Tag: Chamber music

Gamba Concertos

The Viola da Gamba in the Spotlight
Thomas Fritzsch gamba, Michael Schönheit pianoforte, Merseburger Hofmusik
66:42
Coviello Classics COV91710
Concertos and sonatas by Abel, J. C. Bach, Johann Carl Graf zu Hardeck, Milling & Raetzel

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is one of those booklets (Ger/Eng) that has to be read so that the full story of these works’ survival and restoration – a matter of luck, determination and musicological skill sensitively deployed – can be enjoyed and appreciated. I can be driven to distraction by mid-18th-century repeated note bass lines but here I rather enjoyed the gentle clucking of the 1805 Broadwood piano used on the continuo line, to say nothing of the melodic charms of the gamba above. It adds a particular frisson to know that the solo instrument belonged to the aristocrat in whose library some of these pieces are preserved. It also helps that it is extremely well played. The recording does a good job too, keeping the soloist in the foreground while still allowing us to hear the supporting (single) strings when they have something to say. I approached this with a mixture of curiosity and trepidation. I finished it smiling broadly.

David Hansell

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Tags Baroque, Chamber music, Classical, Viola da gamba

Recording

Telemann: Complete trio sonatas with recorder and viol

Post author By EMR2015
Post date July 7, 2018
No Comments on Telemann: Complete trio sonatas with recorder and viol

Da Camera (Emma Murphy recorders, Susanna Pell viols, Steven Devine harpsichord)
77:16
Chandos Chaconne CHAN 0817

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]emember LP boxed sets? One of my favourites was and is a collection of Telemann trio sonatas for violin/pardessus, recorder and continuo played by a starry ensemble consisting of Alice Harnoncourt, Kees Boeke, Wouter Möller and Bob van Asperen. Well, Emma Murphy (playing alto recorder and voice flute), Susanna Pell (treble and bass viols) and Steven Devine (harpsichord) are more than worthy neighbours for them on my Telemann shelf, with only a small overlap in the programmes. I do think that the bass line needs the greater definition that a bowed instrument would bring but I’m still going to splash the stars around as everything else is so good. GPT’s music is endlessly inventive and attractive and the players relish the opportunities he gives them. The varied sonorities (when did you last hear voice flute and bass viol in conversation?) are a bonus and the excellent playing is supported by a lively note (Eng/Fre/Ger) and full details of the music and instruments. Go on, treat yourselves.

David Hansell

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Tags Baroque, Chamber music

Recording

Mozart: Piano Duets, volume 2

Post author By EMR2015
Post date May 25, 2018
No Comments on Mozart: Piano Duets, volume 2

Julian Perkins & Emma Abbate
70:43
Resonus RES10210
+ Clementi: Sonata in E flat, op 14/3

[dropcap]A[/dropcap] review of the first volume of Julian Perkins and Emma Abbate’s survey of Mozart piano duets appeared in February 2017. This second volume completes the survey and – as with vol. 1 – throws in an extra work by a contemporary. Also like its predecessor the instruments used come from the collection built up by Richard Burnett at Finchcocks, where the earlier issue was recorded. This time the Mozart sonatas are played on a grand fortepiano built by Michael Rosenberger in Vienna around 1800, the Clementi on an undated instrument built by the Clementi company in London in the 1820s. The Rosenberger is an instrument of rich tonal quality that suits the scale of the great F-major Sonata rather better than the early K19d, for which I found it rather too beefy. The sound, too, is a little more resonant than that on the earlier issue.

Much the most important work here is K497, which dates from 1786, a year of exceptionally rich achievement for Mozart, including of course Le nozze di Figaro. From the outset of the beautifully poised Adagio that prefaces the opening Allegro, the work displays total mastery of intricate dialogue between the players, a real sense of contrasted textures between solo and concertante writing and, as one might expect at this period, considerable contrapuntal complexity. There is, too, as one might equally expect of a work dating from the year of Figaro, a strong dramatic element, tense in the development of the opening movement, of a more playful buffo nature in the finale.

