Tag: Orchestral music

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Recording

Telemann: Complete violin concertos vol. 9

CD cover Telemann Complete violin concertos vol 9 Huber van Heerden L'Orfeo

Julia Huber, Martin Jopp, Lucas Schurig-Breuß, L’Orfeo Barockorchester, directed by Carin van Heerden
61:17
cpo 555 699-2

This recording represents the conclusion of a 22-year project to bring to the fore the varied works for one, two, three and four violins (with and without bass), including nine suites with solo violin, and TWV55:g8 with two.

Originally under the directorship and lead violin Libby Wallfisch (co-founder of the orchestra), the previous eight volumes display such admirable qualities right from the outset back in 2004.

Now it is time for the former “understudies” Julia Huber and Martin Jopp to step up and shine in these works coming from the Eisenach period 1708-12. One can hear the agile binary effect for two violins right from the fanfare-like opening intrada of the D-major concerto (a premiere). It is easy to imagine Telemann’s old musical sparring partner, the dance-master, composer Pantaleon Hebenstreit (1668-1750, inventor of a kind of dulcimer) on the instrument alongside him as they bounce off each other in vivid, engaged interplay. Julia’s 1680 Mantuan school violin has an incisive tone which often fizzes through the passages, or casts a wistful spell of melancholy in the slower movements, like both the opening and third movements of the G minor double violin concerto (quite a rare piece, for which Prima la musica! receives warm thanks for supplying the parts material here.)

In the penultimate work, the superbly contoured G major concerto, Julia Huber’s solo playing is most articulate. In the final Presto, she captures the dynamic spirit with a splendid little cadenza.

Closing the CD, the exquisite ripieno concerto in E minor, whose first movement was expanded in Dresden to make a kind of sinfonia to a cantata. Some wonderful writing here catches the ear, not least the tender Cantabile second movement, then the final, vigorous gigue–styled Presto.

Amongst these fine early examples of Telemann’s violin concertos, we have yet another take on the viola concerto, reputedly one of the earliest for this instrument.

This series has been like the vibrant and florid cover photography, a bright, vivid transit through some very noteworthy pieces, some of Telemann’s most engaging and entertaining works for violin(s).

David Bellinger

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Book

Francesco Meucci The musical path

IOD Edizioni, 2024
410pp. €24.00
ISBN 979-12-81561-26-7

We are not very often asked to review works of fiction, but when the author reached out to me on Facebook, I decided that it was worth giving it a go.

I’m very glad I asked him to send a copy. What started off as something with which I could thoroughly identify as the book’s first-person narrator, a young horn player called Edu Maia, struggled with performance anxiety. Brilliant in class and dedicated to hours of study and practice to the exclusion of almost everything else, he just cannot stand up in front of anyone critical and perform.

Without giving away the story, he is the victim of various near-death experiences, yet finds enlightenment through a stranger and proceeds – with unexpected support, moral and financial – to attempt the most ambitious project imaginable in some sort of Utopian universe. In other words, the novel turns from psychology to philosophy. It is not long, however, before we are drawn back to the dark side, and the denouement was totally unexpected. And provoked quite a few questions!

Although musicians will perhaps get more from the piece than non-musicians, I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good read.

La Vita della Musica was originally published in Italian in 2022. The translation is very readable, but something happened when importing the text into the desktop publishing program that sometimes caused two lines to run together – I wondered who “Palestrinato” on p. 271 was, until I realised that it was two words… There are also typos, but that’s the case in most books (even huge series like Harry Potter are not immune!), and it’s all the more forgivable here for not being the author’s mother tongue.

These trivial slips did not detract in any way from a gripping story, and a journey through what music is (or could be?) about. I commend it highly.

Brian Clark

The novel is available from amazon.co.uk
(This is NOT a sponsored link)

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Sheet music

Restoration Theatre Airs

Cover of MB110 Restoration theatre airs

Edited by Peter Holman & Andrew Woolley
Musica Britannica MB110
ISBN: 9780852499757 ISMN: 9790220229183
lix + 156pp, £135.00
Stainer & Bell

This important volume includes music by 14 composers. The first set of airs includes music for “The Tempest” by Matthew Locke and Robert Smith, but the remaining 12 suites are single-composer examples. The others are William Turner, Louis Grabu, Gottfried Finger, Francis Forcer, William Croft, John Eccles, Jeremiah Clarke, James Paisible, William Corbett, John Barrett, possibly Pierre Gillier, and the ever-popular Anonymous. In other words, it’s a veritable who’s who? of Purcellian England.

