Tracks:
1. HOPKINSON- SMITH - BWV1004 - PARTITA IN D - ALLEMANDE
2. HOPKINSON- SMITH - -------- COURANTE
3. HOPKINSON- SMITH - -------- SARABANDE
4. HOPKINSON- SMITH - -------- GIGUE
5. HOPKINSON- SMITH - -------- CHACONNE
6. HOPKINSON- SMITH - BWV1013 - SONATA IN A - ALLEMANDE
7. HOPKINSON- SMITH - -------- CORRENTE
8. HOPKINSON- SMITH - -------- SARABANDE
9. HOPKINSON- SMITH - -------- BOURRE ANGLAISE

This new recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons was well received on the continent a short while back—no small achievement when competition and rival versions are so prolific... The present Four Seasons is recorded with a resonance which affords a clarity and a sonority from which old instruments much benefit. The soloist, Franzjosef Maier, is a fine violinist and, for the most part, does riot over-indulge his often pronounced predilection for romance. Occasionally, intonation and ensemble are scrappy, particularly, for example, in the finale of "Winter". The picturesque qualities in Vivaldi's score, often specific, are under- rather than over-done though the performances are not without excitement—the finale of "Summer" is very effective... I found it thoroughly musicianly and would place it in an elevated position in an alarmingly over-subscribed league-table.

-- Gramophone [10/1979]

J.C. BACH: SINFONIAE CONCERTAN

Tracks:
1. LEONHARDT, GUSTAV - ECHO FANTASIA IN A MINOR
2. LEONHARDT, GUSTAV - DA PACEM, DOMINE, IN DEEBUS NOSTRIS
3. LEONHARDT, GUSTAV - HEXACHORD FANTASIA
4. LEONHARDT, GUSTAV - FANTASIA MINOR
5. LEONHARDT, GUSTAV - ONS IS GHEBOREN EEN KINDEKIJN
6. LEONHARDT, GUSTAV - TOCCATA IN A MINOR

This is richly expressive music by a composer with a finely developed feeling for melody, played by a harpsichordist who has mastered the style.

I suppose there must must have been discs in the past entirely devoted to the harpsichord music of Chambonnières but just at the moment I cannot think of a single one. Chambonniêres was born in 1601 and is generally recognized as being the founder of the French harpsichord school. That is not at all to say, however, that his collections provide us with the earliest examples; but he did teach almost all the great French harpsichord composers of the seventeenth century, above all Louis Couperin, D'Anglebert and Lebêgue. Chambonnières cultivated and developed a style in harpsichord writing akin to that of the lutenist's style brisC or, in other words, a broken, arpeggiated texture. By so doing he was able to create an illusion of linear, horizontal writing. To a varied extent and with varying degrees of success, performer apply the principle to repertory of the following century in order to highlight or enhance the linear texture.

The young American harpsichordist Skip Sempé has mastered the art of the style brisé in a convincing and affecting way. He plays with authority and with insight to the inherent resonances contained in Chambonnières's writing. This is richly expressive music by a composer with a finely developed feeling for melody. The pieces, by the way, are drawn from the First and Second Books and from four manuscript collections. Chambonnières was widely and lavishly praised by his contemporaries and successors and, on the strength of these pieces in Sempé's hands, encomiums past and present are fully justified. If we place this music alongside that of Louis Couperin, for instance, we should judge it less adventurous harmonically than that of his illustrious pupil. On the other hand I sometimes find in it a greater warmth of feeling and no less eloquent in its expressive nobility on the one hand (Sarabandes, Chaconne, Pavanne, Paschalia) and lively, poetic treatment of dance measures on the other. Sempé understands all this very well and perhaps almost for the first time I am hearing an artist who conveys to me the enormous talent of this composer. Sempe has chosen his programme with care, illustrating the formal and expressive variety in Chambonnières. In five of the pieces, three of them sarabandes, he is supported by a theorbo continuo played by Brian Feehan. Sempé explains his reasons for this in the accompanying booklet. Certainly the resulting sound is effective and beautiful, adding a new resonant dimension.

