Bruno Forst
135:16 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
Brilliant Classics 95618
[dropcap]G[/dropcap]onzalo de Baena’s keyboard method involves intabulating polyphonic music from instrumental and vocal sources into a series of letters to allow them to be played easily on the keyboard, and as the first such book to be published on the Iberian peninsula it is doubly important as a window on how keyboard players thought and worked and also as an invaluable source of material. Unfortunately, due (of all things) to misfiling in the Palacio Real library in Madrid, it remained unknown to modern musicology until 1992. Playing the 1685 organ by Joseph de Sesma in the Church of Santa Ana, Brea de Aragón and the modern Gerhard Grenzing organ, based on 17th-century Spanish models, in the Church of San José, Navalcarnero and reading from Baena’s tablature, Bruno Forst presents a cross-section of the material in the book. This includes music by composers such as Morales who were still alive when Baena compiled his collection, as well as music by Baena himself and by his son Antonio, but includes mainly the great Flemish composers from previous generations such as Ockeghem, Compère, Josquin, Obrecht, de Fevin, Brumel, Caron and Agricola. Unlike the Scottish book of composition, “The Art of Music”, from the second half of the 16th century, Baena includes entire pieces rather than relatively brief examples, suggesting perhaps that his Method served the additional purposes of preserving the earlier repertoire and making it available to organists of the mid-century. Forst is an authoritative guide through this repertoire, making intelligent decisions on timbre and providing subtle and appropriate ornamentation.
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The Choir of Westminster Abbey, James O’Donnell
62:40
hyperion CDA68192
+Alleluia Ora pro nobis, Hac clara die turma, Ninefold Kyrie
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his selection of Marian music by Nicholas Ludford usefully presents his polyphony in a semi-liturgical context. For example, his Ninefold Kyrie, a so-called ‘square’, appears in alternatim with an anonymous two-part organ piece on the same ‘square’ played by James O’Donnell. Extra ‘verses’ appear in modern organ elaborations by Magnus Williamson. Similarly Ludford’s polyphonic setting of Alleluia. Ora pro nobis appears in alternatim with chant verses, as does his setting of Hac clara die turma. His mouth-watering setting of Ave Maria, ancilla Trinitas represents his more typically flamboyant polyphonic side, opening with two- and three part polyphony before the full choral forces are unleashed on the verse Ave Maria suor angelorum – clearly Ludford’s singers represent the voices of the angels. The Westminster Abbey Choir sing this music with considerable authority and commitment, and there is a fine balance between the adult and children’s voices. I can still remember the stir when the Cardinall’s Musick released their ground-breaking series of recordings of Ludford’s Masses on ASV in the early 1990s, bringing his music to a wider audience for the first time in modern times and instantly restoring the composer’s name to the list of first rank Renaissance English composers. Something of that wonder still lingers on hearing his imaginative and utterly assured setting of Ave Maria and being reminded of the virtues of his Mass Videte miraculum. The present performances capture well his lithe vocal lines with their smooth transitions between reduced forces episodes and declamatory full choir sections and glorious concluding perorations. Gold stars to the choir’s excellent trebles who cope admirably with the work’s two complex treble lines. In glancing back at the ASV recordings, I recall the golden days when masses were presented in a rudimentary liturgical framework – it seems regrettably as if these days are past, but this CD with its nod in that direction is probably the next best thing.
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[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is the penultimate disc in Pieter-Jan Belder’s admirable project recording the entire contents of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (FVB), the most voluminous source of early English keyboard music from the Tudor and Jacobean period. The manuscript’s uncertain origins and provenance have been discussed many times, most authoritatively of late by David Smith in his article “Francis Tregian the Younger as music copyist: a legend?” in Musical Times 143 (Summer 2002): 7-16. About half of this double album is given over to music by John Bull and, besides the other composers named in the disc’s subtitle, there are works by John Blitheman, Thomas Oldfield, Robert Parsons, Martin Peerson, Jehan Oystermayre, John Marchant and “Galeazzo”, possibly Galeazzo Sabatini, plus a number of anonymous works.
