Categories
Recording

The Art of the Harpsichord: from Cabezón to Mozart

Byron Schenkman
BSF171

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]yron Schenkman has recorded this significant and highly enjoyable disc on eight instruments from the collection at the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota. Ranging from a rare anonymous Neapolitan harpsichord of c. 1530 to a 1798 instrument by Joseph Kirckman, the disc covers more than two and a half centuries of the harpsichord’s dominance. Schenkman has made an excellent choice of work to show off each instrument, for the most part eschewing well-known pieces in favour of lesser-known but no less significant ones, which match the chosen instrument extremely well. For example, a Toccata and Passacaglia by the Frescobaldi-influenced Johann Kaspar Kerll, used to illustrate the Giacomo Ridolfi harpsichord of c. 1675, is an inspired choice and Schenkman rises very well to the virtuosic challenges of the extended Passacaglia. The same applies to Gregorio Strozzi’s trill-laden Passacaglia which is played on an octave virginal by Onofrio Guarracino. A spinet by Johann Heinrich Silbermann is put through its paces in a rare piece by Silbermann himself, as well as in a sonata by C.P.E. Bach. It is good to hear three Scarlatti sonatas played on a resonant Portuguese harpsichord by José Callisto, with a particularly exciting rendition of K 427. Schenkman is a versatile player who seems equally at home in this great variety of styles, no small ask in a repertory that ranges from Cabezón to Mozart. Only the Haydn Sonata in D (Hob XVI:24), played on the Kirckman, feels a bit uncomfortable in its overly-fast second and third movements. The disc is accompanied by some excellent notes on the instruments, written by John Koster; there is, however, little information on the actual music which is a pity. In the breadth of its programme, and with some exciting playing, this CD makes an excellent introduction to the harpsichord and its repertory. It also showcases some wonderful historical instruments kept in peak playing condition.

Noel O’Regan

Categories
Recording

Purcell: Ayres & Songs from Orpheus Britannicus; Harmonia Sacra & complete organ music

Jill Feldman, Nigel North, Sarah Cunningham, Davitt Moroney
140:00 (2 CDs in a card sleeve)
Arcana A430 (c) 1992/93

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his major collection of music by Henry Purcell features one CD of music for soprano, lute and viol drawn from the publication of the composer’s songs, posthumously compiled and brought to print by his brother Daniel. The second CD consists of music for soprano and organ from Purcell’s Harmonia Sacra  and includes all the composer’s music for solo organ. One way or another we spend a long time in the company of soprano Jill Feldman, and, while she is a very experienced and respected early music soprano, I have some reservations about her voice production which I found laid bare in these performances. She is capable of a beautifully pure sound – as, for example, at the beginning of Music for a while  – but more often produces a more opaque sound, which I find less attractive. Although never less than expressive in her singing, I also find that she can sometimes undercut notes. Having said that, if you don’t share my reservations, there is much to enjoy in these recordings, where Ms Feldman is very ably supported by three of the leading instrumentalists in their fields. The performances can certainly never be accused of lacking energy and vitality, and it is good to hear some unfamiliar numbers as well as the established Purcell favourites. In the second CD of the set Davitt Moroney plays a late 17th-century organ by Thomas Dallam in the parish church of Saint-Miliau in Guimiliau in Finistère, which produces a wonderfully authentic range of sounds in the voluntaries as well as in the accompaniments to the various hymns from Harmonia Sacra. I think, too, that Ms Feldman sounds more convincing in this repertoire and this acoustic. It was while listening to this second CD that I found myself yet again wondering at the remarkable contribution made to English music by Henry Purcell.

