Classical Music

After pionieering one of the ground-breaking ensembles of Medieval music performance in the 90’s, Sinfonye, Stevie Wishart has in the meantime moved on to more experimental/electronic projects, which keeps her very present on stages all over the world, with deep hooks in Sydney, Brussels and London. Her interests have always been related to combining Medieval and contemporary aesthetics, which can also be appreciated in this Istampite recording, where she teams up with two percussionists, Jim Denley and Pedro Estevan, to support her deeply informed fiddle and hurdy-gurdy renderings of 14th-century Florentine repertoire. The challenge of creating music for a wide range of contexts is important to Wishart, such as composing for productions by Michele Noiret and Wayne McGregor, a large-scale choral work for a Proms commission with the BBC Singers and Sinfonye, and for the designer Philippe Starck. With the support of a Visiting Music Fellowship at the University of Cambridge she is currently composing a double-bass concerto for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenemtn, London and The Handel and Haydn Society Boston. Exploring music’s unique ability to express new ideas on a level which transcends other routes of communication motivates her work as a composer and improviser.

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The influence of the Franco-Flemish Renaissance composer Heinrich Isaac extends into today with his extraordinarily prolific output. The period ensemble, Cantica Symphonia led by Giuseppe Maletto gives an inspired performance in this release that features a cross section of Isaac's many motets, choral pieces along with the first time recording of the music for a mass setting, Missa Misericordias Domini.

Classical Music

The little-known composer Jean Hanelle was a petit vicaire (professional musician) at Cambrai Cathedral and possibly later a teacher of Guillaume Dufay, also spending more than 20 years from 1411 onwards at the French court of Lusignan in Nicosia, Cyprus, a stay which involved him becoming the chapelmaster there. According to leading scholars, Hanelle was the author of the ars subtilior cycle of Magnificat-antiphons- the so called “O” Antiphons traditionally performed during the last week of Advent- found in the Codex Cyprus and included in this new Graindelavoix production. Both the original troped plainchant and the Hanelle antiphons are presented in a series of nine pairs, between which the ensemble also performs an appropriate and context-defining selection of Maronite and Byzantine chants. The Belgian ensemble, as always directed by Bjorn Schmelzer, performs these pieces, marked by a moving beauty with one female and eight male singers, producing another of their peculiar and intriguing soundscapes. Alexandre Fostier has been responsible for engineering the recording. Therein he emphasizes Schmelzer’s aesthetic vision which considers this project as the second part of a diptych; the first part was the cutting-edge version of Guillaume de Machaut’s Mess de Nostre Dame, similarly recorded and released earlier this year.

Includes work(s) by George Frideric Handel. Ensemble: La Risonanza. Conductor: Fabio Bonizzoni. Soloists: Raffaella Milanesi, Salvo Vitale.

Fabio Biondi signs his fifth release on Glossa with a further opera exploration, here with Europa Galante and providing a vital interpretation of Handel’s late opera Imeneo, given in its serenade- style 1742 Dublin version.

If, by this date, the London public was tiring of the Italian opera in which Handel had been excelling for decades, and the composer was now turning both to the oratorio and in the direction of the galant style, he was still able to call upon divos and divas of the quality of La Francesina and Giovanni Battista Andreoni to perform his music. Though not a success in its Lincoln’s Inn Fields staging in London, Imeneo was performed by Handel as his only Italian work during his season in Dublin (which also saw the first performance of Messiah), complete with additional arias to add to those praised in 1740 and a pruning of the libretto (which hadn’t received approval).

The revised story turns on Tirinto (Ann Hallenberg in Biondi’s modern-day production, as performed at the Handel Festival in Halle) pining for his beloved and kidnapped Rosmene (Monica Piccinini). Her liberation by Imeneo (Magnus Staveland) leads to Rosmene being required to decide which of the two Athenians to wed. Hymen – as Handel’s work was known in Dublin – was the god of marriage, and so, will love overcome duty and reason or not? Fabio Biondi, directing from the violin, brings all his own experience in both Italian music and music from the eighteenth century in delivering a stunning vindication of an unfairly neglected Handel opera.

Fabio Bonizzoni returns with a further Glossa release dedicated to the chamber vocal output of Georg Friedrich Handel: here, a second volume of duets (and trios), which features the vocal talents of Roberta Invernizzi, Silvia Frigato, Thomas Bauer and Krystian Adam.

