The Sibyls were mythical women of ancient times with the gift of prophecy. They were a favorite motif in the visual arts during the Renaissance: the best known are Michelangelo's Sibyls in the ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. Lasso's Prophetiae Sibyllarum was composed at the Munich court of Duke Albrecht V. The Duke prohibited the work's publication, thus making it the sole property of the Munich court. This "musica riservata" is noted for it's great compositional skill and sophisticated Latin texts - referring to Christmas events in this case. The VocalConsort Berlin supplements this half-hour work with additional motets by Lasso, also associated with Christmas celebrations.

Sigismund Neukomm (1778-1858) was one of the most remarkable characters of the music scene in the classical and early romantic eras. He started as a pupil of Johann Michael Haydn, and later had close ties with his older Joseph Haydn. During his life he came into contact with almost every composer of fame. He travelled throughout Europe, but didn't stay very long in one place. It is assumed he has written about 2,000 works. Among them are 50 masses, three funeral services and four Requiems. In 1816 Neukomm moved to Rio de Janeiro where he became the music teacher of João VI, Prince Regent of Portugal. It was there one year later, that he composed the monumental Missa Solemnis pro Die acclamationis Johannis VI, intended to salute King João VI's accession to the throne of Portugal and Brazil at the grand ceremony of acclamation that was to take place in 1818. The funeral service recorded here dates from 1838, when Neukomm was living in France. The music of the Requiem isn’t a flashy piece of music, as it was written for liturgical use at the funeral. It is the whole structure of this service and the way it should be performed which is very intriguing: The Requiem and the psalm 'De profundis' were to be performed in church, whereas the psalm 'Miserere' and the funeral march were to be performed during the procession which accompanied the corpse to the cemetery. This release, featuring all parts of this service, delivers a nice portrayal of a most fascinating character in the European music scene of the early 19th century.

Mozart: Requiem / Kuijken, La Petite Bande, Release Date: 01/01/1999, Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Performer: Ingrid Schmith�sen (Soprano), Catherine Patriasz (Alto), Neil Mackie (Tenor), Matthias H�lle (Bass), Conductor: Sigiswald Kuijken, Orchestra/Ensemble: La Petite Bande, Netherlands Chamber Choir, Number of Discs: 1.

Johann Melchior Molter is a composer well-known among enthusiasts of music for winds, but generally his output is performed on modern instruments. Extensive research in the field of historically informed performance practice theoretically allows for the faithful reconstruction of the original sound of this music, but there exist only very few trumpetists today who are able to play on the required natural, valveless instruments. Jean-Francois Madeuf is one of these, extracting a warm, noble sound that makes these concertos a very pleasurable listening experience. Active for many years in numerous Baroque ensembles in France, Europe or on other continents, both in concerts and recordings, Jean-Francois Madeuf is at the moment still one of the rare musicians who plays natural trumpet and horn in the most historically informed way, without the aid of vent holes invented for compromise instruments. In 2009 Madeuf received the Christopher Monk Award by the Histoic Brass Society “for his significant contribution as a performer and teacher and his dedication to historically informed performance practice” and is now conducting research leading to a doctorate at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel and Vrije Universiteit Brussel on the subject of natural trumpet playing.

The virtuoso violinist Bernhard Molique (18021869) was what is today called a child prodigy. At the age of fifteen he performed violin concertos of Kreutzer and Rode in Munich? at 18 he was appointed concertmaster there and, at the age of 24, took up a position as concertmaster in Stuttgart, where he remained for almost a quarter of a century. This successful career was rounded off by a professorship at the Royal Academy in London. Contemporary critics praised the clarity, grace and purity of his playing, placing him on a par with Paganini. Anton Steck – one of the leading German baroque violinists with a weakness for the romantics – has taken on the task of changing this state of affairs. He has gone into the archive and dug up the violin concertos of Molique. Having freed them from the dust of decades, he is now presenting – with the support of L’arpa festante (on historical instruments) conducted by Christoph Spering – two concertos that are not only able to convince listeners with their demanding, virtuoso violin parts, but can also surprise them with their completely new treatment of the orchestra.

N/A. WILLIAM DONGOIS, CORNETTO; YOSHAMICHI HAMADA, CORNETTO; CARSTEN LOHFF, ORGANO. MUSICA ITALIANA 1600-1650.Â?Â?Â?Â?Â?