D. James Ross

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B06XDSMD1H&asins=B06XDSMD1H&linkId=fe9f29785d8b93fb81707a32bca74df8&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=6403234&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B06XDSMD1H&asins=B06XDSMD1H&linkId=64db38ced6973072206daf8d1531720b&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

Categories
Recording

Tomášek: Fortepiano sonatas

Petra Matějová fortepiano
71:14
Supraphon SU 4223-2
Sonatas opp. 13, 14 & 26/48

[dropcap]P[/dropcap]art of an ambitious Supraphon series entitled ‘Music from eighteenth-century Prague’, these fortepiano sonatas by Tomášek only just slip in, being composed during the period from 1799 to 1805. It is clear from the elements of romanticism already apparent, in the composer’s idiom, that Prague was very much in the mainstream of European musical thought at this time – we would recall Mozart’s operas which premiered in Prague rather than Vienna – and while Tomášek was only four years younger than Beethoven, he survived into the middle of the nineteenth century, living long enough to teach Hanslick, the critical musical scourge of end-of-the-century Vienna. There are similarities in these works with Beethoven’s piano sonatas, but there is already also a romantic lyricism and elegance which both looks back to Mozart and Haydn and on to Schubert. Petra Matejová plays a copy of an 1815 Bertsche fortepiano, and her full-toned sound and formidable technique bring Tomášek’s imaginative and inventive music vividly to life. Mention is made in her very informative programme note of a series of Eclogues  which Tomášek also composed which sound as if they would make interesting listening, while the composer also wrote symphonies, piano concertos and chamber music. Looking at the extensive list of recordings already made in this excellent Supraphon series, if the many unknown composers are as good as Tomášek, it has been a very worthwhile exercise. And full marks for finding the cover painting – Portrait of a Lady at a Pianoforte  by Adèle Romany.

D. James Ross

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B06X9CC2T3&asins=B06X9CC2T3&linkId=1f3b63ed41a57c2b677be0d27788923c&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=6468993&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B06X9CC2T3&asins=B06X9CC2T3&linkId=3f92a53e8f900187d31e58f7cadd97de&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

Categories
Recording

Scarlatti: Sonates | 5

Pierre Hantaï harpsichord
78:00
Mirare MIR326
K. 27, 87, 124, 157, 205, 211, 238, 252, 253, 277, 388, 401, 474, 475, 547, 551

You have to admire anyone who takes on ‘the complete’ anything, let alone Scarlatti’s 555-stoned obelisk. A weakness of the package is the use of three nevertheless very good generic essays which tell us nothing about the specific sonatas in this programme other than by pure luck. Massive and more than counter-balancing strengths are the programming – a mix of earlier and later pieces – and the superb playing. In my doodles, I noted ‘business-like but with panache’, which I’m happy to stay with. In an ideal world, a variety of instruments might be used but I’m not at all unhappy with what I’ve just heard. In the end, the music itself is what you remember.

David Hansell

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B06XQBTBTQ&asins=B06XQBTBTQ&linkId=4748a55fef0ede07a32ca4263dbe3731&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=6714164&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B06XQBTBTQ&asins=B06XQBTBTQ&linkId=2cc79cb30d80d0353daa36231e629e4a&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

Categories
Recording

The Carlo G Manuscript

Virtuoso liturgical music from the early 17th century
Profeti della Quinta, Elam Rotem
66:29
Glossa GCD922516

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t is immediately obvious that this recording, much to its advantage, features a fine church (rather than a chamber) organ and further investigation reveals this to be a 17th-century original by Antegnati, no less. Six of the 23 tracks are, in fact, organ solos so we hear not only the accompanying stops and the rich chorus sound but also two delicious and very characteristic solo effects: head straight for tracks 16 and 22.

If I’m honest, the vocal music, though sung with exquisite taste and impressive agility, is of less intrinsic interest, though the manuscript and its context are fascinating. Essay and translations are in Eng/Fre/Ger and the source is available on IMSLP.

David Hansell

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B06ZXQTRKY&asins=B06ZXQTRKY&linkId=af392328b25c7587016a23505e4fb2c8&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=6709209&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B06ZXQTRKY&asins=B06ZXQTRKY&linkId=f1528109d56de497505f62b7c0fe3910&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

Categories
Recording

Frescobaldi: “Intavolatura di Cimbalo”

Yoann Moulin harpsichord & virginal
61:15
Encelade ECL1601

[dropcap]L[/dropcap]et me immediately draw attention to the lovely instruments used for this recording, an Italian style harpsichord (2012) and a virginal made in 2009 after a 1626 Italian original now in the Leipzig instrument museum. They are not elaborate instruments, but this means that their clear voices throw emphasis on to the content of the music. And in the case of Frescobaldi (rather more admired than played, I suspect) this is no bad thing. Most of the programme is drawn from Il primo libro di Toccate, including the substantial (to say the least) Folia, Romanesca  and Passacagli  variations. In addition, there are two pieces from Ricercari et Canzoni franzese  and one toccata from the second book.

