Tafelmusik are a Canadian period-instrument group who bring plenty of spirit and enthusiasm to their performances. I have chiefly heard them before in baroque repertory, to which their rather direct and even slightly edgy tone may be better suited than it is to the more suave Boccherini. The B flat Symphony they offer here, Op. 21 No. 4 in Boccherini's numbering, is not to my knowledge otherwise available; the chief interest resides in the first movement, a typically exuberant piece, full of repeated notes and dashing off every now and then into brilliant semiquaver passages, though there is some characteristically charming pathetic music in the andantino. The players here make a hairsbreadth pause before each accent in the first movement (and there are rather a lot of them), which seems to me disturbing to the rhythm. They also offer the D minor Symphony, La casa del diavolo, based in part on Gluck's Dance of the Furies from Orphee. They play the first movement at a tremendous speed and with great vigour, the slow movement rather dully and the finale, again, very fast and duly diabolically. Here, however, they run into competition with the disc by Ensemble 415 (Harmonia Mundi), which offers a superior performance; tighter and more controlled, more graceful as well as sweeter-toned in the middle movement and less reliant on breathtaking thrills to make the fast movements effective.

But with Anner Bylsma playing two concertos, this is certainly a disc to be considered seriously. His performance of the G major work is far more appealing than that of the relatively staid Wouter Willer on the EMI disc cited above, its quick movements quicker, its slow movement slower— and played with remarkable control (you cannot hear the changes of bow) and with much poetry. And there is some dazzling playing at the very top of the instrument in the finale. The D major work is perhaps slightly more ordinary, but that vein of pathos is again much in evidence in the andante lentarello (a typical Boccherini marking, whatever it may mean), where the cello duets with a solo oboe. A record, then, that in spite of some flaws the Boccherinian will want to have.

-- Stanley Sadie, Gramophone [2/1990]

All the items on this CD are gems. Grandi, who may have been a pupil of Giovanni Gabrieli, had great melodic gifts and good ear for dramatic presentation of his texts.

Alessandro Grandi might have been a pupil of Giovanni Gabrieli. He spent the initial part of his musical career singing (falsetto soprano) and directing music at establishments in Ferrara, culminating in his appointment as director of music at Ferrara cathedral in 1616. In 1617 he moved to Venice and became a singer, under Monteverdi's direction, at St. Mark's, going on to become Monteverdi's deputy in 1620. He and Monteverdi are reputed to have been in open rivalry and Monteverdi is supposed to have prevented Grandi from presenting large-scale works of his own. Grandi seems to have made a virtue of necessity and produced a ravishing string of solo motets and concerti spirituali. In 1627 he moved on to become director of music in Bergamo. He published 11 volumes of motets, many of them very popular, 3 volumes of psalms and 5 masses. His motets with symphonies, involving obbligato violins, had an influence on Schütz.

In the 1620's sacred music underwent a significant change, out went the polychoral techniques of the Gabrielis and in came the new concerted style. A more intimate style with a few solo voices and instruments, with a greater emphasis on virtuosity. Monteverdi used this style in his later church music, but it was fully developed by his colleagues and followers such as Alessandro Grandi.

Grandi had an advantage over colleagues such as Monteverdi and Gabrieli in that he was a singer. His art revolves around the expression of the text, using the music to bring out the prosody of the words. His earliest motets were published in 1610 and they are admirably lacking in youthful inexperience. 'O quam pulchra es' uses three voices in an almost madrigalian setting of words from the Song of Songs.

Grandi's works crop up in the catalogue mainly in surveys of Monteverdi's contemporaries. Despite his importance in early 17th century Italian music, record companies have mainly cast him in Monteverdi's shadow, so it is pleasant to welcome this CD back. It has an enviable line up of singers with the young Andreas and Elisabeth Scholl alongside René Jacobs and Maria Cristina Kiehr.

