Telemann, G.P.: Les tresors caches

CORRETTE Symphonies des noëls: No. 2 in D; No. 4 in D; No. 5 in a; No. 6 in A. Concertos comiques: No. 4, “Le quadrille”; No. 7; No. 19, “La Turque”; No. 24; No. 25, “Les sauvages et la Furstemberg” • Arion (period instruments) • EARLY-MUSIC.COM 7768 (67:32)


What a delightful disc this is! These examples of light, humorous music still amuse us nearly 300 years after they were written. Michel Corrette may have been more important for his work in fields other than composition. He published 15 methods to instruct students in all of the common instruments. He was active as a publisher of his own works and the music of others. But he also was very active as a composer of, among other things, cantatas, ballets, motets, organ pieces, harpsichord sonatas, and symphonies. He was the first composer in France to compose concertos for wind instruments and for organ.


Today Corrette is probably best remembered for his 25 Concertos comiques , published between 1733 and 1760. The concertos are based on well-known songs and popular tunes. Corrette performed these delightful works during the intermissions of performances of the Opéra-comique at the St. Laurent and St. Germain fairs. The Symphonies des noëls are suites of variations based on popular noëls, which are “profane airs, dance tunes, drinking songs, and New Year’s pieces” according to one description. The melodies are immensely pleasing, and Corrette’s variations testify to his enjoyment in working with them.


The music is performed by seven members of the Canadian period-instrument group Arion. Their tempos are lively but not rushed. The performers are obviously very talented and expert.


This recording was issued on the Atma label in 1999; it does not seem to have been reviewed in Fanfare . Two of the Noëls and Concerto comique No. 25 are available elsewhere, but there is no other collection that allows us to hear so many of these splendid works. I cannot imagine anyone whose spirits would not be lifted immediately on hearing this disc. My only regret is that Arion did not follow up with recordings of the other works from these two collections. Highly recommended.


FANFARE: Ron Salemi

REBEL La Terpsichore. Les caractères de la danse. Caprice. Les plaisirs champêtres. La fantaisie. Les élémens • Daniel Cuiller, cond; Arion (period instruments) • early-music.com 7765 (63:00)


Recordings of Jean-Féry Rebel’s Les élémens have been appearing with increasing frequency of late. Three showed up on my desk last year, for a total of five in print. Only one of these, however, moved beyond the composer’s most thematically distinctive ballet to give us a broader sample of his art: the conductorless Pratum Integrum Orchestra on Caro Mitis 52005, in an unfortunately stiff, monochrome series of readings that did these technically proficient musicians little credit. A release of Rebel’s Les caractères de la danse by Bernardini/Harmony of Nations (Raumklang 2704) was considerably better, though the rest of the album was devoted to a range of Baroque composers. The disc under review is the first to compete directly with the PIO in an all-Rebel concert, with only one difference of content between the two: Boutade on the earlier album is replaced here by La Terpsichore.


The first of Rebel’s ballets, Caprice , was composed in 1711 for the celebrated danseuse seule of the Paris Opera, Françoise Prévost. (They collaborated repeatedly. So did their children, for Rebel’s son, the composer François, and La Prévost’s daughter, Anne, married in 1733.) It was a very short work, under four minutes in performance, skillfully employing a playful imitation of the Flamenco folk style. It was also experimental in its way, as an attempt to divorce dance on the official stage from the larger, literarily driven plot concerns of comic and tragic opera. Within a few years, the efforts of Rebel and other composers bore fruit, leading to the creation of a new, recognized art form: the ballet-pantomime or ballet d’action , in which a narrative and its emotional context were conveyed through dance steps, gestures, costuming, and music. At the other end of the time scale from Caprice stands Rebel’s final work, the well-known Les élémens , a 23-minute ballet composed when he was over 70, and a depiction of the elemental world defined by Empedocles—air, fire, water, and earth—forming out of chaos. Between these, the most interesting is Les caractères de la danse , an uninterrupted, kaleidoscopic series of 14 short dances that deliberately emphasizes its joints through regular shifts in rhythm, tempo, texture, meter, and orchestral color. If Les élémens hadn’t grabbed musical attention with its introductory depiction of primordial Chaos as an octave-based tonal cluster, I suspect we’d have heard from Les caractères a lot sooner than we have. It is the finer of the two works, more rhythmically and thematically inventive, and more harmonically daring overall.


