A MusicWeb International Recording of the Month!

The present disc shows that in the 17th century Mary Magdalene still played a major role in religious life. Whereas in previous centuries the various aspects of her life - whether taken from the Bible or fictitious - were displayed in polyphony and melismatic lines, the modern declamatory and theatrical style of the 17th century, as developed in Italy in the early 17th century, allowed for a more vivid exposure of her life. The programme is divided into two sections, which are devoted to two aspects: Magdalene as a model of the sinner on the one hand and in her role as witness of the death and burial of Christ on the other.

The first piece, La Maddalena, is a drama in five acts that was written by Giovanni Battista Andreini, a dramatist and actor who was active at the courts of Florence and Mantua. It was first performed in Mantua in 1617, probably at the occasion of the marriage of Ferdinand Gonzaga and Caterina de' Medici. Andreini called it a sacra rappresentazione which at the time was the name given to a religious play in the Italian language. The play included some musical intermezzi; these were separately published in the same year by Bartholomeo Magni in Venice. In his liner-notes Jérôme Lejeune suggests that even more music may have been performed during the event. Despite its sacred content, the performance was staged and costumed, which indicates that it made use of the means of secular music. The prologue is Su le penne de' venti by Monteverdi. It is a strophic piece for solo voice, with instruments playing the ritornelli between the stanzas. The soloist represents Divine Favour who is disguised as Cupid and urges the audience to use Magdalene's repentance as a model. The two composers of the next three pieces are largely unknown. From 1615 to 1619 Muzio Effrem was at the service of the court in Mantua and then worked for three years in Florence. Alessandro Guivizzani (or Ghivizzani) worked in Mantua from 1613 to 1620. Their contributions dwell on the tears shed as part of the repentence; a trio of male voices represents David, Saul and an angel. The fourth piece ends with a choir of angels: "Go then, change your life, like the sinning Magdalene". This piece is the fourth in this sequence but in the play it is the last intermezzo. Here the cycle closes with Spazziam pront'ò vecchiarelle by Salomone Rossi. It is placed at the end "for musical reasons", as Achten writes. It has the form of a villanella, which is one of the lighter genres of secular music at the time. "[Its] popular cut provides a perfect description of the lightness of the Magdalene's morals before her conversion".

Mary Magdalene followed Jesus until the very end. She not only witnessed his death and burial, but was also the first who met Jesus in person after his resurrection. This latter aspect is omitted in La Maddalena by Antonio Bertali. That is only logical, as this work is a so-called sepolcro, "a 17th-century genre of sacred dramatic music in Italian, related to the oratorio and performed on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday at the Habsburg court chapels in Vienna" (New Grove). The first sepolcri date from the 1640s and this tradition lasted until the early 18th century. La Maddalena was first performed in 1663 when Bertali was Kapellmeister. The performances were at least partly staged. "As was customary, the sepolcro began with an instrumental Sinfonia. Various accounts of performances of these works state that a curtain was placed in front of the depiction of the sepulchre and that this was raised at the start of the performance whilst the instrumental introduction was being played" (Lejeune).

La Maddalena is divided into three parts. In the first we meet two characters: Amor verso Dio (love for God) and Pentimento (Repentence). They are appropriately scored for an alto (here sung by a high tenor) and a low bass respectively. Before Christ's tomb they lament his death. Then the attention turns to the Virgin Mary (mezzo-soprano) and Mary Magdalene (soprano). They want either Jesus to return to them or to die. This section includes a piece, which is an early form of an aria. In the last part the two women are joined by two Peccatori (Sinners), scored for tenor and baritone respectively. They realise that their sufferings will be eternal. Bertali prescribes the use of muted cornetts here which contributes to the gloomy character of this episode. It then is Mary Magdalene, who urges them to repent and she is joined by the Virgin Mary. Together they express the moral of the piece: "If you should nourish your vain and unhealthy desires with hope, then know, o mortal, that at the end you will find Penitence, terror, the grave and worms".

Two further pieces are added to the programme. The sacra rappresentazione is followed by an instrumental piece by Bertali. The Sonata 3 à 3 is an air with variations and was originally scored for violin, viola, viola da gamba and bc. Here is it played with various instruments, which are also used in the two large works on this disc. The programme closes with Lagrime amare by Domenico Mazzocchi, which was published in 1638 in Rome, where the composer also also worked. From that angle it doesn't quite fit into the programme, but its content certainly does. It is a lament as so many were written at the time on secular and sacred subjects. This piece is about Jesus's crucifixion and includes strong chromaticism and some very unusual modulations. Interesting is that, according to Achten, it has an ornament which requires an "imperceptible transition from one note to another", a kind of glissando.