The motets all receive fine performances. This vocal chamber music requires a good interplay between performers and those on this record are generally admirable. Jacobs sings two of the solo motets, 'Salve Regina' with its cornet obliggati and 'O quam tu pulchra est'. Whilst I was able to admire his artistry greatly, not everyone will like his distinctive resinous tone. But these are two of the most affecting motets on the record and Jacobs' way with the words is hauntingly persuasive. Though all the artists on the disc are excellent, Jacobs proves to be the most penetratingly responsive to the text.

The admirable cornettists are Jean Tubery, and William Dongois and their playing combines discretion and subtlety along with virtuoso effect. They appear on two further tracks. 'Transfige', a solo motet well sung by Gerd Türk with his mellifluous, bright, if slightly unvarying tenor voice and 'Bone Jesu verbum patris', a lovely duet charmingly sung by Elisabeth and Andreas Scholl, who blend exquisitely. The two cornets beautifully balance the two vocalists and show off Grandi's expertise with the new structural developments in sacred music.

Dramatic and structural interest are rarely absent from these lovely works. Solo voices are counterbalanced by two violins in three of the motets. 'Osculetur me', in which Andreas Scholl brings to bear his creamy alto voice; 'Virgo prudentissima' sung with a brilliant urgency by Elisabeth Scholl; 'Vulnerasti cor meum' sung by the bright toned Maria Cristina Kiehr who gets the bulk of the soprano solos.

In the multi-voiced motets, some are in the more traditional style of the late 16th century, like the 5-voiced setting of Job's lament, 'Versa est'. But others reflect Grandi's more recent concerns. 'Heu mihi! - Quid ploras?' is a conversation between the despairing sinner (hauntingly sung by Gerd Türk) and God (sung by Andreas Scholl, Otto Rastbichler and Ulrich Messthaler). 'Quemadmodum desiderat' is another dialogue, this time between two voices (Maria Christina Kiehr and Ulrich Messthaler). a lover and beloved, which ends with a hymn to the Virgin!

The motet 'Plorabo die ac nocte' uses a text which links the lamentations of Jeremiah with a pain-filled Marian lament. The text is sung by each soloist in turn. But, in an effect reminiscent of a Greek chorus, all soloists join together at the end of each solo. But the most remarkable is possibly 'Missus est Gabriel'. This setting of the annunciation uses St. Luke's Gospel, allocated to Evangelist (Ulrich Messthaler, singing with a wonderfully dark tone), Angel (Gerd Türk) and Virgin (Andreas Scholl). But this mini-oratorio increases the drama by adding an off-stage chorus (sopranos Maria Cristina Kiehr and Elisabeth Scholl) who constantly sing the praises of the virgin, providing a chorus which comments on and interrupts the main dialogue.

All the items on this CD are gems. Grandi had great melodic gifts and good ear for dramatic presentation of his texts. A singer himself, his vocal lines are always effective and grateful. All the singers on this recording are admirable and it manages to showcase the talents of a remarkable group of young singers and instrumentalists.

Grandi's motets deserve to be better known, but his works have been difficult to come by in performing editions. This seems to be the only CD in the catalogue devoted solely Grandi's works, so it is pleasing to see its return and the artists are also to be commended for their musicological research. It is a shame that the CD booklet does not manage to print the texts of the motets. Grandi was such a text based composer that one misses the opportunity of following the words in translation. Not all of these texts are well known and not everyone has the requisite Latin.

This is a lovely CD to listen to in one sitting or simply to dip into. I can highly recommend it.

-- Robert Hugill, MusicWeb International
reviewing this title reissued as DHM 77857

The four secular cantatas included in this two-disc set were first issued on two separate LPs in 1968. Then they comfortably took the lead over other performances available at the time. By present-day standards, however, there are aspects of interpretation which may strike us as a little pedestrian. The two weakest areas are probably those of instrumental executancy and internal balance. In these respects the Wedding Cantata, Weichet nur, betrubte Schatten is the weakest, with unsteady oboe playing and too weighty continuo support.