The attributed works on the shorter first disc are all by Bull. The previous discs in this series have tended either to be collections of works by various composers, or to be focused on one or two individuals. Both such approaches can be relished, and with this disc, we have the best of both worlds: an initial focus on Bull – which continues onto the earlier part of the second disc – followed by a miscellany of composers known and unknown to complete the contents. Belder plays modern harpsichords by Titus Crijnen and Adlam Burnett both after Ruckers (2014/1624 and 1980/1638 respectively) and a muselar of 2016 by Gerhard Boogaard after an original of 1650 by Couchet.
And so to the music itself and Belder’s interpretations. There are many anonymous works in FVB. Some such pieces are impressive, and others are not. It would be good to know the identities of all those who composed these anonymous works, but particularly those who composed the impressive ones. This is broadly illustrated on the first disc of this double album. It runs for only 48 minutes, and with one possible exception the central dozen pieces are all by Bull. They are bookended by three anonymous works at the beginning of the disc, with ten more to conclude it, and they fall into the two categories noted above: the first three works – Galiarda, Alman and Praeludium – are impressive pieces (which is of course why they were selected to begin the album) – sufficiently to make this listener want to know who composed them, particularly the fine, technically demanding and audibly Bullish Galiarda. The concluding ten obviously have to be included on what is a complete recording, but are like the fillers on old-style rock or pop LPs, which used to consist of one or two strong items plus several other less interesting tracks for padding. A few of them are at least inoffensive, and the final track, Martin sayd to his man, inexplicably picked up an attribution to Byrd during his tercentenary in 1923, in a pamphlet compiled by Gerald Cooper, who should have known better. The works by Bull vary between dances and pieces of a more ecclesiastical bent. The former all come across as very sprightly, especially the Regina Galliard, while both the Trumpet and Spanish Pavans have some pleasantly plangent moments, besides the characteristic touches – respectively military and elegant – implied by their titles. The ecclesiastical pieces sound well on the harpsichord. In Belder’s performances there is clarity and a comprehensible narrative, whereas many performances on the organ sound relentless and constipated, more of a harangue than a narrative (not difficult with Bull, to be fair) but Bull’s figurations around the cantus firmi are better suited to the harpsichord, and although an organ can sustain the cantus firmus, in practice the sustained notes can have the effect of clotting the texture. This is also true of two venerable pieces on the second disc which Belder releases from the oppression of the organ.
But first, there are eight more pieces by Bull to consider, which begin this second disc. Herein is some more variety, with jigs, fantasias on plainsong and the hexachord, and galliards. It is the hexachord fantasia Ut re mi fa sol la which most challenges Belder’s capabilities. The figuration is relentless but Belder creates his narrative by responding sensitively to Bull’s implied changes of tempo, and by knowing either when to go at the figuration like a [pun alert] bull at a gate, or when to back off, like a good improviser in a blues guitar solo, with the result that he sustains interest over the near eleven minutes of what can, in the wrong hands, be a dry or exhibitionist exercise. Speaking of which, not even Belder make much of what the listing for the sleeve and booklet call the “Misere in three parts”; significantly Belder either forgot to write about this Miserere, or his thoughts were fortuitously omitted. In any event, it is difficult to make much of a positive case for it.
