonic writing in the so-called ‘Witches Minuet’ of the D-minor Quartet (No 2) or the wonderful 3-part counterpoint and chromaticism in the third of the variations on the ‘Emperor’s Hymn’ (the C-major Quartet). There are, too, movements in which Haydn seems to have captured an inner repose given only to those at peace with themselves and the world. The ineffably lovely Largo of No 5 in D comes immediately into the mind, surely the music of a man that has found such peace, a peace ruffled only momentarily by darker thoughts before returning to utter tranquillity, qualities also found in the Adagio that gives the ‘Sunrise’ its name (No 4 in B flat). This being Haydn, humour and the folk element that reminds us of his humble beginnings are never far away, sometimes found together. The finale of the B-flat Quartet, for instance, is a cheeky east-European folk-song that surely cries out to have bawdy words fitted to it. And this would equally not be Haydn without the odd surprise. The D-major Quartet opens with an easy-going allegretto that has a Schubertian air of insouciance, proceeding in this fashion until a sudden allegro bursts out to take the same thematic material into an entirely unexpected and more brutal world.     

The performances of this glorious music – and there is so much more that could be said about it – are in general extremely rewarding, attaining the same level of musicality that I praised in the ensemble’s recording of op 64 I reviewed for this site. Tempos are in the main sensible and well-judged, though for me some of the slow movements are taken just that shade too slowly. That wonderful Largo of No 5 is a case in point, but it is so beautifully drawn forgiveness is not difficult. Otherwise, my main caveat would be that, as with the op 64 recording, dynamic contrasts might have been made more of. But the playing is technically of a high order and the excellent balance also adds to the pleasures of a set that will delight anyone collecting a complete cycle now nearing completion.

Brian Robins      

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Sheet music

Antonio Bononcini: Six Chamber Cantatas (1708)

Antonio Bononcini Six Chamber Cantatas (1708) RRMBE 212

Works for Soprano or Alto with Two Flutes, Bassoon, and Basso continuo from A-Wn, Mus.Hs.17587
Edited by Lawrence Bennett
Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, 212
xv, 3, 162pp. ISBN 978-1-9872-0533-6. $190

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One of four manuscripts of cantatas by Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677–1726), Mus.Hs.17587 contains three works each for solo soprano and alto with two recorders and basso continuo. The fact that it is only acknowledged in a footnote that the upper woodwinds are NOT flutes makes me suspicious of everything else about the edition. For example, the fact that Mus.Hs.15931/7–9 contain parts, one of which is for bassoon, does not of itself give these sufficient authority to include a separate line throughout the edition as if it were an obbligato instrument. To me, a far more sensible solution would have been to add [senza Fag.] instructions above those passages where the wind instrument should drop out – by the editor’s own admission, these (and, indeed, the score) are the work of a professional copyist, not the composer, after all.

Each cantata has either three or four movements (the latter adding a recitative before the first aria). In one of the arias in each cantata, there is only one line for recorders; in cantata 2, this is marked as a Recorder 1 solo, while both instruments play in unison (as they do in other Viennese cantatas of the period, by Caldara, for example) in the others. There is no denying the quality of the music; Bononcini knew well how to write both for the voice and for instruments. No points for guessing the subject matter, or for imagining that they are open to some very dramatic performances! Singers will need to combine their acting skills with some real vocal agility, and the recorder players, in particular, will require nimble fingers!

Brian Clark

* Parts are available from the publishers for $68.

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Recording

Mancini: XII Solos, London 1724

CD cover of Mancini XII solos Armonia delle Sfere

Armonia delle Sfere
115:46 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
Tactus TC 671390