A comparison of this version of Les caractères with Bernardini/Harmony of Nations reveals some interesting distinctions in approach. Bernardini pursues slower tempos in slow dances, and faster tempos in fast ones, than does Cuiller. He also accents rhythms more aggressively. There is no lack of well-defined rhythms in Cuiller’s performances, but there is a slightly stolid, non-theatrical air about the proceedings, despite some superb playing by Arion. On the other hand, though of approximately the same ensemble size—20 members—Arion has the richer, more full-bodied sound. Harmony of Nations, with fewer winds but one more violinist and violist, produces a lighter, narrower tone. This accounts at least in part for the greater range of orchestral color Arion evokes in its performances, from the delicacy of the Sarabande in Les caractères to the frenetic brightness of the Tamborin from La fantaisie , to the pungent horns of the Loure marked “La chasse” in Les élémens.


If you want just Les caractères , then, the matter is a tossup between Bernardini and Cuiller, though I incline slightly to the latter. For Les élémens , I still prefer Gaigg/L’Orfeo Baroque O (Phoenix Edition 110; reviewed in Fanfare 32:3). Their playing is crisp, and rich in character. But if you want a very good version on one album of more Rebel than just these two ballets, the only good choice is Cuiller. It’s a very good choice indeed; and despite minor reservations, I have no hesitancy in recommending it for both the playing and the music.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

Frescobaldi, G.: Affetti cantabile

Includes sonata(s) for flute and basso continuo by J. C. F. Bach. Soloists: Gary Cooper, Claire Guimond, Jaap ter Linden.

Vivaldi, A.: Chiaroscuro

Take in the vibrant colors of flutes and strings in this new album devoted to two somewhat rebel representatives of the German late baroque, Telemann and Quantz. Disobeying their parents in order to persevere in music, they were also able to distance themselves from certain burdens of the past to propose fresh and galant music. The spirited playing of flutists Claire Guimond and Alexa Raine-Wright, as well as the warm tone of violist Jean-Louis Blouin will more than do justice to these charming and lively works. Arion Baroque Orchestra Founded in 1981 in Montreal, Arion Baroque Orchestra is now a cornerstone in the world of early music on period instruments in Quebec and Canada. The clarity and freshness of Arion’s interpretations have been remarked upon since its first concerts; the delicacy of its readings of well-chosen and varied works has never wavered in more than 30 years. Constant attention to detail has earned the orchestra, led by the enlightened artistic vision of flutist Claire Guimond, a place among the most renowned early music ensembles in North America and throughout the world. The Orchestra offers a prestigious Montreal concert Series at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Bourgie Concert Hall featuring more than twenty musicians and with the participation of internationally renowned guest conductors. Arion has hosted such celebrated conductors as Stefano Montanari, Jaap ter Linden, Monica Huggett, Christophe Rousset, Barthold Kuijken, Rachel Podger and Elizabeth Wallfisch, to name just a few. Arion has been awarded many prizes and grants and tours regularly in the United States, Mexico, Europe and Japan, as well as Quebec and Canada.

TELEMANN Concertos grosso: in e, TWV 53:e 1; in b, TWV 53:h 1; Concertos: in a, TWV 52:a 1; in F, TWV 51:F 1; in B?, TWV 52:B 1; in e, TWV 52:e 1 • Jaap ter Linden, cond; Matthias Maute (rcr); Sophie Larivière (rcr); Claire Guimond (Baroque fl); Mika Putterman (Baroque fl); Arion (period instruments) • early-music.com 7763 (73:27)


The biggest problem with the present CD is that, although I received it only a short while ago, it is actually a 2004 release that was re-released in 2008. Does that really constitute a problem? To you, dear reader, not at all. But to me, it does, because it means that I may not be able to choose it for my next Want List. And it certainly deserves that distinction. This CD is extraordinary in many ways, starting with the absolutely perfect choice of works. Granted, Telemann concertos are more or less foolproof, and it takes a pretty bad musician to ruin any piece by this composer. But even so, among all the delicious Telemann concertos available, these are some of the most scrumptious. Furthermore, they are served to the listener on a silver plate, with the best of sauces, and cooked by the best chefs.


