The music of the Renaissance appears to reflect little of the dangers, horrors and violent conflicts of its time. Music written during the Hundred Years War or the French invasion of Italy gives hardly any impression to today’s ears of the precariousness of existence of which its composers, singers and listeners must have continually been aware. Nor do the two masses by Jacob Obrecht (1457/8 – 1505) on this recording betray anything of the restless spirit of the age, despite them both being based on models referring to suffering and misery. Founded by Markus Muntean and Bernhard Trebuch- out of passion for vocal polyphony and a kind of despair about the break in the interpretation of this music which took place in the 1980s- beauty farm gathers young singers, leaving traditions behind, willing to experiment and exploring new musical territory.
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 1 (1866 vers) • Philipp von Steinaecker, cond; Musica Saeculorum • FRA BERNARDO 1310322 (47:57) Live: Musik Meran
The program notes to this recording state that the 60-person Musica Saeculorum opted to record Bruckner’s Symphony No. 1 in its original 1866 edition on period instruments in an effort “to identify any possible connection to Schubert and the early Romantics.” Harmonically, of course, Bruckner is worlds removed from Schubert and his contemporaries. But the use of period instruments does offer Bruckner a slightly more subdued timbral palette than most listeners are accustomed to in his music. The strings are somewhat darker, the brass a bit more veiled. Whether because of instrumentation, recording engineering, or conducting choices, though, I find that the strings have a tendency to overbalance the other instruments in tutti sections, occasionally making melodic material difficult to discern. This is my primary criticism of this disc. Bruckner at his most forceful can and should be overwhelming, but the counterpoint should always be clear; his tuttis mark the apotheoses of thematic material. In this recording, these passages tend to be rather murky and undifferentiated.
This criticism aside, Philipp von Steinaecker demonstrates a keen understanding of Bruckner’s aesthetic. The dotted rhythms of the first movement’s main theme are crisp and energetic, as are the horn’s responses. Von Steinaecker lingers appropriately on Bruckner’s extended passages of dominant harmony, building harmonic tension through strategic ritards in preparation for majestic statements in the brass. Even within string passages, though, figuration occasionally overshadows melody, as in the contrapuntal development of the first theme in the violins against sextuplet scales in the lower strings or the recapitulation of the second theme in the basses against eighth-note figuration in the upper strings. The modulatory passages that follow, however, are forceful and stern, and the rush to the final bars is quite exciting, though I would have liked the thematic material in the winds to be clearer.
Von Steinaecker’s is one of the more expansive readings of the symphony’s second movement, over a minute longer than Jochum’s. I find the expansiveness effective; the chromatic introduction becomes nebulous enough to make the eventual arrival of stable tonality a genuine relief. In the soaring passages that follow, though, minimal differentiation is made between melody and accompaniment. Von Steinaecker is sensitive to the ebb and flow of harmonic tension, but the melodic contours are lost throughout much of the movement.
The third movement is perhaps the most successful, with strong, almost violent accents and sharp contrasts in dynamics. At nearly a minute shorter than Jochum’s performance and 90 seconds briefer than Barenboim’s, it is among the more energetic recordings of this movement. I only wish that the brass dissonances toward the end received more weight. And the trio has the same problems with balance as the previous two movements: the motivic fourths in the horn are quite difficult to hear.
The fourth movement has almost no balance issues, although Bruckner’s orchestration is not particularly different in this movement than in the others. The opening pages are powerful and imposing, though I would have liked von Steinaecker to take an even greater ritard over the extended dominant harmonies that precede the second statement of the first theme. The second theme, stated in the violins with offbeat accents in the basses, is appropriately rustic. Likewise, von Steinaecker builds tension admirably before Bruckner’s characteristic pauses. The development maintains a consistent sense of direction. Von Steinaecker is particularly effective in his treatment of Bruckner’s obsessively-repeated scale fragments in the strings, which he leads gradually from background to foreground against the melodic material in the horns. The ending is triumphant and grand, though a broader ritard before the final cadence would have made it more so.
Because of the balance issues mentioned above, I cannot give this recording a wholehearted recommendation, but von Steinaecker’s conception of the piece is intelligent and appealing. The sound is generally crisp and live, with very slight tape hiss apparent at the beginnings and ends of tracks.
"• A live 1943 wartime recording of Haydn's Creation oratorio.