Sempé ends his recital with what is perhaps the finest of all tributes to the composer, the Tombeau de M. de Chanibonnières by d'Anglebert. This is an affectionate touch setting the seal on an outstanding disc. The late seventeenth-century harpsichord, a Flemish one, is recorded a little too closely for my ears, but the balance is sympathetic, picking up the radiant character of the instrument. Strongly recommended.

-- Gramophone [4/1993]
reviewing the original release, DHM 77210

Rebel’s trios compare favourably with those of his contemporary, Francois Couperin. They are full of interest, revealing many extended passages of effective part-writing for the violins. . . . These are stylish performances, full of spirit yet receptive to subtler, underlying expressive currents. . . . Few readers will be disappointed either by the music or by the recorded sound, which is sympathetic and intimate. [T]his new recording can be acquired with confidence. -- Nicholas Anderson, Gramophone

[I]f you can play with the skill and musicianship of Andrew Lawrence-King, then the fact that you are offering up transcriptions quickly becomes an irrelevance. Combining the technical possibilities of a harpsichord with the dynamic flexibility of a lute (though over a wider range), the harp emerges here as an almost ideal solo instrument, able to escape its inevitable Celtic associations and stand as an interpretative tool of real power. . . . The results are completely successful, particularly the Partita, every one of whose complex moods and gestures Lawrence-King seems able to conquer with surprising vigour. It is unlikely that you will ever hear much of the music on this disc played more expressively . . . [which] is really saying something when it applies to music as well known as Bach’s for solo violin. . . . [T]his is outstandingly sensitive and musical playing.

-- Lindsay Kemp, Gramophone

The ethereal beauty of Prégardien's performance is exactly matched by Staier's luminous playing.

This issue further enhances Pregardien's reputation as a Schubert interpreter. In a judiciously chosen selection of the Goethe settings, he shows himself to be fully equipped to encompass what is in some ways the most demanding area of Schubert's vast contribution to the genre. They may not be as intellectually demanding as the Schiller settings previously tackled by Pregardien (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, 1/94), but they do call for a wide range of emotional and tonal control. The German tenor proves himself just as adept at such a light piece as HeidenrOslein as in the still, solemn thoughts of Meeres Stille, or the forceful challenge of An Schwager Kronos (though this is a piece that demands the extra weight of a bassbaritone), or the eager striving of Ganymed, or the spring-like joy of Der Musensohn, adapting his flexible tone to the varying requirements of each. The reading of the Harfenspieler Lieder forms the centrepiece of the recital, the singer catching the melancholy and mystery so unerringly suggested by the composer himself. The books speak unkindly of Sehnsucht, but Pregardien,. a superb Bach interpreter, brings out the connection with the older composer in the recitative of this cantatalike song.

Staier again seems the ideal partner for this singer. His luminous playing of his fortepiano, notably in such a piece as An den Mond, exactly matches the ethereal beauty of the tenor's performance. Once or twice we may wish for the more substantial tones of a Fischer-Dieskau or a Schreier with their attendant 'modern' pianists, but the older interpreters' gifts are, in a sense, complementary to and different from the younger artists'. There is room in the ever-fascinating field of Schubertian interpretation for both approaches. The natural, well-balanced recording allows us to hear all the subtleties to be found in these performances, which pay homage, in their verbal detailing, as much to poet as to composer.

