Includes work(s) by various composers. Soloists: Laura Mondiello, Stefano Grondona.

REVIEWS:
The Wire (p.76) - "Like the best of Henze's music, the pieces are rigorously composed, with an instinctive sensibility for fluidity and drama."

HAYDN String Quartets: op. 77/1, 2; op. 42 • Alea Ens (period instruments) • STRADIVARIUS STR 33849 (64:35)


Haydn’s string quartets, more than 50 in number, were published typically in sets of six, with the exception of four sets of three each, one set of two (intended to be a set of six, but interrupted, after two movements of a third quartet, by Haydn’s failing health), and one singleton. Here we have the singleton and the set of two. The op. 42 (in D Minor) is a relatively neglected string quartet for no good reason that I have ever found. The last two completed quartets comprise the op. 77, the first in G Major (with an Adagio second movement and a Menuetto third-movement trio in E?, remote to G) and the second in F Major (with a Menuetto second-movement trio in D? and a third-movement Andante in D). Haydn’s use, in these quartets, of surprise keys—in jarring juxtaposition between the third and fourth movements of op. 77/2—might have differing effects on the listener between the period-instrument sound (presumably what Haydn heard) and the modern-instrument sound, but I found no such differences. Then again, I’m no(t) Haydn. Both of these quartets have one thing in common: They are among the marvels of the string quartet literature. And the lone D-Minor quartet, if not a marvel, is marvelous listening.


I’m not sold on the period-instrument sound in these quartets, although the playing and the interpretive choices of these musicians are impeccable. The raw sound of gut strings with no vibrato is especially grating for sustained notes, whereas the quick passage from note to note provided by faster tempos is less unattractive, and even tolerable. Once past the aural challenge of the period-instrument sound, these performances are excellent in all respects. From intonation and discernibleness of part-writing to phrasing and dynamics, this is great Haydn playing.


The AleaEnsemble (it prefers no space between “Alea” and “Ensemble”) was formed in 2002 to play the great chamber repertoire with period instruments. The members—Andrea Rognoni and Fiorenza de Donatis (violins), Stefano Marcocchi (viola), and Marco Frezzato (cello)—are also the principal players in two prominent Italian early-music ensembles: Europa Galante and Accademia Bizantina.


If you are not completely averse to period-instrument performances, this is a good Haydn quartet disc to have.


FANFARE: Burton Rothleder

Classical Music

MUFFAT Propitia Sydera: Concerti Grossi Nos. 8, “Coronatio Augusta”; 9 , “Victoria Mesta”; 11, “Delirium Amoris”; 12, “Propitia Sydera.” Solo Violin Sonata • Stefano Rossi (vn); Irene De Ruvo (hpd); dir; La Concordanza (period instruments) • STRADIVARIUS 33897 (55:44)


In his study of the Baroque concerto, A. J. B. Hutchings noted that Georg Muffat had composed concertos on Arcangelo Corelli’s model even before Corelli had published his own (which finally appeared only as his last opus in the second decade of the 18th century, while these concertos come from the years between 1682 and 1689) and that his works rise higher than those of Giuseppe Torelli or Francesco Geminiani—or even than second-string Vivaldi. Be that as it may, early musicographer Robert Eitner gave Muffat’s nationality not as Italian like those he admired and codified, but as Scottish. Stefano Rossi and La Concordanza have selected four of his 12 concertos and he also plays the Solo Violin Sonata in D Major (of course at the widely adopted and now almost de rigeur tuning of A = 415). Muffat also served the concerto form by making suggestions in his preface about its performance and giving specific instructions in the preface to his sonatas about their realization.


Rossi’s program opens with the Eighth Concerto, a five-movement work resembling one of Corelli’s concerti da camera in its inclusion of dance movements (as well, however, as a Sonata, and Grave). La Concordanza’s performance includes two oboes and a bassoon (as do those of the 11th and 12th concertos), and their addition adds thumping weight to the textures that make them seem far removed from the older model. But the violins still weave a flexible ribbon of sound in Corelli’s manner above the bass in the slow movement. In the Ninth Concerto, without the addition of winds in this reading, the music still sounds as though Muffat had traded some of Corelli’s elegant seriousness for a cheerful smile. This concerto again falls into five movements, with a mix of Italian titles and dance movements. In the Aria in particular, La Concordanza has pointed up Muffat’s sensitivity to the spacing of voices, creating a sense of exceptional depth (the ensemble includes not only a cello but a violone, giving its sonorities a firm foundation). The ambiance of the Villa Sacro Curoe, in which the ensemble recorded the program in December 2010 and February 2011, must also have played a part in enhancing Muffat’s textures. The winds return for the 11th Concerto, again in five mixed (dance and abstract) movements. The violins chase each other in the central Grave with a very un-Corellian playfulness; La Concordanza makes the game seem well worth the candle.