The music itself is mostly in four parts. Exceptions are Turner’s music for “Pastor Fido, or The Faithful Shepherd” in three parts, and Grabu’s for “Valentinian” in five. Finger added a woodwind solo to the sixth movement of his music for “The Mourning Bride”. The editors have composed a viola part for Forcer’s music in “The Innocent Mistress”. The suites consist of an overture and a sequence of binary dances or airs, the vast majority in what you might call “standard keys”; the four movements in the appendices to the Finger suite are in F minor (only the bass line of the fourth survives), which is the home key of Clarke’s “All for the Better…”

A description of the sources fills more than ten pages. The critical notes, which together with the extensive introduction, are a tribute to the editors, occupy the next 13 pages. I was unable to find an explanation of why they opted to add a viola part to the Forcer suite, but not the Turner. The added trumpet part in Barrett’s “The Albion Queens” is idiomatic and utterly convincing. Another fine volume in this series of international importance.

Brian Clark

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Recording

Pierre Gaultier de Marseille: Symphonies divisées par suites de ton

CD cover Pierre Gaultier de Marseille Symphonies divisées par suites de ton

Cohaere Ensemble
Ambronay AMY 317
69:27

Few composers fell victim more comprehensively to the hazards of a musical career than the late-17th-century composer Pierre Gaultier de Marseille, whose attempts to put his native city on the international musical map led to penury, imprisonment, and ultimately death by drowning as he attempted to escape his creditors. He composed operas in the style of Lully, which although successful when presented in the opera house he had built in Marseille, left him penniless. These Symphonies, beautifully played by the Polish Cohaere Ensemble on Baroque flutes, violin, cello and harpsichord/organ, are tuneful and elegant but also display an inventiveness which set them apart from the standard repertoire of the second half of the 17th century in France. Many of them bear ‘character’ titles, including a set marking his melancholy stay in debtors’ prison. Whether this individual style is due to regional difference or simply Gaultier’s inspired imagination is not clear, but the Cohaere Ensemble recognised something special in his music several years ago and have been championing his work ever since. Such technically accomplished and musically authoritative accounts can only help belatedly to establish the reputation of a composer who clearly deserves more attention.

D. James Ross

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Recording

The Ghosts of Hamlet

CD cover The Ghosts of Hamlet Roberta Mameli

Lost arias from Italian Baroque operas
Roberta Mameli, Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu, Franck-Emmanuel Comte
68:04
Arcana A574

Who knew there were so many Italian Baroque operatic representations of Ambleto? Composers such as Giuseppe Carcani, Francesco Gasparini and Domenico Scarlatti turned their hand to operas based on Hamlet, albeit not the iconic play by Shakespeare, but the earlier story contained in the 12th-century Gesta Danorum picked up and adapted by the Venetian librettist Apostolo Zeno. In addition to arias from these now almost entirely forgotten Hamlets, we have a pasticcio version of arias by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo and Handel, the latter a textual rewriting of “Tu ben degno” from Agrippina to press it into service as a Hamlet aria. These are augmented by a stormy D-minor sinfonia by Scarlatti, which, given the composer’s interest in the Hamlet narrative, may be seen to reflect the mercurial moods of the Danish prince. Produced in the first half of the 18th century in Venice and Rome, this wealth of Hamletiana, augmented by the London pasticcios, is not without merit – these were competitive times in musically dynamic milieux in which almost nothing mediocre saw the light of day, and these tuneful arias, dramatically sung by Roberta Mameli are a testimony to the quality of the many operas of the time which have fallen into neglect along with their composers. Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu, an ensemble new to me, plays with an admirable precision and musicality, avoiding the extremes of articulation which have become the fashion with other specialist Baroque ensembles, and under the direction of their founder Frank-Emmanuel Comte they produce authoritative accounts of this unfamiliar material. Roberta Mameli is a technically assured Baroque specialist who invests the music with a memorable passion.

