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recordingreviews
Edited by Craig Zeichner
Juan de Aragüés
¡Ah de las esferas!
Raquel Andueza, soprano; Juan Díaz
de Corcuera, tenor; Academia de
Música Antigua de la Universidad de
Salamanca, Coro de Cámara de la
Universidad de Salamanca, Bernardo
García-Bernalt, director
Verso VRS 2009
65:27 minutes
Although closely associated with
the University of Salamanca both as
a musician and faculty member,
Juan de Aragüés is hardly a wellknown name. Clearly, Aragüés
(c.1710-1793) was a significant
presence at the University, with 103
of the 274 works in its library attributed to him. A number of sacred
works by Aragüés are also found in
the archives of the Salamanca
cathedral. Pieces from both sources
are found on this recording.
This well-performed program by
the Academia de Música Antigua de
la Universidad de Salamanca features three large-scale liturgical
works—a Salve Regina, a Mass setting, and a Miserere—as well as
four villancicos. The liturgical works
sit squarely in the galant style and
have a great melodic charm. The
Salve Regina features a lyrical soprano part with energetic choral writing. The Mass has Italianate accents,
especially in the exuberant string
writing,
while the
Miserere
features
expressive
vocal passages
(oddly
exuberant, considering the text)
punctuated by alternatim chant sections. The villancicos look back to
the high Baroque and fairly dance
off the page with their infectious
energy and showy vocal and
instrumental writing.
The vocal soloists make strong
contributions throughout, with
soprano Raquel Andueza excelling
in the Salve Regina, and a number
of chorus members taking solid
turns in the villancicos, especially in
the snappy Christmas tune “Las serranillas alegres.” Don’t be put off by
the hideously translated liner notes;
jump in and enjoy the music.
—Craig Zeichner
Johann Sebastian Bach
Cantatas BWV 202, 82 & 32
Dominique Labelle, soprano; Sanford Sylvan, baritone; Krista River,
mezzo-soprano; Frank Kelley, tenor;
Sarasa Ensemble (Richard Earle,
oboe; Alison Bury, Claire Jolivet,
violin; Jennifer Stirling, viola;
Timothy Merton, cello; Anne Trout,
bass; Maggie Cole, harpsichord)
Sarasa (self-produced)
63:95 minutes
Although it is invigorating to
hear the cantatas of J.S. Bach
(1685-1750) performed by large
forces, it can
be informative to hear
the compositions he
wrote for
solo voice.
This recording of two solo cantatas and a third
cantata, cast as a duet between
Christ and the Soul, features soprano Dominique Labelle, baritone
Sanford Sylvan, and the Sarasa
Ensemble.
One thread linking the three
works is that they highlight the way
Bach uses the oboe. Although the
liner notes suggest that listeners
might hear the instrument as a
“stop”—hence, the ensemble as
imitative of full organ sonority—this
diminishes Bach’s superb grasp of
the use of contemporary instrumental ensembles. It is more plausible to
hear the oboe as an additional
voice, a notion ably demonstrated
by Richard Earle, who skillfully anticipates, decorates, and harmonizes
the solo vocal lines.
It is critical, then, that the
soloists treat the oboe as an equal,
and, to their credit, Labelle and Sylvan do just that. In many ways, this
is Sylvan’s shining hour, for his per-
formance of “Ich habe genug”
(BWV 82) is the strongest of the
three. In her solo cantata, “Weichet
nur, betrübte Schatten” (BWV 202),
Labelle seems to sacrifice melodic
line for technique. Yet both singers
perform masterfully in the final cantata, “Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen” (BWV 32) and are joined for
the traditional final chorale movement by mezzo-soprano Krista River
and tenor Frank Kelley. This recording will be an ear-opener for those
unfamiliar with the more delicate
sounds of Bach.
—Denise Gallo
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Music for the Virgin Mary
Concerto delle Donne,
Alistair Ross, organ, director
Signum Classics SIGCD 073
69:00 minutes
This very well performed and
intelligently programmed recording
focuses on the sacred works MarcAntoine Charpentier (1643-1704)
wrote for combinations of women’s
voices. As might be expected, Marian music dominates, so the program is
divided into
sections
reflecting on
the life of
the Virgin
Mary. Organ
music by
Nicholas-Antoine Lebègue (16311702) and Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers
(1632-1714), beautifully played by
Alistair Ross on the 1690 organ of
the church of Notre Dame in Rozayen-Brie, as well as a gorgeous Salve
Regina attributed to Lully, are sandwiched between the Charpentier
works.
