BOISMORTIER: Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord, Op. 91

Heinrich Biber’s astonishingly powerful and deeply emotional Mystery Sonatas represent a triumph of Baroque invention. Boston Baroque’s Christina Day Martinson delivers a technical tour de force, as she navigates the virtuosic challenges presented by the fiendishly demanding changing scordatura. Boston Classical Review described her live performance as ‘a flourish of technical complexity and musical wizardry’, whilst the Boston Globe wrote, “Day Martinson…didn't just survive, she triumphed.” The adventurous use of six baroque violins in fifteen different tunings creates otherworldly soundscapes that result in a deeply moving and glorious listening experience. This highly disorientating practice reaches its pinnacle in Sonata XI ('The Resurrection') where the middle two strings are crossed over each other both in the peg box and behind the bridge, so that one can literally see a cross on the violin. The fifteen sonatas have been traditionally grouped into three sets of five: five joyful mysteries, five sorrowful mysteries, and five glorious mysteries. Boston Baroque’s founder Martin Pearlman plays organ and harpsichord, with Michael Leopold on theorbo and guitar and Michael Unterman on cello.

The Japanese percussionst Kuniko turns to the cello suites and violin sonatas of J.S. Bach for her fourth solo studio recording with Linn. Arranged for solo marimba, Kuniko gives unique perspective of these hugely famous and intellectually challenging works. Her trademark is her highly sensitive touch, particularly with wooden instruments such as marimba, which gives these interpretations an extremely stripped-down yet natural, organic feel. The beautiful acoustic of the medieval Jaani Kirik in Estonia creates the ideal sound space for Kuniko's arrangements. Kuniko is a solost who is recognized around the world for her astonishing virtuosity, exquisite musical insight and expressive yet elegant performance style. She is renowned for her flawless technique when playing both keyboard and percussion instruments, which blends seamlessly with her profound musical intelligence.

Directed by Stefano Mazzonis Di Pralafera. Starring Priscille Laplace, Filippo Adami, Alberto Rinaldi. Actors: Anna Maria Panzarella, Priscille Laplace, Filippo Adami, Alberto Rinaldi, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Directors: Stefano Mazzonis di Pralafera, Fabrice Levillain, Writers: Baldassare Galuppi, Giovanni Bertati. customer review - "I loved every minute of this opera. I don't know what Galuppi had access to in order to write such perfection. For me it was as if the entire opera was a continuous brain orgasm. Better than drugs really. (Speaking metaphorically - of course). Packed with good humor and interest."

This fascinating transatlantic musical collaboration between the brass players of London’s Royal Academy of Music and New York’s Juilliard School presents enduring masterpieces by Giovanni Gabrieli and his Venetian contemporaries. Under the direction of Reinhold Friedrich, renowned trumpet soloist and Principal Trumpet of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the players blend modern instruments and intellect with 16th-century technique and tuning to excel in this profoundly challenging repertoire. The beautiful acoustic of St Jude’s, Hampstead results in a gloriously sonorous soundscape; burnished waves of rich, warm trombones alternate with the brilliant, crystalline articulation of trumpets. Academy Principal Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, who produced the recording, states: ‘We’re hoping it will show Gabrieli as the composer of great intimate music as well as wonderfully grandiloquent Venetian polyphony.’ This remarkable recording features some of the most compelling and attractive instrumental music of the late Renaissance era and boasts performances worthy of Gabrieli’s extraordinary legacy and the reputation of these two outstanding institutions.

Recorded during this year’s Misteria Paschalia Festival in Poland, Dunedin Consort’s performance of Handel’s Ode for St Cecilia’s Day sees them joined for the first time by tenor Ian Bostridge and soprano Carolyn Sampson. Bostridge demonstrates the technical mastery and vocal precision that has seen him win all the major international record prizes in his twenty-five year career. Highly sought-after for her refined Baroque sensibilities and pure intonation, Sampson’s lyric soprano is ideally suited to Handel. Led by John Butt, with singers from the Polish Radio Choir, this rich and colorful tribute to music’s patron saint is the latest in their much-lauded Handel discography, which includes Messiah, Acis & Galatea and Esther, each recording having won widespread acclaim. The recording is completed by Handel’s Concerto Grosso in A minor Op. 6 No. 4, in which Dunedin Consort’s exceptional instrumentalists take center stage.

