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Sheet music

G A Benda: Philon und Theone

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

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

Brian Clark

Categories
Recording

C F C Fasch: Works for Keyboard

Philippe Grisvard fortepiano attrib. Stein (c1790)
64:46
Audax Records ADX13725

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Anyone who knows me knows my reputation as a Fasch scholar; that is to say that I am considered something of an expert on the music of Johann Friedrich Fasch, who took half a dozen gap years after his studies in Leipzig before accepting the position of Kapellmeister to the court of Anhalt-Zerbst, which he held until his death in 1758. Only two years before he passed away, his son – whose keyboard music is recorded here for the first time – moved to take up the position of second harpsichordist at the Prussian court of the king we English speakers call Frederick the Great, where he alternated with C. P. E. Bach in accompanying the monarch’s performances on flute. But he did much more besides, primary among his achievements being the foundation of the great choral society, the Berlin Singakademie.

When the focus of conferences held in Zerbst has shifted from the father to the son, I must confess that I have not had much enthusiasm; where the older man’s music speaks directly to me, the little I had heard of the younger Fasch’s music always seemed to start well but not have enough to sustain it. This new CD has forced me to challenge that opinion. Grisvard presents a composer who is full of ideas, and clearly an excellent keyboard player! The three three-movement sonatas each have their own character, and the shorter character pieces are full of wit and drama; they are not quite as arresting as some of his colleague Bach’s more daringly chromatic music, but they do sometimes surprise the listener, which can only be a good thing! Anything they could do, Grisvard can, too – this recital (ending with what was the composer’s most celebrated keyboard piece, am Ariette with 14 variations) is an outstanding display of virtuosity, but also a demonstration of commitment, drawing out a profundity to some of the darker music that I had thought Fasch incapable of. The fact that he studied with Johann Wilhelm Hertel, whose chamber music, in particular, reveals a similarly melancholic streak, is telling; he was also praised for his stylish improvised accompaniments by the violinist Franz Benda, showing that he was spontaneously brilliant. These might equally describe Grisvard’s approach – and cause us to regret Fasch’s decision later in life to destroy many of his manuscripts. As usual with Audax, the presentation is classy and meticulous.

If M. Grisvard felt inclined to follow this recording up with a disc of sonatas by J. W. Hertel (especially with the same recording engineer), I for one would not complain.

Brian Clark

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Recording

The Berlin Album

Ensemble Diderot
69:19
Audax Records ADX13726

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Like many others who review the recordings that seem to flow unendingly from Audax Records, I really struggle to find words to match not only the super-stylish performances (which are worth paragraph after paragraph on their own) but also the immaculate recorded sound, the casually informative booklet notes inside the instantly recognisable fold-out covers, and the admirable (and rewarding) desire to seek out truly worthwhile works by composers thus far relegated to the footnotes of musical history that deserve to be better known. In this particular case, alongside relatively well-known composers of the “Berlin school” (G. A. Benda, J. G. Graun, J. G. Janitsch and J. P. Kirnberger) one of the musicians rescued from obscurity is the sister of the Prussian monarch (Frederick “the Great”) who, once his bullying father was out of the way, essentially created the musical scene in his capital – Princess Anna Amalia – and another is Johann Abraham Schulz (both of them were Kirnberger students and therefore very capable contrapuntalists).

What I especially love about this recording is that Ensemble Diderot do not shy away from the cadenzas that are hinted at in the sources but rarely embraced as they are by these performers (including the fortepianist!) The interplay between the two violinists is as electrifying as usual and the continuo team don’t so much support as caress and coax even more energy from them. Of the recent albums with geographical themes, I have by far enjoyed this the most; perhaps because I am a great fan of the repertoire. Rarely, though, have I heard it played so absolutely convincingly – I wonder if Benda and Graun, Janitsch and Kirnberger ever sounded as good!

Brian Clark

Categories
Recording

Baroque Gender Stories

Vivica Genaux, Lawrence Zazzo, Lautten Compagney, Wolfgang Kratschner
87:25 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
deutsche harmonia mundi 1 90759 43092 7
Music by Galuppi, Handel, Hasse, Lampugnani, Porpora, Traetta & Wagenseil

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Look beyond the bizarre title and there’s an interesting concept here. The programme consists of arias and duets that feature gender fluidity (or ‘bending’ to use the fashionable word) in one some form or another. We’re of course familiar with the use of mezzos in the great male roles once undertaken by castratos, but perhaps less familiar is the fact that female roles were also sung by castratos. This applied particularly in Rome, for the simple reason that during the greater part of the history of opera during the Baroque era papal decree made it impossible for women to appear on the Roman stage. It is just such an opera, Galuppi’s setting of Metastasio’s Siroe (1726), first given in Rome in 1754, with the noted castrato Giovanni Belardi in the role of the prima donna Emira that forms a fascinating Leitmotif for the set. And it is here, too, the playing with gender starts, since the act 3 cavatina for Emira (an insert into Metastasio’s text) is sung by Vivica Genaux, not as one might have expected Zazzo, although in the splendid duet, another insert, it is Lawrence Zazzo who sings Emira and Genaux Siroe.  