Mozart was already displaying an inherent sense of drama in K19d, composed just over 20 years earlier, almost certainly for him and his sister Nannerl to play, as the famous family portrait of 1780-81 probably illustrates. It is a work of considerable charm and fun that calls for much fleet finger-work of the kind impressively supplied by Perkins (who I throughout mention first not from any lapse of manners but because he plays primo) and Abbate, who as on the earlier CD add often witty ornamentation in repeats. Curiously, they here repeat the second half of the opening Allegro where Mozart did not ask for it, but fail to do so in the outer movements of K497, where he did.

The final Mozart work is an oddity, a hybrid work consisting of two incomplete movements originally published by Andre in 1853 and included in Mozart Neue Ausgabe in this form. Later paper dating by Alan Tyson established that the opening Allegro had no connection with the following Andante, which is not only cast in a much simpler style but dates from three years later (1791). Nonetheless this has not prevented Robert Levin from undertaking a completion, which to my ears forms an uncomfortable juxtaposition between the inventive complexity of the opening movement and the Andante.

The Clementi sonata sits uneasily here, particularly since it follows K497 in the running order. It is indeed rather devoid of significant substance, being full of showy passagework that demands considerable dexterity from the performers but not a lot of concentration from the listener. Doubtless it might make a better effect in other company.
As already suggested, the stylish, fluent performances maintain the high level attained in the first disc. I did wonder if more might have been made of Mozart’s dynamic contrasts in K497’s opening Adagio, but that’s a minor point in the context of such thoroughly rewarding and sympathetic playing.

Brian Robins

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Tags Chamber music, Classical

Recording

Music in a Cold Climate: Sounds of Hansa Europe

Post author By EMR2015
Post date May 23, 2018
No Comments on Music in a Cold Climate: Sounds of Hansa Europe

In Echo, Gawain Glenton
67:32
Delphian DCD34206

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his selection of music from around the fringes of the North Sea for a mixed consort of wind and stringed instruments includes some good-going dance music by William Brade and Anthony Holborne, as well as fine music by Antonio Bertali, Thomas Baltzar, Melchior Schmidt, Johann Sommer and Johann Schop. The programme emphasizes the musical links promoted by the lively Hanseatic trade network, but at the same time the musical diversity cultivated within the lands of the League. In Echo under the direction of cornettist Gawain Glenton play with tremendous authority and musicality, bringing out the diverse colours of the music they have chosen. To my taste, the inclusion of a contemporary work by Andrew Keeling, Northern Souls, which seems to owe more to Aaron Copland than the music around it, is a bit of self-indulgence, which adds little to the programme. In Echo are a new signing to Delphian Records, and on the basis of this fine CD they are quite an acquisition. We look forward to their exploration of further twilit corners of musical Europe.

D. James Ross

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Tags Baroque, Chamber music

Recording

Directed by Handel

Music from Handel’s London Theatre Orchestra
Olwen Foulkes recorder, Nathaniel Mander harpsichord, Carina Drury cello, Toby Carr theorbo, Tabea Debus bass recorder
64:04
Barn Cottage Records bcr019
Music by Blow, Castrucci, Corelli, Geminiani, Handel, Giuseppe Sammartini & anon

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his intriguing and imaginative programme takes as its starting point concerts given by recorder players prior to and after the arrival in London of Handel. Jacques Paisible had popularized the instrument towards the end of the 17th century, and Olwen Foulkes makes the reasonable assumption that instrumental concerts from then onwards would have featured popular works transcribed for recorder and continuo. Assuming that many of these transcriptions would have remained in repertoire, it is not inconceivable that Handel could indeed have directed such diverse programmes. Olwen Foulkes is a lovely recorder player, with a fulsome tone and very musical approach on a range of recorders including descants, treble and voice flute. Her phrasing and effortless decoration are exemplary and extremely persuasive, and she is ably supported by a range of other fine musicians. This barn-storming performance will delight recorder players everywhere, but is also of much wider interest as a window on a period when musicians happily ‘borrowed’ extensively from each other to satisfy public demand.