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This selection contains narration about Bach's life and works by Jeremy
Siepmann, John Shrapnel and others. It contains a 106 page companion booklet with the complete spoken text, a detailed historical background and graded listening plan.

Having previously recorded the Baroque greats such as Handel and Vivaldi, Pamela completes her anthology of eighteenth century favorites with Telemann's Recorder Sonatas and Fantasias. Telemann's legacy as a composer of recorder music is among the richest of the age. The warmth and conviviality of Telemann's writing, the easy beauty of his melodies, as well as the knowing playfulness and ingenuity across many national styles are fully explored in this engaging program. Pamela utilizes a range of recorders in many sizes, known to players in the eighteenth century but only recently again perfected by makers for modern use. Accompanying Pamela are Ensemble Marsyas' Peter Whelan (bassoon), Alison McGillivray (cello), Elizabeth Kenny (archlute/guitar) and Marcin Swiatkiewicz (harpsichord/organ). Telemann's virtuosic 'concerto style' writing provides many opportunities for Pamela to further cement her deserved reputation as 'queen of the recorder'. Pamela Thorby has an international reputation as the UK's most stylish and creative recorder virtuoso. Pamela is most regularly heard on Karl Jenkins' fabulous Adiemus recordings making her possibly one of the most listened to recorder players in the world. Pamela's ability to assimilate many genres of music and her love of improvisation has led to collaborations with leading jazz, folk and pop musicians in an influential career in which she has travelled the world as concerto soloist, chamber musician and orchestral principal. Pamela's numerous and diverse recordings include acclaimed chamber music albums with the much admired Palladian Ensemble and a continuing series of highly praised solo recordings for Linn.

William Carter's exemplary musicianship is showcased to its fullest on this new recording of Bach's own transcriptions for the lute. Almost unplayable in parts, many musicians take certain liberties with the music so that it glows more naturally but William Carter's determined approach to authenticity sees the lutenist achieve the near impossible: playing the music as it was originally written. Carter very subtly enhances BWV 1001, originally for unaccompanied violin, in keeping with Bach's own perceived style, namely to only add "as much harmony as he found necessary". The final piece undergoes the most extensive reimaginging as Bach expertly transforms the Fifth Cello Suite into a "new" lute work: so successful is it that Carter considers it to be, interms of understanding the essential nature and expressive qualities of the lute, "the most perfect piece of lute music in existence".

BACH Cantatas: No. 4; 1,3,4,5 No. 31; 1,4,5 No. 66; 3,4,5 No. 6; 2,3,4,5 No. 134; 3,4 No. 145 2,4,5 • John Eliot Gardiner, cond; Gillian Keith (sop); 1 Angharad Gruffydd Jones (sop); 2 Daniel Taylor (ct); 3 James Gilchrist (ten); 4 Stephen Varcoe (bs); 5 Monteverdi Ch; English Baroque Soloists (period instruments) • SOLI DEO GLORIA 128 (2 CDs: 120:39 Text and Translation)


This new installment, Volume 22, from Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage is devoted to the music of Easter Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Only two cantatas (plus the Easter Oratorio ) for each of these important festivals are extant. Surprisingly, only one of these six cantatas (No. 6) was conceived and composed in Leipzig. Three (Nos. 66, 134, and 145) were derived from secular cantatas written in Cöthen. No. 31 was brought to Leipzig from Weimar, and No. 4 from Mühlhausen.


From the first, Cantata No. 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden , effectively a set of chorale variations on Luther’s hymn, has been considered a special work, and, truth to tell, it is, if not my absolute favorite among the cantatas, certainly one of my top handful. Apparently it has a similar hold on Gardiner, who reckons that over his career he has performed it more often than any of the other cantatas. Gardiner assigns all of the vocal parts to the chorus, common practice a generation (or so) ago, but contrary to the current understanding that at least the duets and arias (verses 2, 3, 5, and 6) were intended for soloists. LPs by Shaw (RCA) and Prohaska (Bach Guild) were recorded without soloists, as was Gardiner’s first recording of this cantata (for Erato), now 25 years old. Richter (Archiv) modified that pattern by having Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sing the bass aria. Chorus and soloists are combined in the integral sets by Harnoncourt, Rilling, Koopman, and Suzuki. One-to-a-part advocates Parrott (EMI) and the Purcell Quartet (Chandos) do away with the chorus altogether. Less controversially, Gardiner eschews the brass quartet that Bach added for the Leipzig revival of Christ lag. His highly charged performance is marked by extreme contrasts, both in tempos and in dynamics. Listeners accustomed to Apollonian restraint in this music may regard Gardiner’s dramatic interpretation as something approaching irrational exuberance. A measure of that enthusiasm is carried into Cantata 31, and the conductor’s characteristic energy, somewhat tempered, informs the balance of the program. Singers and players are, as we have come to expect, excellent.