The four-movement (slow-fast-slow-fast) Violin Sonata, also based on Corelli’s models (William S. Newman suggests that Muffat wrote his sonatas after hearing Corelli’s concerti grossi in Rome), it nevertheless appears from its first movement to take a more daring approach to melody and harmony than Corelli did, though the technique and passagework required of the violinist remain similar. Playing his 1740 Henry James violin, Rossi makes the work seem a bit more reflective than did the slightly harder-edged Rachel Barton Pine in her collection of German sonatas (Cedille 112, Fanfare 33:1), although he makes a great deal of the rapid passages in the gigue-like finale (which actually ends with a repeat of the sonata’s opening in an early glance at cyclical form). The concert concludes with a performance of the 12th Concerto—almost double the length of the others due to the inclusion of an elegant Ciacona that itself lasts 9:41 in this reading and traverses a wide range of Affekten —with the winds again included.


Peter Zajícek recorded the entire dozen concerti grossi with Musica Aeterna Bratislava (Naxos 8.555096 and 8.555743), and that ensemble, with bassoon providing an underpinning for its rather tart string timbres, should provide an adequate alternative for those wishing to hear the entire set. But for those who simply wish to make the composer’s acquaintance (perhaps after reading his views on the period’s performance practice), Stradivarius’s sonorous and zestful release should provide an engaging, propitious introduction.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

GEMINIANI Violin sonatas, op. 4/1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 12 • Liana Mosca (vn); Antonio Mosca (vc); Luca Pianca (archlute); Giorgio Paronuzzi (hpd) (period instruments) • STRADIVARIUS 33853 (67:41)


William S. Newman, in his massive study of the Baroque sonata, listed Francesco Geminiani’s sonatas for violin and continuo (op. 1 from 1716 and op. 4 from two decades later) and for violin and cello (op. 5) and judged Geminiani’s knowledge of the violin to equal that of Giuseppe Tartini or Pietro Locatelli (the latter of whom, like Geminiani, had been a pupil of Arcangelo Corelli, though a more technically adventurous one), but considered his style to be more conservative. Of the six sonatas presented by Liana Mosca, Antonio Mosca (her father), Luca Pianca, and Georgio Paronuzzi, all but two consist of four movements (the others numbering three); none of the movements’ titles give a hint of their dance-like elements or rondo forms. Almost all the sonatas have been cast in major keys. Geminiani would later rework six of the 12 sonatas of op. 4 (including No. 1 and No. 7 from Stradivarius’s collection) as concerti grossi. While Mosca remarks in a personal note in the booklet that Geminani’s sonatas from op. 4 haven’t received a great deal of attention, Rüdiger Lotter included the First, Eighth, Ninth, and 10th (two from Mosca’s selection) in a program released on Oehms 356 that also included several sonatas from Antonio Maria Veracini’s op. 1 ( Fanfare 29:1).


Geminiani revised the sonatas of his op. 1 at about the same time as he published op. 4 and included in the new edition of op. 1 the kinds of ornaments that make so striking an impression in Mosca’s performance of op. 4, as in the First Sonata’s Adagio (and also that of the Third Sonata). In that movement, she also displays a rhythmic and dynamic flexibility to create a capricious expressive sensibility that apparently suits not only the works themselves but Geminiani’s reputation as an expressive performer (among some: Tartini called him il furibondo , while John Hawkins thought he lacked the fire of the later violinists of his era). The sonata’s second movement isn’t fugal; it depends for its effect on the piquancy of its homophonic lines, of which Mosca gives a tangy account. The continuo provides an ingratiating strumming accompaniment in the Largo, a backdrop against which Mosca makes at times startling adjustments to the solo’s dynamic level; the finale includes surprises after dramatic pauses, and Mosca times them with the acute sensibility of a persuasive rhetorician. In general, she produces a twangy though by no means sharp-edged tone from her violin (and a perhaps surprisingly full one from its lower registers), described as a Venetian instrument from about 1750.