The long, spectacular, cadenza by Matthias Maute in the Concerto for recorder (TWV 51:F 1) would be enough to raise the disc to Want List status, but it is only a bonus to a firework performance. If you thought that the recorder is a shrill, piercing whistle that could never be considered a real instrument (and I will say this quietly: you are not alone!) you will have to reconsider. Even in the highest notes, up there in the third register, Maute manages to sing and make music, to have a ball with the phrases while displaying the utmost degree of virtuosity.


The enthralling flute and recorder Concerto (TWV 52:e 1) is a perennial favorite: since the flute/recorder combination was extremely rare in the Baroque, this Concerto is one of the few instances where both instruments can interact, and has become a proving ground for all early-music ensembles that feature both wind instruments—that is, most of the existing groups in activity today. Even so, the present version will find few rivals in the recording market. Both Maute and Claire Guimond play with assurance and joy, and respond to each other with simultaneous precision and liberty, a rare combination. Intonation—usually a big concern in this work, especially in the slow movement in the difficult key of E Major—seems to present no challenge to this fine group of musicians.


I just spent a paragraph to speak of one concerto, and used more adjectives than I usually do in a whole review. Frankly, this would be the case of every concerto included in the disc, if I were to comment on each one separately. Both Sophie Larivière and Mika Putterman manage to match their formidable colleagues in talent and tone quality, and so the whole disc flows easily, and seems to end too soon. I will be quite direct: simply put, this is one of the best flute CDs that I have heard in quite a while, and it belongs in every library and collection.


FANFARE: Laura Rónai

BACH Toccata in e, BWV 914. Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in d, BWV 903 . Fantasy in d, BWV 906. The Musical Offering: Ricercar a 3. Overture in the French Style, BWV 831 • Hank Knox (hpd) • EARLY-MUSIC.COM (57:03)


The keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach are surely some of the most recorded in history, so when one receives a disc accompanied by a sheet of PR, the immediate response is to see how this may differ from the veritable forest of recordings out there. This is especially the case with a new release of an artist, in this case harpsichordist Hank Knox, whose work is expected to correspond to a road tour along with the disc. Knox is no stranger to the field, having collaborated with some of the main figures of the early music repertory, such as Max von Egmont, Roger Norrington, Trevor Pinnock, and Andrew Parrott. Moreover, he has also participated in numerous other recordings on some impressive labels, so it is somewhat of a surprise when a home-grown, apparently Internet-generated label is used. I confess never to have heard of Early-Music.com, though the context is a recital (in advance of the tour) at Montréal University, where Knox teaches.


All hyperbole generated by the publicist aside, the disc contains pieces that display some of Bach’s most inventive counterpoint. Many works are from the 1735 Clavierübungen , a collection that has become a staple of keyboardists everywhere. I counted about 70 discs, ranging from Glenn Gould (it seems that this collection was one of his favorites) to Helga Sommer on EMG Classics from this year, so there is no shortage of interpretations. Add another 50 or so for the Toccata and well over 100 for the Chromatic Fantasy , and one has a cornucopia of versions from which to choose, most of which are perfectly acceptable. This disc simply adds to the abundance, and one finds it a bit difficult to find unique exceptional qualities or nuances that would set it apart.


Knox’s playing is certainly quite good, though he could have taken more advantage of changes in the registration of the instrument (that is, using more stops), and sometimes the sound is too reverberant, but the performances are certainly robust. The tempos are all quite deliberate, which makes the music speak, perhaps a bit cautiously but adroitly. While if one needs another copy of any of the works, this will suit admirably, but it will be one of a choice of many competitors of equal excellence. The choice therefore will be mainly an individual one.