The playing is sensitive and thoughtful, giving Frescobaldi his full status as a master – a disc for a quiet and pensive evening rather than a rabble-rouser. The booklet features some rather odd photographs and notes in French and English – a valiant translator’s attempt to convey the essence of the flowery original.

David Hansell

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=DE&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-21&marketplace=amazon&region=DE&placement=B0711YJSGY&asins=B0711YJSGY&linkId=5662428b51944ad89321e173632b9143&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

Categories
Recording

Bach: The Partitas

Richard Egarr harpsichord
154:59 (2 CDs in a wallet)
harmonia mundi USA HMM 907593.94

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]ichard Egarr plays the Partitas – Bach’s ‘Opus 1’ – on a 1991 harpsichord by Joel Katzman of Amsterdam after a Ruckers from Antwerp of 1638 which is tuned in his version of a 6th comma 18th-century temperament at a=399.

The instrument sounds rich and springy at this pitch, giving a bloom and mellow resonance to each note that Egarr can use to advantage to sustain the tone in the slower movements, while offering sufficient life and clarity in the faster passagework. I was never conscious of any artificiality in his chosen tempi, and the result of listening to all six partitas through at one stretch is of being mesmerised by the apparently effortless rightness of it all. So fluent, so sparkling, so dance-like, and yet so engaged, well-planned and serious a journey. Where did he get all this from?

Then I read his remarkable essay in the liner notes which describe what Egarr calls ‘the mind-boggling abilities of Bach to infuse this seemingly effortless music with godly patterns and personal algorithms of stunning brilliance.’ First he explores the numerology derived from the name, then moves to the mathematics of the Trinity and of Tempus Perfectum, paying careful attention to the cross shapes of the sharps in the key signatures in Partita 5 and then turns to Partita 6, where he finds Bach at the foot of the cross. ‘These cross figures contain predominantly intervals of the third and seventh. The three voices of this fugue, which takes us to the end of this world, enter in the first, third and seventh bars of each half. Is it a coincidence that Bach chose to delay publication until 1731?’

I can only give you a flavour of the theological and mathematical brilliance with which Egarr is convinced Bach’s music is infused, but I have never heard either such convincing arguments or such convincing playing. The more Bach I study, the more I am clear that it is not only the more obvious church music, performed in the service of the Lutheran rite, that reveals Bach’s comprehensive and coherent expression of his faith in all that he wrote.

This is a very good recording. Not only is the actual recording of a very high quality, but the performance could not be bettered either technically or cerebrally.

David Stancliffe

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B01MQYPHE8&asins=B01MQYPHE8&linkId=c290c81b641f5d16283c31b8652a7de2&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=6065918&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B01N6V17N3&asins=B01N6V17N3&linkId=69823398de2102bfe602541769bf7f50&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

Categories
Recording

Bach: Goldberg Variations

Davide Pozzi harpsichord
61:19
Pan Classics PC 10374

Pieter-Jan Belder harpsichord
77:40
Brilliant Classics 95471

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne of the things that struck me about two more Goldbergs to add to those by Christine Schornsheim (reviewed last October) and Ignacio Prego’s (reviewed last November) is the difference in timing. Pozzi, without seeming hurried (though he is very nimble) takes a mere 61.19 to the 79.08 of Prego, the 74.05 of Schornsheim, and the 77.40 of Pieter-Jan Belder. A second distinguishing mark is the instrument.Both Schornsheim and Pozzi play copies of a Mietke, though a different instrument: Schornsheim’s is a copy by Christoph Kern after a ca. 1710 instrument, while Pozzi’s is by Cornelis Bom after an undescribed Mietke: the mellow tone of both of them reveals a family likeness. Most distinct is the instrument used by Pieter-Jan Belder who chooses to play on a recent copy of a Ruckers of 1624, dating almost a century before the others. The action is noisier, and I instinctively associate the more clunky sound with composers a generation of two earlier than Bach like Sweelinck and his pupils.