D. James Ross

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Tags Baroque, Chamber music

Recording

Facco: Master of Kings

Guillermo Turina cello, Eugenia Boix soprano, Tomoko Matsuoka harpsichord
[Cantatas and Sinfonie di violoncello a solo]
71:54
Cobra Records COBRA 0063

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]orn and raised in Venice, Giacomo Facco took a post with the Spanish Spinola family who rose to power in Sicily before being expelled and returning to Spain, where Facco joined them for the rest of his life. The present CD selects music from his major publications consisting of cantatas for soprano, cello and continuo, interspersed with sinfonias for cello and continuo. While the cantatas he published while working in Italy are a little pedestrian, the later Spanish-period works sound more convincing. However, none of the cantatas sound as interesting as Facco’s innovative and engaging sinfonias for cello and harpsichord. This is partly due on the present CD to Guillermo Turino’s exciting technique on the Baroque cello, which brings these latter works to life, and contrasts with Eugenia Boix’s rather swooping accounts of the cantatas, which I found a little wearing after a while. Frankly, it is hard to account for the enormous enthusiasm shown by Facco’s fans, including his first biographer Uberto Zanolli, who entitled his book ‘Giacomo Facco : Master of Kings’. To my ear, Facco’s idiom is very conventional, and it came as no surprise to read in the notes that he was sidelined from his final post at the Spanish Court in Madrid by the arrival of the great Farinelli.

D. James Ross

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Tags Baroque, Chamber music

Recording

Vivaldi Undercover

Passacaglia Baroque ensemble
70:08
Barn Cottage Records bcr017
Transcriptions of Vivaldi by Bach, Chédeville & Passacaglia

[dropcap]P[/dropcap]assacaglia are renowned for their wonderfully passionate and detailed playing, and for their custom of arranging Baroque music to suit their instrumental ensemble. This CD illustrates both these characteristics. It features arrangements by later composers – J. S. Bach and Nicolas Chédeville – of Vivaldi’s music, which then undergoes a further transformation at the hands of Passacaglia, who re-instrument it all over again. While I love their lively playing, I find that some of their arrangements have something of a ‘mock-Baroque’ feeling to them, with some of the instruments, particularly the recorders, being asked to do rather unidiomatic things in rather unidiomatic keys. Of course, in the hands of the wonderfully virtuosic Annabel Knight and Louise Bradbury, the playing is never less than superbly accomplished, but sometimes it all sounds a little contrived. The group’s rearrangements of Chédeville’s transcriptions for musette or hurdy-gurdy of two of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, where a hurdy-gurdy is ‘enhanced’ by recorders and a violin along with continuo instruments, seems to me to be neither one thing or another – or rather a whole new thing conjured up by Passacaglia. We have all heard the Vivaldi original and I have heard Chédeville’s transcription on a hurdy-gurdy, both of which are very effective, but what is this? I am always puzzled by Baroque ensembles who feel bound to create their own versions of Baroque music, given that there is such a treasury of music from the period out there which has never seen the light of day. You will enjoy the wonderfully fresh playing on this CD, but I must say I prefer my Baroque music less comprehensively ‘under cover’.

