Tag: Classical

l’arte del mondo, Werner Ehrhardt
62:35
deutsche harmonia mundi 88875056172
Symphonies 21 in g, 26 in c, 34 in D

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he three symphonies which receive world premieres on this fabulous recording were written between 1786 and 1789, during which the time the composer – who is perhaps best known nowadays for his virtuoso works for double bass – endured unsettling times professionally; by 1789, he had settled into his final position in the court orchestra of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. They all follow the same pattern; after a lively opening comes an Andante, a Menuetto and a Finale. That is where an predictability ends, however; indeed, if these three works are typical of the composer’s symphonic output, I am very surprised that they are not featured on concert programmes more regularly; cast very much in the Viennese classical style (like Beethoven and Hummel, he was a pupil of Albrechtsberger), the violins carry the majority of the melodic interest, with colour supplied by the woodwinds. Of course, we live in an age when Haydn struggles for public performances, indeed, even Mozart does! Still, l’arte del mondo and Werner Ehrhardt deserve our thanks for bringing new repertoire to our attention, especially in such beautifully crafted performances.

Brian Clark

Jerónimo Francisco de Lima: Sinfonie ed Arie
Monika Mauch soprano, Concentus Peninsulae, Vasco Negreiro
Paraty 715134

[dropcap]A[/dropcap] colourful first recording of some fine late 18th-century Portuguese operatic arias and overtures.

Jerinimo Francisco de Lima (1741-1822), following studies in Naples, worked for the Patriarchal Seminary in Lisbon and composed operas for the Royal court. Interestingly, he was also employed for a time as private musician to the eccentric English millionaire William Beckford, (of Fonthill Abbey fame.)

Concentus Peninsulae have put together an engaging programme. It opens with the striking overture to Teseo  (some agile bassoon playing from Jose Gomes), followed by three arias for Medea, one from each act of the same opera. Lima subtly portrays her decline from hope for Theseus’s love at the outset, via burning jealousy, to her ultimate self-destructive revenge at the opera’s denoument, in music of kaleidoscopic colour – her last aria, ‘Dalla speme, Dall’amore’ (track 9), with its fiendishly difficult horn obbligato (bravo, Paulo Guerreiro!) is a show stopper, literally and actually. Monika Mauch is more than a match for this stirring stuff and sings with fire and accuracy.

The disc is completed by three further Italianate sinfonias; that from Enea in Tracia  (tracks 10-12) has more fine contrapuntal woodwind writing (and some delicate harpsichord filigree from Fernando Miguel Jaloto), and ends with stirring brass fanfares. Lo Spirito di Contradizzione, with its rapid interplay of thematic ideas and sentimental Andantino Grazioso, is a fitting opening to the comedy. The final overture, that to La Vera Costanza, takes Lima’s ‘sonoplastic art’ to further levels; original instrumentation is taken here to include 18th-century stage effects, with stirring use of genuine wind machines and thunder, from the collection of ‘Antiqua Escena’ in Alcala de Henares. Vasco Negreiros has cleverly engineered a satisfying musical close for this overture, which originally ran straight into the first scene of the opera.

Ensemble Concentus Peninsulae play with suitably operatic brio – occasionally one might have wished for a couple more strings to balance the enthusiastic woodwind and brass, but Jeronimo Francisco’s vivid music comes across with full force.
Performance 4 Recorded sound 4 Booklet note 4 Overall presentation 4

Alastair Harper

Aisslinn Nosky violin, Handel and Haydn Society, Harry Christophers
74:24
Coro 16139

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he unusual programming here can be explained by the disc being a live concert given as part of a series at Boston’s Symphony Hall, each featuring one of the ‘Matin’, Midi’, ‘Soir’ trilogy, a violin concerto and one of the ‘Paris’ symphonies. Curiously Christophers takes no account of the greatly differing forces Haydn would have had at his disposal for these works, employing the same number of strings for works written for the small Esterházy band and the large Concert de la Loge Olympique orchestra. Incidentally, it is worth noting that Robbins Landon’s claim (stated without a source and followed by Lindsay Kemp’s notes) that the Paris orchestra employed 40 violins and 10 double basses, is contradicted by a contemporary account that quotes figures of 17 and 4 respectively for 1786, the year before the ‘Paris’ symphonies were first performed.

