OCKEGHEM Missa cujusvis toni. Missa prolationum • The Sound and the Fury • FRA BERNARDO 1302202 (2 CDs: 107:54)


Johannes Ockeghem (c.1420–1497) served in the French royal chapel from 1451 until his death. He became Trésorier of the abbey of St. Martin in Tours in 1458 or 1459, and was highly favored by King Charles VII and his successors (who were the titular abbots of St. Martin), being renowned as a basso profundo and as a composer of rare originality. His date of birth, cited as anywhere from 1410 to 1430, is no more than guesswork, for there is simply nothing from his early life to specify it. The standard dating is 1410, now regarded as unrealistically early, while 1425 and 1430 have been cited much less often; 1420 has become more widely accepted in recent decades (but not in The New Grove II ). He wrote 15 Masses, at least four motets, and enough secular songs to fill two CDs on L’Oiseau-Lyre ( Fanfare 6:5 for the three LPs). A dozen of his Masses were composed on a chant cantus firmus , but the two Masses heard here are speculative Masses not based on a pre-existing model.


The “Mass in whatever mode” has no clefs, so it may be sung in any mode. In 1992 George Houle published a set of four editions of the Mass, using the four maneria or pairs of modes—Dorian or mode 1 (on re ), Phrygian or mode 3 (on mi ), Lydian or mode 5 (on fa ), and Mixolydian or mode 7 (on sol )—to yield four renditions that each sound different because the half-steps ( mi/fa and ti/do ) occur at different points in the melodies. Houle allowed that the Phrygian works best, the Mixolydian well enough, the Lydian and Dorian more poorly. The reason is the need to avoid tritones (both linear and harmonic) and mi contra fa by adding accidentals, which the singers must improvise as they sing, not an easy task now and probably not then either. This idea was not original with him, for it was implicit in the early recordings by Claude Panterne and Daniel Meier, both using the Phrygian mode, and explicit with Siegfried Heinrich (5:2) and Edward Wickham (23:1). Heinrich also sang the Mass in the Mixolydian mode, and Wickham added two movements in fa-ut to his recording, calling them Mixolydian as well. It reached its fulfillment in the recent versions by Lucien Kandel (32:2), who provided for the first time four full performances of the Mass.


Another solution, proposed by the 16th-century Swiss theorist Glarean in his Dodecachordon (1547), indicated that the Mass could be realized on ut ( do ), re , or mi . Jaap van Benthem followed his approach when he published this Mass in his edition of all of Ockeghem’s Masses in 1994. The version on ut was recorded by Peter Urquhart in 1996 (not reviewed here), and this new version by The Sound and the Fury, annotated by van Benthem, offers all three possibilities, re (Dorian), mi (Phrygian), and fa-ut , which he calls “a combination of Lydian and Mixolydian.” This phrase would be hard to understand, but fa , which should be Lydian, transposed to ut sounds more like Mixolydian because of all the accidentals. This alone makes the discs by Kandel and The Sound and the Fury complementary issues, each a complete presentation of one approach. There is one more recording, of Clytus Gottwald performing his own arrangement of the Mass in the Dorian mode, a 1981 broadcast issued in 1998.


The other disc in this set is very short, since it has only the Missa prolationum . The name refers to prolation, or time signature. Prolation is the medieval manner of dividing the semibreve into either three or two minims, while tempus is the division of the breve into either three semibreves ( tempus perfectum ) or two semibreves ( tempus imperfectum ). The music is written in two parts but each part is sung in a different tempus and a different prolation, making a double canon in four parts. The Mass begins with the Kyrie I as a double canon in unison, the Christe as a double canon at the second, the Kyrie II at the third, and so on up to the liturgical climax of the Mass at the consecration of bread and wine, when the double canon at the octave is sung to the Hosanna. (Hair-raising, I called it last time.) The magical effect on the hearers did not depend on knowing or understanding the technical feat—it was simply a profound musical effect. Later commentators found it irresistible to discuss Ockeghem’s techniques, detracting from an appreciation of the beauty of his music. This performance is practically identical in tempo to Edward Wickham’s (19:2), but both are much faster than Lucien Kandel’s stunning version (36:6).