This production is the result of a project, which required a lot of research, in regard to the music itself, but also to performance practice. Especially notable is the large group of continuo instruments, which are divided into three instrumental families. It includes some especially large theorbos but also a tiorbino, which is an octave higher than the theorbo. The keyboard instruments are a Roman harpsichord with three split keys per octave and a virginal with gut strings. Achten also splits the ensemble into a group of lower instruments, responsible for the bass and the harmony, and a section of higher pitched instruments, which realises the harmony with added ornamentation. Thanks to the quarter comma meantone temperament, the use of harmony for expressive reasons comes off to maximum effect.

From a musicological point of view, this recording is an unequivocal success. Fortunately, this is by far not just a musicological project. We get very vivid and highly expressive interpretations. Deborah Cachet is impressive as Mary Magdalene in Bertali's sepolcro; the other singers are just as good and the ensemble of two and three voices in Bertali is impeccable. Nicolas Achten sings the Monteverdi solo and does so very well, with some exquisite and stylish ornamentation. It is the text and the affetti which are always in the centre here and as a result the emotions of the various characters are incisively communicated. The ensemble produces a gorgeous sound and one can only enjoy and admire the colours of the various instruments and the skills of those who play them.

Let's not forget the music. It is astonishing how much music of excellent quality was produced at the time, in Italy but also at the imperial court in Vienna. This disc shows that there is still much to be discovered. The value of this disc is in the repertoire and in the way it is performed here. Therefore the label Recording of the Month is well deserved.

– MusicWeb International (Johan van Veen)

Hernando de Cabezón, the son of the renowned organist Antonio de Cabezón, published a vast anthology of his father's compositions under the title of Obras de Musica para tecla, arpa y vihuela. For keyboard and plucked string instruments, these pieces include works in every genre of the period, both sacred and secular, and perfectly written for four, five or six parts. In accordance with a performance practice common from the time of the Renaissance onwards, the musicians of Doulce Mémoire divide the works' polyphonic lines between the instruments of the ensemble. They decided to choose only secular works, these being ornamented pieces based on various songs and madrigals, of which Suzanne un jour and Anchor che col partire were amongst the most popular of the Renaissance period. Each part of these works has its own individual expression; our realisation of them also benefits from even larger powers of expression and the virtuoso writing that is tailored to each separate part. The original works on which the ornamented versions are based are also recorded here, sung by Clara Coutouly with a delightful accompaniment of plucked string instruments. This release has been made possible by a collaboration with the Festival de Musique in Maguelone, where Doulce Mémoire will perform this programme on 6 June 2013.

Dauvergne's final operatic work follows neither of the established genres of the period, neither tragédie lyrique nor opéra-ballet. With La Vénitienne, the composer turned towards comedy. Taking a libretto written during the reign of Louis XIV in 1705, he drew on the very best of his talent and skill and created a synthesis of everything that was modern at that time: it is as if Rameau, Pergolesi, Grétry and Mondonville had joined forces to compose this work that is by turn tragic, tender and richly comic, in which the virtuosity of the arias and the splendour of a large orchestra is blended with the piquant spirit of the Age of Enlightenment.

HOLBORNE The Fruit of Love • François Joubert-Caillet (vl, cond); L’Achéron • RICERCAR 339 (69:09)


In his day, Anthony Holborne (c. 1545–1602) was a highly respected composer and instrumentalist. His patrons included Robert Cecil, the first Earl of Salisbury; Mary Sidney, Countess Pembroke; and Elizabeth I. He wrote dedicatory introductions to publications by Thomas Morley and Giles Farnaby, and Dowland dedicated his song I saw my lady weep to him. Upon Holborne’s death he was quickly forgotten, as were many of his contemporaries, only to experience a considerable revival in the 20th century. Today his music is often recorded in excerpt as part of larger collections, but occasionally in releases devoted entirely to his works.


One of Holborne’s pieces, The Fairie Round , was part of the so-called Voyager Golden Records sent with space probes Voyagers 1 and 2, to represent the cultural achievements of humanity. It was part of the composer’s 1599 publication Pavans, Galliards, Almains, and other short Aeirs both grave and light, in five parts, for Viols, Violins, or other Musicall Winde Instruments . This was to be his only published music not written for solo plucked instruments and, at a total of 65 dances, a very large collection for its time and place. Many of the works are given titles, some clearly drawn from songs, but 53 are either pavans or galliards—the majority of these in paired association. The music thus alternates between the more stately and the more lively, though Holborne’s excellent five-part writing makes it clear these pieces were intended more for listening pleasure than actual dancing.