Even here, though, I found plenty to enjoy, above all in the alluring voice of Elly Ameling who seldom disappoints the listener either in this work or indeed, in the other three. She is beguiling both as the wilful Lieschen in the Coffee Cantata and as the spirited, coquettish Miecke in the Peasant Cantata. In these cantatas the two other singers, Gerald English and Siegmund Nimsgern, the latter as the peppery Schlendrian in the Coffee Cantata, and as the country lad with little on his mind other than opening time and a good roll in the hay (Peasant Cantata), are excellent. Some of the playing by members of the Collegium Aureum is enjoyable too, with stylish harpsichord continuo throughout. Maddeningly, the players are not named but I seem to recall that Gustav Leonhardt was the harpsichordist.

To sum up, an album well worth acquiring, above all for consistently lively interpretations by the singers who create a pleasing sense of theatre. Well recorded.'

-- Nicholas Anderson, Gramophone [10/1990]

Nancy Argenta, with her silvery voice, is deliciously vivacious, and Kuijken's Petite Bande play with spirit and bite. This is a thoroughly entertaining issue of a high-spirited work.

According to tradition, L'infedelta delusa (''Infidelity outwitted'') is the work which prompted the Empress Maria Theresa, who saw it at Prince Esterhazy's palace in 1773, to declare that when she wanted to hear a good opera she would go to Esterhaza. Some present-day critics have been more grudging in their praise for it, complaining that its characters all plebeians and deriving from commedia dell'arte types—have no depth and the music lacks the flair for building to a climax at which Mozart excelled. But at this date Mozart was still writing opera seria and had not begun even La finta giardiniera, so the comparison is invalid: let us be content that the opera has an uncomplicated plot, well told, and that the score is full of delightful invention, offering opportunities for brilliant singing. This it certainly receives in this enjoyable recording, which differs from Dorati's equally admirable 1981 Philips performance (nla)—apart from it being on CD by the orchestra employing period instruments (at a lower pitch) and by the inclusion of quite a bit more recitative. The advantage of this last, however, will be lost on many by the extraordinary decision to print the Italian libretto in the booklet in the handwriting—neat but reproduced in very small size—of the nineteenth-century Haydn scholar Pohl, and to provide no translation: a clear case of spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar.

Kuijken's Petite Bande play not only with spirit and bite but with a sureness of intonation that, ten years ago, we dared not hope for from period instruments: as compared with the Dorati version the string tone is smaller and the wind more prominent (though this is not entirely constant in the course of the work, presumably because it was recorded in sessions separated by ten months). The leading role is that of the sharp-witted Vespina, who, like her near-namesake Despina, in pursuit of her plans dons various disguises—an old woman, a German manservant, a knight and a notary. The aptly named Nancy Argenta, with her silvery voice, is deliciously vivacious here, with a splendidly free high register, clean fioriture and exemplary enunciation; but (unlike Magda Kalmar in the 1977 Hungaroton recording of the opera—nla) she does not do very much to alter her vocal quality for her different impersonations and Edith Mathis (for Dorati) got greater fun from words like ''patisco a respirar'' (''It hurts me to breathe''). As the unhappy Sandrina, whom her peasant father wants to marry off to a well-to-do farmer, Lena Lootens makes a good impression, particularly in ensembles, though in her first aria she is rather more shrill than was Barbara Hendricks (in the Dorati set). Markus Schafer as the duped suitor is outstanding, with a light, easy production throughout his compass and great flexibility (only ''Chi s'impaccia'' has low notes that elude him, as they also eluded his counterpart for Dorati, Claes Ahnsjo), and he makes every point in the words, especially his misogynistic outburst in Act 1 and his vengeance aria in Act 2. Stephen Varcoe, as Sandrina's true love, has only one aria to sing, an extraordinary one, but he invests it with passionate character. The remaining role is well sung by Christoph Pregardien despite his being rather miscast, as his voice sounds too youthful for Sandrina's father. Despite these small reservations, and an occasional doubt about the placing of singers in the stereo image (two people talking together shouldn't sound from opposite ends of the spectrum), this is a thoroughly entertaining issue of a high-spirited work which can safely be recommended.