In the last seven years, The Sound and the Fury has made a dozen recordings of early Renaissance Masses for ORF and this related label, many of them first recordings. The familiar names among the five singers are tenors John Potter and Hans Jörg Mammel. Note that Kandel also recorded both Masses in separate issues and Wickham included both on separate discs of his complete sacred music of Ockeghem. (Gottwald’s radio broadcasts of both Masses have also been issued.) The new group sings one voice to a part, unlike the other two, with two voices to a part. This group has a countertenor on top and sings a tone lower than Wickham and a tone and a half lower than Kandel. (It is not clear how the four vocal parts of these Masses are assigned to the five singers, including three tenors.) The voices are captured up close, with countertenor Alessandro Carmignani rather prominent, while Kandel and Wickham both have a warmer sound. Kandel’s broader tempos in this Mass confer an added solemnity that is realized completely in the Hosanna.


In a salient point that will be found hidden in tiny type, these performances were all recorded live (no date or place given), a rather remarkable feat for such complex music, the Missa prolationum having been recorded five years ago for the ORF Edition Alte Musik series. The note adds that a CD-ROM track on the second disc has scores, texts, and biographies, but my iMac shows nothing but the five tracks of music. Now that Naxos has imported the two latest issues of this ensemble, I hope to hear the earlier entries in this series. For now, we have a useful foil to the different approach taken by Kandel in these two fascinating Masses.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

The first edition of The Creation by Joseph Haydn from 1803 is not composed with the German version of the world premiere in 1797, but the English version of the text which served Baron Gottfried van Swieten as a master copy. The release features a concert by Musica Saeculorum under the direction of Philipp von Steinaecker in the Cathedral of Brixen who used this English version of The Creation.

Classical Music

CARON Masses and Chansons • The Sound and the Fury • FRA BERNARDO 1207302 (3 CDs: 190:22)


Next to nothing is known of more than a few composers from the early Renaissance. Who is “Hyett,” that survives in a single work found in the Gyffard Partbooks? Who was the Trecento composer known only as “Maestro Piero,” of whom eight works (six madrigals, two examples of caccia ) remain?


It’s fairly safe to single out Firminus (in the Latin; or Fermin, or Fremin—popular names in Amiens at the time) Caron from that ghostly lot as the most illustrious in his day. Compère, no minor judge in matters musical, referred to Busnois, Dussart, and Caron as magister cantilenarum . Tinctorus wrote of Ockeghem, Busnois, Regis, and Caron as composing the most outstanding music he’d ever heard. (He also named Caron among several composers that were reported to him as poorly educated, as Tinctorus like his contemporaries set great store by a completed university education. But this was probably out of date when it was written, since in that same year, 1473, Caron is mentioned in a legal document as maistre , or Master of Arts.) Others among his contemporaries, as well as scholars of succeeding generations, continued to place Caron among the leading musicians of his time. The manuscript trading trails across Europe (their time’s equivalent of our group emails) that constituted the surest way of circulating sacred and secular music saw Caron’s works turning up repeatedly in Italy. He was popular, and a good thing, too, since although new and doctored texts by unknown hands not infrequently were added to extant works in transmission—editor Jaap van Benthem’s liner notes suggest this occurred to more than half Caron’s chansons—it helped save a good many of his compositions when the French Revolution went on a rampage through the cathedrals of France.


Yet little enough is known today of Caron’s life. Thanks to recently discovered source documents, a possible birth date has been suggested in the late 1430s, in Amiens. He may have come from a well-to-do middle class background, judging from a loan he regularly received payment on later in life, and the registered sale of a house with attachments owned by the man who was probably his deceased father: a well-to-do shoemaker with apprentices and servants. Beyond this lies that shadowy land named vague conjecture. He may have been trained at Cambrai, or in Amiens; may have worked in proximity to Busnois (“Accueilly m’a la belle” suggests the strong influence of the latter), and possibly known Dufay; may have served Charles the Bold in Burgundy—or at least, spent some time in some form of musical service there, accounting for his poor showing in the chansonniers compiled around 1470 in Loire Valley, part of the kingdom of France. His music begins turning up in fewer manuscripts in the mid-1470s, suggesting a possible terminus, but it’s more accurate to simply state that sources for any music he may have written at that time or later, assuming he lived that long, had dried up. Compared to the larger-than-life Busnois, Caron’s personality remains that of a shade.