Publishers of the day realized they could make decent money off the sale of music to a thriving middle and upper class, at a time when music-making was both an important element of private entertainment and a marketable skill to attract good marriages. To maximize sales, composers often indicated that their works could be performed by a wide range of instruments. Holborne’s title above indicates as much, and François Joubert-Caillet takes his cue from this. L’Achéron opts here for a traditional viol consort, abetted by a pair of musicians on plucked string instruments that Holborne was known to specialize in: the lute, cittern, and bandora. Finally, they’ve included the very occasional use of a virginal and ottavino (small spinet). While keyboards aren’t mentioned by Holborne, they are in other sources of the period, and they’re deployed with discretion—most obviously, and to excellent effect, as a solo in the opening statement of Paradizo —and a combination of plucked instruments and ottavino alone perform an unnamed Almain of obviously Italianate origin.


Mention of this brings to mind that other recordings prefer different arrangements. Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI (Alia Vox 9813) give a greater role to lutes, and Pedro Estevan adds a bit of light percussion in such pieces as The Honie-Suckle . Skip Sempé and Capriccio Stravagante (Paradizo 1) opt to mix viols and solo flute, with generally good results. I would place L’Achéron squarely between these two as a balance of dance and abstract listening. Savall clearly wishes to emphasize the dance aspect of Holborne’s music, while Sempé focuses less on rhythms than on rich textures and, at times, almost Romanticized dynamics in the phrasing. Joubert-Caillet is a bit slower than either in many instances, but with more forward impetus than Sempé.


Those three versions are my current favorites; and if I had to choose, this would be my preferred one, with close, richly textured sound. But only by a hair over Savall; so if you have that one, you’re probably good to go. If not, however, I strongly recommend this recording.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

La Caravane du Caire (1783) was one of A.E.M. Grétry’s most famous operas, its popularity continuing into the 19th c. After the recording made under the Marc Minkowski’s direction in 1991, Guy Van Waas’ new recording enables discovery of a few variants in relation to the previous version, and includes a musicological presentation by Alexandre and Benoît Dratwicki. The work itself is peppered with comical situations, tender or bravura arias (including an Italian-style coloratura pastiche) and embellished with numerous ballets, some of which contribute an original note of exoticism.

«Apt for Viols and Voices». That's how the fusion of voices and viols is mentioned in several documents of the English renaissance. This CD is devoted to two of the most important composers of that period who've bequeathed us an important body of 'consorts' for 4 and 6 part viols as well as some very moving 'consort songs'. Both were employed at the royal court. The former Elisabeth the 1st, the latter by James the 1st. The elder remains faithful to the basic principles of polyphony acquired with his master Thomas Tallis for whom he writes the poignant elegy 'Ye Sacred Muses'. The second musician, on the other hand, a viola virtuoso, leads his instrument into new avenues and develops his polyphony through audacious experiments.

AGRICOLA Missa In myne Zyn. In minen sin. Sy j’aime mon amy. Pater meus agricola est. Regina caeli. ANON Bien soiez venu. In mynen zin • Dirk Snellings, dir; Capilla Flamenca • RICERCAR RIC 306 (59:50 Text and Translation)


Alexander Agricola (1456?–1506) is characterized in the notes to this disc as a mannerist. It is curious to see a late-15th-century composer receiving the same categorization as contemporaries of Ciconia at the end of the 14th century and contemporaries of Gesualdo at the end of the 16th century. This end-of-century phenomenon hardly occurred during the Gay 90s (Mahler the Mannerist?). On an earlier disc ( Fanfare 23: 1), Paul van Nevel referred in the same vein to the “secret labyrinth” of the composer’s music. His disc assembled a Mass made up of single movements of five of Agricola’s settings, with the Agnus Dei taken from the Mass heard here. (He called it a “Missa Guazzabuglio,” which I would have recognized as “mishmash” if I had looked it up.)


This new version is quite a contrast to its first complete recording under János Bali, who on two CDs gave us the composer’s four Masses on secular cantus firmi (29:1 for the later one). Both directors use adult male voices (van Nevel put two women on the top line), but Bali had an ensemble of 13 voices, while Dirk Snellings uses one voice to a part. Instead of presenting the Mass straight through, Snellings tries to put it into some kind of context, though not a liturgical one. The preliminary tracks include the Dutch tune and the composer’s polyphonic elaboration of it, while two tracks characterized as Vespers include an instrumental piece and a Regina caeli . The Mass is interleaved with Agricola’s instrumental versions of songs by Binchois, Ockeghem, and Frye. This arrangement offers more variety than sense.