D. James Ross

Categories
Book

Unpeeling Bach

Book cover Unpeeling Bach David Stancliffe

By David Stancliffe
The Real Press 2025
372pp. ISBN
Available from Amazon

This is an engaging and comprehensive study of the music of J S Bach, which places it expertly in a historical and religious context. A former Bishop of Salisbury, Stancliffe is ideally placed to consider the spiritual dimensions of Bach’s sacred music, an important aspect of this devout composer’s essence and world view which is often glossed over in other studies of his music. While this understanding pervades the whole book, we also have appendices, including one dealing with Bach’s understanding of St John’s theology, drawing on his St John Passion, which are fascinating. However, intriguing as this is, it is just one aspect of a wonderfully wide-ranging approach to Bach. We have an updated treatment of Bach’s musical context, taking into account the surprising range of earlier polyphonic music still in currency in Bach’s time. We are cleverly drawn into the issues relating to the historically informed performance of the music by an account of Stancliffe’s own journey into grappling with these issues. As a performer/director as well as a scholar, he has a rewardingly ‘hands-on’ approach to the music, extending to the most successful layout for performances as well as a detailed treatment of instrumentation, voice-types, and voice production. Again, in a very practical approach, he cites performances and recordings by leading ensembles at work right now on the music of Bach, evaluating the success of their various approaches. In this way, his reader can easily access illustrations of the points he is making, and as so often in this volume, his encyclopaedic knowledge speaks of extensive listening, which matches his voracious reading. Just occasionally, the author makes a throw-away comment which opens a thought-provoking doorway – for example, in mentioning the pair of Litui which accompany the motet O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht (BWV 118), he moots the idea that the nature of their accompaniment ‘argues for at least an outdoor if not processional performance’ – intriguing! My review copy is a pre-release edition, with editorial corrections, but as these are mainly layout issues, I assume they have all been addressed in the final edition. Stancliffe’s writing style is fluent and expressive, and the structure of the book makes the material easy to access and to enjoy either by dipping in and out or simply consuming it as a good and satisfying read. Although there are regular informative quotations from contemporary sources, there are no musical examples or visual illustrations – I was initially struck by this omission, but found myself less and less aware of it as I read on. On the back of the book, David Stancliffe is described as ‘an enthusiast and expert’, and in ‘Unpeeling Bach’ we find that this is a compelling combination which gives the author a unique perspective on Bach’s music.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Haydn 2032: No 17

CD cover Haydn 2032 17 Per il Luigi

Dmitri Smirnov violin, Kammerorchester Basel, conducted by Giovanni Antonini
73:55
Alpha Classics 1146

The 17th in the splendid series of the complete Haydn symphonies directed by Giovanni Antonini features him directing one of the two orchestras he is working with (the other is of course his own Il Giardino Armonico) in three early symphonies from the 1760s. But as anyone familiar with the cycle will be aware, it is valuable not only for the symphonies, but also the tasty extras generally thrown into each selection. Here, the CD takes its name from the dedication Haydn wrote to the violinist Luigi Tomasini at the head of his Violin Concerto in C – ‘fatto per il luigi’ (composed for Luigi). Tomasini joined the Esterházy orchestra as leader in 1761, the same year as Haydn became vice-Kapellmeister, and the undated concerto probably belongs to much the same period. In his early years at Esterházy Haydn diplomatically composed many solos in his orchestral works to allow his players to make an impression, the most famous example of course being the ‘times of the day’, trilogy, Symphonies 6, 7 & 8.

Tomasini was something of a capture for Esterházy, an outstanding virtuoso capable of double-stopping with perfect intonation and the possessor of a beautiful, Italianate tone that allowed him to play long, cantabile lines with sustained purity. Both these assets are unsurprisingly fully exploited by Haydn, with double-stopping from the outset of the rather dignified opening Allegro moderato to the aria-like sustained sotto voce of the lovely central Adagio. The third movement is a delightfully bouncy Presto that calls for plenty of double-stopping and considerable agility from the soloist. These demands are met in exemplary fashion by Dimitri Smirnov, a semi-finalist in the 2024 Queen Elisabeth Competition (Brussels), whose unwaveringly sustained lines in the Adagio are particularly admirable. I did wonder if perhaps his cadenza in the opening movement was a little over-elaborate for a work of these proportions, but it’s a relatively minor point in the context of such outstanding playing.

Taken together, the three symphonies included, No 16 in B flat (c.1763), No 36 in E flat (c.1761-2) and No 13 in D (1763), provide a compelling explanation as to why so many music lovers regard Haydn with such affection. There are no masterpieces here, just good humour in spades, an abundance of spirit and energy, affectionately-shaped slower movements, and minuets that seem to belong as much to a country dance as they do to a court ballroom (No. 16 has in fact no minuet and only three movements). But, if not yet a masterpiece, there is one of these symphonies that does point toward the gradual emergence of a master. This is Symphony No 13, composed during a period when Haydn had four horns available at Esterházy. The composer took full advantage to open the symphony with strikingly rich sonorities – wind and horns over an urgent, driving string ostinato. The remainder of the symphony confirms it as something special among Haydn’s early works. The Adagio cantabile (ii) is one of those concertante movements in which the composer gave one of his outstanding instrumentalists a notable solo role, in the present case the cellist Joseph Weigl, who was also given a solo role in the central Andante of Symphony No 16. The final movement of No 13 has become famous for sharing the four-note Gregorian motif in the finale of Mozart’s Symphony No 41, ’Jupiter’, where it of course forms the basis for the extraordinary contrapuntal last movement. Haydn shows less inclination to treat it fugally – though there are hints – writing a movement equally divided between counterpoint and homophonic drive and energy.