-- Lionel Salter, Gramophone [4/1990]

SCH¸TZ: SYMPHONIAE SACREA III

MUSIC AT THE SALZBURG COURT II

"We have an enjoyable disc of a range of music from two talented and influential brothers who inhabited a transitional period between baroque and early classical. Their career paths were quite different, Giovanni being born and then dying in Milan while Giuseppe eventually settled in bustling London for the last twenty or so years of his life. Giuseppe’s more cosmopolitan existence is reflected in his music on the disc which displays a pragmatic ability to adjust his style. The violoncello piccolo concerto, for example, is very italianate, clearly influenced by Vivaldi whereas his delightful oboe concerto, excellently played by Hans-Peter Westermann, is more Handelian in style. His recorder concerto is also very tuneful and is a standard repertoire piece for skilled players. Michael Schneider is a distinguished performer and I thought his playing one of the best things about the disc which otherwise contains renderings that are highly competent but not particularly special. He features also in Giuseppe’s Trio in F major for 2 recorders which for me was the most enjoyable work in spite of its three movements lasting little more than five minutes. The slow movement with the recorders’ clashing semi-tones and tones is exquisitely intense.

Giovanni died a quarter of a century after his brother and his two chamber works here (he does not get a concerto on this disc of "concertos"!) were probably written after his brother’s death and are understandably more classical in feel. Both involve transverse flute and I liked the spirited playing in works that I found neatly formed but relatively dull compared with brother Giuseppe’s contributions."

-- John Leeman, MusicWeb International reviewing DHM 77852

An important and delightful issue which should make instant appeal among lovers of eighteenth-century music.

During the 1720s and 1730s Telemann prepared and to a large extent oversaw the printing and publication of a wide diversity of compositions. Chamber cantatas, concertos, orchestral suites, solos, trios and quartets were all represented. The high-water mark of chamber music publications came in the late 1730s with the set of six Paris Quartets (1738) and the Essercizii Musici (c1739). While almost every one of the 24 pieces contained in the latter collection has been recorded in the past, this is the first time that they have been issued as a complete set on disc. There is not a weak composition among them and Telemann’s collection deserves its place among the most accomplished chamber music anthologies of the late baroque.

Essercizii Musici consists of 12 trios, ten sonatas for melody instrument with basso continuo and two suites for solo harpsichord. The contents are satisfying on two levels since not only do they furnish the listener with unflagging entertainment but they also provide the performer with music written with unusual sympathy for the instruments in question. Telemann, like Toad of Toad Hall, could turn his hand to almost anything and, it would seem, at the drop of a hat, did so. Here we have music both of intrinsically high calibre and of a cast which effortlessly explores the most alluring vocal range of each instrument. It is music which, in short, fulfils one of the composer’s fervently declared aims, to give each instrument what suits it best, thus pleasing both player and audience.

The members of Cologne Camerata, individually and corporately, enliven the music with stylistic and instrumental fluency. In the past I have sometimes found performances by this group rather stiff and unimaginative. Not so here, where each piece seems to have been carefully assessed on its own merit, thoroughly prepared and eloquently lifted off the printed page. Telemann’s distinctive expressive inflexions are not difficult to translate in performance yet their very ingenuousness, simplicity and lack of contrivance too often results in their being glossed over. These musicians revel in the melancholy suspensions, playful gymnastics and convivial instrumental dialogue with which these solos and trios abound. Certainly not all the pieces are of equal depth, but in trios such as that in C minor (No. 1), A major (No. 4), B flat (No. 8) and E flat (No. 12), Telemann reveals an extraordinary puissance, making a contribution to mid-eighteenth century chamber music that is both significant and inspired.

In short, this is an important and delightful issue which should make instant appeal among lovers of eighteenth-century music. Many readers will have one or more of the pieces already; many, too, myself included, will doubtless know of versions which we prefer, either through merit or familiarity. It is when one is confronted by the set as a whole, however, that the extent of Telemann’s achievement becomes fully apparent. Fine recorded sound.