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These ‘Solos for a Violin or Flute’, (incidentally not ‘a Violin of Flute’ as it appears on the cover and back of the CD) are actually fully-fledged sonatas in four movements, and some of the most ambitious and successful chamber music Mancini composed. Famous during his lifetime for his operas and church music, Mancini operated in the musically rich environment of Naples, and is sadly one of the many such composers whose reputation has suffered an almost complete eclipse in ensuing centuries. On the basis of these solo sonatas, it is hard to see why this is: they are charmingly accessible, consistently inventive and idiomatically written for the recorder. Daniele Salvatore by alternating two treble recorders with a voice flute, a sopranino recorder and a transverse flute, dispenses with the need for the violin alternative option. I find his vibrato (particularly in the free unaccompanied introductory episodes) a little extreme, and he has the annoying habit of occasionally overblowing so as to ‘jam’ high notes, although elsewhere he plays more sympathetically and has an impressive technique. Two of Mancini’s keyboard toccatas, essentially study pieces rather than concert works, provide a little textural variety, while the move to sopranino recorder and the introduction of a guitar into the continuo ensemble really switches things up a notch for the final sonata. It is good to see Italian ensembles exploring their considerable national Baroque heritage, and Mancini sounds likes a composer worthy of attention.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Mozart: Serenades

CD cover Mozart sereandes McGegan Capella Savaria


Capella Savaria, Nicholas McGegan
69:30
Hungaroton HCD 32850

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These performances of the Haffner Serenade K250/248b and the Serenata Notturna K. 234 are part of the complete recording of music by Mozart for solo violin and orchestra played by Zsolt Kalló and the Capella Savaria. As the relatively low Köchel numbers suggest, these are works from Mozart’s Salzburg period, but already the young Mozart seems dissatisfied to write conventional Unterhaltungsmusik, incorporating unexpected movements featuring solo violin, which he may well have played himself. One of these is the perky trio to a darkly foreboding minuet, which would not be out of place in one of the late great symphonies. It is not difficult to picture the young genius already chafing at the bit of his conventional role in Salzburg and longing for the challenges of Vienna. The Bartók Concert Hall in Szombathely provides a nicely resonant acoustic for some delightfully idiomatic playing from the Capella and their soloist. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the Capella Savaria was the first period instrument group in Hungary, and has traditionally harnessed the innate talents of this very musical nation in the service of period performance.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Edinburgh 1742: Barsanti & Handel, Parte Seconda

CD cover Edinburgh 1742 Ensemble Marsyas Parte seconda

Ensemble Marsyas, Peter Whelan
51:51
Linn Records CKD 626

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This is the second of a pair of CDs evoking the lively world of the 18th-century Musical Society of Edinburgh and bringing us the balance of Barsanti’s op 3 Concerti Grossi, those featuring solo trumpet and two oboes, as well as another four of his Old Scots Tunes and music by Handel. Barsanti’s treatment of the wind instruments in these Concerti Grossi, published in Edinburgh in 1742 just before the Jacobite Uprising, sounds very classical in style, alternating them as a section augmented by timpani with the strings. Perhaps more innovative still and unexpected are the more structurally free slow movements. The four Old Scots Tunes are charmingly played by Colin Scobie – a member of the Maxwell and Fitzwilliam Quartets, in encore slots Colin frequently demonstrates his considerable traditional fiddle skills, and these are very much to the fore here as he is joined by Elizabeth Kenny on the Baroque Guitar for stirring accounts of ‘Dumbarton’s drums’, ‘Ettrick banks’, ‘The bush aboon Traquair’ and ‘Cornriggs are bonnie’. Handel’s Overture to ‘Atalanta’ serves to illustrate a very different treatment of the trumpet and indeed a very different style of composition, notwithstanding that Handel and Barsanti were contemporaries and acquaintances. These works by Barsanti, in an edition from Prima la Musica, provide a valuable counterbalance to our sometimes Handel-dominated and London-centric view of the mid 18th century, and it would be interesting to hear accounts of his later publications, which include a set of six motets for five or six voices and continuo (1750) and his Trio Sonatas op 6 (1769). On first listening, I found the recorded sound a little cramped, but then the Musical Society concerts were presented in the ‘upper room of St Mary’s Chapel, Niddry Wynd’ until 1763 when they moved into the superb surroundings of St Cecilia’s Hall. At any rate, I soon adapted my ear, and the amount of detail captured in the recordings is indeed impressive.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Couperin: Suites Royales

CD Encelade Couperin Suites royales

Claire Gautrot viola da gamba, Marouan Mankar-Bennis harpsichord
76:00
encelade ECL 1902

It is understandable that Couperin’s keyboard oeuvre should over-shadow the rest of his output but the chamber music is scarcely disappointing! Here we have two suites originally designated for viol avec la basse chiffrée (pub. 1728) and one of the 1722 Concerts Royaux, for which any suitable melodic instruments can be used. Each suite is followed by a complementary movement from the harpsichord livres.