Overall, the current offering is a worthy continuation of Gardiner’s project, but if Cantata No. 4 is your principal concern, I find either Suzuki or Koopman from their respective series more to my liking. (Incidentally, the Easter cantatas were recorded in St. George’s Church in Eisenach, where Bach was baptized.)


FANFARE: George Chien

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.

Listeners whose knowledge of German, like mine, encompasses the titles of Wagner’s operas but little more are prone to identify Bach’s cantatas by their BWV designations (as above), even though the numbers are essentially meaningless––remnants of a time when musicology was a hobby, not a discipline. One can only hope that Gardiner (and Koopman and Suzuki as well) will provide an index upon completion of the cycle. Gardiner organized his Cantata Pilgrimage by function, not by number, and the recorded edition is supposed to suit. But the random order of its first three releases suggests that you may have to acquire the complete set in order to achieve the intended sequence.

Volume 24 (following Volumes 1 and 8) is devoted to cantatas for the third Sunday after Easter––BWV 12 (composed in Weimar, 1714), BWV 103 (1725), and BWV 146 (1726 or 1728) and the fourth Sunday after Easter––BWV 116 (1724) and BWV 108 (1725). The original purpose of Cantata 117, composed between 1728 and 1731, is not known. Undoubtedly the best known of the six cantatas is No. 12, owing to its exquisite opening sinfonia for oboe and strings and the extraordinary following chorus––later adapted transformed into the Crucifixus of the B-Minor Mass––that has few rivals in all of music. Cantata 146 features another adaptation, this time in reverse; its opening sinfonia and first chorus are taken from the first two movements of the D-Minor Harpsichord Concerto (itself derived from a lost violin concerto), with the solo part, undoubtedly played by Bach himself, assigned to the organ. The transcription of the first movement is straightforward enough, but the integration of the chorus into the second movement is yet another example of Bach’s remarkable ingenuity. Cantata 103 was composed during Bach’s second annual cycle at Leipzig, but it came after he had abandoned the chorale cantata format. Like BWV 12 and 146, it traces a progression from grief to triumph. The duality is expressed in the opening chorus: sorrowful melismas sung against the joyful figurations of a solo violin and soprano recorder lead to an exultant conclusion.

The cantatas for Easter, composed for the first two Leipzig cycles, seem to be more modestly conceived. Both open with a bass solo rather than the expected choral fantasia, and in each the argument is carried by its arias. The choir’s soprano section makes an appearance in BWV 166, intoning a chorale; in BWV 108 a brief but energetic (and surprisingly complex) triple fugue lends emphasis to the day’s message. Both cantatas end with the usual four-part chorale. Cantata 117 is exceptional for two reasons. Individual programs for the Cantata Pilgrimage had to be adjusted when the catalog of extant cantatas contained either too many or too few cantatas, and to accommodate cantatas that have no known function. No. 117 is such a cantata and a masterpiece to boot. It is one the few cantatas in which the texts for all verses are taken directly from the original chorale. Each verse ends with the words “Gebt unserm Gott die Ehre!” (“Give honor to our God!”), but each instance is set to different music, except for the first and the last verses, which were unusually set to the same music. Gardiner’s notes mention some numerological speculation that has to be considered fantastic, whether it’s true or imagined. Read it and scratch your head.
With six discs down and 45 to go, only one musician, violist Colin Kitching, still has perfect attendance.
Performances, recording, and presentation are superb. It’s getting harder to choose just one cantata series. Get them all!