FANFARE: Bertil van Boer

Les trésors cachés d'italie

In this recording, the performers have created various ensemble combinations featuring the instruments Francois Chauvon (1710-40) specifies, thus giving rise to interesting contrasts of timbre and texture. These musicians bring passion and a taste for discovery of chamber music; and are undisputedly among the best players in North America of their respective instruments in the filed of Early Music.

Italia: Bellissima Seicento • Manfredo Kraemer (vn); Michael McGraw (dulcian); Elisabeth Wright (hpd, Org); Dolores Gostoyas (thb) • EARLY-MUSIC.COM 7774 (73:20)


Music by BERTOLI, CASTELLO, FONTANA, FRESCOBALDI, MARINI, PICCININI


The origins of instrumental musical genres seem to lie mainly around the beginning of the 17th century, when pieces such as sonatas, canzonas, and toccatas emerged from the already popular dances that formed the bulk of published consort music of the age. Of course, keyboard collections such as Parthenia and the works of Jan Sweelinck were already appearing, but the concept of musica da camera began to be popular in the various courts in Italy, being somewhat of a novelty. As precedents were relatively few, these early attempts were often rather short, generally around five minutes in length, and consisted of a number of alternating dance or series of contrapuntal movements that followed in quick succession.


This disc presents a rather good variety of these early works by Dario Castello, Giovanni Fontana, Ercole Pasquini, Alessandro Piccinini, and Giovanni Bertoli, all relatively obscure, along with Biagio Marini and Girolamo Frescobaldi, who appear in music history texts somewhat more regularly. All of them published collections of volumes of instrumental works that were meant to be performed by generic combinations of instruments, including keyboard solo. Of course, the violin was making its first appearance as a dominant instrument, and so there is more than a hint that this was used as the melody, but a number of combinations were always possible. For instance, Dario Castello, who apparently died of the plague about 1630, was a dulcian player (the dulcian being a forerunner of the bassoon) and therefore on might expect that he would favor that instrument, as would Bertoli, who was also a virtuoso. Frescobaldi was a well-regarded organist, as was Pasquini, and therefore their works would feature the keyboard, a harpsichord in the case of the former. Marini and Fontana were violinists and Piccinini a lutenist, and thus their focus is not unexpected in these series of “sonatas” drawn from the published collections. Again, all of this comes at the very beginning of the rise of Baroque instrumental genres, and as such seems to be blazing new pathways, even with Pasquini’s interesting take on the madrigal Ancor che col partire by Cirpriano di Rore, one of his predecessors.


I am especially partial to the dulcian playing by Michael McGraw, who weaves his way around the instrument with ease and dexterity. He does blend well with Manfredo Kraemer’s violin, which is a rather difficult thing to do. This makes the four sonatas by Castello, in which the dulcian part would tax even a modern bassoon, come alive. The violin even does a nice imitation in Fontana’s Sonata’s middle movement, which is a page right out of monodic opera, something one usually attributes to the voice alone. The two theorbo pieces by Piccinini, a stately Toccata and a flowing Corrente, are performed with a nice, resonant sound by theorbo player Dolores Gostoyas. When she unites with the harpsichord, one has a wonderfully adept continuo grouping to offset the sometimes gnarly melodic lines. At the very end, the second half of the Castello Sonata Ottava is repeated, this time as recorded in front of a live audience (there is clapping at the end, so be warned). This gives a comparison between the more static studio and the excitement of a real audience and concert hall, though to tell the truth, I can’t find any real differences, apart from the occasional resonance issue in the hall.


This disc, apparently available mainly online, is a Canadian production recorded in Uruguay, which hopefully augurs well for other American (North and South) productions of the same sort. It may not have as singular a focus as other programmatic or single-composer discs have, but it does present a lively and well-performed sampling of the instrumental music of this emerging genre. Moreover, the added excellence of the dulcian makes for a remarkable early Baroque experience that is musical, tasteful, and decorative. Recommended.


