Tag: Chamber music

Anna Torge mandolin, Mayumi Hirasaki violin, Il cantino
61:34
cpo 555 050-2
Music by Arrigoni, Capponi, Hasse & Vivaldi

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his delightful collection of concertos, sonatas and trios by Vivaldi and his contemporaries Carlo Arrigoni, Abbate Ranieri Capponi and Johann Adolf Hasse features the mandolin skills of Anna Torge. With superb musicianship, her simple little instrument brings this music wonderfully to life, ably supported by violinist Mayumi Hirasaki and the small instrumental ensemble, Il cantino. The most famous Vivaldi mandolin concerto is in C major, but the present performers offer a delightful B-flat major concerto as well as a delicate trio in G minor and a sunny C major trio. It is fascinating to hear the equivalent compositions by Vivaldi’s largely unknown contemporaries, which include an atmospheric trio by Arrigoni and a charming sonata for mandolin, cello and lute by Capponi. Johann Adolf Hasse’s concerto, which concludes the CD, introduces a further level of sophistication, with a wider expressive range than the Vivaldi concerti. There is a painting of Hasse’s wife, the singer Faustina Bordoni, one of Handel’s star sopranos in London, playing the mandolin, and Hasse may well have composed his handful of mandolin works for her to play. In any event, it seems likely that her expertise allowed her husband to compose with authority for the instrument. These performances bring out the subtle side of this lovely mandolin and violin repertoire, avoiding the brash approach often heard in other recordings of Vivaldi. A warning for those who buy their CDs based on the cover picture – notwithstanding the prominent appearance of a recorder, no recorders feature on this CD!

D. James Ross

Fretwork
83:02 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
Signum Records SIGCD528

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]ritain’s premiere viol consort gives wonderfully spirited and expressive accounts of Jenkins’ 17 Fantasias and two Pavans for four viols in this comprehensive and thoroughly engaging double CD set. Sometimes complete recordings such as these need to be dipped in and out of, but such is the variety Jenkins builds into his Fantasias, almost as if he anticipated them receiving complete performances, that boredom is never a danger. Compared to the other English masters of the viol consort, it strikes me that Jenkins displays two diagnostic features: his unerring sense of melodic direction which carries his music through every harmonic complexity, and his unfailing musical imagination which evokes constantly stimulating phrases from even a quite limited number of voice parts. Fretwork’s incomparable familiarity with this repertoire makes them the perfect guide through Jenkins’ rich collection of works, and just as their interpretations never flag neither does our interest. About halfway through the second CD it struck me that these are in general pretty upbeat readings of works, which could conceivably be played much more slowly, but Fretwork’s attention to detail means that we miss nothing in these charming and idiomatic performances.

D. James Ross

Michael Jarvis harpsichord, Paul Luchkow violin
73:55
Marquis 774718147523 (MAR 81475)

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]orrette was active in many musical fields – a prolific pedagogue as well as composer. Le Phénix  may still be his best-known piece either in its original form for four basses de viole  or in one of the many arrangements which circulate (I first heard it on bassoons). However, in recent years a number of his more weighty works have been recorded giving us a rather more rounded view of his output. These sonatas, for the then newly fashionable combination of duetting violin and keyboard were published in 1742, in the wake of Mondonville’s op. 3. Each has three movements fast-slowish-fast and some programmatic content: this is just an overall title for sonatas I-V but extends to the individual movements in VI – Les Voyages d’ Ulysse. The players do a lively, engaging and committed job, taking these indications as a starting point though, given that the keyboard is definitely the musically dominant instrument, it is a shame that it is not a little more forward in the aural image, though I do stress the ‘little’. The booklet notes are sound in content though do incorporate some strange hyphenation and perhaps needed a little more thought about fonts.

David Hansell

Martin Gester harpsichord, Stéphanie Pfister violin
Lidi 0301314-17
74:00
Music by Corrette, Duphly & Mondonville

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]orrette can rarely have had it so good! Three of the discs in my current heap contain at least one sonata from his op. 25, this one claiming to be a first recording, though as it is duplicated on one of the others I have, I’ll leave the artists and/or their recording companies to sort that one out!