George Chien, FANFARE

BACH Violin Concertos: in a, BWV 1041; in E, BWV 1042; in g, BWV 1056; in d for Two Violins, BWV 1043 1 • Elmar Oliveira (vn, cond); 1 Eva Gruesser (vn); Arco Ens • ARTEK 0054 (63:24)


After reviewing Elmar Oliveira’s brilliant performance of Schumann’s Violin Concerto in conjunction with our interview, I have to admit that reviewing this CD of Bach’s violin concertos proved rather difficult for me. The reason is not due to any shortcomings found in Oliveira’s playing or the excellent support he receives from the Arco Ensemble. To paraphrase Shakespeare, the fault, dear reader, lies not in the music-making but in what we’ve come to expect of it. Reflexively, I found myself wanting to reject Oliveira’s approach, not for what it is but for what it isn’t.


In recent times, we’ve become so habituated to hearing this music performed on period instruments, that even when it’s performed on modern instruments, we demand that the players adopt the manners and style of performance informed by historical practice. Examples may be heard in two modern-instrument recordings of these Bach concertos by Hilary Hahn with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Julia Fischer with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Both embrace almost identical approaches: rapid tempos, minimal vibrato, short bow strokes, pointed phrasing, terraced dynamics, and surgically precise articulation. Yet, impressive as their performances are as pure execution, Hahn and Fischer’s versions both strike me as virtually devoid of emotional expression and warmth.


Elmar Oliveira’s readings of these concertos are not what I would call big-band Bach— from a group photo, the Arco Ensemble appears to be composed of 18 string players—but they are what I would call older-school Bach. Tempos are brisk enough, but more moderate than the lightning speeds adopted by so many modern-day ensembles; and the result is that one can actually hear and appreciate the intricate contrapuntal interplay between voices in the orchestra, and the intra -play between ripieno and soloist.


For Oliveira’s part, vibrato, long bow strokes, graduated dynamics, and songful phrasing are part and parcel of the art of making beautiful music and making the music sound beautiful. Time and again, as I listened to these performances, the violinist who came to mind was Arthur Grumiaux, whose patrician style Oliveira’s elegant, refined, aristocratic playing and warm tone very much reminds me of.


The more I listened to Oliveira’s Bach, the more I realized what I’ve been missing in so many recent versions both on period and modern instruments. There’s real feeling in these performances. Just listen to the slow movement of the D-Minor Concerto for Two Violins, in which Eva Gruesser is Oliveira’s perfectly matched partner. Of all the movements in these concertos, this one, with its intertwining solo voices overlapping each other with poignant dissonances, may just be the most touching; only the slow movement of the Violin and Oboe Concerto comes close. Interestingly, that concerto, which is a frequent discmate to the three standard violin concertos, is not included here. Instead, Oliveira has chosen to include the G-Minor Concerto, BWV 1056, which is generally more familiar in its F-Minor version for harpsichord.


The sheer beauty and affability of these performances will invite me back to them often, more often I daresay than will a number of impersonal and impassive accounts of recent vintage on both period and modern instruments. Oliveira proves once again, if proof be needed, that Bach belongs to no one school of playing, and that pure, heartfelt music-making transcends all ages. This is very strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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This second special single-CD release for Christmas in the award-winning series of recordings from the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, incudes BWV 151, one of his most intimate cantatas. Opening with a hauntingly beautiful and consoling soprano aria, it has pre-echoes of both Gluck and Brahms. First heard on Boxing Day 1725, BWV 57 provides us with another opportunity to enjoy Bach, who never wrote an opera, as the best writer of dramatic declamation since Monteverdi. His response to the text is highly personalized, and sparing in its modest forces although strongly expressive. A movement of infectious rhythmic élan, the opening chorus of BWV 133 conveys the exuberance and sheer exhilaration of Christmas. The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists give their customary brilliant performances, making this release the must-have issue of the year's Christmas season.

As the composer that Johann Sebastian Bach at the age of twenty walked more than 400 kilometres in order to meet, Dietrich Buxtehude holds a place of honour in the history of music. Luckily, an important portion of his music, mainly vocal works and organ pieces, has also survived. Having spent his childhood and early years in Helsingborg and Elsinore, on either side of the strait that divides Denmark and Sweden, Buxtehude was recruited as organist by the congregation of the great Marienkirche in the wealthy Hanseatic city of Lübeck. On the basis of this, as well as the challenges posed by his organ compositions, it is safe to assume that he was a virtuoso on his instrument. He would also have been a connoisseur of fine organs - the finest of which at the time were to be found in Northern Germany. Two such magnificent instruments still exist in the small towns of Altenbruch and Lüdingworth, some 130 kilometres west of Lübeck, and on them Masaaki Suzuki here performs a varied selection of Buxtehude's organ works. This ranges from brief chorale preludes to the magnificent Te Deum laudamus and the celebrated Ciaccona in E minor. Although he is most widely known for his on-going, highly praised series of Bach's cantatas on BIS, Masaaki Suzuki in fact began his professional career as a church organist at the age of twelve, later studying the instrument both in Tokyo and in Amsterdam. For BIS he has previously recorded Bach's Organ Mass ('an organist of distinguished musicianship and superior technique' wrote the American Record Guide) and organ works by Sweelinck, a disc which upon its release was recommended by Gramophone and described in International Record Review as containing 'performances which are compelling in their stylistic integrity and uncompromising musicianship.'