Of the notes accompanying the CDs, Pieter-Jan Belder’s are the fullest and most detailed for those who do not know the music so well or do not have a score in front of them. His notes tell us that this is a replacement for his 1999 recording (already a second version!), and will be his last. In spite of that, I find his playing more staid, and, although more flexible than Schornsheim’s, a trifle mannered. That and the more ‘old-fashioned’ sound of his Ruckers-type instrument, tend to give us a more schoolmasterly performance as opposed to Pozzi, who has grace and fluency abounding. Even when Pozzi is playing in a slow tempo, the momentum derived from the essential dance rhythms behind so many of the variations tell you where the whole movement is headed. I like it, in spite of the very minimalist essay (in German, English, French and Italian), which is hot on structure and numerology but thin on Belder’s kind of exposition.

This minimalist essay, though, is revealing. Looking at the way the 30 variations and two statements of the Aria can be divided, Pozzi points to the Trinitarian 10 by 3, with groups of 3 – two variations and a canon in each – but notes also the two sixteen-fold divisions, with the French Overture opening the second part. He tunes his instrument to a modified Werkmeister IV at 415, while Belder discloses nothing except the maker’s name – Titus Crijnen 2014.

So in preference to the scholarly and considered third version of Belder and second of Schornsheim, I find myself more captivated by Prego, and even more by Pozzi. Which version you would like to have – you may already have many – is very much a matter of individual taste. Both versions reviewed here are excellently recorded and faultlessly – though differently – played. You will need to hear them both before deciding for yourself, but of all four, I will tire least, I think, of Pozzi.

David Stancliffe

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B01NCXOJMP&asins=B01NCXOJMP&linkId=ad9b2ccd6cbf6e722a36b930f2680fad&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=6085972&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B01NCXOJMP&asins=B01NCXOJMP&linkId=cf58774befa3a1ea80a0fbba14dd2192&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B01NADFYGD&asins=B01NADFYGD&linkId=338d6f6039bd0ef18b566bc9792158a4&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=5731181&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B01NADFYGD&asins=B01NADFYGD&linkId=b296941b0f532532abed25a8e0a5fa08&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

Categories
Recording

Bach and Friends

Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas organ/harpsichord
79:54
Ambronay AMY048
Böhm, Buxtehude, J. C. F. Fischer, Georg Muffat, Pachelbel, Scheidemann

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a recital by a young prizewinning organist/harpsichordist from the Southwest corner of France. He plays a harpsichord by Philippe Humau – a copy of an instrument made by Johann Heinrich Gräbner in Dresden in 1722 which has been in the Villa Bertramka in Prague since 1787. It has a mature and resonant tone. The organ is a 3 manual instrument by Dominique Thomas built in the north German style of Arp Schnitger for the church at Ciboure in 2014. The plain, flat wooden roofed church has dry acoustics, that do the instrument no favours, but every note – even when manual 16’ ranks are drawn – is clear, and the sound is not only powerful in the tutti but elegant and characterful when only a few ranks are used. This is an exciting instrument, and I hope that there will be an organ by Thomas in the UK before too long.

The programme title ‘Bach and his friends’ is a slight misnomer. Scheidemann died in 1663, and Buxtehude and Pachelbel at least cannot be called friends in the normal sense of the word. But it makes a good selection and gives a context to Bach’s works we do not often hear. For an example of Louis-Nöel Bestion de Camboulas’ – what a splendid name! – fine playing, listen to his articulation of the entries in the fugato sections of Buxtehude’s Praeludium in G minor: each entry is beautifully phrased and given the clarity and shaping it deserves without the onward rhythm being in any way distorted. This is elegant playing, and apparently straightforward pieces like Pachelbel’s Aria Sebaldina from Hexachordum Apollinis  acquire a lyrical presence.

