Tag: Classical

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Recording

Haydn: String Quartets, op. 76

CD cover of London Haydn Quartet Hyperion recording of op 76

The London Haydn Quartet
153:29 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
hyperion CDA68335

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Few other than benighted beings like record critics are likely to listen closely to all six quartets of Haydn’s opus 76 in one sitting, especially in performances as well endowed with repeats as these by The London Haydn Quartet. Yet to undertake such a task is to marvel again at the richness of invention and almost kaleidoscopic variety found in this remarkable set of works, composed as the result of a commission by Count Joseph Erdődy, the chancellor at the Hungarian court in Pressburg (Bratislava). Probably commenced in 1796, the year after Haydn returned from the second of his two London visits, they were completed the following year and published in London and Vienna in 1799. Curiously for such late works, the original autograph disappeared completely; the present recording employs those first editions.

In some ways, the set consolidates those of opp 71 and 74 that Haydn wrote in London, works in which Haydn took a genre previously identified with the salon into the concert hall. Like them, the quartets of op 76 contain many passages of almost orchestral sonority, the tersely powerful chordal passage that opens the Presto finale of No 3 in C being a particularly striking example. In other ways, it seems that even in his late 60s the mature Haydn is still probing, experimenting with new ideas. Both No 1 in G and No 6 in E flat for the first time have presto minuets that are scherzos by any other name, a new conception that carries through to the two quartets of op 77 (1799). Yet possibly the most notable aspect of all is the impression given time after time that here is a mature composer at the pinnacle of his powers, a composer happy to engage with supreme contrapuntal writing of a kind we sometimes fail properly to acknowledge in Haydn’s works – listen for example to the canonic writing in the so-called ‘Witches Minuet’ of the D-minor Quartet (No 2) or the wonderful 3-part counterpoint and chromaticism in the third of the variations on the ‘Emperor’s Hymn’ (the C-major Quartet). There are, too, movements in which Haydn seems to have captured an inner repose given only to those at peace with themselves and the world. The ineffably lovely Largo of No 5 in D comes immediately into the mind, surely the music of a man that has found such peace, a peace ruffled only momentarily by darker thoughts before returning to utter tranquillity, qualities also found in the Adagio that gives the ‘Sunrise’ its name (No 4 in B flat). This being Haydn, humour and the folk element that reminds us of his humble beginnings are never far away, sometimes found together. The finale of the B-flat Quartet, for instance, is a cheeky east-European folk-song that surely cries out to have bawdy words fitted to it. And this would equally not be Haydn without the odd surprise. The D-major Quartet opens with an easy-going allegretto that has a Schubertian air of insouciance, proceeding in this fashion until a sudden allegro bursts out to take the same thematic material into an entirely unexpected and more brutal world.     

The performances of this glorious music – and there is so much more that could be said about it – are in general extremely rewarding, attaining the same level of musicality that I praised in the ensemble’s recording of op 64 I reviewed for this site. Tempos are in the main sensible and well-judged, though for me some of the slow movements are taken just that shade too slowly. That wonderful Largo of No 5 is a case in point, but it is so beautifully drawn forgiveness is not difficult. Otherwise, my main caveat would be that, as with the op 64 recording, dynamic contrasts might have been made more of. But the playing is technically of a high order and the excellent balance also adds to the pleasures of a set that will delight anyone collecting a complete cycle now nearing completion.

Brian Robins      

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Recording

Mozart: Serenades

CD cover Mozart sereandes McGegan Capella Savaria


Capella Savaria, Nicholas McGegan
69:30
Hungaroton HCD 32850

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These performances of the Haffner Serenade K250/248b and the Serenata Notturna K. 234 are part of the complete recording of music by Mozart for solo violin and orchestra played by Zsolt Kalló and the Capella Savaria. As the relatively low Köchel numbers suggest, these are works from Mozart’s Salzburg period, but already the young Mozart seems dissatisfied to write conventional Unterhaltungsmusik, incorporating unexpected movements featuring solo violin, which he may well have played himself. One of these is the perky trio to a darkly foreboding minuet, which would not be out of place in one of the late great symphonies. It is not difficult to picture the young genius already chafing at the bit of his conventional role in Salzburg and longing for the challenges of Vienna. The Bartók Concert Hall in Szombathely provides a nicely resonant acoustic for some delightfully idiomatic playing from the Capella and their soloist. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the Capella Savaria was the first period instrument group in Hungary, and has traditionally harnessed the innate talents of this very musical nation in the service of period performance.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Handel: Organ Transcriptions by Walsh and Hook