It is the chansons that history repeatedly praises to us, but only seven are included here, and they comprise just two-thirds of one of the three discs on this new recording. As if to lower our expectations of them further, The Sound and the Fury (or at least their recording company, Fra Bernardo) has left out all texts and translations. I could wish they had done otherwise, as the entire lot collectively comprises a highlight of the set. Caron was innovative for his period, as Montagna notes in his “Caron, Hayne, Compère: a Transmission Reassessment,” for his imitative entrances, though he didn’t stop there. Those imitative textures are apt to occur flexibly, within a carefully varied texture that includes homophony, free movement, staggered, irregular contrapuntal entries (“Helas m’amour”) and the interplay of voices in quick exchange or diverse groups (“Mort du mercy”). The clarity of his parts at all times must be mentioned as well, along with the naturalness with which, at least in some of the of chansons heard here, Caron’s melodic line follows the phrasing of traditional French folksong (the short but charming “Du tout ainsi”). Geneviève Thibault, in her Grove I article on Caron, is just as enthusiastic while pointing out that his superius parts “have a beautiful melodic curve” that does not end with each verse line; and that’s certainly true of “Cuidez vous” and “S’il est ainsy.”


The five Masses supplied in this set ( L’Homme arme, Jesus autem, Accueilly m’a a la belle, Sanguis sanctorum, Clemens et benigna ) are in the five standard movements for their time and place: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. They all survive only in Italian sources, with the already mentioned caveat about text substitution applying. (As well as other caveats to accurate recreation: aging, ink corrosion, editorial transmission errors, and the crude, destructive cutting out of illuminated details have all played their part in rendering the results less than fully satisfactory.) The Sound and The Fury consists of five singers—a countertenor, two tenors, and two basses, along with a lutenist for “Du tout ainsi”—so there’s no doubling. This reinforces to our ears both Caron’s almost obsessively varied textures, and his preference for fragmenting the cantus firmus . Here, too, he was ahead of his time. In turn, Alan Atlas in his Renaissance Music takes evident delight in the way Caron incorporates an Italian song (“Madonna par la torno”), a French chanson (“Hélas, mestresse, m’amie”), and Johannes Joye’s chanson “Mercy mon duiel” into the Marian Mass, Clemens et benigna , in such a way as to make both textual and musical additions function as glosses.


Contrary to the norm in such matters, The Sound and the Fury isn’t a concertizing group. Aside from the very occasional recital, they gather solely for recording purposes, though they clearly spend much time in rehearsals. (You couldn’t get through this music with any semblance of dignity if you didn’t.) The Anglo-German ensemble focuses on the Franco-Flemish school and, if comments in the liner notes are any judge, they take the “sweet” side of the debate in matters of musica ficta . Their sound is tight and disciplined, with excellent enunciation and pitch control, though there are some moments (more in the chansons than in the Masses, oddly enough) where a few notes are split for breath’s sake. The engineering is among the best I’ve heard of sacred choral music of the period, being spacious and very forward, with a slight reverberance.


The texts would definitely help with the chansons, and the photographer responsible for the box’s artwork (the upper torso of some late teen looking out sternly, trying to impress us as he makes what he apparently figures is a karate chop with one hand) needs a courteous reminder of the music’s subject. But in all other respects I’m delighted with this set.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

BRUCKNER Symphony No. 1 (1866 vers) • Philipp von Steinaecker, cond; Musica Saeculorum • FRA BERNARDO 1310322 (47:57) Live: Musik Meran


The program notes to this recording state that the 60-person Musica Saeculorum opted to record Bruckner’s Symphony No. 1 in its original 1866 edition on period instruments in an effort “to identify any possible connection to Schubert and the early Romantics.” Harmonically, of course, Bruckner is worlds removed from Schubert and his contemporaries. But the use of period instruments does offer Bruckner a slightly more subdued timbral palette than most listeners are accustomed to in his music. The strings are somewhat darker, the brass a bit more veiled. Whether because of instrumentation, recording engineering, or conducting choices, though, I find that the strings have a tendency to overbalance the other instruments in tutti sections, occasionally making melodic material difficult to discern. This is my primary criticism of this disc. Bruckner at his most forceful can and should be overwhelming, but the counterpoint should always be clear; his tuttis mark the apotheoses of thematic material. In this recording, these passages tend to be rather murky and undifferentiated.


This criticism aside, Philipp von Steinaecker demonstrates a keen understanding of Bruckner’s aesthetic. The dotted rhythms of the first movement’s main theme are crisp and energetic, as are the horn’s responses. Von Steinaecker lingers appropriately on Bruckner’s extended passages of dominant harmony, building harmonic tension through strategic ritards in preparation for majestic statements in the brass. Even within string passages, though, figuration occasionally overshadows melody, as in the contrapuntal development of the first theme in the violins against sextuplet scales in the lower strings or the recapitulation of the second theme in the basses against eighth-note figuration in the upper strings. The modulatory passages that follow, however, are forceful and stern, and the rush to the final bars is quite exciting, though I would have liked the thematic material in the winds to be clearer.