The final group of pieces to be considered are those that close the second disc and which are not by Bull. A few are by composers with established reputations, such as Gibbons, Robert Johnson and Peerson who flourished in the Jacobean period, and Parsons and Blitheman whose music was originally Marian and only subsequently Elizabethan. Another clutch of composers are unknown or obscure apart from their appearances in FVB: Oystermayre, Oldfield and Sabatini; Warrack and Marchant. Allowed to give a particularly good account of themselves are Tisdall and Inglott, two known but hardly familiar names. They certainly provide the two most striking pieces from this closing group. Tisdall’s Pavana Chromatica Mrs Katherin Tregians Pavan is dignified and full of fine and unexpected harmonies; it is well structured and altogether impressive. William Inglott was the organist of Norwich then Hereford then again Norwich Cathedrals, having been a chorister at Norwich under his father Edmund. A career as a practising musician does not guarantee quality as a composer, but Inglott’s Galliard Ground is another of the outstanding pieces on this album. I participated with Michael Walsh in reconstructing his Short Service for publication (by The Early Music Company, which publishes EMR) and performance (two morning canticles can be heard on Norwich Cathedral Choir’s outstanding CD Elizabethan Church Music Priory PRCD5044), and it is a fine example of its type. Of the “name” composers, Gibbons is represented by The woods so wild which is perhaps not out of his top drawer. Belder responds to the hectic, almost aggressive, figuration especially in the quite Bullish section numbered 5 (his version is all but a minute shorter than John Toll’s on the eponymous CD, Linn CKD 125, significant in a work lasting only 4-5 minutes) amongst some more reflective moments. It depicts a different landscape from the set of variations by Byrd, albeit the older composer’s deceptively bucolic opening leads to sterner stuff. While Johnson’s two almans are delightful, Peerson’s merely comes and goes, but his The Primerose is one of the classics of the virginalist genre. Of the unknowns. Marchant’s Allemanda is the most striking, appropriately for a man who taught James I’s eldest daughter “to play upon the virginalles”, though the single anonymous piece from this section, an Alman, deserves an honourable mention. Much more than an honourable mention is required by the two most venerable pieces on this album: Parsons’ In nomine, the most popular consort work of its day, arranged for keyboard by Byrd, his successor in the Chapel Royal, and who, like Tallis, seems to have quoted Parsons’ piece in an In nomine; and Blitheman’s “In nomine”, originally the third of a sequence of six settings titled Gloria tibi trinitas (the alternative designation for the In nomine) by Blitheman in the Mulliner Book. For reasons given above, these two pieces come over very well on the harpsichord thanks to Belder, with clarity and momentum, but it also helps that, in their own spheres, they are two of the finest examples of the In nomine in the entire Tudor instrumental repertory. Meanwhile one wonders whether Byrd “heard” his arrangement as being for the virginals, or for the organ, or for either, and if the last, whether he harboured a preference.
This is another fine contribution to a well-executed project. Purchasers of the preceding albums will be amply rewarded with this release, and unless one has reservations about consuming generous helpings of Bull, it is worth the attention of anyone with an interest in the English virginalists, as it contains uniformly fine performances of many interesting and intriguing pieces, beside a few masterpieces.
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De Profundis, Robert Hollingworth
70:49
hyperion 68257
+Assumpsit Jesus Petrum, Assumpta est Maria, De profundis, Magnificat primi toni, Surge propera amica mea, Veni dilecte mi & Versa est in luctum
[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or those of us more used to hearing Renaissance and early baroque Spanish polyphony sung by mixed choirs and at relatively high pitch, this recording comes as both a surprise and something of a revelation. De Profundis is a relatively large group for this music: six or seven singers per voice part in an all-male line-up with falsetto voices on the top line. Its name reflects its ethos in performing at low pitch and, on this recording, is directed by Robert Hollingsworth who uses the opportunity to aim for a more balanced and inter-dependent sound than that of other groups. The result is a very homogenous texture with excellent tuning and close attention to the text. A bassoon adds depth to the bottom line, both in the polyphony and in the tutti sections of the plainchant, as was customary in Spanish cathedrals. The Mass movements are broken up with idiomatically-sung plainchant and offertory and communion motets. Then come five further motets and an alternatim Magnificat. It is a well-chosen programme which shows the breadth of Vivanco’s achievement, from the expressive depths of the motets De Profundis and Versa est in luctum to the riotous counterpoint of the Mass’s Osanna and the motet Assumpta est Maria. My own favourites were the two Song of Songs motets, Surge propera and Veni dilecte mi which, while largely homophonic, are particularly fine examples of word-setting and expression. The choir sings with great commitment and forward momentum, maybe too much of the latter at times in the Mass where a bit more contrast would not have come amiss. Bruno Turner has given a guiding hand throughout and has written his usual highly informative liner notes. The group is to be congratulated on a very well-planned and successfully executed project.