-- Gramophone [6/1996]

TELEMANN: ORCHESTRAL SUITES (O

Tracks:
1. ANONYMOUS - CONCERTO (SUITE) IN D MAJOR - ALLEGRO
2. ANONYMOUS - CONCERTO (SUITE) IN D MAJOR - RIGAUDON I + II
3. ANONYMOUS - CONCERTO (SUITE) IN D MAJOR - ARIA
4. ANONYMOUS - CONCERTO (SUITE) IN D MAJOR - GIGUE-DUETT
5. ANONYMOUS - CONCERTO (SUITE) IN D MAJOR - ANGLAISE I + II
6. ANONYMOUS - CONCERTO (SUITE) IN D MAJOR - SORABANDE
7. ANONYMOUS - CONCERTO (SUITE) IN D MAJOR - HORNPIPE I + II
8. ANONYMOUS - CONCERTO (SUITE) IN D MAJOR - MENUET I + II + III
9. GOTTFRIED FINGER - SONATA IN C MAJOR - ADALGIO - ANDANTE
10. GOTTFRIED FINGER - SONATA IN C MAJOR - ALLEGRO
11. GOTTFRIED FINGER - SONATA IN C MAJOR - GRAVE - ( ALLEGRO)
12. TOMASO ALBINONI - CONCERTO IN C MAJOR - SINFONIA
13. TOMASO ALBINONI - CONCERTO IN C MAJOR - AFFECTTUOSO
14. TOMASO ALBINONI - CONCERTO IN C MAJOR - PRESTO
15. JOHANN CHRISTOPH PEZEL - SONATA C MAJOR
16. GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN - CONCERTO IN D MAJOR - LARGO
17. GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN - CONCERTO IN D MAJOR - VIVACE
18. GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN - CONCERTO IN D MAJOR - SICILIANO
19. GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN - CONCERTO IN D MAJOR - VIVACE
20. JOHANN MELCHIOR MOLTER - SINFONIA CONCERTANTE IN D MAJOR - ALLEGRO
21. JOHANN MELCHIOR MOLTER - SINFONIA CONCERTANTE IN D MAJOR - LARGO
22. JOHANN MELCHIOR MOLTER - SINFONIA CONCERTANTE IN D MAJOR - MARCHE
23. JOHANN MELCHIOR MOLTER - SINFONIA CONCERTANTE IN D MAJOR - ALLA BREVE
24. JOHANN MELCHIOR MOLTER - SINFONIA CONCERTANTE IN D MAJOR - VIVACE

FACCO: 6 CONCERTI OP. 1 VIVAL

For those unfamiliar with the madrigals of d'India, they will come as a great revelation. This music is the equal of anything that Gesualdo wrote, and there are discernible echoes of Monteverdi.

This is one of the Consort of Musicke's most successful forays into Italian vocal music c. 1600. Despite their differences of personal idiom and style, there is a common language that links, for example, the madrigals of Monteverdi and Gesualdo, and the most difficult thing for any ensemble approaching this repertory is to acquire a convincing presentation of its essentially rhetorical character. It is not really a question of vocal technique, but rather of a detailed understanding, shared by all the performers, of the intimate bonding of word and note, a consideration which in Monteverdi's case we know to have preoccupied him in composition throughout his career. This sense of the essence of the style does not come easily, particularly to those performers whose native language is not Italian; the Consort, whose early records of Italian repertory were not always successful in this respect, have on this new record reached a distinctive idiom which both convinces and excites.

For those who are unfamiliar with it the madrigals of Sigismondo d'India's Third Book will come as a great revelation. At its best this music is the equal of anything that Gesualdo wrote (and in their recourse to chromaticism, unexpected changes or juxtapositions of harmony and acerbic dissonances the two styles are recognizably strains of the same shoot), and while there are some weak pieces in the collection the general standard is high. In addition to the influence of Gesualdo, there are also discernible echoes here of the mature Marenzio and, above all, of Monteverdi (it is indicative that d'India sets a text taken from Act 3 of Orfeo, "Dove, ah dove ten'vai"). These pieces are full of surprises amid unexpected touches, but the results do not have that neurotic and ultimately unbalanced quality that characterize so many of Gesualdo's late madrigals; the truth of the matter is that d'India often has a better grasp of overall architecture.