Von Steinaecker’s is one of the more expansive readings of the symphony’s second movement, over a minute longer than Jochum’s. I find the expansiveness effective; the chromatic introduction becomes nebulous enough to make the eventual arrival of stable tonality a genuine relief. In the soaring passages that follow, though, minimal differentiation is made between melody and accompaniment. Von Steinaecker is sensitive to the ebb and flow of harmonic tension, but the melodic contours are lost throughout much of the movement.


The third movement is perhaps the most successful, with strong, almost violent accents and sharp contrasts in dynamics. At nearly a minute shorter than Jochum’s performance and 90 seconds briefer than Barenboim’s, it is among the more energetic recordings of this movement. I only wish that the brass dissonances toward the end received more weight. And the trio has the same problems with balance as the previous two movements: the motivic fourths in the horn are quite difficult to hear.


The fourth movement has almost no balance issues, although Bruckner’s orchestration is not particularly different in this movement than in the others. The opening pages are powerful and imposing, though I would have liked von Steinaecker to take an even greater ritard over the extended dominant harmonies that precede the second statement of the first theme. The second theme, stated in the violins with offbeat accents in the basses, is appropriately rustic. Likewise, von Steinaecker builds tension admirably before Bruckner’s characteristic pauses. The development maintains a consistent sense of direction. Von Steinaecker is particularly effective in his treatment of Bruckner’s obsessively-repeated scale fragments in the strings, which he leads gradually from background to foreground against the melodic material in the horns. The ending is triumphant and grand, though a broader ritard before the final cadence would have made it more so.


Because of the balance issues mentioned above, I cannot give this recording a wholehearted recommendation, but von Steinaecker’s conception of the piece is intelligent and appealing. The sound is generally crisp and live, with very slight tape hiss apparent at the beginnings and ends of tracks.


FANFARE: Myron Silberstein

Founded in 2011, Ensemble 392 is named after the French pitch for opera performance: A=392 Hertz. The group focuses primarily on French literature of the 17th and 18th centuries. For this album the group has chosen rare French cantatas and chansons by composers such as De la Guerre, Rameau, and more.

The international music world has long been familiar with both the name and music of Biber. Listeners too are now familiar with the legendary “Rosenkranz” sonatas or the mischievous “Sonata representative” composed by the musician once in service of Bishop Karl Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn. The magnificent sacred music that Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber von Bibern wrote as the prince-bishop’s Kapellmeister for Salzburg cathedral has also been highlighted in various festivals and recordings over recent years. Perhaps only scholars are aware of the fact that Biber also held the position of “Truchsess” (lord high steward) to the archbishop and was therefore responsible for the princely table. And as it turned out, one of the virtuoso violinist’s eleven sons (the eighth) succeeded his father in this honorable office. This may justifiably be considered an interesting but marginal detail of Salzburg history, but as you will no doubt appreciate after listening to this recording, the eighth child Carl Heinrich Biber, born on September 4th 1681 in Salzburg, had an important, even formative influence on the city’s musical life, and that only a few years before Mozart’s birth!

This release is a rediscovery of Ferdinando Bertoni’s fantastic opera seria, Orfeo. The work is based on the same libretto as Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Ensemble Lorenzo da Ponte, conducted by Roberto Zarpellon accompanies vocalists Vivica Genaux, Francesca Lombardi-Mazzulli, and Jan Petryka for this recording.

BACH Cantatas Nos. 199; 82b • Ruby Hughes (sop); Philipp von Steinaecker (cond); Musica Saeculorum (period instruments) • FRA BERNARDO 1209132 (47:22 Text and Translation)


Welsh soprano Ruby Hughes is new to me but hardly a newcomer to the music scene; her breakout year was 2009, when she won First Prize and Audience Prize at the Handel Singing Competition in London. Opera News included her in its list of “Who’s Hot in Opera?” Her credits, in concert music as well as opera, are already eye-catchingly impressive. She’s clearly a Baroque specialist, but her repertory, Handel aside, ranges from Dowland and Monteverdi to Berg, Britten, and Górecki. She’s even done Peer Gynt . I’d like to hear that—especially after listening to this disc.