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Ensemble L’Amorosa Caccia, Fabio Antonio Falcone
73:43
Brilliant Classics 95326
+Crequillon, de Monte & Willaert
[dropcap]V[/dropcap]alente’s 1576 Intavolatura made use of a unique number-tablature which doesn’t specify all note durations, or how the parts relate polyphonically, features which it shares with lute tablatures. This recording, like earlier ones by Rebecca Maurer and Francesco Cera, makes use of the edition published in 1973 by Charles Jacobs. What distinguishes it is the use of an ensemble of two singers and four instrumentalists to perform some of Valente’s pieces, rather than playing all twenty-one on the keyboard. The ensemble also performs three chansons on which pieces by Valente are based: Willaert’s Qui la dira, Crecquillon’s Pis ne me peut venir and Monte’s Sortez mes pleurs. These demonstrate the range of his influences and this recording brings out, more than previous ones, the variety of styles in the publication. There are dances in which a recorder takes the top line, adding some idiomatic ornamentation, as well as ground-bass variations, contrapuntal fantasias and ricercars, and arrangements of vocal pieces with diminutions. Using the ensemble in this way helps us appreciate that Valente’s keyboard tablature is just a way of presenting this music for publication, and that it can work just as well with other forces. Particularly informative in this regard are the two arrangements of Sortez mes pleurs, both by Valente. The first is lightly ornamented in the top voice but otherwise sticks closely to the polyphony (labelled ‘con alcuni fioretti’); in this recording, the top voice of the chanson is sung over this first keyboard arrangement, making the relationship very clear and embedding the melody in the mind before the second, much more ornamented version (labelled ‘disminuita’) is played. Falcone plays on a harpsichord after Trasuntino and a virginal after Domenico da Pesaro, both constructed by Robert Livi; these, or similar instruments by the same maker, were also used by Francesco Cera in his 2004 Tactus recording (TC 532201). Falcone is persuasive in his interpretations, adding some convincing inequality to groups of short notes. Occasionally he could have followed the recorder player in treating the ornamental figuration a bit more freely – I would suggest that it is not always necessary to take this tablature quite so literally. Recording quality is excellent throughout. The Neapolitan Valente’s is an interesting voice and this recording certainly helps to promote his importance.
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Luca Scandali (Graziadio Antegnati organ 1565)
79:59
Brilliant Classics 95259
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Graziadio Antegnati 1565 organ in the Basilica of Santa Barbara, Mantua, survives largely intact in its original configuration. Designed for Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga and his organist-composer Girolamo Cavazzoni, it has nine ripieno stops, two flutes and a fiffaro, as well as two sets of split keys in each octave. It was also designed to fit the acoustics of the basilica, something captured well on this recording, from the arresting organo pieno used for the opening Padavano toccata to the lighter-registered canzonas by Pellegrini. Neither composer was associated with Mantua – Padavano worked mainly in Venice and Pellegrini in Milan – but their music was certainly written with instruments of this kind in mind. Padavano’s four surviving toccatas (one attributed) are based largely on slow-moving harmonies decorated by quick figurations, with some imitative sections. His two ricercars are complex contrapuntal constructions. Published in 1604, all are quite serious pieces demanding concentrated listening. It works well to break them up, as here, with groups of Pellegrini’s sectional canzonas published in 1599 which show a lighter idiom and some fine inspiration. Scandali uses the canzonas effectively to demonstrate the variety of registrations possible on the organ. Overall this is an excellent match of instrument and repertoire, and a convincing demonstration of this highly significant organ’s possibilities.
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Rossoporpora, Walter Testolin dir
79:30
Arcana A 449
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]nce in a while – rather more rarely than some would have us believe – a truly exceptional recording comes along, a recording of such musical merit and artistic quality that it stops us in our tracks. This is such a CD. It represents a debut for the Italian vocal ensemble Rossoporpora, which has perhaps unwisely chosen to call itself by the same name as an Italian underwear firm (if you want to see what I mean, google it). For their programme they have turned to Luca Marenzio, arguably the greatest of all ‘pure’ madrigal composers.
