Tag: Chamber music

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Recording

Makaris: Wisps in the dell

Makaris Classical arrangements of Scots and Irish folksongs CD cover

Classical era arrangements of traditional Celtic folk songs
67:54
New Focus Recordings FCR916

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This delightful CD offers a selection of Scottish and Irish folksongs in arrangements by classical composers. As part of the vogue in things Celtic which followed the Jacobite rising and the Ossian craze, a number of enterprising publishers in London secured the services of leading continental composers to ‘set’ mainly Scottish folk songs. In this process of ‘setting’, the angular modality of the melodies was generally ironed out, while the texts often had to be ‘civilised’ too – this would seem to us to water down the original appeal of the traditional music and powerfully raw folk texts, but this was the price of capturing the attention of the large amateur market which would make this enterprise viable. The settings by Haydn and Beethoven are relatively familiar, but the Makaris have spread their net wide and trawled in settings by Schubert, Pleyel, Hummel, Neukomm, Weber, Kuhlau, Kozeluch and Clementi. They take a free approach to the realisation of these settings, both from the point of view of instrumentation and elaboration of melodies and counter-melodies. In some accounts, a heavy fortepiano backbeat sounds a little bit of an indulgence, but elsewhere their approach definitely enhances their material. Vocalist Fiona Gillespie opts for a distinctly folky voice production, but her delightfully pure voice and subtle ornamentation represent a winning combination. Knowing many of these original folksongs, it is fascinating to hear the fingerprints of the better-known composers on their settings. Particularly striking is Beethoven’s uncompromising approach – his publisher worried that the settings would be beyond the amateurs he was targeting, but Beethoven refused to compromise! Equally charming are settings by Hummel and Weber, who fresh from the triumph of his ‘Freischütz’ is thoroughly imbued with folk melody. In a delightful touch, the band have commissioned their bass player to add to the repertoire with his own setting of ‘The Bonnie House o’ Airlie’ which takes this 18th- and 19th-century tradition firmly into the 21st century!

D. James Ross

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Recording

The Food of Love

The Baltimore Consort perform music related to Shakespeare

Songs, Dances and Fancies for Shakespeare
The Baltimore Consort
68:04
Sono luminus DSL 92234

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It really is quite surprising that no music contemporary with Shakespeare’s plays which can be directly associated with them has survived, but this has not prevented musicians from compiling programmes based on music from the playwright’s lifetime which ‘relate’ to his plays or from just after his lifetime which reference the plays. There are some old friends here, played with imagination and sensitivity by the Baltimore Consort. They are at their most convincing when creatively riffing on some of the more traditional related material, but I found the same shortcomings as with another recent CD by the revived Baltimore Consort. Compared to the wonderful spontaneity of the vintage Baltimore recordings, the tempi here seem a bit ponderous, the ‘riffing’ a little contrived. Sadly, this may just come down to the change in personnel, and the departure of a couple of truly remarkable musicians. Even in ‘the golden days’, the group’s account of vocal music seemed its Achilles heel, and this still seems to be the case. Soprano Danielle Svonavec has a pleasantly pure voice and ornaments delicately and idiomatically, but there is something mannered and laboured about her pronunciation and presentation of the texts which makes the songs sound a little twee. I can’t help feeling that in my eyes these new Baltimore recordings suffer largely from comparison with the group’s own remarkable back-catalogue, which is possibly a little unfair, and it could be that listeners coming fresh to these recordings will be perfectly happy and, indeed, charmed by the group’s undoubted affinity with and creative approach to this repertoire. The playing and singing are technically impeccable and the recording admirably vivid.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Haydn : String Quartets opp 71 & 74