Mosca and the ensemble bring vivacious wit to the second movement of the Seventh Sonata and its jaunty subject (do these suggest the stolidity for which Geminiani has sometimes been condemned?) and spice to the ornamentation of the sonata’s third movement, Moderato. The Adagio of the Third Sonata showcases, as well as the encrustations of ornamentation mentioned earlier, the sudden gestures that make the sonatas sound inventive, at least from an expressive point of view (that sense of invention, continues, reaching almost to the level of improvisation, in the ensuing Allegro). The Sixth Sonata, again in D Major, at first seems almost somber compared to the three that precede it on the program, until Mosca dispels whatever gloom might have enshrouded it with her bright gaiety in the second movement; similarly, she shifts from the almost romantic sensibility of the sonata’s Andante to crisp Gallic sprightliness (Geminiani spent time in Paris) in the final movement, recalling a similar vein in the works of Jean-Marie Leclair (also a musical descendent of Corelli, this time through Giovanni Battista Somis). The two three-movement sonatas omit the slow movement; what they lose in affetuoso they gain in starchiness (although the last Allegro of the 10th Sonata includes a slow episode that almost replaces the missing movement). A multisectional fantasy serves as the first movement of the 12th Sonata’s three.


Lotter deploys a more astringent tone in his recording but he hardly stints on ornamental or expressive detail. Still, Mosca’s unaffected geniality, dramatic Luftpausen , and rhetorical sensibility breathe extra life into her performances.


With its clean recorded sound, its imaginative performances, and its ingratiating literature, Mosca’s selection of Geminiani’s sonatas might serve either as a favorable introduction to the works of the composer for those who aren’t familiar with him or an enjoyable reminder for those who know him that he brought more than Corelli’s teachings to London. Strongly recommended to all types of listeners.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

Classical Music

Roberto Fabbriciani is an innovator of flute techniques developed through personal research of the flute’s sonorous possibilities. He has collaborated with some of the major composers of our time, and has worked for many years with Luigi Nono in the experimental studio of the SWF in Freiberg, blazing new and unusual trails in music. He performs on this new release alongside Alvise Vidolin on electronics. The pieces on this album tell of water as a game, passion and necessity; Roberto’s dreams, childhood games and imagination, but also the dark, dramatic historical moment experienced in his youth: the flooding of Florence. It is again a return to loving and playing with water as a source of life.

Classical Music

Abyss and Enigma (For an achaeologist of contemporary music) The compositions on this release belong to distinct periods of Franco Donatoni's production and include the most significant extremes of his catalogue. In particular, Souvenir (1968) and Orts (or Souvenir n.2, 1969) are twin works can be ascribed to the so-called negative period, while Abyss (1983) and Puppenspiel 3 (1994) are two diffrent cases, linked to a phase of renewed confidence in artisanal creativeness, as well as a deep exploration of instrumental dramaturgy. In speak of artisan quality is doubtless reductive in regard to similar extraordinarily and inventive sonorous devices. They are compositions generated by combinatory automatisms and processes of syntactic proliferation of interval structures, mixed and animated by a particular creative imagination. Perhaps the self-generative aspect of Donatoni's compositions has been excessively placed in the centre of his musical research and his extraordinary constructive ability as a synonym of cold indifference of access codes, faced with an idiomatic and consistent style, with unpredictable but always recognisable results. The auto-analysis of the constructive and deconstructive procedures, which can be found in important writings like Questo, Antecedente X or Il sigaro di Armando, is one of the elements that are intertwined whit Donatoni's methodical rigour and his work as an artist, both personal and ineffabile.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Born sometime between 1480 and 1500, Alberto De Rippe (Da Mantova) enjoyed extraordinary celebrity during his life. Alberto De Rippe’s name was associated with the Divine Francesco da Milano, which is confirmed by the 1574 publication “Thesaurus Musicus,” in which six of De Rippe’s fantasies are printed. Performing these works is lute player Gabriele Palomba.

Includes work(s) by Evaristo F. Dall'Abaco. Soloist: Giorgio Sasso.

Colleagues who had the opportunity to hear Niccolò Castiglioni play can vouch for his excellence as a pianist, in particular his skill in performing Cangianti, a work he presented in Darmstadt in September 1959. It is a highly demanding work, not only due to its keyboard acrobatics but also because of its broad-ranging timbres. It is clear Castiglioni possessed an acute sensitivity for the instrument’s qualities which he developed during his studies in Salzburg under Gulda and Zecchi. His was a conscious yet primarily “natural” pianism, in a Chopinesque sense, endowed with precious distillations of timbre that are no longer mere ornament but a surprising and mysterious creative element. This development was to extend to Debussy; the late Debussy would not have eluded Castiglioni’s prehensile hands when he was attracted to the spell of Webern’s labyrinths. This release collects all operas that this great author has written for piano and orchestra.