The art of arranging opera, symphonies and chamber music for a Harmonie, "so that it is suitable for the wind instruments, and at the same time loses none of its effect", was dominated by hardly anyone so completely as it was by Joseph Triebensee (1772-1846). In the arrangement of Cherubini's Medea and of Mozart's Don Giovanni, he proves to be a subtle arranger. He adheres closely to the original, always taking into consideration what "is suitable for the wind instruments". Original solo passages for wind, like the bassoon solo in the aria "Solo un pianto con te versare" of Medea's companion Neris, remain largely untouched, and Triebensee assigns the vocal parts to the instruments taking into account the musical point of view. He entrusts both vocal parts, in the duet of Medea and her faithless lover Jason in the finale of the first act ("Nemici senza cor"), to the oboes. Thus he really goes without an element of dramatic design, but achieves a well-rounded musical line. Nevertheless, time and again effective opera scenes come to mind, for instance in Zerlina's aria "Batti, batti o bel Masetto" from Don Giovanni. In extended movements Triebensee frequently makes cuts - as in Haydn's Symphony No. 92, the 'Oxford Symphony', from 1788. The instrumentation is extended here not only, as in the Medea arrangement, to a contrabassoon, but also to a trumpet. This has a similar appeal to the brilliant trumpets in this and other late Haydn symphonies.

Johann Gottlieb Graun became a member of the small court orchestra of the Prussian Crown Prince Frederick in Ruppin in 1732, which Carl Heinrich also joined in 1735. With Friedrich's ascension to the throne in 1740, Johann Gottlieb was appointed concertmaster and Carl Heinrich kapellmeister of the royal court. Johann Gottlieb remained until the end of his life closely linked to Frederick the Great, as concertmaster and chamber musician. Whilst his brother Carl Heinrich became an important figure at the new Berlin Court Opera, Johann Gottlieb strongly influenced the musical life of Berlin and early classicism in general as a violinist and composer. One can no longer determine with any certainty which of the brothers wrote the oboe concertos recorded here - the existing sources are too unclear and the differences in their personal styles are too slight. What is certain, however, is that the name 'Graun' was a kind of seal of approval in those days for zestful music rich in ideas - an estimation still valid today, as is readily apparent when listening to these concertos. The oboist Xenia Löffler has distinguished herself as a specialist for the North German repertoire of this period, as in her recordings with oboe concertos from the Dresden Court and with works from the Dresden Pisendel Collection (ACC 24202 and 24222). Alongside her teaching activities at the Academy of the Arts in Bremen, she is a member of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and in great international demand as a soloist.

REINCKEN Hortus musicus: Partitas Nos. 1, 2, 4, 6 • Friederike Heumann (vdg); dir; Stylus Phantasticus (period instruments) • ACCENT 24217 (59:45)


The importance of organist/composer Johann Adam Reincken (1643–1722) is inversely proportional to the amount of music he left behind. Exactly two organ pieces and none of the vocal music have survived, but we mustn’t blame the poor guy for the ravages of history. Since the remainder of the music—mostly for harpsichord—has never been published and is therefore largely unknown, the collection of chamber music titled Hortus Musicus (A Musical Garden) is his major work by default. The facts of Reincken’s life that led to its composition certainly bear retelling.


Reincken was born in the Dutch Hanseatic city of Deventer, but even his birth year was misattributed from the beginning of the 18th century on, thanks to the Hamburg composer and theorist Johann Mattheson. Seems Reincken and Mattheson were not the best of friends—they sort of had a Wagner/Hanslick thing going. When it came time to publish Reincken’s death notice, Mattheson—for reasons unknown—listed the birth year as 1623. The death notice therefore made Reincken out to be a centenarian, although he died 20 years shy of that mark.


Reincken left Holland in 1654 as a boy of 11 (not a man of 31) to study with Heinrich Scheidemann, organist of the Catharinenkirche in Hamburg. In 1658 he was appointed assistant organist, and upon Scheidemann’s death in 1663, chief organist of the Catharinenkirche. He also married Scheidemann’s daughter. The custom of marrying your predecessor’s daughter was rather commonplace back then—think of Buxtehude (who married Franz Tunder’s daughter) and Sebastian Bach, who considered marrying Buxtehude’s daughter in order to assume the post of organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck, but decided against it.