London Haydn Quartet play opp 71 and 74 complete

The London Haydn Quartet
155:52 (2 CDs)
hyperion CDA 68230

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Haydn’s opp 71 and 74 sets of string quartets were composed in Vienna in 1793 between his two London visits, and with London performances very much in mind. It is not too fanciful to speculate that the earlier London performances of some of Haydn’s op 64 quartets, the first time the composer had witnessed his quartets being presented to large audiences, may have influenced the style of the two later sets of quartets, which may sometimes seem to sacrifice intimacy in favour of a more public musicality, with boldly declamatory melodies and occasional flamboyant gestures. The London Haydn Quartet’s choice of acoustic, the relatively intimate ambience of Potton Hall, may seem to be at odds with this, and (to begin with) I found the relatively cramped sound a little off-putting. The Quartet’s superlative playing soon helped to overcome this, and the smaller bloom allows the listener to focus on their impeccable technical prowess, warm tone and perfect balance. Playing period instruments, the Quartet has also returned to the original 1796 publications of both sets, but more importantly, like their fellow period-instrument quartet the Quatuor Mosaïques, their freshness of approach allows us to experience this music as if it was new. The group was founded in 2000 with the specific aim of exploring the chamber music of Haydn on period instruments, and this delightful and packed double CD set provides wonderfully eloquent accounts of some of Haydn’s most satisfying string quartets.

D.James Ross

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Recording

Beethoven transformed volume 1

Boxwood & Brass Volume 1 of Beethoven Transformed

Boxwood & Brass
61:40
Resonus Res10249

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This is the first volume of a projected exploration of Harmonie-Musik, including original music by Beethoven, as well as arrangements of his music by his contemporaries – hence the ‘transformed’. Thus it is that we have an arrangement for the standard Harmonie ensemble of two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons of Beethoven’s celebrated Septet, originally conceived for strings and wind. I have always struggled slightly to like Beethoven’s Septet – a disgraceful admission for a clarinettist – and remember vividly my heart sinking when, during a performance by the BPO Soloists, it dawned on me that they were going to do all the repeats… So it came as a surprise to hear the piece afresh in Czerny’s clever arrangement. To cover the violin part, he takes the first clarinet into risky and exciting altissimo territory, realised with enormous skill and panache on her boxwood clarinet by Emily Worthington. Perhaps it is precisely Beethoven’s rather cautious writing for the wind instruments in the original op 20 that failed to charm me – whatever the reason, Czerny’s arrangement is a valuable rediscovery, which to my mind enhances the original. The Septet’s companion piece on this CD is one of Beethoven’s actual Sextets, a later work (op 71), by which time the composer felt free to be more adventurous with the wind instruments. Both works are given charming performances by Boxwood and Brass, and indeed the distinctive sounds of their period instruments help to bring this music vividly to life. I have enjoyed very much both of the previous CDs by this enterprising group, and await with interest the continuation of this promising series.

D. James Ross

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DVD

Galerie Dorée

DVD cover for Galerie Dorée recital

Le concert du Tricentenaire
Le Concert de la Loge, Julien Chauvin
+ Quatuor Cambini-Paris, Jodie Devos, Justin Taylor, Thomas Dunforn, Atsuschi Sakaï, Tami Krausz
77:00
BelAir classiques BAC171 (DVD) BAC571 (BluRay)

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The Banque de France’s Galerie Dorée was constructed in the late 1630s and then refurbished and refashioned 1714-1719. This DVD marks the 300th anniversary of that undertaking. There are many splendid pictures both on the bank’s own website and online generally.

The contents of the disc are partly a film of a commemorative concert, partly an exhibition of the building’s decorative artwork and partly a tour of the building itself with musicians playing in spectacular surroundings. But, for me, the whole enterprise doesn’t quite come up to the mark on any of those counts. Filming the concert was clearly problematic as the long thin venue with the orchestra halfway down the long side offered no opportunities for decent camera positions, and as far as the building and the art are concerned the shots are not really long enough to appreciate the detail of what we are being shown. Yes, the accompanying book is very informative and lavishly illustrated but you can’t look at that and the screen, and if you pause the picture for study you also pause the music. In addition, the book doesn’t deal with the music in the order in which it is played but the order in which we encounter the art in the building. I also found the camera work too fiddly (and not always well aimed) and the editing not particularly skilful, and there were times when imperfect coordination of sound and vision made me think I might not be hearing the performance I was seeing.