Linn Records is thrilled to introduce soprano Rowan Pierce in what promises to be a sensational debut recording. The Cares of Lovers comprises songs from across Purcell's brief career from She loves and she confesses too, one of his very first published pieces (1683), to Sweeter than roses from his final months (1695). Although they all display the same matchless ingenuity and uncanny ability to set English words to music, a highlight includes Tell me, some pitying angel - a triumph of dramatic composition and the equal of any Italian cantata of the period. Since winning the President's Award at the Royal College of Music in 2017, Pierce has won acclaim for her performances at The Barbican, Royal Festival Hall and at the BBC Proms. Her performance in Purcell's The Fairy Queen, with the Academy of Ancient Music, won praise for her 'expressive' (Financial Times) and 'heart-piercing' (The Independent) singing. Richard Egarr and William Carter, two baroque music heavy-weights, join Pierce for this recording, made in Haarlem, Netherlands.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
Includes cantata(s) by Johann Sebastian Bach. Ensemble: Bach Collegium Japan. Conductor: Masaaki Suzuki. Soloists: Peter Kooij, Robin Blaze, Yukari Nonoshita, Andreas Weller.

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

There is a degree of self-effacement and self-absorption in his playing that I find appealing: it's as though we are eavesdropping on an intimate and private dialogue. A fine set, beautifully recorded.

– BBC Music Magazine

With no shortage to choose from, it's easy to imagine why listeners might be overwhelmed when choosing a recording of Bach's Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin. Baroque violinist Pavlo Beznosiuk throws his hat into the ring with this 2011 Linn Records set. His playing does seem very conversational, even drawing listeners into the discourse. His effortless technique shines through in the much more animated, vivacious fast movements.

– All Music Guide

In this pioneering recording Dunedin Consort presents a brand new performing version of one of Handel’s greatest dramatic works, Samson. For the first time listeners can enjoy an authentic Handelian chorus, comprising both solo sopranos and boy trebles – a sonority largely unheard in the modern age. The singers available to Handel for the work’s first set ofa performances in 1743 varied considerably, leading many researchers to speculate upon the composer’s own preferences. But new thinking by director John Butt has led to the evolution of this recording and to what he considers to be the definitive performance in line with Handel’s intentions. This powerful oratorio – an opera in all but name – features soloists Sophie Bevan, Matthew Brook, Mary Bevan, Hugo Hymas and Jess Dandy, with Joshua Ellicott in the title role. Matching the revelatory historical practice begun in its award-winning recording of Messiah (Dublin Version, 1742), the soloists lead their sections to unite the solo and choral forces, creating a highly effective and cohesive sound. With rich orchestration and highlights such as ‘Let the bright seraphim’ and ‘Total eclipse’, Samson is Dunedin Consort’s most ambitious undertaking to date.

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REVIEW:

This new Samson now becomes the top recommendation: for its uniformly excellent soloists, its excitingly ‘present’ choral singing and, above all, its more urgent sense of theatre. Sophie and Mary Bevan, both natural Handelian stylists, are well-nigh ideal. Jess Dandy, a true contralto, is the oratorio’s voice of balm, singing the sublime prayer ‘Return, O God of hosts’ with warm, even tone and broad phrasing.

– Gramophone

Bach: Weihnachtsoratorium

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Handel, G.F.: Hercules [Oratorio] (Sung in German)

Oboe and Oboe D'Amore Concertos - Bach, J.S. / Vivaldi, A. /

Chamber music by Handel & Stanley played on instruments of the period. A collection of chamber music from Georgian England by the leading composers of the day. The programme includes a chamber version of Handel's 'Water Music' and popular music from London's pleasure gardens.

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