When he comes to the organ, the registrations – it would have been good to include details in the booklet as well as the specification – are varied and displays the colours and richness of Thomas’ organ. There are six manual reeds, and four on the pedal, and a rank with a Tierce on each of the three manuals, but in the Böhm Vater unser  the decorated chorale is given to a single principal rank, and its sweet, singing tone illustrates the builder’s skill as well as the player’s.

So this is a fine introduction to a skilled and elegant player as well as two splendid instruments. I recommend this disc to connoisseurs of both.

David Stancliffe

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B06XNWS6RZ&asins=B06XNWS6RZ&linkId=bae4476dcfaa9ae1ed2c22d739fc207f&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=6557058&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B06XPM623T&asins=B06XPM623T&linkId=21eea95247b8a9b8efe38c5ca97da416&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

Categories
Recording

C. P. E. Bach: The Solo Keyboard Music, vol. 32

Miklós Spányi tangent piano
78:54
BIS-2205 CD
‘für Kenner und Liebhaber’ Sonatas and Rondos from Collections 1 & 2

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] cannot claim to have followed closely BIS’s courageously unobtrusive project to record the complete corpus of the solo keyboard works of Bach’s eldest son. I have, however, reviewed several of the previous issues in EMR and elsewhere and when I do return to the cycle am invariably struck not only by the originality of C. P. E. Bach’s keyboard writing, but also the high level of performance consistently maintained by Miklós Spányi. Even given that Spányi has made a specialization of C. P. E.’s keyboard music – he completed an integral recording of the concertos in 2014 – it is remarkable that no hint of the routine has crept into his performances, even where the music is perhaps not the composer at his greatest.

The newest addition to the series brings three of the six sonatas from the first of Bach’s Kenner und Liebhaber  (basically a catch-all marketing ploy meaning the music is suitable for both accomplished and less accomplished performers) publications, which appeared in Leipzig in 1779, and the three rondos included in the second volume, published the following year. Spányi here plays a reconstruction of a tangent piano – a hybrid relative of both the harpsichord and the fortepiano – of 1799. The thoroughness of his survey is illustrated by the fact that the C-major Sonata, Wq 55/1 was also included in vol. 31 (which I’ve not heard) played on the clavichord, thus making for an interesting comparison of sonority with the composer’s favourite instrument.

To my mind it is not the sonatas that are the most important works here, but the rondos. It was a form developed by Bach and as the notes rightly point out one in which for substance he had few rivals other than Mozart, whose rondos anyway have a rather different construction. Like Haydn and Beethoven, Bach tended to employ motifs rather than themes as Mozart did, using them not just in reiterations of the principal rondo statement but in the episodes as well. Thus here all three of the rondos (in C-major, Wq 56/1; in D-major, Wq 56/3; and A-minor, Wq 56/5) open with four-note chordal motifs that constantly reappear, at times juxtaposed with other material, at times embedded within it. Wq 65/5, for example, has a rather pathetic, song-like motif developed into something rather stronger and contrapuntally between upper and lower register. Later it appears juxtaposed with gushing floods of surging arpeggiated figuration, the main feature of the first episode. Wq 56/1 is an exceptional work, almost a compendium of Bach’s stylistic traits, including as it does passionate outbursts, disconcertingly fragmented material, abrupt silences and unexpected modulations.

The sonatas, as already suggested, seem to me less striking. Indeed Wq 55/6 in G in particular is surely one of Bach’s less compelling keyboard works, with an opening movement in which it is at times difficult to comprehend what the composer is getting at, so disconcerting is the apparent lack of structure and continuity. But the drooping cascades that form the principal idea of the central Andante are appealing, as is the surging, flowing lyricism of the last movement.

Brian Robins

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=infocentral-21&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B01M2XIR5D&asins=B01M2XIR5D&linkId=da911b6123cc86c7e295701674c02d45&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]

[iframe src=”http://www.jpc-partner.de/link.php?partner=ngr&artnum=5179852&bg=ffffff&tc=000000&lc=e5671d&s=120&t=1&i=1&b=1″ width=”120″ height=”214″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″]

[iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=earlymusicrev-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B01M2XIR5D&asins=B01M2XIR5D&linkId=8fad750e64511c3a12605970aed9e380&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”]