Tag: Chamber music

Odile Edouard violin & Freddy Eichelberger organ
162:15 3 CDs
Encelade ECL 1704

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An unexpected photo of the Railway Station in Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia, forms the cover of this well-presented 3CD recording of Bach entitled Trios pour clavier et violon. The three CDs are recorded using a different organ for each to which a different violin could be matched. Great care has been taken to find suitable organs built in the Thuringian style, though since most of the historic instruments are at Chörton (A=466hz) or higher, all three organs chosen for this project are all recent instruments at 440 or 415.

CD 1 opens with the Fantazia in C minor, BWV 562, played at A=440 on the 1997 organ by Denis Londe in Saint-Louis de Saint Étienne, after Silbermann, and chorale preludes in appropriate keys intersperse the violin works. The second organ (in the Temple de Boudry in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland) is a copy of the actual Silbermann organ in Großhartmansdorf, and the third is by Quentin Blumenroeder in the Temple du Foyer de l’Âme, Paris and is at A=415. Details of their specifications are given in the booklet, which is in French and English. Colour photographs of the three organs and of Edouard’s three violins – Klotz (1757), Bodart, after Stainer (2012) and Hofmans (c.1700) – are on the inner folds of the case.

The nine ‘violin’ sonatas recorded here are the set of six with an independent part in the keyboard’s right hand (BWV 1014-1019), plus two others that are not trios, but simply have a basso continuo (BWV 1021 and 1023 – more like an incipient suite) and BWV 1028, the D major sonata for viola da gamba, of which there is a Bach autograph for violin and keyboard. They make a good group, with their interspersed organ pieces, and are performed splendidly, given that you are happy with the keyboard instrument being an organ, not a harpsichord.

These CDs are celebrating thirty years of Edouard’s and Eichelberger’s longstanding friendship and musical partnership, much of it playing 17^th century music. Edouard makes the point that the balance of voices is easier to achieve between the violin and a decent-sized gallery organ with characterful registrations than a harpsichord. The sonorities of the different instruments in the different acoustics are instructive, and have their effect on the tempi as well as the articulation.

From the outset, it is clear that this is a quintessentially French style of playing: the inégales of the opening quavers of the Fantasia are splendidly extreme. And as the C minor sonata begins, it becomes clear that the difference between the string sound and the organ is more pronounced in the slower movements where the warmer string sound with its (fairly restrained vibrato) seems a very different voice, even when the right hand of the organ uses a tremulant. This difference in the way the sound is produced is less obvious in the faster movements, when a more colourful registration is possible on the organ, and the distinction between the way the notes on the organ are produced does not contrast so sharply with the bow strokes and that sense of beginning and growing into a note that is so characteristic of the violin. But by track 12, I was becoming wooed by the sounds and the overall balance. Try tracks 12 and 13 (from the F minor sonata) to judge for yourself.

CD2 takes us to Switzerland and a cleaner acoustic and here I feel the balance between the organ and the 2012 copy of a Stainer instrument is more successful. Again the organ is at 440, but here we seem to be in a more equal partnership: the quality of the individual 8’ ranks certainly helps to achieve the desired equality, and the left-hand registrations speak with amazing promptness and clarity. I especially appreciated the unhurried tempo in the Presto in the A major sonata (track 15).

In CD3 we are with the only organ of the three at 415, and immediately the powerful open principal pedal notes make their presence felt in the concerto-like opening movement of BWV1019, where the organ’s sesquialtera is a more than equal match for the violin. This trio has many similarities in its concerto-like feel with the G major organ trio sonata. This organ is certainly pretty punchy throughout this CD.

So here is a partnership of instruments that grew on me musically over the entire programme. As one who is primarily an organist, I found the choice of instruments fascinating and the playing impeccable, as you would expect. It opens a whole alternative sound-world which I hope our violinists will be keen to explore, even if the right organs will be hard to find. For my money, the Swiss copy of the Silbermann organ in Großhartmansdorf by Jean-Marie Tricoteaux provides the organ that best partners Edouard’s violin (here the Hofmans) and brings out her best playing.

David Stancliffe

Stéphanie-Marie Degand violin and Violaine Cochard harpsichord
91:00 (2 CDs in a card folder)
NoMadMusic NNM 071

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This recording of the six ‘sonatas for obbligato harpsichord and violin’, as the duo reminds us in the brief liner notes that all the copies of these six sonatas that date from Bach day are titled, is the fruit of many years friendship and musical collaboration since the pair were students in the 1990s. The violinist is a protégé of Emanuelle Haïm, and co-founder of Le Concert d’Astrée, but also plays a wide range of more modern music. The harpsichordist is also a singer, and both their biographies in the liner notes are gushingly superlative. In spite of this, I was not altogether taken with their playing of these Bach sonatas.

They tell us how important it is to hear the right hand of the harpsichord part equally balanced with the violin, yet in the recording, the violin is overwhelmingly projected above the harpsichord, and played for my taste with an almost Brahmsian lushness. Either the engineers hadn’t taken the equality of the harpsichord seriously, choosing to regard it as simply the accompaniment of a solo, or the microphones were placed much too close to the violin. Either way, the performers should have corrected this and re-balanced the recording, as especially in the quicker movements with a lot of canonic writing like the first Allegro in the C minor sonata (CD 2.2) or of the F minor sonata (CD 2.6), the harpsichord is not just an unequal partner, it is barely audible at times.