• “Clemens Krauß both delighted and enthralled with a vivid performance of Haydn‘s Creation oratorio.. Three outstanding singers from his Munich entourage, Trude Eipperle, Julius Patzak and Georg Hann, together with the opera choir and Vienna Philharmonic, followed his unaffected musical direction as a masterly ensemble, lending this utterly native and yet world-famous work the musical honour it deserves.” - Wiener Krone Zeitung, March 1943"
This CD of the Italian harpsichordist and organist Maurizio Croci is dedicated to keys works of Bach, which were designed for both organ and harpsichord. Frequently Bach transformed his compositions between the two keyboard instruments back and forth in order to get a better understanding of the relevant technical and idiomatic possibilities and limitations. As a keyboardist, Bach was admired by all who had the fortune to hear him and was the envy of the virtuosi of his day. The cornerstone of this album is Bach’s thirty variations. This admirable work includes a regular four part Fugue, several extremely brilliant Variations for two Claviers, and concludes with a Quodlibet, as it is called. Born in 1958 in Melk, Wolfgang Gluxam studied harpsichord with Ton Koopman at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and organ with Alfred Mitterhofer at the Vienna Conservatory. He has won prizes at international competitions, and has been teaching harpsichord at the Vienna Music University since 1985.
Italian composer, gambist, singer, and priest Claudio Monteverdi is regarded as a revolutionary composer, as his compositional style ended the Renaissance and heralded in the ornate virtuosity of the baroque era. While a great deal of his works were sacred, he also wrote a great deal of secular music as well. This album is unique in that the tracks selected are secular works which have been converted into sacred compositions. Il Pegaso has gained critical acclaim for their interpretations of Middle-Ages and Renaissance music. They perform the works on this album on period instruments.
London Calling / Oman, Beyer, Austrian Baroque Company
Fra Bernardo
CD
$20.99May 22, 2020
This new release gives us a small impression of what was played for entertainment in the late 17th and early 18th centuries in the houses of London's high society. The variety of the programme ranges from typical British melancholy to ostinato melodies by Nicola Matteis, an Italian violinist who, like Handel, who is also represented here, enriched the musical life on the Thames as a musical guest worker and Englishman of choice, to the exuberance of the 'Ayres'. The famous baroque violinist Amandine Beyer and the recorder player Michael Oman are supported by the ABC - Austrian Baroque Company.
At the center of this production are three of the most extended chorale fantasias of the North German Baroque, which superbly showcase the richness of sound of the Schnitger organ in Stade. Reincken's fantasies have survived only through the enthusiasm of the young Johann Sebastian Bach, who improvised on the same chorale for half an hour during a personal meeting with the aged master - years after he had made a copy of the latter's fantasy on An Wasserflüssen Babylon. In addition, organ works by Buxtehude and vocal works by Tunder will be heard.
A glance at ensemble concert plans, opera and festival programmes and recording catalogues shows that George Frederick Handel's music enjoys enormous and unwavering popularity today. Even during his lifetime, Handel's works could be heard in his homeland as well as in his adoptive country. Following a roaring success as "Caro Sassone" among the Italians his fame spread like wildfire throughout Europe before the composer finally settled among the British in London. This release from Le Petit Concert Baroque presents some of Handel's most famous selections, including several pieces from the opera "Rinaldo," from which this album takes it's title.
The international music world has long been familiar with both the name and music of Biber. Listeners too are now familiar with the legendary “Rosenkranz” sonatas or the mischievous “Sonata representative” composed by the musician once in service of Bishop Karl Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn. The magnificent sacred music that Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber von Bibern wrote as the prince-bishop’s Kapellmeister for Salzburg cathedral has also been highlighted in various festivals and recordings over recent years. Perhaps only scholars are aware of the fact that Biber also held the position of “Truchsess” (lord high steward) to the archbishop and was therefore responsible for the princely table. And as it turned out, one of the virtuoso violinist’s eleven sons (the eighth) succeeded his father in this honorable office. This may justifiably be considered an interesting but marginal detail of Salzburg history, but as you will no doubt appreciate after listening to this recording, the eighth child Carl Heinrich Biber, born on September 4th 1681 in Salzburg, had an important, even formative influence on the city’s musical life, and that only a few years before Mozart’s birth!
Bach: A Violoncello Senza Basso, Chapter 2 / Galligioni
Fra Bernardo
CD
$20.99Jun 19, 2020
Francesco Galligioni obtained a Diploma in cello at the C. Pollini Conservatoire in Padua under G. Chiampan, then he then studied with Franco Maggio Ormezowski at both the Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia in Rome and at the A. Toscanini Foundation in Parma in the courses for soloists and orchestra leaders. He has taken part in courses specializing in baroque cello held by W. Vestidello and G. Nasillo, and worked with famous soloists and conductors (Anner Bylsma, Giuliano Carmignola, Cecilia Bartoli, Max Emmanuel Cencic, Magdalena Kozena, Sergio Azzolini, Sara Mingardo, Victoria Mullova, Angelika Kirschlagher, Andrea Marcon, Federico Guglielmo, Sir J. E. Gardiner, Diego Fasolis, Pedro Halffter, Bob Van Asperen, Michael Radulescu, Gustav Leonhardt, Christopher Hogwood), both in concert performances and recordings. On his latest release he plays the Suites No. 4 and 5 by Johann Sebastian Bach.