As noted above, the main gallery where the concert took place is long and thin and the orchestral items are filmed here mostly with the audience present though sometimes without. This latter option was a mistake as the rows of empty red chairs in the background look pretty awful. Surely they could have been removed? There are no such visual issues with the other venues which, with more space and fewer performers, look very much better.

The music itself is inspired by the art, which is a reasonable enough idea, though it does mean we get ‘movements from’ rather than complete works. The repertoire is enterprising though: when did you last hear a movement from an early Haydn symphony or a string quartet movement by Félicien David (terrific viola playing in this)? All the playing has much gusto and the live audience clearly loved what they got. But class will out, and, for me, in currently sunny Surrey (UK) the solo harpsichord Couperin and Rameau steal the show.

David Hansell

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Recording

Telemann: Frankfurt Sonatas

Telemann Frankfurt Sonatas Aparté CD cover

Gottfried von der Goltz violin, Annekatrin Beller cello, Torsten Johann harpsichord/positive organ, Tomas C. Boysen theorbo
Aparté AP21
66:01

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This is only the third time these finely crafted sonatas, reputedly Telemann’s first publication, have appeared on CD (Stephan Schardt got there first for MDG in 2014 and Valerio Losito followed on Brilliant Classics in 2017). Spearheaded by the impressive skills of Gottfried von der Goltz, you can sense the sheer artistic relish and appreciation for the neat progressions through the boldly contrasting movements which offer some vivacious artistic flourishes, as well as moments of great theatre and pathos. By this time, Telemann had written about 10 operas for Leipzig, and you can hear the wistful, lovelorn motifs in the slower movements lifted directly from the stage. This delightful set of six sonatas was dedicated to Prince Johann Ernst IV of Sachsen-Weimar (who sadly passed within a year of their publication), the foreword grandiloquently noting at the very bottom in French: At the author’s expense!

The truly wonderful continuo team here is allowed to star alongside the dominant violin part, and do all share the limelight at some stage. The use of a positive organ really hits the mark with a particular reverence and piety. These works flow between the two kinds of sonata style with a well-measured intensity and balance. The high-flying runs of semiquavers in the finales of Sonatas III and IV are a touch of free-flowing virtuosity. With a perfect feel for tempo and the desired application of Affekte, the ensemble navigates these cleverly conceived sonatas with intelligent application and balanced variation.

A very fine, well-balanced interpretation all round. We fervently hope they might decide tackle the long-languishing 1718 set, awaiting full premiere status, before too long!

David Bellinger

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Recording

Blancrocher – L’Offrande

Blancrocher L'Offrance cover for mp3

Pierre Gallon harpsichord
78:00
encelade ECL1901

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This is a brilliant programme. There’s quite a preponderance of slow tempi so perhaps you have to be in the right mood to listen straight through but the music is all very good as are the performances (to say the least).

Charles Fleury de Blancrocher was one of mid-17th-century Paris’s leading lutenists, though nothing he did in his life (as far as we know) brought him anything like the fame generated by his death: he fell down the stairs in his house at the end of an evening spent strolling with Froberger. Tombeaux were composed in tribute for harpsichord by Froberger (of course) and Louis Couperin and – less widely known – for lute by François Dufaut and Denis Gaultier (the Younger) and they, together with Blancrocher’s only surviving work, form the spine of Pierre Gallon’s recital. The lute music is played on the harpsichord in transcriptions either by D’Anglebert or by the player in a similar style with the exception of the Blancrocher which, appropriately, ends the disc and is, indeed, on the lute (Diego Salamanca).

Two harpsichords are used, tuned in a meantone temperament at A=411. The temperament lends itself to all the style brisé writing (perhaps that should be the other way round) in that we hear its character though the idiom ‘takes the edge off’ what would otherwise be some pretty pungent chords. The recording captures the sound of all three instruments faithfully. Through headphones, there are a few fingering noises from the lutenist though I did not find them intrusive.

The booklet essay (in French and English) is a little fanciful for my taste though not as bad as some. However, a few typos do suggest that someone could have done a better job. But everything else is top drawer: strongly recommended for both the programme and its execution.

