Since 2020, Margret Koell, a proven specialist in historical harps, has been in possession of a "Welsh Triple Harp". It is a copy of an instrument by the famous harp maker Evans, whose original from 1736 is kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This wonderful harp was the occasion for the present album with works by the two famous British composers John Dowland and Henry Purcell. Despite the long harp tradition on the British Isles, there is no original literature for the harp from this period. Margret Koell had to resort to literature for lute or keyboard instruments, which she makes sound on the harp without major changes. The pieces by Dowland and Purcell are characterized by a melancholy that was popular in their time, often combined with a light, dance-like impression. Margret Koell takes us on a "silent dance", into the mood of a fading early autumn summer day.

Johann Sebastian Bach has always been a fixing point in the musical cosmos of Sigiswald Kuijken and La Petite Bande. Over the years, the ensemble recorded the cantatas for an entire church year, the great sacred works, and also Bach's important instrumental works. Nevertheless, there was still a gap that Kuijken wanted to close. The present recording is the first volume (of three) of Bach's harpsichord concertos: In addition to the original concertos, the recording project also includes Bach's own arrangements of violin concertos for harpsichord.

Romanus Weichlein was born in Linz to parents who were musicians and who gave him a good musical education. He received his first formal training at the abbey of Lambach and entered the Benedictine Order in 1671. He then went to Salzburg where he got acquainted with Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. He returned to Lambach, and later became chaplain and musical director of the Benedictine convent of Nonnberg in Salzburg. His oeuvre consists of twelve sonatas for strings and a collection of seven mass settings. The masses don't contain very virtuosic parts, with the exception of some vocal passages now and then. Polyphonic and homophonic episodes alternate, there are tutti and solo sections and instrumental preludes and interludes. Weichlein also makes use of the practice of instruments playing colla parte, for instance 3 trombones in the Missa Rectorum Cordium. “The St. Florianer Sängerknaben is really an outstanding choir of boys - sopranos and altos - which produces a warm sound and sings with great flexibility and excellent text expression … These are enthralling recordings which show a lesser-known aspect of Austrian music-making in the time of Biber.” (musica-dei-donum)

Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) is for Viennese musical life the pivotal point between the late Baroque and Viennese Classicism. His work, attributed to the pre-classical period, consists for the most part of keyboard music; after the harpsichord, the organ occupies second place in Wagenseil's works, and often the composer allows a choice of instrument. The four organ concertos brought together on this CD were concertos for 'connoisseurs and music lovers', which were printed by Walsh in London (the collection 'Six Concertos for the harpsichord or the organ'). The accompaniment for 'Two violins and a bass,' as it is called in the subtitle of the first London edition of 1765, indicates the kind of basso continuo the musicians of the Piccolo Concerto Wien provide: cello, violone, lute, bassoon and harpsichord make up the colourful foundation over which Elisabeth Ullmann sets up her dialogue with the two violins. The concertos themselves are a good mixture of French, Italian and German styles, including the, at that time, avant-garde forms of the 'empfindsamer' and 'galant' styles. 'The playing of the soloist is technically correct, balanced, not mannered and for just this reason wins us over: Ullmann does not try, through creative antics, to squeeze increased significance out of Wagenseil's pleasing works ... The accompaniment of the Piccolo Concerto Wien fits the discreet approach of the soloist's playing, and pays attention to its phrasing, tone and musical contact with the organ. '(klassik.com)

VIVALDI Sinfonia for Strings in D, RV 125. Concertos for Strings: in c, RV 510; in d, RV 128; in d, RV 246; in F, RV 138; in g, RV 330; in g, RV 157; in C, RV 508 • Florian Deuter, Mónica Waisman (vn); Harmonie Universelle • ACCENT 24266 (61:31)


Was it really as “recently” as 1974 that we were all in awe of Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons? That we were thunderstruck by the precision with which this small group of vibratoless strings, with piercing winds, could play this over-familiar music, and make it sound so fresh? Yes, it was, and it is to the credit of pioneers like Harnoncourt that such groups as Harmonie Universelle have surpassed his early efforts tenfold.


In brief, this is a remarkable CD. To a certain extent, Stravinsky’s famous crack that Vivaldi didn’t write 500 concertos, but the same concerto 500 times, has a certain validity. His allegros are often at the same tempo, or at least within the same tempo range, and frequently use the same rhythms; yet even here, within the first two works on this set, one hears a different tempo and rhythm for the opening movement of the C-Minor concerto than for the D-Major sinfonia. More importantly—and I really do wish to stress this—Harmonie Universelle appears to be one of those early-music groups on the cutting edge of performance style. They relax the tempos a bit, not only in the slow movements but sometimes even in the fast ones. They allow their instruments to phrase with a consistent legato and not with the abrupt rhythmic chop of the ’70s. They employ a wide and sometimes subtle range of dynamics, inflecting the music with feeling when appropriate. In short, they know how to play music.