Marenzio’s extensive output is dominated by his secular works, in particular no fewer than 18 books of madrigals for five or six voices, published in Venice between 1580 and 1599, the year of his death. A single book of four-part madrigals appeared in Rome in 1585. A dozen of these books are represented on the present CD, performed in roughly chronological order, excellent planning that allows us to follow Marenzio’s development as a composer. Such evolution is concerned more with emotional weight and substance than with significant stylistic change, for Marenzio showed little inclination to break the mould of the unaccompanied polyphonic madrigal in the manner Monteverdi would do so dramatically just a few years later. Neither, despite his contribution to the famous 1589 Florentine wedding intermedio, did Marenzio show any interest in the emergence of the revolutionary stile recitativo.
It is customary to divide Marenzio’s madrigal output into two distinctive phases. The first, characterised by an easy grace, mellifluous elegance and ‘sweetness’ was widely praised by his contemporaries both in Italy and further afield. It was what won him his reputation throughout Europe. The second, heralded by the composer himself as being composed ‘in a quite different manner from the past, tending […] towards – I shall say – a sorrowful gravity’, is the ‘crudo (cruel) stile’ of the present disc’s title. This was marked, starting with the seminal Madrigali a 4, 5 et 6 voci of 1588, by a new concentration on serious texts by the great Italian poets of the past, above all the peerless sonnets of Petrarch. This division serves as a handy reference, but is also simplistic, as the CD shows, for as well as beguiling examples of Marenzio’s earlier style such as ‘Come inanti de l’alba’, with its ravishing ethereal opening, the dissonant pain of pieces such as ‘Dolorosi martir’ (from the 5-part Madrigals, Book 1 of 1580) plumb depths of emotion as searing as do such great Petrarchan madrigals as ‘Solo e pensoso’ or ‘Crudele, acerba’.
As suggested at the outset the performances are outstanding, indeed they are near-exemplary on both technical and interpretative grounds. The seven voices of Rossoporpora, all excellent in their own right, blend beautifully in whatever combination they are employed, being superbly balanced in contrapuntal writing, while perfectly chorded in the homophonic passages with which the composer so skilfully employs contrast. The realisation of the texts, so acutely understood and set by Marenzio, is achieved with a complete understanding of both musical and literary syntax perhaps only achievable fully in this repertoire by singing in one’s native language. Neither are the performances frightened of employing tempo fluctuations to expressive means, which to my mind pays big dividends in a long text like ‘Cruda Amarilli’ (from Guarini’s Il pastor fido). But these are performances not to analyse, but rather to admire, to savour, to delight in, to share exquisite suffering in.
A couple of practical points. Two of the madrigals are performed in intabulations for two lutes, common practice at the time with popular pieces, while two others are given by solo voices and two lutes. Less successful is the addition of the two lutes to ‘Non vidi’, one of the 4vv madrigals, since they distract attention from the vocal polyphony. The loss of a star from ‘overall presentation’ is accounted for by booklet text of a size that would severely test the eyes of even an owl. But there can be no doubting that this is now unquestionably the finest available recording of a selection of Marenzio madrigals. It is, in a single word, magnificent.
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Keyboard Music from Renaissance Poland
Corina Marti Renaissance harpsichord
74:25
Brilliant Classics 95556
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his tablature is a significant source of music for the keyboard from the first half of the 16th century. According to the accompanying booklet, it contains 230 pieces of music, two theoretical treatises, and over 250 musical examples “with a didactic purpose”. The music, the majority of which remains anonymous, is mainly in the form of dances, preludes and intabulations of vocal works by European composers such as Josquin, Ribera, Senfl, Sermisy, Brumel and Walter, as featured on this disc, plus several others.
The succession of 39 short pieces in 74 minutes does not make for a riveting listen. The dances and preludes range from the charming to the uninteresting, and the intabulations of the vocal works can seem fussy or stilted compared with the originals, and no more than opportunities for the arranger and/or the performer simply to show off without adding anything.
Nevertheless, Corina Marti makes the best case that she can for every piece, and has evidently taken care over her interpretation of each one. It is a pleasure to listen to her modern “Renaissance” harpsichord after an anonymous Neapolitan model circa 1520, the beautiful sound of which compounds the excellence of her execution of these slight works. And it is also important that recordings such as these are made: beside their value as archival documents, they let us hear what keyboard repertory was being played at a certain time, in a certain place. They also alert us to the existence of these instrumental versions of certain vocal works, and the extent to which they were circulated – a matter of great interest when considering the reception of their composers’ works.