The performances throughout attain the high standard that have become a feature of the series, being lithe, witty and pointed in quicker movements, while featuring playing always responsive to Antonini’s Italianate warmth in andantes and adagios. Just occasionally, as in previous issues, he gives cause to wonder if he gets lured into tempi that are a little too fast for the music, if not for his superb orchestras. Here, the final Allegro molto of the E flat Symphony is an example. But in truth the overall level of performance in this splendid series is making life increasingly difficult for the would-be critic!

Brian Robins

Categories
Recording

Telemann: Violin Concertos

CD cover Telemann Isabelle Faust akamus

Isabelle Faust violin, Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, Konzertmeister Bernhard Forck
79:35
harmonia mundi HMM 902756

With this latest release on harmonia mundi, Isabelle Faust and Akamus Berlin display a considerable synergetic assurance with technical agility whilst approaching these selected Telemann works. Mostly known pieces, with even the Suite having had several previous outings on disc, as with the “Gulliver-suite”; the “Frog” Concerto in A major was first heard in 1998 on Decca. It is slightly ironic that the lesser-knowns on the menu are a circular canon by J. J. Quantz (formerly listed in the Appendix of the TWV as Anh. 40: 103), and a Fantasia, not TWV 40: 22 but TWV 40: 4! Eschewing the works the composer wrote specifically for violin, this piece is lifted from the flute fantasias c.1731, and might have been dispensed with for TWV 51: a2, or the impressive quartet sonata, TWV 40: 200.

This said, the “Relinge” Pond frogs concerto and Gulliver-suite offer scope of expression, and delightful wittiness to sweep the mind away, but it is these two splendid book-ends in this collection that really dazzle, showcasing both composer and soloist’s ability for Italianate panache a la Vivaldi, although the Suite (TWV 55: h4) is a “Brassage” (mixed-brew) of French and Italian. Faust and Akamus capture and own these excellent pieces with some true “Bravoura” and daring “ Rodomontade” (two movements from TWV 55: h4). Her “sleeping beauty” Strad (1704) is fully awake! All the music is couched in a smooth, accomplished synergy, and the polished trumpet playing of Ute Hartwich is pitch perfect and never overstated, the fine interplay in TWV 53: D5 with Faust is really quite captivating, this piece almost certainly aimed at Pisendel, the composer’s friend and gifted virtuoso at Dresden.

Setting aside the minor aberrations of the Quantz and the fantasia, this is a recording of quality with a real dash of showmanship, and should catch the ears of any would-be doubters of Telemann’s powers to provide music of calibre, wit, and heartfelt, dynamic melodic lines. This recording will seek out a wider appreciation and acclaim: Beauty and “Bravoura” have been awoken!

David Bellinger

Categories
Recording

Gregor Werner Vol. 4

CD cover Werner Caldara vol. 4 Rovatkay

Voktett Hannover, la festa musicale, Lajos Rovatkay
59:41
audite 97.833

For the fourth volume of this excellent series, director-cum-musicologist Lajos Rovatkay has chosen to focus on Gregor Joseph Werner’s relationship with his teacher, Vice-Kapellmeister to the Viennese court, Antonio Caldara. As well as tracing the birth of the two-movement church sonata from sinfonie to the elder composer’s oratorios to an excellent sonata a4  by the pupil, it compares and contrasts their church music, culminating in a performance of a Requiem in G minor by “Werner”, which Rovatkay identified as featuring music by both composers (whether with or without the permission/knowledge of the teacher is not made explicit in one of the densest booklet notes I have ever read… faced with such an impenetrable text, I’m not surprised that even a highly skilled translator like Viola Scheffel struggled to save us from some of its obscurity!)

All eleven (!) singers of the Voktett Hannover (only one tenor and one bass sing on all the vocal tracks) are excellent; they blend beautifully and take the solos stylishly though I did long occasionally for some ornamentation when the dense counterpoint (for which both composers are rightly famed) allowed. Similarly, the string playing (33211 strings with chamber organ and lute) is stylish – nicely pointed bow strokes give the contrapuntal lines shape.