The large string complement may at least in part account for the somewhat portentous Adagio introduction of ‘Le midi’, composed in 1761 and along with its companions probably one of the first works Haydn wrote for his new employer, Prince Paul Anton Esterházy. All three are concertante works that incorporate numerous solos that enable both he and his new orchestral colleagues to show off their paces to their employer. But I’m not entirely convinced that Christophers has quite caught the spirit of the piece, since although the Allegro bubbles along zestfully, the tremolandi  energetically bowed, there is throughout a tendency to be over serious. Here, as elsewhere in appropriate movements, Christophers takes the second half repeat. The highly original slow movement, an accompagnato  followed by a soulful aria in which the solo violin takes the role of the singer, might have been given a greater sense of momentum.

The C-major Violin Concerto also dates from 1760s, having been written for the Esterházy leader Luigi Tomasini. While hardly a virtuoso work, it was written to exploit Tomasini’s facility to play in a high register (some of the string quartets do the same) and also includes a fair amount of double-stopping. None of this holds any problems for the Handel and Haydn’s concertmaster Aisslinn Nosky, who plays the work with verve in the outer movements – the Presto finale has a particularly agreeable spring in its step – and spins out the cantabile of the central Andante with secure intonation and unfailingly musical line. My one quarrel would be with the overblown first movement cadenza.

With the Symphony No 83 we move onto a different plain, the main dish after a two-course hors d’oeuvres. This is probably the Haydn symphony to have suffered most from a 19th century nickname, ‘La poule’ (The hen), which stems from the clucking motif heard in the second group of the opening Allegro spiritoso. It is in fact, especially in this movement, a highly dramatic G-minor symphony. The apparent contradiction leads Kemp to describe the work as ‘oddly schizophrenic’, yet I believe this to be a misreading. The motif is surely a joke that has been overlooked, as if the composer is saying: ’yes, indeed, this is indeed a stormy minor-key movement, but, hey, I’ve done all that the Sturm und Drang stuff, so lighten up a bit’ (some early sources actually head the movement ‘Con garbo’ – ‘with elegance’). Whatever the intention, Christophers gives the work a compelling performance, encouraging his strings to dig deeply into the intensity of the turbulent opening section, while exposing the counterpoint of the development with the practised hand of the experienced Handelian he is. The serene slow movement also goes well, with warmly affectionate playing, though there are one or two moments where romantic self-indulgence creeps in. The Minuet moves at a good pace, while the irrepressibly bucolic Vivace conveys a sturdy masculinity that reminds us that its composer was born a son of the soil.

Brian Robins

C. P. E. Bach, Graun, Hesse
Lucie Boulanger viola da gamba, Arnaud de Pasquale & Laurent Stewart fortepiano
71:52
Alpha 202

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he recording opens with a trio by Graun. The sound is strikingly classical, overwhelming in its energy. The allegro theme introduced by the fortepiano, a lovely crystalline sound, with the viol playing an obbligato cantilena, with a second fortepiano providing continuo bass. A slower movement follows, a dialogue between the viol playing thirds, and the fortepiano. The style is that of the Berlin school, limpid melodies, floating beguilingly, concluding with a cadenza from the piano. The final movement, allegro, is again introduced by the fortepiano, the viol entering with its own theme, demanding great virtuosity from both players.

Two sonatas by C. P. E. Bach follow. The first is a transcription for viola da gamba of a violin sonata in D major. It’s a very attractive work, opening with a lovely cantilena Adagio, very much in the style of the older Bach.

She plays a copy of a Tielke, with seven strings, and a full, rich sound, beautifully balanced with the keyboards, one of which is copied from a Silbermann dated 1749, the other from a Cristofori dated 1722. The latter is used in the Sinfonia in A minor, by C. P. E. Bach, a transcription of a trio sonata. It has a very clear, harpsichord-like sound, but rounded and bell-like in its treble register. The music is wonderfully playful, sudden changes of register and key, interspersed with cantilena passages, played with compelling eloquence.

A sonata attributed to Ludwig Christian Hesse follows, suitably virtuosic, more chordal, as one might expect from someone who had lessons from both Marais and Forqueray. The Silbermann copy used in this piece has a slightly more astringent sound in the treble, but with a beautiful resonance. Again the texture is that of a trio sonata with the viol and piano in partnership, the instruments in constant dialogue.

The final piece by C. P. E. Bach has a marvellous first movement, contrasting the humours Sanguine and Melancholic, exploiting to great effect the extremes of contrasting moods.

The fairly brief booklet notes give little information about the artists, perhaps implying that their playing speaks for itself, which it certainly does. They play brilliantly, giving the music the wide range of colour and dynamics it demands, and with absolute technical assurance. Highly recommended.