The two cantatas affirm God’s redeeming grace, a recurring theme in Lutheran theology and, consequently, in Bach’s sacred music, but they approach it from different perspectives. In the earlier BWV 199, a wretched sinner’s self-loathing confession gives way to the joy of forgiving salvation. In BWV 82, composed 16 years later, the world-weary protagonist welcomes the peace and comfort of death in God’s loving embrace. Heavy stuff. Hughes brings a luminous intensity to both of these works, singing with flawless agility and an appealing vocal beauty, both with and without vibrato. I prefer the former, but discreetly mixing the two is considered desirable practice nowadays. FB’s note identifies Hughes as a mezzo-soprano, but she sings confidently and securely throughout the range, and she has chosen the soprano version of Ich habe genug (BWV 82b, with a traverso replacing the oboe as her instrumental partner). Without a doubt Hughes is the raison d’être for this venture, but Philipp von Steinarcker and Musica Saeculorum (led by concertmaster Kati Debretzeni and featuring oboist Molly Marsh and flutist Chiara Tonelli) provide splendid support.


Hughes’s program duplicates (but reverses) that of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson on a decade-old Nonesuch CD. Hunt Lieberson’s recording, made shortly before her premature death, was greatly admired (by yours truly and others) for its passionate energy. Hunt Lieberman may have a slight edge on Hughes in drama, but Hughes’s beauty of tone offers ample compensation.


FANFARE: George Chien

The Domkantorei St. Pölten, under the direction of Otto Kargl, is one of the most profound amateur choirs in Austria. The group was founded in 1992 by Kappelmeister Otto Kargle. It is an exquisite special ensemble with only about 20 members and the group is mainly concerned with music written prior to the year 1800 as well as contemporary choral literature. In addition to the liturgical service at the cathedral church in St. Polten, the ensemble regularly performs at the Carinthian Summer, the Brucknerhaus Linz, the Musica Sacra Festival, and the Festspielhaus St. Polten. Their repertoire includes the a cappella literature of the sixteenth century as well as church music of the Italian and German early baroque. Their latest release is a live recording of one of their concerts in which they performed Bach’s cheerful cantata “Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele”, which premiered in October 293 years ago, among others.

The typical Neapolitan dessert "Babà" originated across the Alps in Poland and is therefore a perfect synonym for the musical treasures of Alyos Thomas Raimund Count Harrach. The count, initially a diplomat in the imperical service and ultimately viceroy of naples, possessed an eclectic taste, ranging from music from German states and Viennes pieces to Neapolitan concerti. Buon appetito!

Before the early 20th century, any list of significant Western composers would have included Benedetto Marcello. Through his advocacy of a return to the proportional values and simplicity of ancient Roman civilization, he helped set the stage for the Classical era in Western music, soon to unseat the aesthetic norms of the Baroque in which he lived.

Hard to believe, but “Juditha triumphans” is the only oratorio by the extremely productive Antonio Vivaldi. This is all the more astonishing as the “Prete Rosso” was closely connected throughout his life with the famous Ospedale della Pietà in Venice. The reputation of the former concerts in this orphanage for girls still echoes far beyond Venice. Vivaldi has written “Juditha triumphans” for the young musicians. So it is not surprising that the work is also only performed with female voices—and this also in the choir. In this live recording Roberto Zarpellon brings together young singers whose passion for melancholic and fiery music is audible in every note.

How can one approach the interpretation, a reading and an analysis of a complex music that was not read in score in it's time? Printed in partbooks, written or handed down in folios in individual parts, everything must be thrown overboard when "reading", singing, listening, which at least in the past centuries has become traditional in the idea of "choral music", indeed in the reading of music in general. Flying blind, as it were - without exact knowledge of the course of the other voices - each singer once floated horizontally through the music. "beauty farm" embarks on an exploratory journey into this now alien world of Renaissance polyphony. The ensemble has recorded 19 motets by Nicolas Gombert according to new critical editions. Of course, some of them are world premiere recordings.

At the end of his journey with the suites for violoncello solo by Johann Sebastian Bach, Francesco Galligioni has arrived at the cheerful and fresh Suite No. 6. As an appendix, so to speak, the internationally renowned baroque cellist from Padua offers chamber music for violoncello by the Bach family. In addition to two sonatas by Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, famously called "Bückeburg Bach", the album offers a world premiere recording of an "Aria Scotese con variazzioni" - a Scottish song with variations by Johann Philipp Bach, who was court painter and organist of Saxe-Meiningen.