Indeed, as the CD progresses, we find ourselves becoming more and more engrossed in the musical message. Perhaps one reason for this subjective reaction is Harmonie Universelle’s choice of five minor-key concertos. Like Mozart, Vivaldi often sounded deeper and more emotionally involved in his minor-key works than in his major-key opuses. There is also a peculiar effect, of which only Vivaldi seemed to be the master, of creating a sort of undulating rhythm in the lower voices while the upper instruments weave around it. Such an effect is achieved in the first movement of the RV 128 concerto and, in this case, the more normal crisp Vivaldi tempo in the third movement almost seems like a release of tension.


In my review of this composer’s opera Orlando Furioso elsewhere in this issue, I was critical of his dramatic construction. In such long works, Vivaldi neither knew how to create an unfolding sense of drama, of tension and release, nor how to create a character through music specifically designed for each one’s personality, as Handel often did. He simply went from bravura aria to bravura aria, with an occasional slow piece thrown in for contrast, so that the result was more like a very long round-robin vocal recital in costume. Yet it is here, in these brief concertos, that one hears Vivaldi’s true genius. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that works such as these are so moving as well as intellectually engaging—not on the same level as a Buxtehude or a Bach, but certainly more engaging than any other Italian composer of concertos between his time and that of Giuseppe Martucci. Listen, for instance, to the magnificent way he builds the musical structure in the Largo of the second D-Minor concerto (RV 246), a melody that sounds deceivingly regular, yet which goes through several surprising modulations, traversing both major and minor chords, as if the musicians playing the harmony were listening to the solo violin line and inventing new modes of expression underneath it.


I also cannot say enough about Harmonie Universelle’s subtle use of texture. More than a few times, I was brought up short by the sheer sound of these works, by the way the players balance their instruments, by the way the Baroque guitar often sneaks through the texture of the bowed strings. This is going to sound a bit extreme, but Harmonie Universelle almost makes the music sound as if it is creating itself as it is played. Ah, but here is a clue to the ensemble’s excellence. Co-director Florian Deuter worked for several years with Reinhard Goebel in his magnificent Musica Antiqua Köln, which along with Gustav Leonhardt’s and Sigiswald Kuijken’s various ensembles was one of the pioneers in the “new” old-music movement. Like Harmonie Universelle, the members of Musica Antiqua Köln knew how to play music, not just notes on a page, and I urge all early-music lovers to seek out their recordings (often on Archiv) as well. Deuter’s violin-mate and co-leader, Mónica Waisman, studied the violin at Oberlin College before moving on to postgraduate studies in The Hague. Both of them learned well the musical lessons of Kuijken and other pioneers of true Baroque style since the mid 1980s, and it is their style and musical vision that shapes this group. Just listen, for instance, to the impassioned violin solo in the last movement of the first G-Minor concerto (RV 330). Does Baroque playing get any better than this? I don’t think so.


I cannot say enough goods things about this disc and, though I’d love to spend another 500 words extolling the virtues movement-by-movement in each concerto, I simply say to you, get this and listen. There are, of course, several competing versions of these concertos, particularly by La Magnifica Comunità in the massive boxed set on Brilliant Classics 94056, or Concerto Italiano on Naïve, but to be truthful, those performances, crisp and professional as they are, do not sound like these. You won’t hear Vivaldi much more creative than this, or much more creatively interpreted. This is, quite simply, a group of sheer genius.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Classical Music

Stefan Temmingh is a member of the new young generation of world-class recorder players. Born in Cape Town, he comes from a Dutch-South-African family of musicians and now lives in Munich. Being an early music specialist, he plays internationally with his baroque ensemble at renowned festivals and concert series, and can also be heard as a member of ensembles of all sizes in Europe, Asia and Africa. His fine playing is regularly compared to the style of the legendary Frans Brüggen. On this collaboration with the Capricornus Consort Basel, he makes use of his wide array of technical and musical resources to render a reference version of Vivaldi’s Recorder Concertos.

The most influential and prolific composer of concertos during the Baroque was the Venetian Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). He composed approximately 500 concertos for one or more soloists, including about 350 solo concertos. He was one of the first composers to focus on the transverse flute as a viable solo instrument. Frank Theuns here combines one work (La notte, RV 439) from the famous opus 10 collection with the Concertos RV 440 and 441, both of which have survived as manuscripts in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin, Italy. The programme also contains concertos by Baldassare Galuppi – the manuscript of his Flute Concerto in D major (GroF 675) is preserved at the Mecklenburgische Landesbibliothek in Schwerin, Germany – and Tomaso Albinoni, whose Concerto in D minor from opus 9, originally written for oboe, is performed on this recording on the flute.

