Tag: Renaissance

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Music for These Troubled Times

CD cover Music for these troubled times

Tallis, Byrd, Bull, Gibbons, Shalygin
Dmytro Kokoshynskyy harpsichord
79:16
Fuga Libra FUG867

This is the debut recording by Dmytro Kokoshynskyy, a young harpsichordist from Ukraine. In the accompanying booklet he relates how music provides him with the solace he deeply needs in the most challenging moments of his life, that no repertoire has done so more fully than the music of the English Virginalists, and that it was no surprise to him that this music filled his mind when his homeland was invaded in 2022. For its evangelists and admirers, these sentiments regarding the English virginalist school of composers are both gratifying and humbling. Dmytro also refers to Robert Burton’s celebrated book The anatomy of melancholy (1621) so there is ample subtext behind his choice of repertory for this recording.

Listening to this disc was, is, for this reviewer a compelling experience, and the choice of repertory is one element that goes towards this. The other two elements are the quality of the music, and the incendiary commitment of the performances. The pieces selected from the works of the well-known composers tend to exist beneath their radars. Gibbons’s supremely melancholy and profound pavan is usually elbowed aside by the admittedly great pavan for Lord Salisbury. Byrd’s fantasia with its vestige of Salve regina chant tends to give way to his pioneering and unsurpassed fantasia in A minor. Even Tallis’s mighty Felix namque settings tend to be prioritized for the organ. That said, its emotional variety renders the programme all the more enthralling – it is not stuck in trouble and melancholy, and Dmytro mentions Burton’s reference to “a pleasing melancholy”, a form of catharsis. In the cinema, a good director has the confidence and knows when to insert a flash of comedy into a predominantly serious film, and here Dmitry includes sunnier works such as Byrd’s John come kiss me now, Wakefield on a green (incomprehensibly attributed elsewhere to Byrd) and the attractive anonymous arrangement of Dowland’s Can she excuse (its modern printed source given wrongly in the printed booklet but correctly above). Applauding in passing the five powerful pieces by Bull, it remains to mention two others, one ancient, one modern. Seemingly the anonymous A Ground receives its premiere on disc here, and this is long overdue, being a work of substantial proportions for the period and of considerable excellence. Finally, KHORA by the Ukrainian/Dutch composer Maxim Shalygin is a thrilling and passionate response to Burton’s book, its highly appropriate title helpfully explained in the booklet.

This is a fine recording which is both moving and inspiring. It manages to be powerful without being oppressive, the wonderful music anatomized beautifully by Dmytro, none more so than Bull’s pavan and galliard for Lord Lumley, so as to externalize his own profound, innermost thoughts. From the turmoil of the Reformation, the English Virginalists provide catharsis four centuries later for a Ukrainian harpsichordist contemplating the invasion of his homeland, who in turn encapsulates this in performance and transmits it for the world.

Richard Turbet

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Orlando di Lasso: Lieder, Chansons, Madrigale

CD cover Orlando di Lasso Lieder, Chansons, Madrigale

Die Singphoniker
51:51
Hänssler classic HC24007

This programme emphasises Lassus’s cosmopolitan status, working in Munich at the centre of Europe and composing secular songs in German, French and Italian – technically the title should read Orlandus Lassus, Rolande de Lassus, Orlando di Lasso! This remarkable chameleon composer manages to adapt completely to each of the musical worlds he enters. The German Lieder, many of them comic novelty songs, are wonderfully mischievous, an aspect fully exploited by the Singphoniker, a sort of German equivalent of our own King’s Singers. Like the latter, they produce a perfectly tuned, wonderfully unified and beautifully blended sound. The transition to the French repertoire is seamless, as is Lassus’ transformation into Rolande de Lassus, and they provide genuinely moving accounts of these delicious French lovesongs as well as trippingly lively performances of the comedy songs Quand mon mari, O vin en vigne, and Dessus le marché d’Arras. Perhaps of his three guises, di Lasso is least typically represented in the madrigals and villanelle, with the concluding extended Sestina setting Là ver l’aurora sounding much more French than Italian in style. Recorded back in 1992, this CD stands the test of time very well with thoroughly modern standards of recorded quality and performance.