The Consort present d'India's Third Book in a sequence of highly theatrical readings which manage to exploit a range of vocal gesture (portamentos, half-spoken sospiri, etc.) without descending into irritating mannerisms. And at a purely technical level d 'India's substantially homophonic style of writing is matched by a balanced vocal sound underpinned (essentially) by a firm but not tho obtrusive bass and, most impressively, a surefooted control of the tuning of these harmonically mischievous madrigals. But ultimately it is not these details that make this record such enjoyable listening, though they are pre-requisites, but rather the Consort's vivid projection of the progress of the musical and textual argument, the emotional ebb and flow of these largely amorous (and often thinly-veiled erotic) scenas, in all their detail. This fine musical achievement is wellmatched by a sensitive, immediate recording produced by Peter Wadland.

-- Gramophone [1/1988]

"Playing on period instruments, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie under Thomas Hengelbrock give fiery, impulsive readings of both symphonies. . . . [T]he sharp tang of the period sonorities and the explosive energy of the playing – above all in the pungently accented [Vorisek] Scherzo – are very persuasive. . . . [T]he outer movements [of the Schubert] dance and leap exuberantly, with spruce, agile strings and scything high trumpets. . . . Recommended if you fancy this offbeat coupling – and anyone coming new to the Vorisek should be in for a pleasurable surprise." -- Richard Wigmore, Gramophone

Gustav Leonhardt has chosen here two works of outstanding originality. From 1696 Fransisco Valls was choirmaster at Barcelona Cathedral, retiring from the post in 1726. His Missa Scala Aretina was composed in 1702 for performance in the Cathedral but became something of a cause celebre further afield on account of a breach of strict harmonic etiquette in the Gloria. Fellow musicians were scandalized by Valls's use of an unprepared dissonance and the composer was eventually obliged to defend himself in his theoretical treatise, Mapa armonico. The Mass is a richly scored piece disposed into four distinct sound bodies or choirs. One of these contains the solo voices (soprano, alto, tenor), two others are larger vocal ensembles of different sizes while the fourth is instrumental, consisting of strings with additional oboes, trumpets and a colourful continuo group including harp. Leonhardt brings a vital sense of occasion to the performance, injecting it with passion and evidently revelling in its rich and varied sonorities. But he is not always sufficiently well supported by the Netherlands Bach Society Choir which turns in rather rough and not always ready singing. But even so there is a spontaneity which makes considerable appeal and one is left with the feeling, by no means unwelcome, that this is foremost a performance and only secondarily a recording.

Biber's F minor Requiem was written exactly a decade earlier than Valls's Mass. It is one of two such surviving works from his pen and here receives its second recording; the earlier one, by Nikolaus Harnoncourt was made in 1967 and has long been unavailable (Telefunken, 3/70). The very flatness of this minor key at once points-up the striking contrast which exists between this melancholy work and its more robust, extrovert Spanish companion on disc. Biber's fervent Requiem falls into five main sections, an Introit and Kyrie, Dies irae, Offer-torium, Sanctus and, lastly Agnus Dei and Communion. The ''Dies irae'' is the most extended of these and allows for several beautifully wrought passages for the soloists (SSATB). But the ''Offertorium'' is hardly less expressive and here Biber makes an additional contrast by casting the movement in C minor; his lean and despairing harmonies are especially arresting in this section conjuring up vivid images of man's frail condition and mortality. Leonhardt is similarly responsive to text and music as he was in the Valls, but Biber occupies stylistic territory closer to home. There is a fluency in the performance of the Requiem which is perhaps less evident in the Missa Scala Aretina, and the singers too, seem more secure.

In short, this is a fascinating disc containing pieces of starkly contrasting outlook. The Valls is full of little, and not so little, harmonic surprises which tease the senses, the Biber a contemplative, profound work of dark and serene beauty. Recorded sound is appropriately spacious and the booklet contains an informative essay with texts and translations.'

-- Nicholas Anderson, Gramophone [8/1993]

Includes song(s) by Folquet de Marseille. Ensemble: Sequentia. Soloists: Benjamin Bagby, Elizabeth Gaver.