There is much stunning music
here. The “Magnificat pour le Port
Royal” is a familiar gem, and it
receives a lovely performance, but in
some ways it’s the smaller-scale
works for two or three voices that
leave a more lasting impression. For
example, there’s an exuberant little
motet, “Guade felix Anna,” honor-
ing the Virgin’s mother, that showcases the Italian style Charpentier
absorbed in Rome. Larger in scale is
Charpentier’s Stabat Mater, which
moves the heart with its tender
melody and simple design.
The women of Concerto delle
Donne—Donna Deam, Faye Newton, and Gill Ross—are outstanding.
Their voices blend beautifully, and
they bring a sense of quiet joy to
each note they sing. Alistair Ross
does a stellar job with the brief
organ works and provides tasteful
accompaniment throughout, making this writer hungry for an entire
recording of music played on this
instrument. There are many subtle
beauties on this recording, which is
an essential for lovers of the most
sublime composer of the French
Baroque.
—Craig Zeichner
Franz Joseph Haydn
Orlando paladino
Patricia Petibon, Malin Hartelius,
soprano; Christian Gerhaher,
baritone; Michael Schade, Werner
Güra, Johannes Kalpers, Markus
Schäfer, tenor; Elizabeth von
Magnus, mezzo-soprano;
Florian Boesch, bass;
Concentus Musicus Wien,
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, director
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi
82876 73370 2
140:81 minutes (2 CDs)
One of the main tasks Joseph
Haydn (1732-1809) performed as
kapellmeister for the Esterházy
princes was producing operas. On
occasion,
he also
was
called
upon to
compose
them.
The
majority of these original compositions come from the 1780s; one of
these, Orlando paladino, demonstrates Haydn’s handling of a popular source of operas: Ariosto’s
Orlando furioso. Commissioned to
Early Music America Winter 2006
17
Parthenia
EMA AD_25 pg 06-07
9/29/06
12:39 PM
Page 2
A STRING QUARTET LIKE YOU’VE NEVER HEARD BEFORE!
RECORDINGreviews
A CONSORT OF VIOLS
feasts of
Noble Enter tainments
IL DILETTO
MODERNO
A Venetian Entertainment
2006-07 CONCERT SEASON
www.parthenia.org
Parthenia and ARTEK
Friday, November 17, 2006 at 8 PM
Corpus Christi Church,529 West 121st Street, NYC
ORLANDE DI LASSUS
Music for a Royal
Renaissance Wedding
Parthenia and Piffaro and guests
Friday, March 23, 2007 at 8 PM
St. Michael's Church
99th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, NYC
ROYAL CONSORTS
Theatrical chamber music for violins,, viols and organ
Parthenia
ls and
organ with Robert Mealy
and Shira Kammen, violins
John Scott, chamber organ
Friday, May 11, 2007 at 8 PM
Concert Information and
Reservations (212)358-5942
Corpus Christi Church, 529 West 121st Street, NYC
NEW FROM
Quill Classics
QC 1007 THE PLEASURES OF THE FRENCH
Works by Boismortier, Corrette, La Guerre, Barrière,
Couperin, Hotteterre Brooklyn Baroque
COMING SOON!
Brooklyn Baroque’s latest
recording, an all-French
recital, following its acclaimed
debut CD, Northern Lights.
Andrew Bolotowsky, David Bakamjian,
and Rebecca Pechefsky, with Gregory
Bynum and Christine Gummere
BACH AND HIS CIRCLE
Works by Krebs, Walther, Hurlebusch, Bach
Rebecca Pechefsky, harpsichord
QC 1006
“Much of [the Krebs] partita
sounds like really good
Bach that we have somehow
managed to miss.”
Kemer Thomson,
San Diego Harpsichord
Society Newsletter
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Winter 2006 Early Music America
entertain visiting Russian nobility
(who never came), the opera, a
three-act dramma eroicomico, was
used to celebrate the name day of
Haydn’s noble patron, Nicholas, on
December 6, 1782.
This delightful opera, which
moves seamlessly between the seria
and buffa, demonstrates Haydn’s
talents in a genre in which he did
not always feel at ease. A fine cast,
under the baton of Nikolaus
Harnoncourt, cleverly interprets
both aspects of the score. Patricia
Petibon, as Angelica, generally navigates the music well, but the aria
“Aure chete” seems to stretch her to
her vocal limits. She redeems herself
elsewhere, as in duets with Christian
Gerhaher.