I regularly question the need for the multiplicity of continuo instruments we often hear in this repertoire so it is something of a relief to note that in this recital a harpsichord shows that it can do the job on its own – and rather well. Variety of texture, in particular, is used to great effect and the recorded balance is unfailingly excellent.

And so is the playing. The plangent tone of the viol, its infinite capacity for tonal shading and ability to convey delicate filigree makes it an ideal voice for this exquisite music. I defy anyone not to be tempted to repeat Pompe Funèbre, possibly more than once. So, if you share my love of the French Baroque, and even if you don’t, this is very rewarding listening, helped on its way by a sensible and quite substantial essay (in French and English).

David Hansell

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Recording

Le coucher du roi

CD cover Le coucher du Roi


thibault Roussel theorbo and director
Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS029
74:00 (CD) 59:00 (DVD)

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The conceit here is that, in the evening of both the day and his life, the aged Louis XIV has summoned his favourite musicians to play him his favourite music as part of the formalities surrounding his retiring for the night. So we have a lovely programme of (mainly) short pieces by the usual suspects: Lully and Lalande, of course, but also Lambert, de Visée, Marais and even that relatively youthful upstart, François Couperin. The instrumentation includes voices, flutes, strings and assorted pluckers in a wide variety of ensembles and solos, offering a rich panoply of sumptuous sounds – three bass viols, two viols with singer and theorbo etc., etc..Quite frankly, this ensemble can come and play to me at any old time of any day! The performances are unfailingly lovely and show great commitment to a repertoire that is still a mystery to many. Yes, I’ll probably have a growl about some questionably over-staffed continuo departments, but the growls will be quiet ones.

The DVD contains some of the repertoire from the CD but also additional pieces (fine chamber music by Hotteterre and Dornel, for instance), all filmed in various atmospheric locations within the Château de Versailles. And, in contrast to some concert DVDs I have seen, someone has actually thought about what it looks like! The singers have memorised their music and, even if they don’t fully act their scenes, they do at least inter-act with each other in a convincing quasi-dramatic way. However, when the final credits roll brace yourself! The accompanying music is not allowed to finish but is chopped off mid-phrase as soon as the text ends.

The 72-page booklet (in French, English and German) offers the usual performer biographies and essays on the music that place it informatively in its context though say little about its content. There is no list of the music on the DVD though there are captions as it plays.

Overall this is a very good package, though that DVD end should never have achieved publication. A shame.

David Hansell

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Recording

Tormenti d’amore

Soprano cantatas from 1740s Vienna

Philipp Mathmann, Capella Jenensis, Gerd Amelung
82:13 (2 CDs in a card triptych)
Querstand VKJK 2002
Music by Hasse, Porsile, Reutter the Younger & Scalabrini

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This set is centred around a collection of vocal music made by Prince Anton Ulrich of Saxe-Meinigen during the period he spent in Vienna, where he apparently arrived in 1724. Apparently, since the notes rather ambiguously tell us that the collection, consisting of nearly 300 vocal works, including over 170 chamber cantatas, were works from ‘Vienna’s musical scene composed between 1710 and 1740’. So the assumption would be that Anton Ulrich spent around 20 years of his life in Vienna. More importantly, many of the works in the Meinigen Archive are the sole surviving copy, including the best music in the programme, the two characteristically melodious and elegantly turned cantatas by Hasse. The cantata by Georg Reutter, the Court Composer of Vienna and Kapellmeister of St Stephen’s Cathedral who brought Haydn to Vienna, and the Neapolitan opera composer Giuseppe Porsile are less interesting, the former in particular also suffering from an excruciating anonymous text on the prevailing topic of the cantatas – tormenti d’amore, the torments of love.