-- Nicholas Anderson, Gramophone [3/1997]

VIVALDI: CHAMBER MUSIC WITH WI

The third CD in Al Ayre Espanol’s “Barroco Espanol” series for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi is without doubt the best yet . . . . The music, all of a penitential nature, is of a consistently high quality, and the performances from Al Ayre Espanol represent their most polished yet. An excellent quartet of Spanish soloists is given superb support by the more international team of instrumentalists, and Eduardo Lopez Banzo, as usual, takes the music by the scruff of the neck and shakes off the accumulated dust of centuries in interpretations of real fervour and vitality. . . . [T]his has to be an award-winner. -- Tess Knighton, Gramophone

His Last major work, written in 1603 at the death of the Empress Maria and dedicated to her daughter Margaret, Victoria's six-voice Requiem has always counted as his supreme masterpiece, and it has been recorded at least six times... What distinguishes the Spanish version is the rich bloom of the choral sound in the resonant acoustic at Montserrat. The tempi are steady, the boys' voices are strong and passionate, and the lower voices tend to maintain an accompanying role. Texts are often relegated in favour of the flow of the line, especially at cadences where the final consonants are usually inaudible. Intonation is sometimes less good than is compatible with even the fairly generous vibrato of the singers—particularly in the "Libera me".

So this version makes a striking contrast with the St John's [Decca] recording, where the boys have hard-edged if quiet voices and the men are clear if sometimes rough. The listener who wishes to choose between them would do best to start with the first Kyrie: Montserrat have a far finer sound and an extraordinarily managed slide from one chord to the next; St John's have clearer voices, better intonation and more of the musical details but perhaps less sense of the flow of the whole piece. The recorded sound is less distinct than on many recent records but corresponds more closely to what one is likely to hear half way back in a large cathedral. Some of the main points in Fr Gregori Estrada's useful sleeve-note are rather mangled in the translation—particularly his carefully worded explanation of the splendid slow tempi for the chant sections.

-- Gramophone [10/1978]

ENGLISH HARPSICHORD MUSIC OF T

Selections recorded November 28-December 1, 1995 (unless otherwise noted).
This disc also contains a reading (in English) by Richard Hoffman of Arnold Schoenberg's 1950 program notes on "Verklärte Nacht".

This recording was made last May [1982] at a public concert in Vienna by Austrian Radio, the occasion being the 250th anniversary of Haydn's birth. The audience is so quiet that it was quite a time before I realized I was listening to a live recording; they applaud only at the end. The performance has the merits one would hope for—a certain freedom and exuberance—and defects one can easily forgive—such as the indeterminate background noise early in Part 3 and one or two roughnesses of ensemble hereabouts... The soloists in Parts 1 and 2 are excellent, Arleen Auger being for me the most pleasing. They sing quite beautifully together in the 'close harmony' sections. In Part 3 there are different soloists for Adam and Eve, and though it was perhaps a good idea to have a younger baritone for Adam than the admirable Walter Berry, Arleen Auger could have sung Eve standing on her head. Nevertheless, Gabriele Sima's voice has a creamily lyrical quality that is both pleasing and promising, and she can easily be forgiven for having problems with one or two of the brief coloratura passages Haydn gave her... The chorus responds well to what is asked of it; if they sometimes seem to be over-emphasizing the beats this is because the conductor does take some of the fugues too fast and push the rhythms too hard... Kuhn does reveal a lot of detail in the wind parts—notably that in the last chorus the trombones play the same phrase over and over again, which I had not noticed before; the phrase almost becomes an irritant, though I liked hearing the trombones more clearly than usual. Kuhn also gets a good mark for having a piano for the recitatives; I'm sure that by 1798 Haydn had got past wanting an oldfashioned harpsichord.

-- Gramophone [2/1983]
reviewing the original LP release of the complete Creation

BAROQUE ESPRIT - BEETHOVEN: VI