As I grew increasingly dissatisfied, I turned again to my favourite recording of these sonatas made in 2000 by Trevor Pinnock and a youthful Rachel Podger, which is streets ahead of this one, both in balance and clarity of the part-writing and also in the musical understanding of Bach’s interweaving lines. Just compare the first two movements in the F minor sonata in the two recordings and feel the flow and direction in the long phrases from Podger and Pinnock (CD 2.9/10) through the wonderful key-changes in the first movement, where Degand and Cochard (CD 2.5/6) seem to lose their rather self-indulgent way. You really have to know where you are going when playing Bach if you are to take your listeners along with you.

The violin is by Joseph Catenari, 1710 and played with a Tourte bow; the harpsichord is by Ryo Yoshida, after a German one by Gottfried Silbermann. There is no information about temperament or tuning, nor anything about Bach’s music. For that, you need to go to Podger and Pinnock (CCS 14798) and the essay by Jonathan Freeman-Attwood.

All in all, I am sorry to say that I cannot find much to like in this version.

David Stancliffe

Ensemble Giardino di Delizie
74:53
Brilliant Classics 96033

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Lelio Colista seems the classic example of a prolific and admired composer, who (having failed to publish his music) has slipped into obscurity, with many of his compositions having been lost. He moved in the culturally rich ambience of late 17^th-century Rome, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Cesti, Stradella and even Corelli, and as the ‘go-to’ continuo lutanist played in all the ground-breaking performances of the day. These nine Sinfonie a tre and single Ballo a tre are all taken from the Giordano 15 manuscript at the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin, and reveal an inventive and accomplished composer at the height of his powers. The Ensemble Giardino di Delizie playing in the pleasingly resonant acoustic of the Church of St Francis in Trevi, take an energetic and imaginative approach to this fine music, alternating organ and harpsichord, and archlute and guitar in their continuo group and playing with sensitivity and considerable musicality. Undoubtedly reminiscent of the music of Corelli, there is a busy freshness about Colista’s writing which makes the loss of much of his larger-scale music disappointing, but certainly makes these world premiere recordings a very welcome addition to the catalogue. These days, a strikingly high percentage of my review CDs feature performances by Italian ensembles of Italian music of the late 17^th and 18^th centuries, and both the quality of the music and the standard of the performances is generally very high indeed. Notwithstanding the ubiquity of Corelli and Vivaldi, it is good to see these musicians delving further into their very rich and still largely unexplored Baroque heritage.

D. James Ross

Gian Andrea Guerra violin, Nicola Brovelli cello, Matteo Cicchitti violone, Luigi Accardo harpsichord
77:00
Arcana A111
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Mascitti: Sonate a violino solo e basso, Opera Nona
Quartetto Vantivelli (Gian Andrea Guerra violin, Nicola Brovelli cello, Mauro Pinciaroli archlute, Luigi Accardo harpsichord)
68:43
Arcana A473
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By the time he published his 12 sonatas for violin and continuo, opus 8, in Paris in 1731, Michele Mascitti was 67 years old and already well established in the Parisian musical scene as a composer and performer. Originating in a musical family in Naples, Mascitti had found his milieu in Paris in the early 18^th century, where his playing won him considerable acclaim in courtly and then mercantile circles. The sonatas are pleasantly tuneful, and effortlessly combine elements of the French and Italian schools. Here we hear eight of the original set of twelve, played stylishly in the mannerist manner by the Quartetto Vanvitelli, who, in recording the majority of both these printed sets of sonatas, have clearly become very familiar with Mascitti’s rather laid-back but entertaining idiom.

Michele Mascitti’s opus 9 sonatas are something of a summing-up of the composer’s varied career to 1738 – he would live a further twenty years dying at the extraordinary age of 96. These sonatas, again eight of a set of twelve, speak of melodic assurance and originality – perhaps the secret of their enduring popularity is that they are essentially never too demanding on performers or audience, and yet never seem to lapse into cliché or formula. They are played here with considerable elegance and musicality by violinist Gian Andrea Guerra, ably supported by his continuo team. Towards the end of his long life, Mascitti gave up composition – perhaps, like Sibelius, he had just said all he wanted to say, but I would like to think that, like Rossini, he simply found time for the many other pleasures of life. That is certainly the frame of mind that this avuncular, easy-going music seems to suggest. It is this relaxed ambience, which the Quartetto Vanvitelli captures perfectly in their performances on both these CDs.

D. James Ross

Elinor Frey with Mauro Valli cello, Federica Bianchi harpsichord, Giangiacomo Pinardi archlute
62:27
passacaille PAS 1069

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Although Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco’s sonatas for unaccompanied cello have enjoyed something of a revival in cello circles, these charming and inventive sonatas with continuo are still not widely appreciated. These beautifully poised performances by Elinor Frey and her continuo team should certainly rectify that. The opening D-minor Sonata has movements in imitation of the gamba and archlute which are simply beguiling, while later we are treated to an evocation of the Italian rustic bagpipe, the Zampogna. Dall’Abaco’s varied career saw him briefly visit the crowded musical setting of early 18^th-century London, before retreating to Verona to pursue a career in performance and composition. The wider dissemination of Dall’Abaco’s music for cello has been complicated by the publication by Martin Berteau, the father of the French cello school, of some of his music in versions decorated by Berteau for his own performances, which has led to confusion regarding their authorship. Work by Ulrich Iser has served to clarify the situation, as well as differentiating the work of Dall’Abaco and his father, and the works recorded here are all in their original versions by Dall’Abaco ‘junior’ and labelled with Iser’s catalogue numbers ABV 18, 19, 30, 32 and 35. The playing here is beautifully detailed and effortlessly virtuosic, while the occasional use of a second cello and an archlute in the continuo line-up provides some enjoyably rich textures.

D. James Ross