In addition to the Galuppi, there are further settings of Emira’s cavatina, each to a different text, by Wagenseil, whose Siroe was produced in Vienna in 1748 and by Traetta, whose version for Munich dates from 1767. In both the Emira was more obviously sung by a woman, in the case of the Traetta the great Regina Mingotti. Here the piece, an aria de furia directed at the heroine’s father, is sung by Zazzo in the case of the rather tame  Wegenseil, Genaux definitely winning out with the magnificent ‘Che furia, che mostro’, a dark, chromatically inflected tour de force splendidly delivered by the mezzo.

There are also extracts from the Siroes of Hasse and Handel, both of whose overtures are included, while another Metastasio libretto, that for Semiramide riconosciuta, provides the foundation for two settings by Giovanni Lampugnani, for Rome in 1741 and Milan in 1762, and Porpora’s outstanding 1739 version for Naples. That is here represented by the enchanting siciliano, ‘Il pastor se torna aprile’, sung with elegant charm by Genaux. Lampugnani’s Roman version obviously featured another castrato in the role of the heroine Tamiri, the flowing ‘Tu mi disprezzi’ here represented by Zazzo, whose singing throughout the programme is thoroughly musical but lacking clear individuality. His lack of a trill is particularly disappointing, as is the ornamentation in da capos by both artists, who display a tendency to vary the vocal line at the expence of adding embellishments. It’s a solution to varying the repeat that has its adherents, though unsupported by contemporary practice and here leads to some wayward control in some of the more flamboyant gestures, particularly in the case of Zazzo, whose tone is apt to become hooty in the upper register. Genaux is better in this respect and also produces some dazzling coloratura and precisely articulated passaggi, Orlando’s ‘Nel profondo’ from Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso (1727) being an especially striking example.  

The support given by the Lautten Compagney is capable, if at times somewhat mannered in currently fashionable style. The very fast tempo set for Serse’s ‘Se bramate’ (from Handel’s eponymous opera) – sung by Genaux – is, for example, cast into exaggerated relief by the self-conscious slowing down at the qualifying words ‘ma come non so’ (but know not how). Elsewhere one notes the intrusive plucking from a band that true to its name includes no fewer than four (!) continuo lute players, including director Wolfgang Katschner. This at the expense of just two cellos and a single double-bass, it still having not registered in most early music circles that 18th-century opera orchestras in all the major Italian houses employed a numerous bass section.

The notes include an interesting Q and A with the two singers answering rather pretentious questions worded along the lines of, ‘Some theorists would say that gender is performative, thus only realised when we enact socially-coded behaviours for an audience …’ and so forth. Fortunately the singers’ answers are less convoluted and indeed provide plenty of food for thought. I’m still not sure Genaux’s use of the word androgynous in this context is the right term and there is arguably too much post-Freudian psychology at play; the era was far less concerned with gender definition than we are today. Notwithstanding, the set takes an unusually imaginative approach both as to concept and planning in addition to introducing some worthwhile and rarely heard repertoire.

Brian Robins

Categories
Recording

C. P. E. Bach: Cello Concerti

Guy Fishman cello, Members of the Handel and Haydn Society
64:24
Olde Focus Recordings

Probably the most prodigiously talented of the Bach sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel wrote concertos for a large variety of instruments, but his cello concerti are probably the finest of these. It is mainly in the slow movements of the three concerti recorded here by Guy Fishman and his colleagues in the Boston-based Handel and Haydn Society that we find CPE at his most eloquent and profound. Frequent quixotic changes of mood and moments of inspired originality animate the opening movements and also the often sparklingly virtuosic finales. Playing one to a part, the ‘orchestral’ musicians can react quickly and unanimously to the soloist, and these performances are characterised by fleetness of foot and animated interaction between soloist and ensemble. Composed while Bach was employed at the court of Frederick the Great, he clearly had access to some of the finest musicians of the age, and while his duties at court seem to have been underappreciated, with his music sounding rather too musically daring for the conservative Frederick, it did at least leave the composer lots of time to produce a string of masterpieces. The programme comprises the concerti in A major Wq. 172, in A minor Wq. 170 and in B flat major Wq. 171, all beautifully played and for which Fishman invents his own cadenzas as Bach’s cellist would undoubtedly have done – Bach’s own cadenzas, which do survive, were composed for transcriptions of the works for solo harpsichord and chamber ensemble and so are keyboard-specific. Listening to the magnificent B flat concerto with which the CD culminates, it is astonishing to realize how far music has traveled in just one generation.