Whilst Handel wrote these small-scale vocal works across his career, this new selection focuses on that astonishingly fertile brief stay that the young Saxon made in Italy from 1707-09 (when he also produced many of the cantatas which Bonizzoni has recorded to great critical success for Glossa). These sensual duets and trios are imbued with Handel’s discovery of Italian – especially the Arcadian – culture, which included him hearing and understanding the music of Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti. How quickly and successfully Handel developed the chamber duet form is discussed in another of Stefano Russomanno’s detailed explorations of Handel’s music in the booklet essay.

Much of the music for these duets and trios on this recording is scored for soprano and bass singers and Roberta Invernizzi, in particular, is afforded another opportunity to demonstrate her magical reaction to Handel’s responsiveness to the Italian language. Not to be outdone in this respect are also the other vocal solists and of course the experienced continuo team from La Risonanza: Caterina Dell’Angello (cello), Evangelina Mascardi (theorbo) and Fabio Bonizzoni himself (harpsichord). - Glossa

George Frideric Handel's Duetti da camera from La Risonanza represent a welcome extension of the ensemble's award-winning series of Handel solo cantatas on Glossa, and come with the luxurious vocal pairing of Roberta Invernizzi and Marina De Liso. These chamber duets - scored for soprano and alto - were written across a period spanning four decades: first, after Handel's move to Hanover in 1710, following his remarkable Italian compositional apprenticeship which yielded quantities of cantatas, motets and instrumental chamber works; next in the 1720s, when he was writing Italian operas and music for the Court in London; and lastly when he was composing English oratorios in the 1740s. Such vocal duos had become part of an established tradition, especially in Italy, during the late 17th century. Soprano Roberta Invernizzi who has, in the last few years, been supplying Italian grace and charm to many Glossa recordings (including the recent La bella più bella) is ideally matched by Marina De Liso, whose rich mezzo tones have made her another firm audience favourite across the Baroque and Classical repertories. Fabio Bonizzoni, with his sure sense of Handel's expressiveness and melodic facility, provides luxurious continuo support on the harpsichord across these ten chamber duets - originally written for cultured aristocrats but later composed for professional singers, as Carlo Vitali explains in his perceptive booklet essay - with the assistance of cellist Caterina Dell'Agnello and theorbo player Craig Marchitelli.

By bringing Catone to disc, Carlo Ipata is celebrating the pasticcio, especially those curated by George Frederic Handel, as is the case wtih this new Glossa release. In a co-production involving the Fondazione Teatro di Pisa and the Handel Festpiele Halle, Ipata brings a further slant on Handel's oepratic career in London: whilst being busy with running the second Royal Academy of Music and writing his own operas, the composer was striving to present London audiences with selections from the best of recent Italian operas by other composers - all at the same time as giving his star singers the opportunity to show off early in the opera company's season. One result was Catone in 1732, with music by Leo, Hasse, Vivaldi, Vinci, Porpora as well as by Handel himself: company members included Senesino, Anna Maria Strada del Po and Antonio Montagnana. For this Halle performance Carlo Ipata has brought together a modern-day starry cast - Sonia Prina, Roberta Invernizzi, Riccardo Novaro, Kristina Hammarstrom and Lucia Cirillo - to sing the tale of the noble Roman Republican senator finding himself on the losing side of the battles with Julius Caesar and with his daughter being in love with the conquering general. Angela Romagnoli provides a resounding defence of the Handelian pasticcio in her booklet essay. The pasticcio's plot functions admirably, the arias are stunning, both individually and collectively: the recording is a feast of sparkling crowd-pleasing virtuosity.

HANDEL Aci, Galatea e Polifemo • Fabio Bonizzoni, cond; Roberta Invernizzi ( Aci ); Blandine Staskiewicz ( Galatea ); Lisandro Abadie ( Polifemo ); La Risonanza • GLOSSA 921515 (2 CDs: 90:21 Text and Translation)


As a general rule, the librettos of wedding serenatas were the most fawning of any works in the voice-with-orchestra format, from the 17th through the 19th centuries. A typical example that I reviewed recently—Heinichen’s La gara degli dei (Berlin Classics 0300544BC)—had a plot that consisted of nothing more than several major Greco-Roman gods delivering obsequious praise for a royal couple about to be wed, with Jove deciding which flattery came nearest the truth. That was the standard. Which is why the choice of subject that the highly cultured Aurora Sanseverino, Duchess d’Laurenzana provided for a serenata gift to her nephew, Duke Tolomeo d’Alvito upon his 1708 wedding, strikes such a discordant note with us today.