For a long time, Johannes Ockeghem (ca. 1420-1497) was one of the most famous Unknown Persons in music history. There is no doubt about his position as the most important representative of the second generation of Franco-Flemish composers. But what its effect actually was and how its artistic development can be described, there was a long lack of clarity about it, which has only been somewhat cleared up in recent decades thanks to intensive research and discographic exploration. The FRA BERNARDO recording of the Masses with the vocal ensemble Beauty Farm is undoubtedly an impressive way of illustrating the significance of Ockeghem.
The vocal ensemble Beauty Farm was founded in 2014 and is made up of members of top international ensembles such as the Huelgas Ensemble, Vox Luminis, Collegium Vocale Gent or Graindelavoix. The singers do not intend a homogeneous beautiful sound in their interpretations, but a colorful sound rather through characteristic drawing of the individual voices. Their second album is also dedicated to motets by Nicolas Gombert, a grand master of the Franco-Flemish polyphony. They have selected seventeen of his masterpieces, some of which are receiving their first recording here. Hermann Finck described this music perfectly in 1556 when he said “He avoids pauses, and his work is rich with full harmonies and imitative counterpoint.”
Mid-16th century: Catholic Church music is threatened by a pandemic. All too worldly, artificial things had crept into sacred chanting to such an extent that the famous Council of Trent even wanted to reduce singing in the mass to the monophonic Gregorian chant again. As the Fama tells us, Palestrina saved polyphonic church music from this crisis with his Missa Papae Marcelli. In a live recording, beauty farm sings this legendary work, which raises complex questions of interpretation and juxtaposes the mass with well- known hymns in the chorale. frabernardo dedicates the album to Bruno Turner, who once set standards in early music with the ensemble Pro Cantione Antiqua, for his 90th birthday.
This is The Sound and the Fury's second album with masses by Johannes Ockeghem. The composer develops his art from the contrast between different modes as well as the contrapuntal combination of identical melodies. Despite the complicated compositional techniques used, the overwhelmingly emotional experience of Ockeghem's music continues to fascinate even after 500 years. The Sound and the Fury was founded in 2005. An Anglo-German vocal group convening in Brixen and Vienna, the ensemble specializes entirely in performance of renaissance polyphony of the Franco-Flemish school.
Robert de Visée (c.1650/60-1732) is one of the most important representatives of the French lute school. His music is characterized by a natural beauty that immediately captivates. It is no accident that he had the privilege of playing at the Coucher (the ceremonial reception before the bed rest of Louis XIV). To listen to Johannes Ötzbrugger is indeed a truly royal pleasure. The present release presents a collection of his works for theorbo, performed by Johannes Otzbrugger. The Austrian lutenist Johannes Ötzbrugger began playing the guitar in early childhood. As a teenager he got to know the lute - an encounter that gave him access to an even more intimate sound sphere. After graduating from school, he studied musicology at the Leopold Franzens University in Innsbruck. From 2009 to 2016 he studied historical lute instruments with Rolf Lislevand at the State University of Music in Trossingen. As a soloist and with his Ensemble 392, he regularly releases recordings on the fra bernardo label. He is particularly interested in figured bass on the baroque guitar and the French solo repertoire for theorbo.
In the light of his later music, it is by no means difficult to imagine Domenico Scarlatti strolling under the Moorish arcades of the Alcazar or listening at night in the streets of Seville to the intoxicating rhythms of castanets and the half oriental melodies of Andalusian chant. To them Saracen of his Sicilian ancestry and Neapolitan childhood must have responded. (Ralph Kirkpatrick, Domenico Scarlatti)
A very special recording and interpretation of the famous Vespers of the Virgin Mary; "Vespro della Beata Vergine": Roberto Zarpellon leads the vocal ensemble "Venice Monteverdi Academy"; his ensemble "Lorenzo da Ponte" and the chorale schola "Reale Corte Armonica Caterina Cornaro" - all of them genuine Italians - in a recording that took place in the church where Monteverdi worked for three decades as Kapellmeister; namely the famous Basilica of San Marco in Venice. As far as music is concerned; this church with its magnificent mosaics and domes as well as its very transparent room acoustics was a place of pilgrimage for musicians and composers from near and far during the Renaissance and Baroque periods; with such illustrious names as Adrian Willaert; the organists Giovanni and Andrea Gabrieli and Monteverdi as maestro di capella.
When we think of London's Baker Street, we probably first think of Gerry Rafferty's famous pop song from 1978, perhaps also of the spectacular bank robbery in 1971, but certainly of the residence of private detective Sherlock Holmes. With this recording, the Austrian Baroque Company, led by recorder player Michael Oman, takes us on an alternative musical stroll through Baker Street, performing English consort music, symphonies, dances, and fantasies from the period 1580 to 1706 in almost chronological order, the recorder is often at the center of the selected pieces, and Michael Oman knows how to showcase it to it's best advantage.