At a little under an hour, some might feel hard done by. However, with music of this quality (speaking as a self-confessed lover of fugal writing), I feel this is just about right. I also found myself hearing pieces of a musical jigsaw falling into place, hearing echoes of Legrenzi (reputedly Caldara’s Venetian teacher) and foretastes of Haydn (who followed Werner as Kapellmeister at Esterházy). It is remarkable that audite has thusfar produced four outstanding CDs of music by a relatively unknown composer and I for one hope there are more in the pipeline!

Brian Clark

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Recording

Fasch: Orchestral Works, Volume 4

CD cover Fasch Orchestral music Tempesta di Mare volume 4

Tempesta di Mare
Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra
67:25
Chandos Chaconne CHAN0829

Hats off to Tempesta di Mare and their directors for pursuing this remarkable project to record another four orchestral works by Johann Friedrich Fasch for the first time. The sound files were captured at a live concert in one of the few historical buildings in the town of Zerbst, where the composer was Kapellmeister for 36 years, to have been restored to its former glory in modern times. The event marked their receipt of the Fasch-Preis der Stadt Zerbst which is awarded at every Fasch Festival to someone (a musicologist, a musician, or a group) who has made significant contributions to the cause of promoting his music.

With three discs of premieres already under their belt, this time they present two orchestral suites, a violin concerto and one of his sinfonie. The suites – the instrumental form in which Fasch was most prodigious – both start with the tri-partite slow–fast and imitative–slow French overture. These are followed in both cases by a sequence of Bouree(s)–Gavotte(s)–Minuets, interspersed with a rich variety of Airs. Having obbligato parts for pairs of oboes and flutes, the composer has plenty of instrumental colour to play with.

It is impossible to say for whom the Violin Concerto FaWV L: G6 was written. Fasch himself was a violinist; several virtuosic concertos by his Konzertmeister and successor as Kapellmeister (though was he never given the official title!) Carl Hoeckh survive; Hoeckh was recommended to Zerbst by his former colleague, Franz Benda, who politely declined an offer of the position when he entertained the court with his playing; Johann Wilhelm Hertel was Hoeckh’s student in Zerbst in the 1740s; Fasch was a personal friend of the Dresden Konzertmeister, Johann Georg Pisendel… the list goes on. Regardless, especially in the second and third movements, it places serious demands on the technical and lyrical ability of the soloist. Typically, the concertmaster of Tempesta di Mare, Emlyn Ngai, takes all of these in his stride with flair to spare!

The opening of the first movement of the Sinfonia FaWV M: B1 is an interesting example of 18th-century notational quirks. Handily enough, the first page of the composer’s score is printed in facsimile in the booklet. The melody starts with a dotted crotchet and three semiquavers (a dotted quarter and three 16ths) which Tempesta di Mare interpret as a triplet. There are other sources for the work though, one of them a set of parts in the hand of Fasch’s friend from his Leipzig student days and mentor when the younger man undertook a journeyman tour after university and studied with him in Darmstadt where he was Kapellmeister: Christoph Graupner. In these parts, the crotchet (quarter) is tied to the first of four semiquavers (16ths), so the result is quite different; instead of being heard quickly over the fourth and eighth quavers (1/8s), the 16ths match the bass part… That academic point notwithstanding, this is as exciting a performance of the work as you are likely to hear. If my ears do not deceive me, TdM decided to add flutes to the upper part – an approach with which I have no problem, especially in the plaintive second movement where the added colour emphasizes the mood. The pseudo-fugal third movement is (as co-director Richard Stone’s typically no-nonsense booklet note explains) one of Fasch’s “signatures”; this particular movement also appears in one of the composer’s orchestral suites with oboe parts, so the involvement of woodwinds without their being indicated in the score is justified once again. I find Fasch’s “fugues” are never strict in the Bach-ian sense, but they do always have a logical shape (a trait he shares with another of his friends, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel) and the pedal points towards the end always build the drama. The concluding minuet is reduced to a three-part texture (trebles, viola, bass): Another Fasch trademark.

I have put off reviewing this disc for several months because I didn’t want to be all gushy, just because I’m a fully-signed-up Faschist, and a great fan of TdM. The disc never fails to uplift my heart – yes, even on a gloomy winter’s day like this, so I have no hesitation whatever in recommending it to any fan of 18th-century orchestral music.

Brian Clark