This is a splendid reissue. The suite from King Arthur shows that tight, stylish Baroque playing wasn’t unknown thirty years ago, and the other items, recorded ten years later, come up perfectly fresh, with real rhythmic spring and life. The singers include some famous names, and every musical line has personality: Ian Partridge and Paul Esswood in particular provide wonderful solos. A pity that texts aren’t provided, and that the booklet notes don’t give more information about the lesser-known works. Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 4 (out of 5)

-- Martin Cotton, BBC Music Magazine

C.P.E. BACH: QUARTETS FOR PIAN

LONATI, UCCELLINI: SONATAS SC

A delightful medley, musically as well as musicologically, the 18 different instruments being combined with great imagination.

The subtitle of this album says more about its content than does the main one. There is much titular reference to Spain and to gypsies, but only in ‘The Spanish Jeepsies’ do the two come together. It seems that in Shakespeare’s time Spanish popular tunes were perceived as being of gypsy origin. More to the point, the programme is skilfully devoted to showing the influence of Celtic and Spanish idioms on English popular music – a difficult, labyrinthine process that it’s not particularly helpful to try to summarise here, but it is well covered in Lawrence-King’s annotation.

Charles I’s Consorte opened the way for courtly instruments to ‘fraternise’ with humbler ones, creating a variety of new sounds, and the Harp Consort take full advantage of this ‘social’ freedom. The eight players form a kaleidoscope of broken consorts drawn from the 18 instruments (plucked, bowed, blown and percussed) at their disposal, producing a remarkable spectrum of sound from the ethereal (‘Lady Louthians Lilt’) to the downright boisterous (‘The Wherligig’). Only five of the 23 items last for more than four minutes but one never has the impression of a trayful of canapes deputising for a good meal.

When it comes to putting together a coherent and well-researched programme of assorted small-scale items, only Peter Holman springs to mind as Andrew Lawrence-King’s peer. Excellent recording is the icing on this delectable cake, one that takes 71 minutes to enjoy.

-- John Duarte, Gramophone [11/2000]

[Ton Koopman's recordings of Buxtehude for Novalis] stands out, alongside the maverick recording by Lena Jacobson for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, as among the most dissident performances of the repertoire ever committed to disc. Koopman indeed commented in a 1991 article for the Musical Times that, in order to perform Buxtehude, one had to "take the risk to be dissident"...

-- Chris Bragg, MusicWeb International

BAROQUE ESPRIT - SCHUBERT: SON

This set includes the booklet "Adventures in Early Music - The Story of Period Performance Practice as Documented by DHM."

REVIEWS:
American Record Guide (11-12/97, p.184) - "...[Hille Perl] plays with good intonation and a strong sense of style; her renditions of French baroque viol music are about as musical as one will hear. Lorenz Duftschmidt is every bit her match as a gambist and musician--important on a disc including many pieces with two viol parts of equal importance....`Le Changé' is a glorious viol duet, and `Tombeau Les Regrets' is a wonderful piece for the entire ensemble..."

These selections were recorded in Beirut, Istanbul and Munich.

Rore: Passion Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Secundum Johannem

First performed in 1729 and quickly forgotten, Lotario is a worthy work with plenty of effective arias and a duet, with characters and intrigues that demand attention. Conductor Alan Curtis explains in the liner notes that he has cut the recitatives and an aria or two in order to get the work onto two CDs. I can't argue with his decision, and it's good to have such a fine performance of this unknown work available.

The plot: Berengario (tenor) wants to rule Italy, so he has murdered the king; and with his scheming wife Matilde (contralto) he tries to get Adelaide (soprano), the dead king's widow, to marry his (Berengario's) son Idelberto (contralto), who actually does love Adelaide. She of course is not interested in wedding the son of her husband's enemy, and luckily Lotario, king of Germany (contralto, originally castrato), shows up, and since he loves Adelaide, he wants to protect her. Matilde, the opera's true stinker, keeps trying to kill Adelaide. Armies fight, the bad guys are defeated, everyone forgives Matilde and Berengario, and Idelberto becomes king (but loses Adelaide), and Adelaide and Lotario are happily in love.

There's not a lot to sink your teeth into, save for the manipulations of Matilde, which are never-ending and fun, and some stunning arias, particularly the storm-tossed one for Adelaide that ends Act 1 and Lotario's determined andante that ends Act 2. This last is gorgeously sung by Sara Mingardo, whose dark, rich tone is always welcome, although for the first time on disc she sounds tentative and uninvolved most of the time. Considering Lotario is the hero, this is a problem. But soprano Simone Kermes is magnificent as Adelaide--accurate and quite daring in her vocal leaps and embellishments, occasionally sounding crazy but always interesting, indeed, riveting. Similarly, the nasty Matilde of Sonia Prina is a joy. She's not a mustache-twirling villain, and she knows how to wheedle as well as menace, using her darkish tone (though distinctly different from Mingardo's) with skill. The oddest-voiced of the three "contraltos" is Hilary Summers as Idelberto--she sounds more like a countertenor than a woman--and she's effective in her arias, especially the first, "Per salvarti, idolo mio". Steve Davislim's Berengario is not a one-dimensional meanie; he shows remorse half-way through the opera. Davislim's tenor is not particularly bright (the role sits low), but his breath control and ease with divisions is staggering--sample his second-act "D'instabile fortuna".