David Hansell

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Recording

Couperin en tête à tête

Cover of Louis Couperin tete a tete CD

Duo Coloquintes (Alice Julien-Laferrière violin, Mathilde Vialle gamba)
54:18
Editions Seulétoile SEC01

This is an unusual recital – some might even rule it ‘out of order’ – but after initial doubts I enjoyed it. Essentially Duo Coloquintes (violin and viola da gamba) offer us the music that they imagine Louis Couperin might have written had he not played the harpsichord! So we have four of the suites arranged for the new forces, other music for both instruments solo and unaccompanied, and a final miscellaneous group by Couperin.

The arrangements are skilfully done, with just enough double-stopping to diminish any concerns about a ‘hole in the middle’, and the players perform with considerable finesse both as individuals and as a duo. All the ornamentation and inégalité feels very natural and the recorded sound too is well judged (domestic rather than ecclesiastical).

The booklet (French only) is an odd mixture of fantasy, fact and nice pictures. Just pour a glass of something, sit back and enjoy the music.

David Hansell

If you are inspired to follow David’s recommendation, you’ll have to track the disc down; my attempts failed after reaching the duo’s website

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Recording

Brillance Indéniable

Cover of Youssefian CD Brillance Indéniable

The Virtuoso Violin in the Court of Louis XV
Sonatas and Symphonies by Louis-Gabriel Guillemain
Alana Youssefian & Le Bien-Aimé
67:11
Avie Records AV2412

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This release came to me as a ‘reviewers’ package’ so it is not possible to provide the usual observations on the overall presentation and format. However, what I can say is that the supporting material I do have (in English only) is helpful and devoid of the ridiculous mistakes that have be-devilled many of the CD booklets I have seen recently.

The programme contrasts three of Guillemain’s virtuosic Op.1 sonatas with three of his more genteel and ingratiating ‘symphonies’ – works scored for a trio sonata ensemble and thus attractive to a domestic market as well as being playable with doubled parts by an orchestra. The composer was quite a colourful character, it seems: a virtuoso player, but ‘crippled’ by performance nerves; a lover of fine food, wine and furnishings; a high-earner; yet ultimately brought low by debt and alcoholism. He died from (probably self-inflicted) stab wounds.

This starry ensemble plays splendidly, though I do wonder whether the cello pizzicato is composer-requested or moments of performer whimsy. This rococo/galant idiom can sometimes seem a little banal but here it never does. The flashes of high-octane virtuosity in the sonatas help, of course, but overall the charm – a much under-rated virtue – of both music and performances holds the listener’s attention.

At a time when such charm is especially welcome, this disc has proved to be a congenial companion.

David Hansell

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Recording

Albinoni: 12 Cantatas for Soprano and Contralto Op. 4

Cover of CD Albinoni op 4 cantatas for soprano and alto

Silvia Frigato soprano, Elena Biscuola alto, L’Arte dell’Arco
99:48 (2 Cds in a single case)
Brilliant Classics 95600

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As an amateur musician of independent means (his family’s paper business supported his initial musical career), Albinoni was able to approach composition without the need of financial success, allowing him a degree of creative freedom denied composers following a more hand-to-mouth existence. As his career as a composer of instrumental music, but primarily as an opera composer, flourished, he gradually dispensed with the financial prop of family money and with the soubriquet ‘amateur’. His opus 4, six cantatas each for soprano and contralto with continuo, his only published vocal music, seem to be early work of around 1700 when such pieces were in considerable vogue in Italy. It is a chastening thought that the opus 4 collection was lost until the early 20th century when a single copy was identified by Edward J. Dent – the situation had been complicated by the issuing of a pirate opus 4 of instrumental music by Albinoni! These cantatas are charming works dealing with a variety of love scenarios, and entirely distinct in style from the later operas. The featured singers – soprano Silvia Frigato and contralto Elena Biscuola – have beautifully appropriate voices, singing expressively and with elegantly discrete ornamentation, while the accompanying ensemble take the wording of the title page of the cantatas literally and feel free to reduce the accompaniment at certain points to either cello or harpsichord. These are wonderfully nuanced performances of utterly charming repertoire vividly captured by the sound engineer, Matteo Costa, and presented in an exemplary package by this excellent budget label.

D. James Ross