In addition to the cantatas, the set includes two trio sonatas by Hasse and two sinfonias once surprisingly attributed to Hasse, but more recently established as the work of the Italian-born Paolo Scalabrini (1713-1803 or 6), the director of the travelling Mingotti opera company, who ended up as maestro di cappella in Copenhagen, where he composed at least eight operas, including several Danish-language works that helped establish native opera. They are pleasant enough routine Galant works in three brief movements but little more and assuredly not worthy of Hasse’s name being attached to them.

The programme itself is therefore not without interest, but sadly the performances rarely rise beyond the level of the efficient and in the case of the cantatas fail to reach that level.  Philipp Mathmann, confusingly described as a countertenor/soprano, is in fact a sopranist pure and simple. While the voice has an admirable purity and wide range, it is unfailingly hooty in its upper range, while also displaying deficient technique in several respects. Little ability to articulate a simple turn is shown, while more complex embellishment or ornamentation is rarely attempted. What truly compromises Mathmann’s performances, however, is his seeming lack of interest in the texts he is singing. None is a literary revelation but the whole object of the chamber cantata was to move the listener, evoking sentiment and emotion through expressive vocal gesture and realization of the words. Ignore that and you may as well be singing a vocalise, which is precisely the impression given here for much of the time.  

The instrumental contribution of Capella Jenensis is rather more enjoyable, though rhythms tend to plod in slower movements. The Hasse trio sonatas, in particular, are well played, with pleasing shaping of melodic lines from the two violinists and – in that in D, op. 2/2 – flautist. The programme, almost exactly the length possible today on a single CD, is extravagantly spread over two discs so it is to be hoped that some price concession is built in.

Brian Robins

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Recording

Telemann: 3 Overture Suites

CD cover of Telemann L'Orfeo Barockorchester

L’Orfeo Barockorchester, Carin van Heerden
66:11
cpo 555 389-2
TWV 55: G1, G5 & B13

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Every once and a while, along comes a recording that fires on all cylinders with a special synergy and bubbling musical alchemy, matching the finest ideals of music-making, and presents the dazzling facets of a composer’s subtle, creative nuances and whims.

Here the players of L’Orfeo Barockorchester under Carin van Heerden deploy their boundless energy and polished musicality to great effect, creating some truly wonderful moments of euphonic transport. The well-honed Orchester navigate through Telemann’s many subtleties and scenic changes with seemingly effortless fluency.

The three fairly lengthy suites date from just before or during his time in Frankfurt, offering tremendous scope for the composer’s imaginative musical, operatic esprit. The Frankfurt connection may well be present in TWV55:G5’s “Les Augures” (oracles, portents? – note those shuddering winces! – possibly (bad?) financial omens at the Stockmarket, which stood next to Telemann’s home).  The delightful Rondeau(x) is an addictive Ohrwurm! Normally, a Gigue might close a suite, not here, carrying on until a delightful sweep of no fewer than *three* Menuets. The ravishing kaleidoscopic tour moves on with some arresting slower movements too: Plaintes (B13, G5).

The recorded sound here is just about perfect, every timbral shade is found and heard. Despite the claims, the TWV55:B13 (c1725?) is the only real premiere – G5 came on a slightly earlier Atma CD, and there is a recording of G1 possibly from late 80s?

A highlight of the premiered work, the tender and sprightly interplay of solo violin (Julia Huber-Warzecha), two oboes and tutti, is rather special and gives a very different opening. Placing the gigue in second place is unusuale! Special mention must go to the penultimate movement, given as “affectuoso e molto adagio” or as the oboe part has it: “Cantabile et Affectuoso” a truly captivating duet!

The opening suite (G1 of 1716-25?) opens with an attention-grabbing, curtains-up Overture, after which comes the exquisite quasi-Handelian Air: Document, which made me think, did he hear this and use it elsewhere? (Where’ere ye walk seems a likely candidate…) The other airs all feel like hidden arias or scenic mood music for the Leipzig stage.