FANFARE: Bertil van Boer

GEMINIANI Selected harpsichord works • Hank Knox (hpd) • EARLY-MUSIC.COM 7772 (62:46)


When we think of Baroque composers for the harpsichord, certain names spring to mind: Rameau, François Couperin, Domenico Scarlatti, Bach, and Handel; perhaps Duphly, Seixas, Louis Couperin, a few others. Geminiani is not among these. He was celebrated during his lifetime as a composer, a theorist, a violinist with an unusually sweet and beguiling tone that served him well, according to one account, in his final concert, two years before his death at the age of 74. But what this album presents is harpsichord music by Geminiani.


These are arrangements of movements drawn from sonatas originally written for violin and accompaniment. The op. 1 collection that supplies two of the pieces on this album was first published in 1716, and the op. 2 collection that furnishes one cut was transcribed from concerti grossi published in 1732. All but one of the remaining 10 selections (a minuet, described in the liner notes as deriving from an unknown source, presumably part of the group of minuets by the composer published in various 18th-century anthologies) come from Geminiani’s op. 4 of 1739. The keyboard arrangements appeared in 1743, both in Paris and London, as Pièces de clavecin tirées des diffrens ouvrages de Mr. F. Geminiani adaptées par luy même . These would prove popular, especially in conservative England, where some were reprinted as late as 1778. Indeed, Geminiani was to remain a name to conjure with in British musical circles long after his star faded elsewhere. As late as 1792, the brilliant amateur composer John Marsh mentions in his diaries a public concert in which a talented friend included Marsh’s own organ transcription of a Geminiani “violin concerto.”


The arrangements are densely idiomatic, surprisingly so when one considers both their origins for violin and continuo, as well as the composer’s lack of known expertise on the instrument. Knox speculates that it was in 1742, while arranging for the publication of his music in Paris “drawn partly by the superiority of French music engravers” (though not mentioning how the composer no doubt wished as well to secure some financial restitution before the notorious Parisian publishers pirated his new publications) that Geminiani heard Duphly, Daquin, and Rameau in the salon of Madame Duhalley and her daughter. He might have learned something from these recitals, but it’s equally likely that he kept abreast of French developments through these same composers’ publications. In any case, the result is a fluently professional manner that moves easily between the styles of the French and Italian schools, as in the sonata movements marked tendrement and vivement of op. 4/5 (the latter with overtones of Domenico Scarlatti, who also puts in an appearance in the gigue marked vivement of op. 4/4). This is imaginative, at times fanciful music that displays a gift to charm, while neglecting nothing in the way of technical or structural finesse.


Hank Knox manages the dual legacy of the French and Italian schools with ease. He is flexible where flexibility is clearly called for, as in the op. 4/8 movement marked amoureusement , and just as solidly rhythmic as required in the modérément from op. 4/6, or the gayment from op. 4/1. The fugato movement from op. 1/6 finds something between the two, both regular enough to maintain forward motion while phrasing elastically to highlight the harmonic underpinnings of each important entry. Technically there are no problems, tempos are well selected, and an understanding of each piece’s salient musical points is apparent. Knox’s sympathetic treatment of the tendrement from op. 4/5 gives me hope we’ll at some point hear his Rameau.


In the manner of ornamentation, Geminiani, like François Couperin, was explicit in defining appropriate ornamentation of “good taste,” that he stated in one of his treatises was a matter of “expressing with Strength and Delicacy the Intention of the Composer.” He described 14 ornaments, as well as acciaccature , a dissonant note in a chord that is rolled upward or played simultaneously. He wrote out ornamented changes in repeated passages as well, supplying figurations or variations to the treble. Knox wisely chooses to follow Geminiani, or where no ornamentation is provided to proceed along similar lines.