This is a very satisfying programme overall, two harpsichord/violin duos (Mondonville as well as the Corrette) being framed and separated by groups of harpsichord ‘solos’ (some of which have subsidiary violin parts) drawn from Duphly’s 2nd and 3rd books. In these Martin Gester plays with an exemplary blend of control and relaxed authority, making full but sensible use of his fine instrument (a copy of the Russell Collection’s remarkable 1769 Taskin). Once or twice I felt he was over-stretching the beat, but this is a tiny issue. More of an issue is the balance between violin and harpsichord in the duos. In general, and given that the keyboard is often the primary instrument, I feel that the violin is too forward in the aural picture and that there are also places where its material is “accompanimental” and simply should be played a little more softly. The supporting material (Eng/Fre) is sound though white print on a dark red background doesn’t make for the easiest reading.

David Hansell

La Rêveuse (Florence Bolton, Benjamin Perrot, Robin Pharo, Carsten Lohff)
64:00
Mirare MIR 386

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here is some marvellously idiomatic playing of marvellously idiomatic music here – the voice of the French Baroque in all its pathos and nobility, though not without lighter moments. The Marais movements are from his last two publications (1717 & 1725). Two skilful arrangements of Couperin for theorbo provide contrast: the barricades have seldom sounded so mystérieuses, though in an entirely good way, I hasten to add. My one reservation concerns the instrumentation of the continuo. The exquisite delicacy of the viol does not need the competition of two plucked accompanists: just one, preferably the theorbo, would have been fine as those pieces in which this is indeed the case demonstrate. The essay is very informative and interesting, even in this slightly lumpy translation, and the general packaging quite robust.

David Hansell

Philippe Grisvard, Johannes Pramsohler
110:23 (2 CDs in a hardbacked booklet)
Audax Records ADX13710
Music by Balbastre, Clément, Corrette, Duphly, Guillemain, Marchand & Mondonville

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his recital gets off to a absolute flyer with Mondonville’s outstanding op. 3/1 in G minor, with both players comfortably equal to both the technical and musical challenges. And note the overall title: this is a collection of Pièces de clavecin en sonates avec accompagnement de violon. Mondonville blazed this trail with his op. 3 (published 1740, though very probably circulating in m/s before that) and his pioneering work was most assiduously developed by Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (1705-70). Three of his op. 13 sonates  receive world premiere recordings here and the notes rightly draw attention to the virtuosic writing for both instruments and the difficulty of creating a duo performance as opposed to a competition. They succeed with great flair, even though both they and their instruments are on the limit of the period’s demands. Most of these sonates  speak with an Italianate (if not fully Italian) accent, though Duphly retains his native language in both the music and his movement titles and these subtleties, too, can be heard in the playing. There’s also some thoroughly enjoyable wackiness (Luc Marchand).

The overall presentation is quite lavish, with the two CDs enclosed in the endpapers of a small (jewel-case size) hardback book and notes in five languages. It is a small irritant that these deal with the music in chronological rather than performance order but I will be forgiving as it is such a relief to read English notes from a foreign source that are idiomatic in their expression. Finally, the recording offers as good a balance of the instruments as I have ever heard in this combination. I rarely give five stars across the board, but see below!

David Hansell

Guido de Neve, Frank Agsteribbe
(2 CDs in a jewel case)
Et’cetera KTC 1596

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a very well-researched project funded by the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp with the research group on Performance Practice in Perspective.

You may or may not like the violinist’s rather rhapsodic style which involves some – to my ears – rather aggressive (and 20th-century feeling) bowing. But de Neve is playing an instrument of 1692 by Hendrik Williams of Ghent and the pair have clearly made a detailed study of the rhetorical expressiveness of 18th-century music. This leads to some pretty slow tempi in some of the slow movements, as in the opening of the A major sonata for example, as well as a breakaway Presto, so fast as to appear almost unsteady. So expect a degree of engaged commitment to making the music speak as dramatically as a Baroque painting. In the liner-notes each sonata is prefaced by a quotation from Mattheson’s Das Neu-Eröffnete Orchester of 1713 on the particular key, for example: h-moll: Kombination aus Gefühlen der Unlust und Melancholie. Bizarr – wird deshalb selten gespielt. [B minor: Combines feelings of unease and melancholy. Slightly odd and therefore rarely performed.]

They also explain with a welcome degree of clarity why, due to the uneven distribution of the Pythagorean comma across the octave in historic tunings, different keys are sharply different from one another. It is a pity then that the information in the liner notes does not make specific reference to the particular system they use.