Virtually all of the singers offer
expert interpretations, but in many
ways this is Markus Schäfer’s opera
(yes, a buffo tenor). He deftly brings
out Haydn’s humor as he ekes out
vowel sounds in the duet “Quel tuo
visetto amabile” and mocks castrati
in the aria “Ecco spiano.” It is
almost unfair to pinpoint highpoints, though, since the performance, recorded live in 2005, is superior overall. One can’t help but
note, after hearing this score, the
number of musical and textual similarities with the Mozart-DaPonte trio
of operas, all later works. Hmmm....
—Denise Gallo
Miguel de Irízar
Ecos y afectos
Capilla Jerónimo de Carrión,
Alicia Lázaro, director
Verso VRS 2024
63:16 minutes
A warm exuberance characterizes both these works by the Segovian composer Miguel de Irízar
(1635-1684) and their performance
on this recording. A varied palette
of soloists and instruments, including percussion, creates an intimate
and personal atmosphere, perhaps
unexpected in works intended for
the Cathedral of Segovia. However,
therein lies some of the charm.
Included here are Spanish popular devotional pieces for Christmas,
Corpus Christi, Holy Week, and the
Assumption, as well as a setting of
the Mass. Irízar wrote 10 masses
that, according to the liner notes,
are preserved at the Segovia archive.
The one recorded here features six
voices distributed in a double choir,
and it illustrates how the composer
could vary his performing forces and
musical textures. The entire Mass is
more lively than somber, with the
Crucifixus in particular offering an
unexpected mood with its vivacious
rhythms.
The work that opens this collection, a tono for Christmas, is a spirited piece rendered with tambourine
and percussion, perhaps to accentuate the rustic quality of the verses,
which are a Moorish telling of the
Christmas tale. The soloists change
from time to time to give variety,
but the repetition of strophes
becomes a bit long. Similar settings,
alternating soloists and ensemble,
imitative textures and homophonic,
also characterize the other tonos.
Particularly attractive are the two
villancicos for the Assumption of the
Virgin,
each of
which
includes a
children’s
choir. In
one, they
sweetly
present “Let the angels sing” while
soloists praise Mary’s attributes. The
melodies are graceful, dance-like
rhythms prevail, and deeply expressive gestures of dissonance and
chromaticism are largely lacking, all
of which adds to the popular feel of
these works.
The collection and the performance are a delight, and we can look
forward to more music from this
group.
—Deborah Lawrence
Early Music America magazine
welcomes news of recent
recordings. Please send CDs
to be considered for review
and pertinent information to
Craig M. Zeichner, Reviews
Editor, 69 Poplar Street, Apt.
2C, Brooklyn, NY 11201;
[email protected].
Early Music America cannot
guarantee the inclusion of every
CD sent for review. All published
reviews reflect the personal
opinions of the reviewer only.
Pierre de Manchicourt
Missa de Requiem
The Choir of the Church of the
Advent, Edith Ho, music director,
Ross Wood, associate conductor
Arsis SACD 406
63:43 minutes
The Boston-based Choir of the
Church of the Advent, under the
direction of long-time music director Edith Ho, has put together an
impressive
discography
of works by
Renaissance
masters both
familiar—
Dufay, Guerrero, and
Victoria—and rarely heard—Crecquillon and Pierre de Manchicourt.
This is a welcome follow-up to an
excellent Manchicourt disc released
in 2005.
Although little is known about
Manchicourt (c.1510-1564), his
most significant post was chapelmaster to King Philip II’s famed
Capilla Flamenca. While leading the
Capilla, he was responsible for
recruiting choirboys from the Low
Countries.
The major item on this recording
is Manchicourt’s Missa de Requiem.
T h e
This is a solid work, not brilliant but
touched with a serene beauty that is
fetching. The balance of the program is devoted to motets that are
notable for their tight counterpoint
and melodic beauty. Two of the best
are the six-part Easter motet, Audivi
vocem de coelo, and the largescaled Laudate Dominum omnes
gentes. Manchicourt was a superb
craftsman, and each of the works
reflects this gift.
The mixed-voice Choir of the
Church of the Advent sings these
works magnificently. Each phrase is
bathed in lush tonal beauty coupled
with clarity, balance, and proportion. The top lines glow (check out
the motet O Intemerata) and the
lower voices are rich and warm. A
huge round of applause is due to
Ho (who is retiring from the Advent
this year) and her deputies for taking great pains to present top-quality performances of works by lesserknown Renaissance masters.