All in all, this is a real tour de force, with added Italianate passages for a perfect musical assemblage. L’Orfeo Barockorchester is in excellent form. This is a must for all baroquophiles! Moments of wonder, wistfulness and elegiac tenderness wrapped in entrancing music. Probably my CD of 2020, heart on the sleeve, hand on the heart.

David Bellinger

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Recording

Serenissima

CD cover of The 1750 Project Serenissima Music in Venice in 1726

A Musical Portrait of Venice around 1726
Perrine Devillers (soprano), The 1750 Project
76:13
Ramée RAM 1902
Music by Porpora, Giuseppe Sammartini, D. Scarlatti & Vivaldi

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Explanation for the unusual name of the ensemble comes in the opening lines of the notes, where its leader, oboist Benoît Laurent, tells us that the declared objective of The 1750 Project is an exploration of a chosen city’s musical life in the period 1720 to 1750. So here they have commenced by landing in Venice around 1726. This is a time chosen to mark a change of style moving toward the Rococo, a development that in Venice doubtless gained particular impetus from the arrival in the Adriatic city in 1726 of the Neapolitan Nicola Porpora. His Ariana e Teseo, given at the San Giovanni Grisostomo theatre in 1727, was the third of a sequence of operas composed for Venice. ‘Pietosa Ciel difendimi’ is typical of the composer’s gracious, mellifluous style, an expansive cantabile aria with an elaborate oboe obbligato part in which the character (Carilda) asks for relief from the doubts about love that afflict her. It is sung with affecting freshness and elegance of line by the young French soprano Perrine Devillers, who needs only to articulate both musical embellishments and the Italian language with more depth and acuteness to become a truly outstanding singer. Devillers also sings a Porpora chamber cantata with continuo accompaniment cast in the form of a pair of arias with a central recitative, in the latter of which some of the key phrases (‘Ahi! Lasso!’) do indeed hint that Devillers has more to bring out as to the dramatic side of her singing.

The principal representative of the home team is unsurprisingly Vivaldi, who gets the lion’s share of a programme that includes two of his chamber cantatas, an oboe concerto and one of the so-called ‘Manchester’  violin sonatas. Both cantatas, ‘All’omba di sospetta’, RV 687, which has an obbligato part for flute, and ‘Che giova il sospirar’, RV 679 are also extremely well sung, the latter in particular being a fine work with, unusually, accompaniment for strings. It opens with an extended recitative bemoaning the pain inflicted by ‘cruel Irene’ that again provides Devillers with the opportunity to suggest a dramatic side to her singing yet to be fully developed. The splendid aria that follows is inflected with chromatic pain, while the fiery final aria takes a more rhetorical approach.

Arguably the most complete performance on the CD is that of the Violin Sonata in A, RV 758, which is played with outstanding technique and beautifully nuanced tone by Jacek Kurzydlo. Cast in four movements, it opens with a siciliana Prelude, taken perhaps marginally too slowly for a largo, but shaped so beautifully and with such exquisite nuance as to silence criticism. The following Corrente, nimble and spry, benefits from outstanding intonation, while the Andante’s double stopping introduces that elusive, folky element we sometimes find in Vivaldi, perhaps a dance heard in a distant calle.

The remaining works are also excellently done, the Vivaldi ‘Oboe’ Concerto in D minor, being a transcription of the ninth of the op. 8 violin concertos (Il Cimento dell’armonia e dell’invenzione), while Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in E, K. 162 plays with the contrasts between a thoughtful Andante that leads into a bright Allegro, in so doing creating a near mirror image between the two halves of its binary structure. Finally, Giuseppe Sammartini’s Oboe Sonata in C not only gives Laurent a further opportunity to demonstrate his prowess but also offers another example of more forward-looking trends, the tentative hesitancy of its central Andante lento providing the sonata’s most characterful moments.

The disc as whole makes for an extremely agreeable and well-contrasted program. With its highly accomplished playing and singing, it is the kind of concert that would send you away more than well satisfied were you fortunate enough to encounter it live.

Brian Robins