D. James Ross

Categories
Recording

Flute Concertos

Sieglinde Größinger, Ensemble Klingekunst
62:30
cpo 555 076-2
Music by Bonno, Gaßmann, Monn & Wagenseil

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]opped and tailed by concertos by Wagenseil, this survey of the mid-18th-century flute concerto in Vienna also features works by Monn, Gaßmann and Bonno. Four of them are scored for flute with (here single) strings and continuo. Broadly speaking, they are rococo in style, not really managing to escape Baroque ritornello form, with solo episodes accompanied by upper strings or continuo. The odd man out in the recital is the Monn piece which is for concertato harpsichord, flute, violin and bass; it really is an original sounding composition, with the keyboard sometimes duetting with the flute, sometimes the true soloist while the flute and violin provide a duetting background. The presence of lute as a continuo instrument prevents any direct comparison with C. P. E. Bach’s quartets. It is a pleasant piece, though. In fact, the whole disc is enjoyable, and Größinger provides some neat cadenzas in the flute concertos. I suspect this is a line-up from whom we shall hear more.

Brian Clark

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Categories
Recording

Rococo – Musique à Sanssouci

Dorothee Oberlinger recorders, Ensemble 1700
78:57
deutsche harmonia mundi 8-88751 34062-6
C. P. E. Bach, Baron, Finger, J. G. Graun, Handel, Janitsch, Quantz & Schultze

[dropcap]O[/doprcap]n this delightful CD recorder virtuoso Dorothée Oberlinger uses nine different recorders to play a programme of music which might have been heard at Frederick II of Prussia’s Rococo bolt-hole Sanssouci. She has unearthed some charming and yet largely unfamiliar material including a beguiling Ground by Gottfried Finger, a fine double concerto for recorder and bassoon attributed to Handel, but sounding very unhandelian, and equally fine pieces by Quantz, Graun, C. P. E. Bach and the practically unknown Johann Janitsch, Gottlied Baron and Johann Schultze. As befits a CD called Rococo, Oberlinger and her ensemble play with delicacy and elegance, but where necessary with a stunning technical facility, and throughout there is beautifully gauged ornamentation. Particular highlights are the Graun Concerto for recorder, violin, strings and continuo, the Quantz music for solo recorder and a lovely recorder sonata by C. P. E. Bach, but my favourite track is a highly imaginative C. P. E. Bach Trio for bass recorder, viola and continuo. All of the playing on this revelatory CD is simply superlative, expressive, passionate and yet tasteful, creating a palpable presence of the refined environs of Sanssouci.

D. James Ross

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Recording

So höret meinen Gesang

Klopstock settings by G. Ph. Telemann & J. H. Rolle
Antje Rux, Susanne Lagner, Tobias Hunger, Ingold Seidel SATB, Leipziger Concert, Siegfried Pank
68:04
Raumklang RK3502
Rolle: David und Jonathan
Telemann: Komm Geist des Herrn TVWV 1:999, 2 extracts from Messias TVWV 6:4

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his CD has been a constant companion over the past few weeks; I simply cannot get over the imagination of the 78-year-old Telemann when setting these texts by Klopstock, which is as fresh and lively as ever it was. His Whitsun cantata, Komm Geist des Herrn, and his two extracts from Messiah date from the year Handel died, 1759 (Telemann was four years his senior and would live for another eight years!), are full of original sonorities and beautiful, almost rococo harmonic twists and turns; truly the music is marvellous. So to are the performances, with four excellent soloists and an equally impressive orchestra. In fact, such is the “modern” sound of the Telemann that I did not even realise that the last track on the disc was actually by Johann Heinrich Rolle, an “elegy” on the David and Jonathan story to soprano, tenor and orchestra. Now little known, Rolle in fact only lost out to C. P. E. Bach to become Telemann’s successor in Hamburg by a single vote! This short work (just under 12 minutes) clearly demonstrates why he was so highly thought of; again, the playing and singing contribute hugely to this impression. I hope that we will hear more Rolle (and, indeed, Georg Benda, and more Telemann!) from these musicians – this is a beautiful CD which I shall treasure for a long time.

Brian Clark

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