Robert Oliver

[Jacques Zoon flute, Bruno Delepelaire cello], Berliner Barock Solisten, Reinhard Goebel
73:29
deutsche harmonia mundi 888750839725
Sinfonias in E flat Wq179, & in G H 667
Concertos for flute in G Wq169 & cello in B flat Wq171

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ull marks to the Berlin Philharmonic for continuing to explore early repertoire with scaled-down forces and specialist conductors. Here Reinhard Goebel guides them through four excellent pieces by a composer whose music is suited to many different modes of performance. That is not to say that technical improvements in the instruments and playing techniques does not deprive the music of some of its essential characteristics – the absolute evenness of tone across the solo flute’s range, for example, means that there is not audible sense of strong and weak notes, and likewise the orchestral string playing is so well regulated (with not quite enough air between bow and string for my personal tastes) that – with only a very few exceptions (when Goebel coaxes out some long notes at cadences, for example) – the natural variety of HIP sound is replaced by terraced dynamics and bowings/phrasings that sound artificial. Both soloists clearly enjoy playing C. P. E. Bach’s music, and the orchestra is similarly enthusiastic. Personally, though, period instruments and a little more HIP magic would have lifted what is good into a different category.

Brian Clark

Christina Landshamer, Maximilian Schmitt, Rudolf Rosen STB, Collegium Vocale Gent, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées. Philippe Herreweghe
97:00 (2 CDs)
Phi LPH018

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he reliable Archiv Music retail website currently lists no fewer than 61 versions of Haydn’s supremely uplifting oratorio. I’m certainly not going to claim to have heard all 61 (you probably wouldn’t believe me if I did), but I have heard a fair few and also reviewed quite a number over the years. Most recently, back in our November pages, I gave high praise to a new recording sung in English from the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston under their current music director Harry Christophers. Now here is a further contender from another doyen among early music choral directors.

Perhaps one of the most remarkable things about the newcomer is that it has taken Philippe Herreweghe so long to record Die Schöpfung  (as one would expect his recording is sung in the original German, although in this review I’ll use the familiar English titles for arias and choruses), given that it is now 45 years since he founded the Collegium Vocale Gent. Yet it is perhaps an advantage that only now has Herreweghe decided to record Haydn’s choral masterpiece, for it is a performance that combines the assets of his many years experience with a perhaps less predictable freshness of approach that constantly delights the ear as well as the senses. The experience can be heard right from the outset, where the Representation of Chaos unfolds with a true sense of mystery, yet one that remains under total musical control. Listen for example to the beautifully articulated ascending quaver triplets that ripple through the strings and bassoons like some primeval awaking. Or move on some 15 bars or so to the exquisitely balanced wind writing for flutes, oboes and clarinets. And so it goes on throughout the performance. Time and again the ear is drawn to some solo or concertante passage, invariably beautifully played. The start of Part 3 (where we meet Adam and Eve) opens with playing of the rarest beauty, playing that somehow manages to encompass both delicacy and nobility.

Herreweghe’s soloists are not well known names, at least in Britain, yet they form a more satisfying team overall than did that of Christophers, not least because the vibrato that I noted among his soloists is not a problem here. The men are outstanding, being especially satisfying in Haydn’s wonderfully pictorial accompanied recitatives. There both Schmitt and Rosen positively relish the language and mimetic effects, declaiming the text with vividness and communicating a total involvement that draws the listener in. Both are also excellent with ornaments and passagework. If I find soprano Christina Landshamer marginally less satisfying it is simply that her admirably fresh-sounding singing conveys less character than that of her male colleagues. She is also uninclined to provide ornamentation, most noticeably at cadential fermatas, which sound bald when completely unadorned. But there are times when the voice opens out splendidly and her legato singing, especially in the duet ‘By thee with bliss’ (Part 3), is lovely. The chorus that Herreweghe has worked with for so long is predictably superb, splendidly incisive and inspired by the conductor to build the big choral climaxes to thrilling effect. Among less obvious examples of its excellence, the pinpoint rhythmic articulation of the choral and orchestral basses in ‘Achieved is the glorious work’ reminds us that the foundations of The Creation  lie firmly rooted in the Baroque.

There is no doubt in my mind that this elevated performance stands among the very best to have been committed to record. There is about it a joyous quality of the kind that has perhaps not always been associated with the somewhat sober Herreweghe, an intoxicating combination of supreme but never rigid control and true freedom of spirit. Nearly five stars all round, the one subtracted from Presentation being on account of the absurdly small print in the booklet!

Brian Robins

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