D. James Ross

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Gentleman Extraordinary

CD cover Gentleman Extraordinary Weelkes

Weelkes: Anthems, Services, and Instrumental Music
RESURGAM, The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble, directed by Mark Duley
79:21
resonus RES10325

This collaboration between the choral ensemble Resurgam and The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble marks the 400th anniversary of Thomas Weelkes, and features a fine selection of his anthems, service music and instrumental pieces in beautiful performances. The combined sound of the wind instruments, organ and voices is magnificent indeed, while Weelkes’ lively musical imagination and his ear for rich textures are well served here. Resurgam, both as soloists and in full ensemble, sing with a lovely pure tone and blend beautifully with the instruments, while Mark Duley’s direction is purposeful while also allowing room for the anthems to unfold. To contrast with the full items for voices and instruments, we have several stately pavans and a fantasia played by the wind consort, as well as a couple of voluntaries for organ, played on an Organ Calcant fed by hand-operated bellows. In these instrumental interludes, as also in the accompaniments to the larger pieces, the wind instruments employ pleasing ornamentation. The acoustics of the Holy Trinity Church, Minchinhampton, seem ideal for this enterprise, and both soloists and full choir seem to enjoy its richness and depth. I am currently preparing a programme of 17th-century English verse anthems, and this CD has inspired me to include several of these magnificent works by Thomas Weelkes.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Artemisia

CD cover Artemisia Ensemble Agamemnon

Ensemble Agamemnon, François Cardey
60:27
Seulétoile SE14

Musicians are often tempted to use visual artists as hooks from which to hang musical programmes, and the paintings of Artemisia Gentileschi are more tempting than most. In addition to her being one of the most accomplished female painters of her day, painting in the vivid style of Caravaggio, she lived from 1593 to after 1654, a golden age also for Italian music. Choosing three of her depictions of the Madonna as well as one of the martyr Susanna (all helpfully illustrated in the CD booklet), thereby giving access to the vogue for writing variations on Lassus’ chanson Susan, un jour, Ensemble Agamemnon under their cornett-playing director François Cardey present music by the familiar Salamone Rossi, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Francesca Caccini and Alessandro Grandi and the less familiar Giovanni Battista Fontana, Lucretia Orsina Vizana, Orazio Tarditi, Ippolito Tattaglino and Domenico Mazzocchi. Cardey’s facility on the cornett is impressive, while his creative interaction with Amandine Trenc in several numbers is also enjoyable. Combine this with the considerable violinistic skills of Anaëlle Blanc-Verdin and a first-class continuo group of bass viol, lirone, triple harp, and harpsichord/organ, and the results are wonderfully persuasive and entertaining.

D. James Ross

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Les Violons et les Valois

CD cover Les Violons et les Valois

Emergence et rayonnement des violons au temps de Michel-Ange
Ensemble Les Sonadori
65:00
Exordium EX20250005

This CD takes us back to the emergence of the violin in the period from the late 15th century to the mid 16th century in a milieu shaped by the Valois Dukes of Burgundy. Various sizes of early violin blend with earlier stringed instruments such as the rebec, hurdy-gurdy as well as the lute and Renaissance guitar to produce a startlingly new sound which already points in the direction of the early Baroque. I can remember the startling effect when a number of viol consorts replaced their treble viols with early violins, and this lovely, bright sound recalls that moment. Playing consort music by Attaignant, Milano, Susato, Moderne, Obrecht, Ghiselin and Vicenzo Capirola as well as instrumental accounts of chansons by de la Rue, Johannes Stokhem, Crequillon, Tinctoris, Ghizeghem and Clemens, and sacred music by Festa, Morales and others, the consort vividly evoke the courts of Charles the Bold and Charles V. The slightly vague date of the ‘birth of the violin’ is shrouded to an extend in terminology – the first mention of ‘vyollons’ is as late as 1523 in Savoy (interestingly the original home of ‘Davie the fiddler’, David Rizzio) but illustrations show that instruments which were essentially violins had existed before that, while proto and neo violins continued to crop up throughout the transition period from viols to violins proper. What is striking about this recording is the distinctive and attractive sound produced by an ensemble of these early members of the violin family and how appropriate they sound in this early repertoire. Les Sonadari play with an appropriate complete lack of vibrato and a direct sound, with a clean attack and a very pure sense of ensemble.

D. James Ross

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Jacquet of Mantua: Motets & Secular Songs

CD cover Jacquet of Mantua Motets and Secular Songs

The Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, Kirsty Whatley harp, directed by David Skinner
80:18
Inventa Records INV1017