CD cover Vebber plays transcriptions of Handel on the organ

Simone Vebber
54:04
La Bottega Discantica 314

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Transcriptions of Handel’s works for keyboard were intended to make his music widely available and were not made for recital purposes. Shorn of their original context they can seem like simple Gebrauchsmusik. While they do allow the listener to concentrate on Handel’s harmony and counterpoint, without the contrasts between solo and ripieno, or between different vocal groups, sequential repeats can get a bit wearisome. This selection includes two organ concertos, arranged by John Walsh, together with transcriptions by James Hook of two Coronation anthems, ‘Let Thy Hand Be strengthened’ and ‘The King Shall rejoice’. There are also successful arrangements of two choruses from Saul and Judas Maccabeus. Vebber plays on the organ in S. Maria Maddalena, Desenzano on Lake Garda. It includes some pipework from the church’s 17th-century organ by Matteo Cardinali, but was largely rebuilt in 1835-7 by the Serassi brothers. It provides a good range of contrasting stops though some of the big reeds tend to overpower and can sound anomalous, coming as a bit of shock when they substitute for the massed choir in the anthems. The accompanying booklet is in Italian only, and the website provides no translations or further information. Something of a curiosity, then, but the playing is rhythmically consistent, while maintaining good flexibility. The ‘Cuckoo and Nightingale’ concerto bristles with fun and, indeed, the whole recording exudes a strong sense of joie de vivre. Good for raising spirits in these trying times!

Noel O’Regan

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Recording

Haydn: Die Schöpfung

Antonini directs Haydn's Die Schöpfung as part of Haydn 2032

Anna Lucia Richter, Maximilian Schmitt, Florian Boesch, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini
Haydn 2032
100:08 (2 CDs in a card triptych)
Alpha Classics Alpha 567

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No one following Giovanni Antonini’s challenging on-going cycle of Haydn’s symphonies is likely to be surprised by this questioning, deeply moving and exhilarating performance of The Creation, recorded live in Munich in May 2019. At the outset, the Representation of Chaos is notable not only for its evocation of profound, unfathomable mystery – initially near inaudible – but on a musical level the ear is conscious of near-perfect orchestral balance. Grinding lower strings remind of an unruly cosmos in dire need of the sense of order finally achieved by the chorus’s monumental outburst ‘es ward Licht’ (there was light).

The whole of this vividly theatrical opening sequence sets the scene for what follows, a performance in which an outstanding solo trio, fully committed choral forces and magnificent orchestral playing coalesce to produce an utterly compelling experience. The ever-shifting focus is already apparent in Uriel’s ‘Nun schwanden’, a description of the order achieved on the first day, handled by Antonini with a delicious lightness of touch. We have moved in a trice to the world of Die Zauberflöte (which will return even more strikingly in Uriel’s ‘Aus Rosenwolken’ [In rosy mantle]) at the start of Part 3). Like all Uriel’s music, it is sung with real musical insight and keen attention to text by Maximillian Schmitt, a light lyric tenor with a fast vibrato that can occasionally be a little disconcerting. The descriptive narrative of the division of earth into land and sea, of winds, of storms, or rain, snow and ‘dreary wasteful hail’ falls largely to Raphael, the outstanding baritone Florian Boesch. As befits one of today’s leading Lieder singers, Boesch proves not only to be an outstanding storyteller but equally the possessor of a voice of real intrinsic beauty and variegated colour. To hear that at its most ravishing, it is necessary to turn only as far as the final lines of the aria ‘Rollen in schäumenden Wellen’ (Rolling in foaming billows), where Boesch’s exquisite mezza voce evokes the ‘soft purling’ of ‘limpid brooks’ in one of many magical moments. At the end of the wonderful mimetic accompanied recitative ‘Gleich öffnet’, his outstanding technique becomes merged with humour, with a firm and totally secure low G# as the worm traces its ‘sinuous way’, a moment that brings a barely registered but none the less audible smile from the Munich audience.

An equally beguiling touch of subtle vocal humour, this time tinged with irony, comes in Part 3 as Eve promises her Adam that ‘his will is law to her’.  Anna Lucia Richter is another of the glories of the performance, a soprano possessed not only of a voice that soars with glorious freedom and vernal freshness but owns to a complete technique in which embellishments, including a finely articulated trill, are perfectly turned and judged. Gabriel’s ‘Auf starken Fittige’ (On mighty pens’) is a joyously confident experience in which the tenderness of the second part of the aria is expressed with dewy-eyed sweetness, the singer happy to indulge the conductor’s playful bending of tempo. Like others of Antonini’s indulgences, it’s a dangerous moment, but it works. Yet moments later Antonini has captured all the dignified nobility of Raphael’s quotation of God’s words, ‘Be fruitful all, and multiply’, the momentous command underscored by imperious divided string basses.