Sound is good, with close miking of a sweet but bright instrument created by Jacob and Abraham Kirckmann in 1772, the earliest surviving harpsichord by the uncle-and-nephew builders. It includes an innovative “machine stop” that instantly changes between one and all registers. (Jacob Kirckmann was to prove less amenable to innovation when it came to installing Adam Walker’s so-called “Celestina stop” in a new harpsichord ordered by Thomas Jefferson 14 years later, because he felt the resin used on the silk thread ultimately destroyed the instrument’s entire tone. But the amiable Jefferson, as usual, knew his own mind, and the Celestina stop was installed.)


I’ve only one minor quibble. In his liner notes to this release, Knox offers the fact that Geminiani refused the post of Master of State Music in Ireland in evidence that the composer avoided permanent institutional positions. Knox may not have been aware that it was made conditional upon Geminiani converting from Roman Catholicism to Church of England. In any case, Geminiani never lacked for patrons in his adopted land, and seemed to have an instinctive gift for getting along with others that several of his other Italian violinist colleagues (including Veracini and Vivaldi) lacked.


Recommended? But of course. This is fine, highly characterized music, excellently played. More, if you please.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

Couture, Johanne: La belle homicide

HAYDN Symphonies: No. 41 in C; No. 49 in f, “La passione”; No. 44 in e, “Trauer” • Gary Cooper, cond; Arion Baroque O (period instruments) • EARLY MUSIC 7769 (70:22)


Opening the shrink-wrap, I think, “Oh, no; not another ensemble doing Haydn symphonies. Two minutes later I am whooping with glee. How is it possible that performances of Haydn symphonies keep getting better and better? If there were any doubt that 15 period instruments can raise the roof, this CD settles it. The Montreal ensemble, led by Gary Cooper (yup) from the harpsichord, plays with staggering virtuosity and winning panache; there is a delicious crunch to its f attacks and an appealing buzz to its sf . Arion has a horn-player (or two!) who outdoes even Anthony Halstead on the natural horn, and its period oboes are unusually warm and solid, free of squeals or honks. Cooper uses an (authenticated) alternate version of the score of the C-Major Symphony: in place of the trumpets, normal horns, and timpani listed in the published score—used by Max Goberman, Derek Solomons, and Thomas Fey—it features a pair of high horns in C-alt, in addition to the normal oboes and strings, plus a solo transverse flute in the Andante. The fanfares in the opening Allegro con spirito are far more exciting on these horns than on trumpets; this is a wonderful performance throughout, one that reveals various lacks and excesses in the other three recordings. Cooper takes both repeats in sonata-form movements, but not the second one in the Andante or those in the Menuet da capo.


Cooper’s readings of the minor-key symphonies are sensitive and beautifully played, but he downplays their Sturm-und-Drang character. Violins in “La passione” are effectively damped to reduce their sheen. Cooper, like Solomons, plays both repeats in the opening Adagio, but Fey, who does not play the second repeat, achieves greater power and depth with much slower tempos and longer rests. It’s difficult to believe that Fey’s strings, with their aching tang, are not gut. As I reported in Fanfare 30: 3, Fey nearly equals the classic Scherchen performance, which is blemished by messy execution and poor monaural sound. In “La passione,” Fey’s artistry triumphs over Solomons’s and Cooper’s political correctness.


The laurels revert to Cooper in the E-Minor Symphony. His opening Allegro con brio bursts with an unmatched vitality; his Presto finale is fast and furious, but just enough slower than Fey’s (31:5) to avoid the sense of panic that creeps in there. Neither performance suggests the spirit of mourning implied by the symphony’s title (for that one must return to Scherchen), but Arion’s playing is so spectacular that I prefer its “Trauer” to all others. Cooper’s Montrealers also produce richer tone than Fey’s Heidelbergers, due in part to the gorgeous recorded sound captured in Quebec’s Saint-Augustin de Mirabel.


Many recent discs of Haydn symphonies have included one superior performance along with one or two lesser outings, which makes for a lot of duplication in one’s collection. At least Cooper hits two out of three.


FANFARE: James H. North