Curtis breathes life into each aria and paces the recitatives wisely. He takes time over the warm, loving arias and doesn't give in to the temptation to rip into the allegros. His Complesso Barocco plays with grace and elegance and the harpsichord is audible but not intrusive. Sound is excellent. This is a needed and welcome addition to the ever-growing Handel discography.

--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday

Selection includes Letters of Mozart family members written during their intensive traveling years (1763-72), narrated by Nikolaus, Maximilian and Laya Harnoncourt.

COUPERIN: CONCERTS ROYAUX, PIË

There have long been rumors circulating that some of Haydn's operas were genuinely funny, but until this recording I doubted it. Nikolaus Harnoncourt has been the only real champion for these works since Antal Dorati, and in this recording he convinces us. From what I can gather, some recitative has been cut, but the plot remains clear; and the music is witty and charming. Composed in 1782, it is called a "dramma eroicomico", a vaguely oxymoronic term, probably meant tongue-in-cheek. The remarkable libretto, originally written for composer Pietro Allessando Guglielmi's opera of the same name 10 years earlier, takes Ariosto's well-known epic, Orlando Furioso, already treated in various tragic forms by Lully, Handel, and Vivaldi, and turns it into a type of farce.

Orlando is the knight nobly torn between love and war, and Alcina is theoretically an evil sorceress. Here, Orlando is so crazy and senseless that the only way the plot can be resolved so that Angelica (who loves having men in love with her) and Medoro (who is so lovesick and scared that he's half comatose) can be happy is for Alcina to give him bad dreams, turn him to stone, lock him in a cave, and finally, drug him with Lethe's waters. Add to this a shepherdess named Eurillia and her father Licone, the pagan King Rodomonte, who is in a constant rage and wants to tear Orlando to shreds, and Orlando's blabbermouth squire, Pasquale, who is always hungry and flirts with Eurilla first for food and then for real, and you get a scenario in which nobody except Orlando takes anything very seriously. Indeed, he deserves to be shut away and have his mind altered. And in the meantime, there are scenes of wrath, jealousy, love, boasting, hunger, and battle--and all of it's for sheer entertainment.

The point, of course, is that the music, when not being simply lovely (much of Angelica's and Medoro's) is genuinely funny (Pasquale's), either within the vocal line or as a result of colorful scoring. It's not Rossini-like funny--broader, more obvious, and almost inviting audience participation--but Haydn is the most nimble of Classical composers and he proves it in this opera.

Every number in the opera is worthy and in the service of the action/comedy/mood, but some are truly special: Medoro's first-act "Parto, ma, oh Dio, non posso", primarily a slow lament, but with wild, confused interruptions; Pasquale's two numbers, the first a catalog of his greatnesses in which he even whistles, the second a piece to show Eurillia how well he sings, trills, and flies up to high notes in falsetto; "Non partir, mia bella face", an aria for Angelica in which her coloratura is a sure sign of inability to cope with what torments her; and Angelica's second-act aria, "Aure chete, verdi allori", that radiates sincerity and then flies off into a coloratura showpiece with the voice in duet with oboes. The recitatives also have real flavor, especially as delivered by the singers here (I believe this set, at least in part, is taken from live concert performances).

The singing is uniformly excellent. The four(!) tenor parts are all well taken by attractive voices, ideally lyrical for this sort of Mozartean, 18th-century bon-bon. Johannes Kalpers' brief stint as Licone is perky; Werner Güra's Medoro is honeyed à la Don Ottavio; Michael Schade's Orlando is sung with big tone and just the right berserk edge; and there's not enough praise for Markus Schäfer's Pasquale--how grand it is that the role is not composed for bass! Christian Gerhaher's Rodomonte is not a big, burly buffo, but rather a baritone paper tiger, filled with menace that goes nowhere, as this character does. Malin Hartelius sings Eurillia with girlish charm, and Elisabeth von Magnus' Alcina is strongly voiced without exaggeration, keeping the comedy/sorcery in perspective.

And in the midst of them all is soprano Patricia Petibon as Angelica, inspired, light as fluff, but with a sharp edge to her tone when necessary. Every word she sings is in character, and she's a master of messa di voce, which she uses wisely. Occasionally her pianissimos are so quiet that they almost disappear, but that's probably just an odd tic of the recording.

Harnoncourt and his Concentus Musicus, as suggested above, are just the right people for the job, bringing out the character in the music and supporting the singers brilliantly. Tempos are fleet, but there's no sense of rushing; when a moment is supposed to be melodramatic, it is. An old, well-cast (Auger, Ameling, Shirley) recording on Philips under Dorati takes 20 minutes longer, and last time I heard it--10 years ago--it didn't cohere for me. This new version is a must-have. [6/26/2006]

--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

LUIGI ROSSI: CANTATAS, DUETS,