—Craig Zeichner
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Fantasias and Rondos
Richard Egarr, fortepiano
Harmonia Mundi HMU907387
74:22 minutes
Richard Egarr’s contribution to
T e r r a
S
the Mozart-year bounty is a lovely
disc of fantasias, rondos, and other
“miscellaneous” works. In his notes,
he explains that in these works, we
“meet Mozart in his most raw emotional state.”
Mozart
(1756-1791)
was famous
for his
improvisations, and
these works
give us a glimpse of what he was
like as an improviser. Egarr rises to
this interpretive challenge in performances that are full of dramatic
tension and passion. He uses a fiveand-a-half-octave Viennese piano
built around 1805, and the instrument has a bright sound and a wide
dynamic range.
A highpoint is Egarr’s rendition
of the Fantasie [Capriccio] in C
Major, K. 395, full of dramatic
propulsion and ever-shifting
colors. This is the Mozart most
people don’t know but should.
Some might say that it sounds
like Beethoven, but in fact this
impression might be traced to C.P.E.
Bach, a figure who influenced both
composers. The Fantasie in C
Minor, K. 396, receives a similarly
N o v a
convincing reading.
In the Fantasie in D Minor, K.
397, Egarr refreshingly employs
“tempo rubato” in some passages,
just as Mozart described it, with the
left hand keeping time while the
right plays freely. However, Egarr’s
ending for this piece, originally left
incomplete, recasts the brooding
opening in a heroic D major, which
feels incongruous.
There are many gems on this
CD, all of which are performed
lovingly. The Rondo in D Major,
K. 485, is joyful and light-footed,
and the disc’s closer, the Adagio for
Glass Harmonica, K. 365/617a, is
fittingly ethereal.
—Sylvia Berry
Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla
Sun of Justice
Los Angeles Chamber
Singers’ Cappella,
Peter Rutenberg, music director
RCM 12006
55:43 minutes
Over the past few years, listeners
have been treated to a number of
excellent recordings of the music of
Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla (c.15901664). Discs by The Harp Consort
(Harmonia Mundi), Ex Cathedra
(Hyperion), and Angelicum de
C o n s o r t
• Winners in the 1999 EMA/Dorian Recording Competition
• Featured performers at Regensburg Festival in 2000 and 2004
• Ensemble in Residence at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
for over 15 years
• Two CDs on Dorian Label: Renaissance en Provence & Baylado:
Journey into the heart of Spain
• New programs: Song That Never Ends, Traditional song of Galicia
and Alta California: music of California circa mid-19th century
• Now touring Renaissance en Provence and Baylado
For booking information contact:
Thomas Gallant at MCM Music Management (845) 691-4960
[email protected]
You may purchase CDs by visiting www.terranovaconsort.com
“Terrifically stylish and full of spirit...”
—The Chicago Tribune
Early Music America Winter 2006
19
RECORDINGreviews
ATMAclassique
The International Label from Canada
The stunning voice of
ACD2 2352
ACD2 2398
KARINA GAUVIN
Puebla (Urtext) have presented the
liturgical works and villancicos of
the Spanish-born composer who
made it big
in the New
World. As
many now
know, Padilla was
maestro de
capilla at
Cadiz Cathedral before sailing for
the New World, where he became
the musical chief at the Puebla
Cathedral in Mexico. This recording
by the Los Angeles Chamber
Singers’ Cappella (their second
Padilla disc) features the composer’s
sacred works for double choir.
As on their earlier Padilla disc,
the Los Angeles Chamber Singers’
Cappella show themselves to be a
precision instrument, and they sing
this music with big-voiced power,
rhythmic security, and tonal beauty.
There are some terrific works on this
recording. While Padilla’s Missa Ave
Regina is the largest-scale work on
the disc, it’s the motets that leave
the biggest impression. His Dixit
Dominus is wonderfully sonorous,
the Exsultate iusti features voices
imitating the sounds of instruments,
and the Ave Regina shifts harmonies
in a challenging manner. Perhaps
the out-and-out masterpiece is his
Salve Regina, characterized by beautiful long phrases that give way to
rhythmic fireworks, a piece that
features, as well, some interesting
word painting. In sum, this is a
terrific recording by a top-notch
ensemble.