This is rightly called the most extended of Agricola’s Masses, for at nearly 40 minutes without a Kyrie (assumed to have been written but lost) it ranks with Obrecht’s Missa Maria zart in length. The vocal ensemble contrasts with Bali’s small choir, but this does not put Bali at a disadvantage. If you have the latter already, you may decide that it is sufficient. Still, Snellings does consistent good work and this disc is a credit to him and his singers.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

The celebration of the Nativity has always been a source of inspiration for composers. The different elements of the evangelical narrative evoke numerous images: tender feelings before the Baby Jesus; the gentleness of his mother, the Virgin Mary; the procession of the three Wise Men; the angelic choirs in Heaven; and these shepherds gathered in the manger. All that appears in the musical repertoire linked to this holiday, as well as the presence of colourful instrumentations and themes connected to folk traditions. This set, released by Ricercar, brings together all these elements, drawn from the repertoires of the Renaissance and Baroque eras.

The murderous composer Carlo Gesualdo, Principe di Venosa, was also a lutenist extolled by his contemporaries. At the end of the sixteenth century he received the first two prototypes of the archlute from his colleague Alessandro Piccinini in Ferrara, one of which he kept. In the absence of surviving music for the lute by the composer himself, Bor Zuljan has imagined the sound world of the prince’s archlute: a kaleidoscope of fabulous and extreme sonorities on this extravagant instrument, from transcriptions of his vocal and instrumental music to the astonishing chromatic compositions of composers he is thought to have encountered, and whose work exerted an influence on his. Includes works by C. Gesualdo, A. Piccinini, J. H. Kapsberger, P. P. Melli, C. Saracini etc.

César Franck gradually abandoned his career as a virtuoso pianist as he completed his training under various Parisian masters, one of whom was the organist François Benoist. Franck then served as organist in various important Parisian churches from 1853 onwards before accepting a position at Sainte-Clotilde, where he benefited from Cavaillé-Coll's brand new instrument. He composed works for the organ as well as in other genres that became part of the apotheosis of what is now termed Le Renouveau français. Franck also composed pieces specifically intended for the harmonium. We are proud to mark the bicentenary of his birth with a reissue of his complete works for organ and for harmonium, in which Joris Verdin's fascinating interpretations have incorporated Franck’s own recently discovered metronome markings.

Josquin Desprez, princeps musicorum, the prince of musicians, as his contemporaries called him, is best known today for his sacred works, the masses and motets, which have been widely performed and recorded. Surprisingly, his chansons have received little attention from performers, except for the pieces for five and six voices, printed after his death by the Antwerp publisher Tilman Susato in his seventh book of 1545. Doulce Mémoire has chosen to focus on the chansons for three and four voices, which are probably the earliest in the Hainault master’s output; with their diversity of language and themes (sometimes folk-derived), these songs constitute a varied program that is at once serious and bawdy, a testament to the unequalled art of Josquin Desprez.

The music of Francisco Correa de Arauxo, still regrettably neglected, constitutes a peak of organ literature in Spain and an exceptional bridge between the Renaissance and the Baroque. His Facultad Orgánica (1626) is both a treatise on the performance of organ music and a collection of sixty-nine pieces of outstanding quality. Three albums will give the most complete picture possible of his output, played by Bernard Foccroulle on historic organs in Andalusia and Castile. Singers and musicians from the InAlto ensemble will perform pieces by Correa alongside some of the major composers he mentions in his preface, including Josquin, Cabezón, Gombert and La Rue.

This new release is an immersion in the music of La Grande Écurie at the French court. The program is based on the music that punctuated all the ceremonies of the French court from Henri IV to Louis XIV. Since it also follows the evolution of instrument making, it offers a chance to hear the specific and little-known tone colors of each period, and in particular the first recording of the reconstructed Bande de Grands Hautbois of the early seventeenth century in its complete formation of twelve double-reed instruments.

Alessandro Scarlatti’s Sonate a quattro were published in 1725, the year of his death. With their specific marking ‘senza cembalo’ (without harpsichord), these compositions for two violins, viola and cello appear to be, in a sense, the first string quartets in the modern sense of the term. The program is completed by a few sonatas by his brother Francesco, the ‘London Scarlatti’, and Alessandro’s son Domenico, who had so thoroughly absorbed the contrapuntal tradition instilled in him by his father that some of his sonatas can also be played in quartet formation.

Rossini, at the moment when he decided to retire and to compose no more operas, Guillaume Tell being his last, was immensely popular with his audiences. This was clearly due to his operas, although some measure of it was certainly earned by their overtures to these operas, for they had rapidly entered the symphonic repertoire. Even today, the greatest conductors and orchestras cannot resist the pleasure of performing this music, in which a unique sense of humor is combined with a taste for virtuosity for its own sake. Opera overtures by many composers were performed in concerts at the end of the 18th century, although Rossini's overtures also benefited from being transcribed for wind ensemble; these transcriptions were made by William Legrand and Wenzl Sedlak during Rossini’s lifetime.