Consider: While the setting is still Greco-Roman, there is no praise of weddings in general or the wedded pair in specific, either directly or indirectly. Not only don’t the lovers in Aci, Galatea e Polifemo end up married; one of them ends up murdered. If she meant it as a slur, the Countess would hardly have turned it into a twofer, having the work subsequently performed again at the marriage of her own son, Count Pasquale d’Alife. It’s been suggested that she intended this as an Italian effort to ward off the evil eye through reverse rituals, but most contemporary wedding serenatas don’t take this course. (And if that were the case, the ward failed: Both bridegrooms died within a relatively short time.) Was there perhaps a Christian message involved—that the body dies, but the soul (represented by Galatea transformed after death into a river that joins Neptune’s ocean) lives on?


Whatever the reason, Aci, Galatea e Polifemo has been one of the more frequently performed of Handel’s Italian-period works in modern times, if not to the extent of his 1707 oratorio Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno . The composer’s style had fully matured. His ability to absorb new musical developments and turn them to maximum advantage was everywhere evident. He seems to have relished the ability to create vivid characterizations, in a musical environment that delighted in such a skill.


The serenata has also been fortunate on records. Medlam/London Baroque (now on Harmonia Mundi 1901253) remains a joy more than two decades after its release, combining an austere touch in regard to ornamentation and a lightness suited to the intimate, chamber-like nature of the piece. I have not heard Marco Vitale/Contrasto Armonico Baroque Orchestra, (Brilliant Classics 93665), and honestly wish I hadn’t heard the dismal Ciavatta/Camerata del Titano (Dynamic 272). My review of the DVD featuring Florio/Cappella della Pietà de’ Turchini (Dynamic 33645) found it mixed on a musical level (Mingardo and Rosique strong, Abede severely off form), while the visuals were both overly clever and almost entirely divorced for the work. This brings us to Haïm/Le Concert d’Astrée (Virgin Classics 45557), a bold rethinking of the piece that ornaments highly, and implements far broader differences in tempo linked to a deeper perusal of character—most notably so in the case of Laurent Naouri’s Polifemo.


Fabio Bonizzoni’s Aci was initially announced over a year ago. The cover states it was recorded in June 2012, but for whatever reason it was held back until now. In some ways it marks a middle path between Medlam and Haïm. Light textures predominate, and tempos are close to Medlam, but ornamentation in da capo aria repeats is more extensive. Bonizzoni’s small instrumental ensemble (15 musicians, not counting the conductor at the harpsichord) allows his oboe, recorder, pair of trumpets, and strings to shine out with a chamber-like clarity. I am second to no one in my appreciation of Emma Kirkby’s art, but Roberta Invernezzi’s brighter tone and more forthright theatricality (she actually makes the eagle metaphors of “Dell’aquila l’artigli” sound threatening) move matters closer to Haïm. I singled out Blandine Staskiewicz in the small role of Minerve in Campra’s Le Carnival de Venise (Glossa 921622) and praised her focus in Lully’s Proserpine (Glossa 921615). Her agility (“Cadrai depressa e vinta”) and sensitivity (“Se m’ami, o caro”) are excellent; and with a Galatea of this skill, Bonizzoni is not above utilizing Haïm-like dramatically contrasting tempos in sections of “Del mar fra l’onde” to make so much more of her characterization.


But the most impressive thing on this release is Lisandro Abadie’s Polifemo. His “Sibilar l’angui d’Aletto” displays a dark, sonorous bass, and a bright, supported, top. Deep notes hit solidly, at full strength. He is extremely agile, yet capable of cantabile phrasing made all the smoother for its rapid, well-controlled vibrato. Abadie’s enunciation is excellent, and the broad leaps Handel uses to give us a musical image of the giant’s ungraceful movements come off without a hitch. Substitute more fine examples of range, breath control, and tone for agility, and you have his astonishing “Fra l’ombre e gli orrori.” Neither David Thomas (Medlam) nor Laurent Naouri (Haïm) come within hailing distance of this Polifemo.


La Risonanza is to be commended for its clarity, tonal beauty, and fluid phrasing. It remains only to be mentioned that to conclude his series dedicated to Handel’s Italian cantatas, Bonizzoni adds as a bonus track the duet that originally concluded Clori, Tirsi, e Fileno . (Handel later replaced it with a trio to bring all the characters back.) The liner notes give the mistaken impression that it’s lifted from Glossa 921525, but that’s not the case, as it wasn’t included in that release. It’s performed by Invernezzi and Staskiewicz, and makes a fine conclusion to a survey of music that should be snapped up by Handelians everywhere—with thanks to Bonizzoni and all those who have worked with him over the years to make these Glossa issues such a success.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