—Craig Zeichner
Salamone Rossi
SACD2 2342
The Songs of Solomon:
Sacred Vocal Works in Hebrew
GREAT ARTISTS
GREAT MUSIC
GREAT SOUND
Available at fine record stores, or from
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20
Winter 2006 Early Music America
Corvina Consort,
Zoltán Kalmanovits, director
Hungaroton Classic HCD 32350
65:10 minutes
Known as a violinist (he was
arguably the inventor of the trio
sonata), Salamone Rossi (c.15701630) was a Jewish musician working at the Gonzaga court of Mantua. In an era when Jews were persecuted, Rossi won some favor at
the court and was even granted
ducal permission not to wear the
“Jew insignia” that was mandatory
at the time. In addition to instru-
mental works, Rossi wrote music for
the theater as well as madrigals.
His most significant work is the
Hashirim ’asher lishlomo (translated
as The Songs of Solomon), a collection of 33 Hebrew motets and
hymns for synagogue use. Scored
for three to eight voices, the texts
primarily include psalms, Sabbath
and feast-day hymns, and a wedding ode. This is not traditional Jewish cantillation. Rossi’s style is eclectic, drawing on stile antico traditions as well as on other Mantuan
composers of the day, including
Giaches de Wert and Claudio
Monteverdi.
On this recording, the Hungarian ensemble Corvina Consort sings
26 of Rossi’s settings. For the most
part, the ensemble does solid work.
The theatrical echo effect in the
eight-voice “Lemi ’ehpots” (To
whom
would I
desire?)
comes off
nicely, and
they skillfully
negotiate
some of
Rossi’s trickier harmonies and shifting meters. There is, however, a
cold, colorless quality to their
singing and a decided sharpness
in the upper voices.
This is marvelous music that
deserves a definitive recording.
Despite the “world premiere” claim
on the disc’s cover, the music has
been recorded before. Two of the
better recordings are by Boston
Camerata (Harmonia Mundi) and
New York Baroque (on the nowdefunct PGM Recordings). Try to
find these two discs, and if you
want to learn more about Rossi’s
milieu, pick up Don Harrán’s
Salamone Rossi, Jewish Musician
in Late Renaissance Mantua.
—Craig Zeichner
Antonio Vivaldi
Laudate pueri Dominum, RV
600, Stabat Mater, RV 621,
Canta in prato, RV 623
Tracy Smith Bessette, soprano;
Marion Newman, mezzo-soprano;
Aradia Ensemble,
Kevin Mallon, director
Naxos 8.557852
60:53 minutes
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Early Music America Winter 2006
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Winter 2006 Early Music America
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RECORDINGreviews
ATMAclassique
The International Label from Canada
COLLECTIONS
WIELAND KUIJKEN
Bach and His Circle
conducts and plays
MARIN MARAIS
SACD2 2527
“...sheer heaven”
– TAMARA BERNSTEIN,
THE GLOBE & MAIL [TORONTO]
Les Voix humaines perform
works by Marais’s teacher,
Sainte-Colombe.
ACD2 2275
Rebecca Pechefsky, harpsichord
Quill Classics QC 1006
67:05 minutes
This captivating recording introduces us to three close colleagues
of J.S. Bach (1685-1750). The first,
longest, and to me most surprising
of the five pieces here is the Partita
in A Minor by Johann Ludwig Krebs
(1713-1780). Known to us as Bach’s
favorite pupil, Krebs was recommended highly by his master on a
number of occasions. The debt of
the pupil to the teacher is most
clear and obvious in the first two
movements, a fantasia and a fugue,
which echo on a smaller scale
Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and
Fugue, the
final selections on the
disc. Rebecca Pechefsky
takes the
more limited
scope of
Krebs’s fantasia as an opportunity
to breathe fire into cascading diminished chord arpeggios and sinuous
scales. In the remaining six movements, various melodic and gestural
quotes continue Krebs’s homage to
Bach.
Johann Gottfried Walther (16841748), a cousin of Bach and the
author of the Musicalisches Lexicon,
is here represented by two charming
pieces. The first is a setting of the
chorale tune “Wachet auf, ruft uns
die Stimme” with quite inventive
countermelodies. The second is a
sprightly Fugue in F Major.
Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch
(1691-1765) was an acquaintance
of Bach. His Suite in C Minor starts
off with a very French ouverture
then continues to elaborate the Italian style in five subsequent movements, remarkable in their clarity
and brevity. When the disc ends
with Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and
Fugue, it is like bringing in the
closer in the ninth inning; it nails
the game down and provides a
ACD2 2374
than the Stabat Mater, and it has
inspired some of the most beautiful
music of the Baroque. The setting
by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) for
contralto and strings aptly captures
the sorrowful essence of this poem.