The first sonatas composed at the beginning of the seventeenth century reflect the fundamental change that has taken place in vocal music around 1700. Starting out from the Florentine Camerata, the new style of recitar cantando developed, and laid down the foundation for the emergence of opera and madrigal. The appearance of an autonomous instrumental music, which was to become typical in the seventeenth century and which is relatively independent of the vocal models, is one of the consequences of this musical revolution. Two representatives of this generation of composers are Giovanni Battista Fontana and Giovanni Battista Buonamente, and it is no coincidence that both were violinists. The autonomy of the instrumental music goes hand in hand with the growing importance of the violin, which gradually replaced the cornett in sacred music. This music is at the crossroads of all the influences and all the usual musical forms of the time. One can hear recitatives and arias, as well as sections reminiscent of organ toccatas. Accordingly William Dongois and his ensemble Le Concert Brisé have entrusted the melodic parts in their exciting recording of sonatas and dance movements by Fontana and Buonamente to violin and cornett, and it is fascinating to hear how this music characterises both echoes of the vocal music as well as typically instrumental diminutions and virtuosic passages.

ROBERT SCHUMANN; J.W. KALLIWODA; J.P. PIXIS. PAUL DOMBRECHT, OBOE; JOS VAN IMMERSEEL, FORTEPIANO. THE VIRTUOSO ROMANTIC OBOE.

William Dongois is one of the best-known cornettists of our time. He is able to play the repertoire of his instrument - the cornett resembles a flute in its construction, whereas its wooden mouthpiece is used similarly to that of a trumpet - with dancelike elegance, rhetorical concision and, often, even with a certain 'groove'. On the present double CD, together with the ensemble Le Concert Brisé, he dedicates himself to the 'Golden Age' of the cornett - the period between 1580 and 1630 in Northern Italy when the instrument enjoyed its greatest popularity amongst composers and listeners. Secular dance movements and songs of the Seicento, the Italy of the 17th century, can be heard on the first CD. William Dongois pays special attention here to the art of diminution, i.e. ornamentation and figuration; in the music of this period, the score served only to provide a basic framework for the improvised embellishments of the musicians. The second CD features sacred instrumental and vocal music at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice during the time of Monteverdi, with soprano Julie Hassler and violinist Christine Moran joining William Dongois as soloists. Vocal and instrumental works alternate with each other, clearly showing that Venice stood at the centre of the development of a new style and occupied a pioneering role in all of Europe.

This release is the second presented by Accent to celebrate Sigiswald Kuijken’s 75th birthday. It features the complete recordings of concertos made by La Petite Bande and Kuijken on the Accent label. The recordings were made between 2006 and 2016 and include important standard repertoire such as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Flute Concertos, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites, and Haydn’s Symphonies nos. 6-8. Sigiswald Kuijken was born in Dilbeek, near Brussels. He was a member of the Alarius Ensemble of Brussels between 1964 and 1972 and formed La Petite Bande in 1972. Since 1971 he has taught Baroque violin at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He is noted for using the older technique of resting the violin on the shoulder without a shoulder rest, rather than held under the chin. He is a member of the Kuijken String Quartet, which he formed in 1986. In recent years, he has also performed as conductor of symphonies of the Romantic era.

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Excerpts from reviews of select, previously released volumes included in this set:

Bach: Brandenburg Concertos

There is nothing worth noting to fault. The playing is joyous and even thrilling, and seemingly devoid of any technical strain.

– Fanfare

Bach: The Orchestral Suites

The chamber music quality of the performances is refreshing. There are few musicians who appear more steeped in their worlds than Sigiswald Kuijken and one senses that Bach's pure instrumental vein frees his spirit like none other. A mesmerising purpose, natural balance, and transparency of sound bring these works alive with quite remarkable results.

– Gramophone

Vivaldi: Flute Concertos

This recording has a fresh voice amongst the many discs containing these works. The approach is intelligent, well researched and musically intuitive, and rather than feeling dry and academic, as some period-instrument recordings can be, the high levels of artistry here make the concertos seem as alive and fresh as they undoubtedly were in Vivaldi’s day. Unmissable.

– MusicWeb International

Jean-Francois Madeuf and Pierre-Yves Madeuf are two leading experts of historically informed performance practice as it pertains to wind instruments. Performing on natural horn or natural trumpet, the two can be found in many of Europe’s foremost early music ensembles. For this new release, the Madeufs have teamed up with Sigiswald Kuijken’s magnificent La Petite Bande to present a set of Georg Philipp Telemann’s concertos in the historical performance style for which they are known: utilizing natural trumpets and horns, and bringing the pieces back to their original purpose of being performed as chamber works. Despite the identical key of D major, the pieces recorded here contain substantial differences between them, and Telemann’s highly varied instrumental scoring shows his continuing search for innovation- quite a different picture than what is usually represented.

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN Dorothee Mields, soprano; Bach Concentus; Ewald Demeyere, conductor & harpsichord. GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN - "O WOE! O WOE! MY CANARY IS DEAD!": Secular Cantatas: Cantata "Der Weiber-Order" for soprano, strings and b.c. (TVWV 20:49); "Cantate oder Trauer-Music eines kunsterfahrenen Canarien-Vogels" for soprano, strings & b.c. (TVWV 20:37); Overtures: "La bouffonne" in C major for strings and b.c. (TVWV 55:C5; Overture in C major for oboe, strings & b.c. (TVWV 55:C2); "Ouverture burlesque" in B flat major for strings and b.c. (TVWV 55:B8).