It is that kind of all-encompassing performance. I have no idea whether Antonini is exercised by the naivety some perceive in The Creation. If he is, he doesn’t for one moment betray any such concern. It is his inspiring direction, his multi-faceted conception of a work that runs a gamut from ultimate grandeur to near child-like wonder, that has produced this spellbinding, life-enhancing testament.

Brian Robins         

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Recording

Beethoven Arranged

CD cover of Beethoven arrangements for tenor and chamber ensemble

Ilker Arcayürek tenor, Ludwig Chamber Players
71:09
cpo 555 355-2
12 Variations on a theme from Handel’s oratorio Judas Maccabaeus, Septet op. 20, Adelaide, An die ferne Geliebte

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This CD features a performance on modern instruments of Beethoven’s famous and seminal Septet in tandem with modern arrangements for instruments and tenor voice by Andreas N Tarkmann and M Ucki of the Beethoven songs ‘Adelaide’ and the extended ‘An die ferne Geliebte’, and an octet arrangement of Beethoven’s homage to Handel – a set of variations for cello and piano of ‘See the Conquering Hero Comes’ from his Judas Maccabaeus. The performance of the Septet is delightfully detailed, while the modern arrangements for chamber ensemble use the Septet as their model, and make very effective use of the available combinations of wind and stringed instruments. It is easy forget how ground-breaking and influential Beethoven’s Septet was when it first appeared in 1800, directly inspiring Schubert’s (in my opinion far superior) Octet and much of the larger-scale chamber music of the Romantic period. My favourite track on the CD is the Tarkmann arrangement of ‘An die ferne Geliebte’, possibly because it was the strongest composition to start with, but also I think because of the way the imaginative octet instrumentation enhances the original. Iker Arcayürek is a thoughtful and highly expressive solo tenor, who responds positively to being accompanied by a chamber ensemble rather than the customary piano. My one reservation is that in allocating the original piano part, the arrangements feel free to make demands on the modern instruments (particularly the clarinet) which would simply have been beyond the scope of the instruments of the period. Playing modern instruments, The Ludwig Players make light of this, but these remain obviously modern arrangements for modern instruments.

D. James Ross

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Sheet music

G A Benda: Philon und Theone

A-R Editions Benda "Philon und Theone"

Recent Researches in the Music of the Classical Era, 115
Edited by Austin Glatthorn
xxiv, three plates, 166pp.
A-R Editions, Inc. ISBN 978-1-9872-0456-8. $270

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The latest volume in this excellent series from A-R Editions includes not only Benda’s version of his last melodrama, but also the revised version of some movements (made by the glass harmonica player, Johann Ludwig Röllig, who commissioned it) for performances in Prague (the original Viennese production having been cancelled). Unlike Benda’s other melodramas, Philon und Theone (which tells of lovers separated by a sea storm, her protection by spirits, and their ultimate reconciliation) is not restricted to instrumental music interspersed with narrative; Theone is a sung role and the spirits sing two- and four-voice choruses. This, as the thorough and impressive introduction explains, brings the work closer to Singspiel and opera, and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Schikaneder and/or Mozart (the latter certainly knew of Benda’s music) were acquainted with the work. The original version (for a string orchestra with pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets with timpani) runs to p. 103, and the remainder is given over to Röllig’s Almansor und Nadine (the revision). The translation is given of all the words, and the music looks lively and effective, as Benda’s output tends to be – it still surprises me how few performances and recordings there are on the market! Congratulations to Glatthorn and A-R Editions on a very fine publication.

Brian Clark

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Book Festival-conference

Sara Levy’s World: Gender, Judaism and the Bach Tradition in Enlightenment Berlin

Sarah Levy's World: Gender, Judaism and the Bach Tradition in Enlightenment Berlin

Eastman Studies in Music 145
Edited by Rebecca Cypess and Nancy Sinkoff
302pp. ISBN 978-1-58046-921-0 £80
University of Rochester Press, 2018.

This book is the outcome of a symposium in 2014 at Rutgers University. Eleven chapters, packed with information and extensive notes, attest to one of the cornerstones of musicological research: learned contributors excavate, analyse and explicate figures hidden from history.