The weight
of the work,
depicting the
sorrowing
Virgin, is in
the first of its
four sections.
Beginning
with a downward melodic leap and
employing the warm, dark timbre of
the mezzo voice, Vivaldi creates a
contemplative atmosphere that, by
the end of the work, brightens
perceptibly.
Contrasting with the Stabat
Mater, Vivaldi’s Laudate pueri
Dominum features the brighter
sounds of soprano. This setting of
Psalm 112 is the longest one on the
recording, and it beautifully displays
Vivaldi’s ability to capture the contrasts of the text: lively rhythms convey the joy of “Praise the Lord, ye
servants,” while solo cello underpins
the delicate, florid soprano passages
of “The Lord is high above.”
Two motets round out this
recording—Canta in prato and
Clarae stellae—both of which reflect
the operatic format of arias and
recitative and deserve to be heard
more often. One of the more
charming features of the first work
is the wonderfully descriptive, virtuosic vocalizing for “Sing in the
meadow, laugh on the hill.”
This disc is the second volume in
a collection of Vivaldi’s complete
sacred compositions. Despite the
different types of works, the repetitious instrumentation becomes a bit
tedious, but that is the nature of
such a homogeneous selection. The
performance offered by the Aradia
Ensemble is lovely, with elegant
singing, good balance, and clean
performances from the orchestra.
There may be more dramatic
recordings available, but this one is
attractive, reflecting a warm and
intimate reading of the work.
—Deborah Lawrence
GREAT ARTISTS
GREAT MUSIC
GREAT SOUND
Available at fine record stores, or from
w w w. a t m a c l a s s i q u e . c o m
Continued on page 56
Early Music America Winter 2006
23
early music
at Peabody
FACU LT Y
Risa Browder
Baroque violin
and viola
Mark Cudek
Director, Early
Music Program,
Lute
John Moran
Viola da gamba,
Baroque cello
Gwyn Roberts
Recorder
Colin St. Martin
Baroque flute
Barbara Weiss
Harpsichord
Members of the
Conservatory Voice
Faculty, including
William Sharp
and Ah Hong
PERFORMANCE DEGREES:
BM, MM, & GPD IN
EARLY INSTRUMENTS
DMA IN HARPSICHORD
MM & GPD IN EARLY VOICE
ENSEMBLES:
PEABODY RENAISSANCE
ENSEMBLE
BALTIMORE BAROQUE BAND
BAROQUE OPERA
RENAISSANCE & BAROQUE
CHAMBER MUSIC
RECORDER CONSORT
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Early Music America Winter 2006
55
FOUNDED 1915
Historical Performance in
America’s early music capital
FACULTY
Frances Conover Fitch, chair, harpsichord
Phoebe Carrai, Baroque cello
Michael Collver, cornetto, voice
Kinloch Earle, Baroque violin
Douglas Freundlich, lute
Stephen Hammer, Baroque oboe
Jane Hershey, viola da gamba
Sonja Lindblad, recorder
Dana Maiben, Baroque violin
Laurie Monahan, voice
Ken Pierce, period dance
Jean Rife, natural horn
Andrew Schwartz, Baroque bassoon
Daniel Stillman, Renaissance winds
Peter Sykes, harpsichord, fortepiano
Anne Trout, Baroque bass/violone
p
RECENT STAGED PRODUCTIONS
Dido & Aeneas (Purcell)
Cupid & Death (Locke & Gibbons)
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme & Ballet des Nations (Lully)
Actéon (Charpentier)
L’Euridice (Peri)
Cephale et Procris (Jacquet de la Guerre)
OTHER RECENT PRODUCTIONS
p
Ordo Virtutum (Hildegard)
Abendmusik (Buxtebude, Schütz, et al.)
English Madrigals (Dowland & contemporaries)
La Stavaganza (18th-century string music)
French Baroque Music and Dance
PROGRAMS AVAILABLE
Artist Diploma
Master of Music
Graduate Performance Diploma
CONTACT
Office of Admissions
Longy School of Music
One Follen Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
56
617–876–0956 x521
[email protected]
www.longy.edu
Winter 2006 Early Music America
RECORDINGreviews
Continued from page 23
wonderful sense of completion to
the recording.
Pechefsky has given us a supple
and virtuosic performance that is
amply illuminated by the detailed
liner notes. Her touch, rhythm,
and phrasing are sensitive and
impeccable.