“This rejection of realism is formulated in terms of a dramatic staticism—clearly visible in the work’s mise-en-scène—and in the makeup of a libretto that privileges the dialogic over the descriptive or narrative aspects, which are mainly entrusted to a chorus with a function similar to that of the Greek chorus; the weight of dialogues, present especially from Scene III onwards, determines the paralysis of action in favor of the exhibition of moods and ideological theses.” When I see a sentence like that (and yes, it is a single sentence) in the notes accompanying any piece of music, I tremble. Perhaps some of its convoluted nature is caused by bad translation—but the fact is that in the end, the extensive notes (in four languages) that accompany Cristóbal Halffter’s one-act opera were of very little help in setting some kind of musical and dramatic context that would help the listener place this work.

Halffter, born in 1930, is a nephew of Ernesto Halffter and studied with Alexandre Tansman. He is also a professor of composition at the Madrid Conservatory, and he composed Don Quijote between 1996 and 1999. It was premiered at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 2000. The dramatic concept is very interesting—the inclusion of Cervantes as a character, with Don Quixote and him as kind of alter egos, is both clever and effective. The fictional character occasionally challenges the author: “Why defeats always? Why never victories”? In fact, much of the opera is conceived as an interchange between the fictional character and his creator, with Cervantes dying in the end and Don Quixote living on in mythical eternity. It is an extremely engaging idea, and I would love to see the opera on stage.

This was not Halffter’s first attempt to bring Don Quixote to life musically. In 1971, he wrote Mito—Don Quijote (“The Myth—Don Quixote”), so it is fair to say that this subject has occupied him for some time. This is not an opera for those whose musical tastes are tenaciously conservative; if you find Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle a stretch, Don Quijote is probably not your cup of sangria. Halffter’s musical grammar is tough, frequently dissonant, rarely tuneful in any traditional sense, though he does occasionally refer back to ancient Spanish music. This can never be background music, even if you are someone who can listen to Madame Butterfly—or even Salome—in the background. This music demands your total involvement, and it is likely to wring you out. The opera’s finale is remarkable in its inventiveness and imagination, particularly in terms of instrumental color.

Halffter’s music is very powerful, and I found it absolutely necessary to follow along with the supplied libretto and translation in order to fully engage with it. Like so many modernistic scores, one wishes for more contrast, more variety of mood, rhythmic profile, and texture. Halffter’s music is very much his own, but to try to give the listener some kind of reference point, I would say that if you react positively to the music of Henze, or Birtwistle, or Gerhard, you are likely to find this work appealing. There is no question that it is a major musical statement by an important composer, even if it will of necessity have appeal only to a portion of the opera audience.

One could hardly wish for a better performance and recording. Cervantes and Quixote are both baritone roles, and the two protagonists sing with accuracy, feeling, and alertness. The ladies are also first-rate, as is the orchestra and conductor. This is no read-through, but a deeply engaged performance. The sound is just about ideal—colorful, warm, spacious, and clear. The only complaint is regarding that extremely dense essay in the accompanying booklet. The listener could have used a good deal more help in preparing for this opera. This essay, if it makes sense at all, might be more appropriate for a musicology class already familiar with the work. Nonetheless, this is an important recording of an important new opera.

Henry Fogel, FANFARE

Crammed onto one new disc from Cantica Symphonia on Glossa are two of Guillaume Dufay’s most important polyphonic works brought alongside each other for the first time on CD: the Missa Se la face ay pale and the Missa L’Homme armé. The two masses were amongst the first in history to use popular songs for their cantus firmus: Dufay’s own chanson for the first mass and the anonymous popular tune – “The Armed Man” – for the second.

The year 1453 was an extraordinary one in Western Christendom with the Fall of Constantinople following on the acquisition by Louis, Duke of Savoy of what is now known as the Shroud of Turin. As renowned scholar Anne Walters Robertson describes in her incisive scene-setting analysis for the booklet, these two events provided the backdrop for Dufay – newly recalled by the Duke to the Court of Savoy – to compose these remarkable commemorative masses.

As is the case with its general interpretative outlook, Cantica Symphonia opt for performances which embrace the use of instruments such as slide trumpets, sackbuts, fiddles and the organ alongside vocal forces. Director Giuseppe Maletto and organist Guido Magnano discuss their reasons for such instrumental involvement in the CD booklet. This is the fourth recording of music by Guillaume Dufay – to add to two volumes devoted to motets and one to chansons – from Cantica Symphonia on the Glossa label, and it resumes the Italian ensemble’s remarkable coverage of 15th-century treasures. - Glossa

Classical Music