Here the subject is Sara Levy (nee Itzig, as she signed herself in some of her few surviving letters). Madame Sara Levy (1761- 1854) was Felix Mendelssohn’s (he of the historic1829 performance of J. S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion) great-aunt. She died aged 94, had no children, and is a fascinating and significant figure for two reasons.

The first reason is musical. Levy was a friend and patron of the Bach family. She was a skilled harpsichordist, taught by W. F. Bach, and performed privately and publicly into her 70s – Charles Burney apparently heard her play. Her banker husband played the flute (alright for some), and they commissioned music from C.P.E. Bach. She had a remarkable collection of autographed music manuscripts and prints of the works of the Bach family, which she donated to the Sing-Akademie in Berlin (there is a photo of the house in the book). The collection disappeared, and was – finally – discovered, largely intact, in Kiev, in the Ukraine, in 1999.

Till then, Sara Levy was virtually unknown, However, Peter Wollny, director of the Leipzig Bach-Archiv, published a book about her in 2010 (in German, as yet untranslated, as far as I know). He is also responsible for the Grove entry on her.

Sara Levy was a significant figure for another reason. She was one of the salonnieres in the 18th-early19th centuries in Berlin. These salons were gatherings of friends, family and acquaintances, and they were cultural as well as social events: there might be discussions about books or politics, play-readings, and, of course, music. The salons were generally hosted by women, who were thus able to take part domestically in cultural activities from which they were excluded in the public sphere.

The added dimension to this part of musical/social history is that Sara Levy was one of an elite group of Jewish salonnieres in Berlin. Thus, as more than one chapter points out, she was part of a community of Prussian Jews who were involved in shared cultural activities with Christians – activities which straddle the two concepts of ‘emancipation’ and ‘assimilation’, in the process, as one of the chapters puts it, ‘of becoming modern Europeans’.

However, these oases of cultural coexistence should not be idealised. While there were conversions and intermarriage, there was also fierce controversy. Some of Sara Levy’s family became Protestants, but she remained steadfastly Jewish, though there is no evidence as to whether she was observant. She was involved in Jewish organisations, subscribed to the publication of Hebrew books and supported Jewish and Hebrew education.

At the same time, ‘she embraced Christian elements from German and European culture’. However, while some Jews ‘acquired a taste for church music’, and even had Christmas trees, ‘she and other Jewish women’s musical training (was) through Bach’s instrumental music’, rather than through compositions with Christian religious texts. Women were banned at the time from participating in Catholic and Protestant liturgical music.

It is clear that there were cultural tensions in operation, intertwined with the co-operations. Perhaps one of the most telling examples is the case of Mendelssohn himself. Baptised aged seven into the Protestant faith, at the age of twenty he was responsible for the revivalist performance in 1829 of J.S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion, the story of the passion of Christ as king and Messiah, a challenge to Jewish theology. Contradiction and co-existence in a single piece of music. This historical period marked, as so many others have, arguments for Jewish tolerance alongside anti-semitism.

The book is fascinating, since, in the absence of autobiographical writings and other evidence, Sara Levy and her world are presented through an interdisciplinary perspective. It would have been great to have more information and gossip: was Sara present at the 1829 Passion? Did she know how Mendelssohn got the music in the first place? We will just have to imagine.

Towards the end of the book, an essay aims to clinch the cross-cultural argument by referring to the number of duets for various instruments in Sara Levy’s collection – including nine duets by Telemann which do not appear attributed anywhere else. These duets, it is argued, show that, in the equal balance of voices consists the metaphor through which an analogy and model for cultural co-operation is sealed. In turn, concepts of counterpoint and imitation, drawn from music, become metaphors for conversations between cultures. The images are elegant, anthropomorphic and musicomorphic (to coin a term).

While they function as an attempt to elide cultural and religious tensions, the book, in its carefully researched detail and variety of approaches, shows its subject, Sara Levy, as a social exception who serves to prove the musical rule, that women in music were rarely seen or heard. In this case, she is retrieved as having a crucial role in helping to generate, preserve and revive, the music written by the Bach family (all men, in case the point needs to be made!).