—Stephen Dydo
The Christmas Album
Ellen Hargis, soprano;
Paul O’Dette, lute
Noyse Productions
71:14 minutes
Well, it doesn’t have “White
Christmas,” but this eclectic Christmas collection does include not only
works by Michael Praetorius (15711621) and Melchior Newsidler
(1531-1590), but also Pat O’Brien’s
arrangement of
“What Are
You Doing
New
Year’s
Eve?” by
Frank
Loesser. This last, jazzier than the
“My Funny Valentine” that ends
Ellen Hargis and Paul O’Dette’s
Power of Love CD, is a real treat.
Of course, we do not generally
listen to Christmas carols and songs
for musical edification. If repeated
enough, even a gorgeous melody
like Praetorius’s “Es ist ein Ros’
entsprungen,” sung by Hargis with
elegant phrasing, can try the listener’s patience. On the other hand,
the arrangement of “Canzonetta
spirituale sopra alla nanna” by Tarquinio Merula (c.1594-1665) is, due
to Hargis’s vocal passion, vivid and
exciting. Hargis also carries the day
in the longest cut (10 minutes),
“Figlio, dormi” by Giovanni
Giralamo Kapsberger (1580-1651).
This piece is, in fact, the one where
Hargis and O’Dette best achieve an
equilibrium of expression.
O’Dette takes a number of solos.
A surprise was Esaias Reusner’s elegant setting of “Joseph, lieber
Joseph mein.” There are also four
rustic pieces by Kapsberger. And the
inevitable arrangement of
“Greensleeves” is my personal
favorite—that of Francis Cutting
(1583-1603).
The recording quality is very
good, with a realistic balance
between lute and voice. This, ironically, would be a problem for play
at Christmas gatherings because the
lute disappears if the playback situation isn’t ideal. The documentation
included with this release is only the
track list and bios for Hargis and
O’Dette; one can download the
lyrics and rather meager notes from
www.noyseproductions.com.
—Stephen Dydo
The Fall of Constantinople
Cappella Romana,
Alexander Lingas, director
Cappella Romana CR402-CD
72:22 minutes
In 1054, the Pope in Rome and
the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each
other. There was a schism, and the
Eastern Orthodox Church stuck with
chant while the Roman Catholics
eventually developed polyphony,
and . . . history is never so simple.
There were many attempts at reconciliation and much cross-fertilization
of musical ideas, right up until the
Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453. The city had been
defended by a combined army of
Eastern and Western Christians, and
Guillaume Dufay (c.1400-1474)
wrote an exquisite motet lamenting
its downfall.
The music of those final years of
the Byzantine Empire is the subject
of this disc, which features three
Dufay motets written for important
events in
Constantinople, plus
Greek and
Latin chant.
Cappella
Romana is,
as always,
vocally superb. The deep richness of
their voices and the control and
clarity of their singing have never
sounded better.
What makes this disc so special,
though, is the program. Cappella
Romana has dedicated itself to documenting a musical tradition that
has long been buried; some of their
CDs, while musically and historically
important, are not varied enough to
make for compelling listening. But
this program offers up a delicious
variety: the motets, an entrance rite
for an Eastern Orthodox service, a
selection of hymns and canons, a
Sarasa Ensemble
latest CD release
J. S. Bach
Cantatas
elle
e lab
iniqu lvan
m
o
d
y
ble
ord s
s anf a e nse m
s
a
r
a
s
c
.j s . ba
cant
atas
202 ,
bwv
h
32
82 &
Weichet nur, betrübte
Schatten BWV 202
Ich habe genug BWV 82
Liebster Jesu,
mein Verlangen BWV 32
Dominique Labelle, soprano
Sanford Sylvan, baritone
Sarasa Ensemble
Richard Earle, oboe; Alison Bury, violin;
Claire Jolivet, violin; Jennifer Stirling, viola;
Timothy Merton, cello; Anne Trout, double bass;
Maggie Cole, harpsichord. On period instruments.
Available at w w w. s aras amusic . org
www.fortedistribution.com, www.arkiv.com
and many fine record stores.