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Nigel North lute, Les Voix humaines consort of viols
59:03
ATMA Classique ACD2 2761
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his recent addition to the Lachrimae discography does not contain all the pieces in the original publication of 1604. Instead, the programme is built around the seven pavans titled “Lachrimae …” with alternative versions of the Lachrimae pieces themselves, works from other Dowland sources, some for lute solo, one for lute and bass viol. Besides the seven Lachrimae themselves the disc includes Captain [Digorie] Piper his galliard, The Earl of Essex galliard, M. Henry Noel his galliard, M. John Langtons pavan, M. George Whitehead his almand, and Sir John Souch his galliard from 1604, thereby omitting Semper Dowland semper dolens, M. Nicholas Gryffyth his galliard, M. Giles Hobies galliard, Sir Henry Umpton’s funeral, Mistress Nichols almand, M. Buctons galliard, M. Thomas Collier his galliard, and The King of Denmarks galliard. The single imported piece unrelated to the Lachrimae is Dowland’s adew for Master Oliver Cromwell (from The second book of songs or ayres, 1600), a pavan which is the work for lute and bass viol mentioned above. This Oliver Cromwell was the Lord Protector’s uncle.
So much for the contents, what of the performances? Nigel North needs no introduction, nor should Les Voix humaines, the Canadian viol consort. Both names guarantee excellence, so an assessment comes down to their interpretations of these familiar and frequently recorded works, with a nod to their choice of contents. (Obviously, anyone wanting a complete performance of the Lachrimae need not consider buying this record, albeit they should be interested to hear some or all of it. Recordings which include the entire contents of the 1604 print can be found on the Presto Classical website – www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/composers, then click on Dowland – where their listing is often accompanied by judicious quotes from informed reviews.) The versions of the Lachrimae pavans on this disc come across as reverential, occasionally a tad indulgent, with a tendency to lean into cadences, and to give the impression of the players standing back and admiring the sheer beauty of Dowland’s music and their execution of it. Quite rightly too. The sleevenotes are at best introductory, and thin on detail regarding the individual pieces and the performers’ attitudes to them. Between them, Les Voix humaines and Nigel North wring just about everything out of the pavans, but whereas individual parts come through strongly in the pavans, the balance is not always so good in the pieces played more briskly – or indeed, less slowly.
This is a most attractive selection of Dowland’s consort music. Each of the pavans sounds absolutely gorgeous. The performances of some of the other items, like the Cromwell pavan, can seem pensive, close to navel-gazing. Nevertheless, for interpretations of the seven Lachrimae pavans that milk their sublime contents for all that they are worth, these are ideal performances, and the judiciously selected fillers give the listener time to digest the full implications of one pavan before another one begins, a more recuperative option than presenting them in sequence. This disc did not yield all its qualities in one initial hearing, but sufficient seeds were sewn to make return visits increasingly pleasurable and rewarding.
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Airs, cantates & madrigaux
Les solistes du jardin des voix 2015, Les Arts Florissants, William Christie
74:41
harmonia mundi HAF 8905283
Music by Banchieri, Cimarosa, Handel, Haydn, Sarro, Stradella, Vecchi, Vivaldi & de Wert
[dropcap]R[/dropcap]ecorded in 2015 and released in 2017, this is the showcase concert from Les Arts Florissants’s 7th ‘Le Jardin des Voix’ project, an intensive period of training/rehearsal for singers on the threshold of their careers. It was a staged ‘divertimento’ and recorded live, which explains a few places where the musical elements are not perfectly balanced within the soundscape. There are also ‘noises off’, some of which are the audience clearly enjoying a great evening’s entertainment. I absolutely take my hat off to the deviser of the programme which moves more or less chronologically from Wert to Haydn (via Stradella, Vivaldi, Handel and others), gives all six singers ‘stand out’ as well as ensemble moments and has a sense of narrative flow. Not all the music from the concert is on the CD (one of the essays – Fr/Ger/Eng – refers to music which we do not hear), but it’s still coherent and action-packed. Get this, complement and compliment it with a glass of your favourite and enjoy! I’d have loved a DVD.
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