I think that the violin is recorded slightly too close, so the harpsichord frequently feels a less than equal partner. But this performance certainly offers an alternative reading to those, for example, by Rachel Podger with which my generation has been brought up.

David Stancliffe

Tobias Hunger tenor, Ensemble Fürsten-Musik
69:53
Querstand VKJK 1626

[dropcap]H[/dropcap]uge apologies to all concerned for the tardy review of this recording; it was prematurely transferred to my “definitely keep this CD” pile! Featuring music by two important composers who get precious little exposure, Adam Krieger (1634-66) and Johann Wilhelm Furchheim (c. 1645-82); the former is represented by four arias lasting from two to a little over four minutes, while we hear a trio sonata and the six ensemble sonatas from the latter’s Musicalische Taffel-Bedienung (literally “musical table service”). Both composers worked in senior positions within the Dresden Hofkapelle and the high level of virtuosity required of the violinists gives some indication of the standard of playing at Johann Georg II’s court. On Krieger’s premature death, efforts were made to complete a series of arias which he had published in groups of ten; none other than Furchheim composed the five-part ritornelli, and three of the four arias which the gifted tenor, Tobias Hunger, sings are from that posthumous set. The texts are given in German only; my favourite is the last one (and was the last of those published in 1657 while the composer was still alive): “Wer froh sein will, liebt Bier und Wein” (He who wants to be happy loves beer and wine”)! Ensemble Fürsten-Musik (two violins, two violas, cello, theorbo and keyboards) play neatly and with energy and excitement; there is real fire and a sense of harmless competition between the violinists in the trio sonatas (playing in the way that one might imagine Furchheim and his colleagues Walther and Westhoff doing). Great music, beautifully performed.

Brian Clark

Der musikalische Garten
67:27
Coviello Classics COV91705

[dropcap]D[/dropcap]er musikalische Garten is an exciting young trio sonata line-up consisting of two violins, cello and harpsichord. For this recording, they have chosen a previously unrecorded set of 12 Concerti à 3 by Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello, which were perhaps written before he moved to Germany, where he worked for most of his professional career as a virtuoso violinist, composer and Kapellmeister to the court in Stuttgart. While each of the six works on this fine CD (there will be a second volume to complete the set) broadly follow the pattern of the sonata da chiesa, the booklet notes are correct in saying that the technical demands placed on the violinists justify the use of the term “concerti”. The present performers have no problems in producing neat, characterful renditions, and the no-nonsense continuo team provides a modest but stylish foundation for their exploits. Brescianello is equally at home writing tuneful slow movements as he is working out proper counterpoint; these are fine works that deserve to be better known – and the equally fine musicians of Der musikalische Garten are leading the way.

Brian Clark

Chamber music by Telemann
The Herschel Trio
75:40
Omnibus Classics CC5013
TWV 42: D6, d3, F4, g7, A3, a7, h4

dropcap]<[/dropcap]strong>his is a most beautifully presented CD, with notes by one of the top Telemann experts in the English-speaking world. The Herschel Trio clearly display their alert, intimate and articulate musicianship and the composer’s own prowess in the trio genre. These selected works well suit the ensemble’s sprightly, agile approach; only occasionally did the flute err on the decent side of stridency during a “deep listen” in the headphones! The trios in F major (TWV42: F5) and G minor (TWV42: g7) have been recorded about five and seven times each, strangely matching their classification numbers! The three works chosen from the Six Concerts et six suites (Hamburg 1734) perfectly match the eloquent abilities of the players. The 1734 set offers no less than five variations of instrumentation, which would again seem to espouse the composer’s oft cited adage: “Wer vielen nutzen kan, thut besser, als wer nur fuer wenige was schreibet; Nun dient, was leicht gesetzt, durchgehends jedermann” (“He who writes for the many, does a greater service than he who just writes for the few; thus music easier to play pleases one and all”, from his 1718 autobiography). I’m convinced there are some vocal lines hiding behind some of the movements of the 1734 set (Tempo giusto?). I’d keenly recommend this recording to all who aren’t aware of these works in their flexible musical guises, and others who might collect Telemann trios like rare postage stamps; if nothing else, I’d like to hear the ensemble tackle the remaining suitable works from the 1734 collection… a future project?

David Bellinger