A disciple and student of Josquin, like so many of his contemporaries, Jacquet was drawn to leave his native France for Italy, undoubtedly in search of fame and fortune, and his soubriquet derives not from his place of birth but his ultimate destination and the place of his death at the age of 75. Regarded as one of the leading composers of choral polyphony between Josquin and Palestrina, Jacquet held various positions throughout Italy under the patronage of the Este and Gonzaga families, and intriguingly research by David Skinner indicates that he may have spent some time in England at Magdalen College Oxford, where an Italian named Jacquet directed the collegiate choir for some years and where a copy of Jacquet of Mantua’s motet Aspice Domine (recorded here) is found in the Peterhouse Partbooks. Whether these Jacquets are one and the same man remains inconclusive, and at any rate there is little evidence of English influence on Jacquet of Mantua’s music. The Choir of Sidney Sussex College is perhaps less prominent than other Oxbridge Choirs, but the college has a long tradition of musical activity, and since the admission of women in 1976 has established a considerable reputation for performing contemporary and Renaissance choral music – in 2009, choral composer Eric Whitacre was appointed Composer in Residence. The combination of this established Oxbridge choral group and the renowned musicologist and choral director David Skinner, whose work particularly with The Cardinall’s Musick was ground-breaking, is a winning one, and these performances are meticulously prepared and beautifully executed. Mention should also be made of Kirsty Whatley, who contributes solo harp accounts of three of Jacquet’s three-part motets and also joins the singers for three of his secular songs, for one of which she switches on her brays! This is an important CD which can only enhance Jacquet’s reputation as a leading master of polyphony.

D. James Ross

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In Chains of Gold

CD cover Chains of Gold vol 3

The English Pre-Restoration Verse Anthem vol 3
Magdalena Consort, Fretwork, His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts
Signum SIGCD931
83:39

This third volume in the excellent “Chains of Gold” series entitled Ah His Glory: Anthems of Praise, Prayer and Remembrance brings together three leading ensembles, the choral group the Magdalena Consort, the viol ensemble Fretwork and the wind consort His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts in performances of verse anthems composed before the Restoration of Charles II. These consort anthems, as they are probably more accurately termed, were composed partly during the reign of Charles I but also during the ‘distracted times’ of the Civil War and the ensuing Protectorate and are generally on a modest scale with the notable exceptions of the lavish setting of This is a joyful, happy holy day by John Ward and Know you not by Thomas Tomkins, which respectively open and close the programme. The former was written in the reign of Charles I, the latter during the Protectorate and probably written by the aging Tomkins more in hope than expectation of performance – his chosen texts mourning a fallen Prince were hardly ‘on message’ for Cromwellian England. There is a wonderful clarity about these accounts by the Magdalena Consort and Fretwork – the more intimate numbers achieve a perfect balance between the voices and viols, while the two larger-scale works incorporating the wind instruments manage to sound wonderfully opulent without any loss of definition. The concluding work by Tomkins is a tantalising taste of ‘what might have been’ in the history of English music if Puritanism had not triumphed so thoroughly. Tomkins was clearly aware of the magnificent music for voices and instruments being composed in Italy at the time, but here is a distinctively English voice using these rich textures to express a distinctively English idiom. A number of less well-known composers are also represented here – John Amner, William Stonnard, Richard Nicholson, William Pysinge and Simon Stubbs – a reflection of the decentralisation of music-making to the provinces at this period of disruption, where music collections had more of a chance of surviving warfare and puritanical purges. Reflecting the limited resources available, this music is on a much more modest scale, but is nonetheless expressive and beautifully crafted.

D. James Ross

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Love Divine

CD cover Love Divine luminatus

Renaissance & Contemporary Choral Works
luminatus & David Bray
75:18
Convivium Records CR102

Dedicated to the performance of new and previously unrecorded choral music, luminatus under their director David Bray present music by the Renaissance masters Cipriano de Rore, Philippe de Monte, Ippolito Baccusi, Tiburtio Massaino, along with contemporary music by female composers including Agneta Sköld, Becky McGlade and Eleanor Daley. The unfamiliar Renaissance material is of high quality and is performed with languid elegance by the ensemble. Particularly impressive is the de Monte Mass based on a de Rore motet. The music of Massaino and Baccusi contains few surprises – Baccusi’s small body of compositions was published in Venice but little is known about his life and he is little performed. Massaino, by contrast, travelled widely and composed prodigiously in a variety of sacred and secular genres, occasionally betraying a musical debt to de Monte, whom he met in Prague and where much of his music was published. The contemporary choral music, settings of English texts, is uncontroversial and makes for unchallenging if pleasing listening. If I might have wished for more animation from the choir in some of the Renaissance repertoire, the contemporary music draws more dynamic singing from them. The ensemble is performing a valuable service in bringing this neglected early repertoire to our attention in such polished performances, while recordings of contemporary choral music, particularly with an emphasis on female composer,s are always welcome.