Michelene Wandor

 

 

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Recording

Divertimenti Viennesi

CD cover of Divertimenti Viennesi Dittersdorf Michael Haydn Vanhal

Musica Elegentia, Matteo Cicchitti conductor
88:15 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
Brilliant Classics 96127
Dittersdorf: Six string trios; Michael Haydn: Divertimento in C; Vanhal: Divertimento in G

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The name of the ensemble playing this Unterhaltungsmusik pretty much sums up its style and content – this is elegant but trivial repertoire, intended as background music to social occasions or to be played by amateurs primarily for their own entertainment. So there is nothing terribly intellectually challenging on this 2-CD set. What is interesting, is that this sort of light chamber music provided the everyday soundtrack for late-18th– and early-19th-century Vienna, which in turn provided the backdrop for so much ground-breaking composition. In addition to boasting one of the best names in the whole of classical music, Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf also has the distinction of having played in a string quartet with Vanhal, Mozart and Joseph Haydn, so it is clear that the great masters happily rubbed shoulders with their lesser contemporaries, and even made music with them. Vanhal was a student of Dittersdorf, while Michael Haydn was, of course, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn. The first CD of the set features trios for two violins and violone by Dittersdorf – the programme note makes the valuable point that the violone was seen as the default string bass instrument in Vienna at this time. The yawning gap in pitch between the two violins and the violone seems a little odd to begin with, but you soon get used to it. The performers try to inject as much wit and energy as possible into Dittersdorf’s music, but it did eventually all begin to sound the same to me – perhaps this is not a criticism of music intended as ‘background’, the ‘muzak’ of its time. I have to say I preferred the two Divertimenti on the second CD by Vanhal and Michael Haydn, where a viola replaced the second violin and helped to bridge the chasm between the violone and the upper strings. This was generally more imaginative repertoire, perhaps slightly later in provenance than the Dittersdorf, although I did still find the occasional ‘violone thrash’ moments a little comedic.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Devienne: Trios

Devienne Chamber music

Le Petit Trianon
71:36
Ricercar RIC416

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Devienne is one of these composers who is more often cited than performed, working in France at the crucial transition between the Baroque and Classical styles – his influence can be heard in the ‘pre-classical’ music composed in Mannheim and even in the early music of Mozart. A wind player who played flute and bassoon expertly as well as being acquainted with the other wind instruments, Devienne was an early champion of the clarinet. He composed in a wide range of genres, including large-scale sacred music and opera, as well as ground-breaking symphonies concertants, but is perhaps most admired for his chamber music, represented here by three of his op 66 flute trios and two of his op 17 bassoon trios. These are works of apparently effortless originality, which reflect the composer’s intimate understanding of the respective wind instruments. A notable workaholic, who combined eight hours of composition a day with regular performances, official duties as a professor at the Conservatoire and even found time to compile an influential method for playing the flute, Devienne eventually burned himself out, spending his final months in an asylum, where he died in his mid-forties. The present selection of chamber music is played with consummate expertise and considerable musicality bringing out the unique qualities of Devienne’s compositions. This was music which looked to the future, and it is fascinating to hear how his influence flowed down through the ensuing generations. It is good to see young French musicians exploring so sympathetically the music of such an important French composer, once considered ‘the French Mozart’ and whose music and career have slipped mysteriously into relative obscurity.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Armand-Louis Couperin: Pièces de clavecin

CD cover Armand-Louis Couperin Christophe Rousset

Christophe Rousset
100′ (2 CDs in a folder)
Aparté AP236

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Perhaps because of their unusual scoring Armand-Louis’s best-known works are the handful of pieces that he wrote for two harpsichords, and this is the first complete recording of his 1751 solo Pièces. This volume contains suites in G and B flat, both of which intersperse dances and character pieces, often quite expansive in conception, more than merely charming in general character, and inventive in their material and textures. The music is superbly complemented by the marvellous historic instrument on which it is played – a two-manual (with some interesting accessories) by Goujon (early 18th century) with ravalement by Swanen (1784).

It almost goes without saying that the music is also superbly complemented by the artist. Christophe Rousset is one of the outstanding players of our age and he is on fine form here. It’s not so much the notes but the spaces between them that he manages so well – a little breath here or a pushing on there – and his choice of tempo strikes me as consistently perfect. Some of these movements may have been silent for a long time but, as finally revealed on this disc, they do not disappoint.

David Hansell

This is one of two releases I have reviewed as downloads this month. As such it is not possible to comment in the usual way on the overall physical presentation of the package but a few comments on the download experience are appropriate. This is no longer a novelty, of course, and the process for both the music and the booklet is perfectly straightforward. However, any printing of the booklet material needs care and may need a few experiments with single pages to find the optimum settings for both size and format. In particular, beware of pages that are black with white print (a bad design idea anyway) and you may not want to print pages that are not in your language or which contain material of only passing interest. And do not assume that all publications from the same source will work in the same way! Once you have what you want, you will find excellent and informative essays on the composer, his music and the instrument used (English and French).