From his post at the wealthiest church in Hamburg, Reincken would wield considerable power and exert great influence on the musical life of the city. In 1678 he co-founded the Goosemarket Opera, the first public opera house north of the Alps. But Reincken was strangely lacking in ambition; he relinquished his stake in the venture after only seven years. This lack of ambition also surfaced in his aversion to music publishing (hinted at in the preface to Hortus Musicus ), and that may account for the large number of unpublished keyboard works that languish in Scandinavian libraries. Yet some of Reincken’s keyboard music must have circulated during his lifetime, because as early as the 1690s, the young Sebastian Bach was surreptitiously copying pieces of Reincken from a manuscript belonging to his older brother—the so-called “moonlight episode.”


The music is a unique amalgam of the established Italian instrumental style of Frescobaldi and Corelli and the newfangled French fashion of Lully, infused with Nordic imagination and boldness. Each partita (or suite) in fact begins with a Corellian sonata da chiesa in four movements, followed by four characteristic French dances: allemande, courant, sarabande, and gigue. So much for the bare-bones description; Reincken fleshes out this framework with the most multifaceted, ingenious writing. Movements are related thematically, but the material is continually refreshed using harmonic and metrical variation. There is imitative counterpoint and fugal writing aplenty; each concluding gigue, for example, is not merely a lighthearted Kehraus , but rather a permutation fugue in which the two themes are dovetailed, one after the other, using inversion and other contrapuntal tricks. The name of the group says it all: Stylus Phantasticus. In the late 17th century, the “fantastic style” of Reincken (and Buxtehude) would have elicited the same kind of jaw-dropping response from audiences as did the music of Stravinsky, Boulez, or Stockhausen when it was premiered.


I’m happy to report that the group completely lives up to its namesake. The instrumentation is essentially that of a trio sonata, with violin and bass viola da gamba as the upper voices. Two exceedingly fine violinists, Pablo Valetti and David Plantier, share the violin duties, while the gamba part is ably handled by Friederike Heumann, a virtuoso in her own right. The continuo group, consisting of lutenist Eduardo Egüez and Dirk Börner on harpsichord and organ, is top-notch. The group’s sonorities are quite marvelous, clearly a cut above the ordinary in period-instrument performance. Listen, for example, to the opening Adagio to Partita VI—the sounds of the low strings of the gamba, mixed with organ and lute (theorbo), are almost romantic in their lushness.


The combination of one-of-a-kind repertoire, virtuosic playing, and state-of-the-art recorded sound makes this release—the group’s debut—an absolute must. Highest recommendation—I can hardly wait for Volume 2!


FANFARE: Christopher Brodersen

Jean-marie Leclair: Sonatas For 2 Violins, Jean-Marie Leclair / Florian Deuter / Monica Waisman, Number of Discs: 1. Jean-Marie Leclair, ordinaire de la musique du roi in the court orchestra of Louis XV, was considered "The Corelli of France" by his contemporaries - and not without reason. The duos for two violins without basso continuo stand out in his oeuvre, not least because of their unusual instrumentation. In them, Leclair introduced a new art of violin-playing that combined Italian virtuosity with the elegance of French dance. On this release, two proven baroque specialists, Florian Deuter and Monica Waisman, perform a selection of these spectacular works.

JANITSCH BERLINER QUARTETTE IL GARDELLINO

ZelenkaÂ?Â?Â?Â? Collegium 1704 & Collegium Volcale 1704/Vaclav Luks Music for the Funeral Rites of Augustus the Strong

Heinrich Sch�tz composed the Musikalische Exequien for the funeral of his patron Prince Heinrich Posthumus von Reuss. The work's three parts were to be performed during different sections of his funeral service. With this commissioned composition, Sch�tz created one of the most artistic and heartfelt works of mourning ever written. This superb Accent recording features an emotional and technically brilliant performance by Le Petite Bande led by Sigiswald Kuijken.

BIBER Vespro della Beata Vergine. Sonata. KERLL Missa In fletu solatium obsidionis Viennensis. Delectus sacrarum cantionum, op. 1: Excerpts • Konrad Junghänel, cond; Cantus Cölln; Concerto Palatino • ACCENT 24286 (73:38 Text and Translation)


Johann Caspar Kerll (1627–1693), one of the two Catholic composers of 17th-century German lands whose works are coupled on this disc, was born to Bohemian Lutheran parents who were living in a German town just over the border to avoid persecution. Yet his musical talent led him to study in Rome, where he became an organ virtuoso and a Catholic. He played organ and sometimes directed the cappella in Vienna, Brussels, and Munich before returning to Vienna in 1674 to become first court organist. Hard times followed, including a plague that took his wife and the Turkish siege of 1683 that is commemorated in this Mass, published in 1689. He died in Munich.