Early Music America Winter 2006
57
San Francisco
Renaissance Voices
Todd Jolly, Music Director
“The Polyphony Project - 2007”
(The English School)
MASS for LUNAR NEW YEAR
*** Special Performance ***
Charles d’Ambeville’s (b ? – d 1637)
Messe des Jesuites a Pekin
(Mass of the Beijing Jesuits)
Performed alternatim style with
traditional Chinese instruments & music
featuring guest artists:
He cheng Liu, pipa (lute)
Wei You, ku zheng (zither)
Lu Peng, yang qin (hammered dulcimer)
January 13 & 20
TRINITY
A study of the English Service Form
featuring the Short Services of
Gibbons & Tallis & concluding with
Parsons’ magnificent First Service
April 28 & 29
MERRIE MADRIGALS &
SHAKESPEARE SONNETS
Guest Artist, Scott Shubeck, Lute
an evening of Elizabethan Madrigals with
readings from Shakespeare’s Sonnets
July 28 & 29
opera early & ancient
IL RE PASTORE
*** Special Performance ***
Our new mini-series features this
delightful early Mozart opera
September 29 & 30
EVENSONG for
ALL Hallow’s EVE
Our traditional Halloween concert
features songs of death & sorrow
with Morley’s Dirge Anthems,
Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary
& Weelkes’ Sixth Evening Service
October 27 & 28
Performances in San Francisco
& other Bay Area Venues
Call us or visit our website for details
415.664.2543
www.sfrv.org
58
Winter 2006 Early Music America
RECORDINGreviews
Continued from page 56
communion prayer, and a long,
mournful dirge on the fall of Constantinople by Manual Chrysaphes,
the Lampadarios
(fl.14401463). The
Eastern
music is
mesmerizing, and the
Dufay, sung in an Eastern rather
than Italianate style, sounds
surprising and new.
—Beth Adelman
Gloryland
Anonymous 4, with Darol Anger
and Mike Marshall
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907400
64:46 minutes
Following up on the huge success of American Angels, a collection of American folk and spiritual
songs from the 18th and 19th centuries, Anonymous 4 (perhaps the
closest thing early music has to rock
stars) has recorded another disc
with its roots in the Anglo-American
folk tradition and its eyes toward
heaven. The songs here—drawn
from shape-note, gospel, and folk
collections—include both familiar
songs, such as “Wayfaring Stranger”
and “I’m on My Journey Home,” as
well as others that may be less wellknown. One of the delights of this
collection is listening to how, in the
best folk tradition, a tune gets
passed around and reworked, showing up in a variety of incarnations,
both sacred and secular.
Anonymous 4 bring their usual
rigorous scholarship to the study of
this material, in many cases working
from shape-note tunebooks, to
apply “period performance practice”
to their singing. Also as usual, the
singing is ethereal.
Bluegrass musicians Darol Anger
and Mike Marshall add three bluesy
instrumental interludes and aptly
accompany some of the singing (it’s
more of a partnership than accompaniment). But perhaps the best
part of this collaboration is the
effect it has had on the singing. As
beautiful as American Angels is, I
find it a little uptight—too precise
and perfect, too far from its folk
roots. Not so here; the women of
Anonymous 4 have loosened up a
bit, learned how to stretch and vary
their rhythms, added a little twang
now and then, and recorded
another disc everyone should hear.
—Beth Adelman
A Mediterranean Christmas
The Boston Camerata,
Joel Cohen, director
Warner Classics 2 56462560 2
71:32 minutes
The three recordings—A
Medieval Christmas, A Renaissance
Christmas, and A Baroque
Christmas—that Joel Cohen and the
Boston Camerata made for Nonesuch Records (now available in a
specially priced boxed set called
With Joyful Voice) are long-time
favorites that introduced many a listener to early music. This recording
on Warner
Classics features the
same exacting research
and joyful
music-making that
made those earlier recordings
classics of their kind.
Typically, Cohen divides the program into thematic blocks—The
Sign of Judgment, The Dawn
Approaching, Star of the Day, The
Birth of Jesus, and Mother and
Child—that are interspersed with
relevant readings in many different
languages. This is a marvelously rich
program. Some of the highlights
include the wild sounds of the Jewish shofar and Moroccan raita punctuating a Galician version of the
Sybil’s prophecy of the Last Judgment; the simple melodic beauty of
a 13th-century Italian lauda (a song
of praise) that’s beautifully sung by
Anne Harley; a tender noël from
17th-century Avignon; and, outside
the world of early music, a JudaeoSpanish song from 19th-century
Bosnia.
For an extra dollop of multiculturalism, Cohen’s core crew of
superb singers and instrumentalists
are joined by the Sharq Arabic
Music Ensemble. The performances
are all excellent, the Arabic instruments mix seamlessly with the
Western instruments, and the overall effect is something exotic, joyful,
and wondrous—no better criteria
for a Christmas record.
—Craig Zeichner