D. James Ross

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Cupid’s Ground Bass

CD cover Cupid’s Ground Bass Bellot Ensemble

Music by Biber, Cavalli, Farina, Kapsberger, Monteverdi, Strozzi, Uccellini
Bellot Ensemble
First Hand Records FHR183
60:55

This charming collection of love-songs and instrumental pieces explores the joys and sufferings of love in a selection of 17th-century music with an emphasis on Italy. The solo voices are soprano Lucine Musaelian and tenor Kieran White, whose vocal contribution is individually very fine, before they symbolically finally come together in Monteverdi’s Zefiro torna. The instrumental playing, both as accompaniment and in the instrumental interludes, is also wonderfully imaginative and lyrical. Recorder, violin, viola da gamba, cello, baroque guitar/theorbo and harpsichord/organ blend together beautifully in music ranging from the delightfully celebratory to the plangently affecting. The Ensemble specialises in ornamentation, consulting a number of historical sources but ultimately embodying the rules and bringing them to impressive fruition in rehearsal and performance. Several highlights for me were the Sinfonia and Act I aria “Delizie contenti che l’alma beate” from Cavalli’s hit opera Il Giasone, sparklingly played by the Ensemble and ravishingly sung by Kieran White, and “Che si può fa” by Barbara Strozzi, exquisitely sung by Lucine Musaelian, while accompanying herself on the gamba as in the famous Strozzi portrait. This is mainly musical territory which has been explored previously, but the Bellot Ensemble and their engaging vocal soloists give even the very familiar material a novel twist, providing us with a programme which is constantly intriguing and enjoyable.

D. James Ross

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William Lawes: Lighten mine eies

CD cover Lighten mine eies William Lawes

Ensemble Près de votre oreille, directed by Robin Pharo viola da gamba
62:19
harmonia mundi HMM 905391

There was a time when the idea of a French ensemble recording sacred and secular vocal music by William Lawes justaposed with instrumental ensemble pieces by the composer might have seemed unlikely, even bizarre. Yet such now is the predominance of French early music performers who have mastered not only the Baroque music of their own country but that of, for example, England, Germany or Spain. The ensemble founded by the gamba player Robin Pharo, which translates as ‘Ensemble Close to Your Ear’, lives up to its name by performing music of chamber-like intimacy that includes Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices, the major work they performed when I first encountered them at the festival based at Chateau d’Hardelot in the Pas de Calais. On that occasion, they performed the Mass with one voice per part, recognition of the many private – indeed secretive – celebrations of Mass that took place in the dangerous world of Elizabethan England.

The vocal line-up, different to the one I heard at Hardelot, includes soprano Maïlys de Villoutreys, Anaïs Bertrand (mezzo) and the splendid American bass Alex Rosen, currently one of the go-to singers in France. The programme is principally based around a selection drawn from 30 three-part Psalms published posthumously by Lawes’s brother Henry in 1648, which, along with a similar number of Henry’s own psalms, were published three years after William’s death, serving as a Cavalier at the Siege of Chester. Also included are several other songs including ‘Music, the Master of thy Art is Dead’, the elegy composed on the death of Lawes’s colleague and friend John Tomkins, organist of the Chapel Royal, and – by some way the longest item – the strophic song ‘O my Clarissa’, here given, as would have been intended, with each verse treated to adroit ornamentation, the whole sung by Maïlys de Villoutreys, who throughout brings her pure, bright-toned and characterful soprano to bear on the music in way that is never anonymously ‘white’. Much is made, too, of the psalm paraphrases, miniature masterpieces of a mostly penitential character that include starkly original harmonies within their condensed framework. ‘Ne irascaris, Dominus’, the only Latin text (taken from Isaiah 64), for example, is an extraordinary setting that closes with the deeply affecting line, ‘Jerusalem desolata est’. But all these settings belie their brevity by means of the density of musical thought.

Interspersed throughout are instrumental pieces, in the main selected from the collection known today as the Harp Consorts, among Lawes’s most intriguing and little-known instrumental pieces. There are thirty pieces arranged into dance suites and uniquely scored “For the Harpe, Base Violl, Violin and Thoerbo”. While maintaining the principle opf the dance suites, Lawes is here concerned with exploiting variation techniques, each work consisting of paired variations on dance movements by Lawes himself and others, They include three large-scale pavans for bass viol, including one (No. 10 in G minor) in which Lawes elaborates on a bass theme by Coprario that has recently been shown to include a quotation by another composer who also influenced Lawes, Alfonso Ferrabosco. Much scholarly debate has been devoted to the type of harp Lawes intended for this startlingly original music, the density of the writing suggesting either a double or triple. Here it is played on a opy of an Italian harp built by Simon Capp, an instrument perhaps like the “Arpa Doppia” Monteverdi specified in the score of L’Orfeo.

The Byrd Mass concert left some distinct reservations as to performance practice, but here there are none. Robin Pharo and his fine musicians have entered fully into the world of the enigmatic William Lawes to provide a vivid portrait of the composer.

Brian Robins