The desperate siege of Vienna and its relief by an imperial army reinforced by the forces of the Polish king, Jan Sobieski (who is not mentioned in the notes), were the immediate occasion for the composition of this Mass. The music reflects as much the straits of the defenders as the jubilation of the victors. The Amens at the conclusion of Gloria and Credo weave chromatic effects of unusual intensity. Not much of Kerll’s sacred music has ever been recorded until lately. I have both versions of his Requiem under Paul van Nevel (14:5) and Franz Raml (21:2), but not the recent version of this Mass ably reviewed by colleague James Altena (36:3) or another Mass reviewed by Bertil van Boer (35:6), which was one of two Masses reviewed by Ron Salemi (33:1). I need not repeat Altena’s thorough treatment of the composer and his Mass, but I can recommend the new recording for its excellent soloists and its generous coupling.


Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644–1704) is the better known of the two composers. He fled from his service to the archbishop of Olomouc (Moravia) to take a lucrative position with the archbishop of Salzburg in 1670. He became Kapellmeister in 1684 and was renowned as a violin virtuoso. In 1693 he published a collection of psalms and canticles for Vespers, including three complete cycles (psalms and a Magnificat), the second of which is recorded here. The antiphon substitutes that go with the five psalms on this recording are taken from Kerll’s collection of Motets (op. 1) published in 1669. The notion of antiphon substitutes is familiar from Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine . One wonders what the attitude toward the chant antiphons was in the 17th century. Each of Biber’s psalms is followed by one of Kerll’s motets, while his canticle is preceded by one of his own sonatas. Like Kerll’s Mass, this music bears the earmarks of Baroque elaboration and the Salzburg archbishop’s prescriptions for music at his court and cathedral. The vocal and instrumental effects have moved far beyond the restraints of the Renaissance. The two composers are a likely coupling and the results are worth hearing. I just don’t know what has occasioned this sudden interest in Kerll’s music, for there is no anniversary in sight. But who needs an excuse to issue a record? Try it.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

HAYDN Symphonies: No. 6 in G, “Le Matin”; No. 7 in C, ”Le Midi”; No. 8 in G, “Le Soir” • Sigiswald Kuijken, cond; La Petite Bande • ACCENT 24272 (71:57)


At last, a fine period-instrument disc of the Morning, Noon, and Night Symphonies! La Petite Bande produces robust sound from a string section with a complement (2/2/1/1/1) comparable to Haydn’s Esterházy forces at the time of composition. Sigiswald Kuijken, leading from the first chair, allows his soloists free rein: there is no bashful bassoon here, no hesitant horn. The instruments are fine ones, and these players get the most from them. Yet there is no sense of showing off; the many solos remain part of the ensemble, and of the symphonies. Kuijken delivers a lean yet silky concertante turn in the Recitative Adagio of “Le Midi.” The warm, rich transverse flutes are especially lovely in the following Adagio . As has happened in other recordings, I’m not sure how a single-cello ensemble manages that movement, which has simultaneous lines for Violoncello concertante and for Violoncello e Basso. Both are present here, so probably the double bass goes it alone.


Kuijken has never been one for the slashing attacks so prized by modern symphony orchestras, which have even penetrated into recordings of these 1761 works. His friendly, intimate ensemble suits early Haydn perfectly; the Menuets in particular benefit from the sense of happy country dancing. We have become accustomed to performances which take the Allegro finale of “Le Matin” at a near- Presto tempo; Kuijken restores a true Allegro . A first reaction is that it is too slow, but he soon convinces us that it is eminently right. This is important when considering the three symphonies as a set—which we often do these days: “Le Midi” also ends Allegro (which Kuijken takes a bit faster than in “La Matin”), as Haydn saves Presto for his final finale. Even there, however, Kuijken’s is a moderate Presto , allowing all the instrumental details to come through. While I do prefer quicker tempos here and there, these consistent, gentle performances are most satisfying. As you will have guessed from the total timing, Kuijken takes all repeats, except in Menuets da capo. The recorded sound is a bit too reverberant, but not enough so to interfere with the performances. Thanks to producer Olaf Mielke for the 20-second pauses between symphonies. If you are looking for this disc, the cover reads: Joseph Haydn. Die Tageszeiten (The Day Trilogy).


FANFARE: James H. North