D. James Ross

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Tags Baroque, Chamber music

Recording

De Visée: La Musique de la Chambre du Roy [Complete]

Post author By EMR2015
Post date May 21, 2018
No Comments on De Visée: La Musique de la Chambre du Roy [Complete]

Manuel Staropoli recorders & Baroque flute, Massimo Marchese theorbo
228:18 (4 CDs in a case)
Brilliant Classics 95595

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n this four-CD account of the complete works of Robert de Visée, the performers have taken creative though entirely justifiable liberties with the instrumentation to involve instruments such as the recorder and Baroque flute known to have been in vogue in Versailles at the time and to give the music the genuine sound of chamber music. The resulting performances are pleasing and reveal in exhaustive detail de Visée’s talents as a composer. With very little known about him as an individual, we rely on the music to characterize both the period and its composer, and this it does very well. If perhaps four CDs of this music could be regarded as ‘peak de Visée’, we should remember that it would never have been performed en masse like this, rather whiling away Royal ennuies interspersed with other solo, chamber and larger-scale music. Given the limitations of the music and the ensemble, the performers do a fine job alternating the instruments and bringing the music charmingly to life. Just kick off your dancing pumps, hang up your wig, channel your inner Roi Soleil and sit back and enjoy this never less than elegant Musique de la Chambre du Roi. For more active listeners, the brief programme notes find room to list the instruments used as well as the few facts that are known about de Visée.

D. James Ross

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Tags Baroque, Chamber music

Recording

Bach: Sonatas for flute and harpsichord

Post author By EMR2015
Post date May 13, 2018
No Comments on Bach: Sonatas for flute and harpsichord

Stephen Schultz baroque flute, Jory Vinikour harpsichord
55:18
Music & Arts CD-1295
BWV1020 (attrib), 1031 (attrib), 1030, 1032

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is another very good recording of the Bach Flute and Harpsichord Sonatas to go alongside the Naxos CD made by the Finnish duo Pauliinia Fred and Aapo Häkkinen that I reviewed in October 2017. Both CDs contain BWV 1030 in B minor and 1032 in A major, the well-authenticated sonatas whose autograph copies can be dated to 1736, and both have 1031, the accomplished and melodious sonata in E-flat that seems to be a reworking of a Dresden trio by Quantz (QV 2:35) by someone in Bach’s circle. This CD excludes some of the works for flute and simple continuo (1034 in E minor and 1035 in E Major) from the Naxos CD but adds BWV 1020 in G minor, almost invariably attributed to C. P. E. Bach.

The playing is – again – exceptional. Schultz’s tone on his Palanca copy by Martin Wenner is clean and vibrato-free, so his ornaments have all the more force. And the balance of the instruments – with the harpsichordist’s right hand never obscured or overshadowed – is excellent. The harpsichord is a 2010 copy by John Phillips of Berkley CA after an instrument by J. H. Grabner from Dresden in 1722. The give and take is seamless and the tempi never extreme. This is a good advertisement for period instrument performance in the Bay Area of California, even if it needed crowd-funding to make it possible.

David Stancliffe

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Tags Baroque, Chamber music

Recording

Si par fortune

Les Joueurs de Traverse
56:37
Son an ero 09
Music by Certon, Crécquillon, Gallus, Gombert, Hofhaimer, Le Jeune, Josquin, Lemlin, Lupi, de Manchicourt, Ortiz, Passereau, Senfl, de Sermisy, Stoltzer, Susato, Verdelot & Wolff

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ll too often people imagine that the transverse flute arrived on the scene fully formed towards the end of the 17th century in time to sweep away the recorder and poised ready to play the great flute music of the Baroque, but of course the flute’s history goes right back to the middle ages and far beyond. How lovely, then, to hear for a change Renaissance music played on a consort of appropriate flutes. Les Joueurs de Traverse range far and wide through much-loved Renaissance repertoire, and I found myself frequently singing along with a familiar chanson or madrigal. It is remarkable how different the sound of a flute consort is from a recorder consort, and the players exploit fully the enhanced dynamic range of the flute, which would lead it eventually to be preferred over the recorder. The consort has a fine sense of ensemble and achieves a lovely blended sound, while the unequal temperament produces some wonderfully pure chords. This is a beautiful package, visually and musically, and delightful to see the programme notes in French, English – and Breton.

D. James Ross

Visit the group’s website (seulement en français…) for more information: click here.

Tags Chamber music, Renaissance