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SaleDowland: Melancholy; Britten: Nocturnal - Guitar Music / Boëls
Brilliant Classics · Oct 20231 discCD$16.99$8.49 -
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Byrd, Dowland, Henry VIII et al: Renaissance English Recorders / Résonances Consort
Paradizo · Mar 20231 discCD$20.99 -
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Dowland, Byrd, Morley et al: The Fall of the Leaf - English Keyboard Music / Nuti
Arcana · Aug 20221 discCD$20.99 -
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SaleDevienne: 6 Flute Duets, Op. 2 / Pavan, Ballardini
Brilliant Classics · Feb 20231 discCD$13.99$6.99 -
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Music to Hear - Alfonso Ferrabosco, Music for Lyra Viol from
Signum Classics · Apr 20262 discsCD$32.99 -
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Greensleeves - English Lute Songs & Solos / Baird, Mcfarlane
Sono Luminus · Nov 19851 discCD$18.99 -
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The Bassoon Abroad - Foreign Composers In Britain / Harris, Ensemble Chameleon
Carus · Jan 20141 discCD$20.99 -
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★ Staff PickStokowski Transcriptions - Bach, Wagner, Mussorgsky / Serebrier, Bournemouth SO
Naxos · Apr 20105 discsCD$53.99 -
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SaleIn Handel's Shadow - Vocal Music by His Rivals in Eighteenth-Century London
Toccata · Sep 20231 discCD$20.99$10.49 -
Sweet Musicke – The Lyra Viol & the World of Jacobean Theatr
Fra Bernardo · Oct 20241 discCD$22.99 -
Byrd: Pavans & Galliards, Variations & Grounds / Pienaar
Daniel-Ben Pienaar continues his campaign of performing early music on a modern piano with an abundant selection of Pavans & Galliards, Variations & Grounds by William Byrd. The 16th-century composer’s finest sets of dances and variations, featuring some of the Elizabethan era’s most popular tunes, set the standard for English keyboard music for generations to come. With astonishing virtuosity, Daniel-Ben elicits a wealth of color and textures from his Steinway model D. Two-and-a-half hours of music spread over two albums, this is most substantial survey of Byrd’s keyboard music ever recorded on a modern piano, and ranges from frequently-heard works such as the First Pavan and Sellinger's Round to little-known gems like Callino Casturame and the late, great Quadran Pavan and Galliard.
REVIEWS:
With Bach, pianists have ever determined his music too important to be left just to harpsichord or other period instruments. Not with Byrd. Daniel-Ben Pienaar’s 2-CD set of 28 keyboard pieces appearing in the quatercentenary year of Byrd’s death is its largest album presentation on piano, with 13 items, noted in the contents list at the end of this review, recorded on piano for the first time. Its title, ‘Pavans & Galliards, Variations & Grounds’ shows Pienaar concentrates on the two categories in which Byrd was most prolific.
Pienaar’s Pavan & Galliard in C minor (CD1, tr. 1) begins with a Pavan of majestic beauty and breadth, the opening four chords spaciously arpeggiated...The Galliard (tr. 2) is livelier and more robust, with more bounce from Pienaar and clipped shorter notes.
The Pavan & Galliard in A minor is surprisingly gorgeous: the Pavan of underlying sadness with enough gleams of light to allow also a calmness, breadth and sublimity in Pienaar’s presentation...The Galliard is from Pienaar rampant verve, the repeats of all three strains with constant running quavers in either treble or bass.
The Pavan, Galliard & Second Galliard, The Earl of Salisbury is well-known, perhaps because short and straightforward. Pienaar plays the Pavan with an easy familiarity, like welcoming an old friend. It manages to be both dignified and convivial, its first phrase confidently shaped...In the Galliard the emphasis of its first phrase is on bold, rising motifs in constant interplay between treble and tenor voices.
Go from my window (CD2, tr. 10) is simple, cheery and folksy. Pienaar presents it with an attractive lilt and feel of cheekiness as the short theme gradually rises in sequences to climax and then quickly recover its opening position...Pienaar makes it enchantingly effective.
[In the Walsingham Variations] Pienaar conveys a new airiness and sense of fantasy extension of the dance...Pienaar breathtakingly conveys this work’s ever new discoveries and dimensions around the theme’s secure return as mantra in, as Pienaar has written, “its range of mood from sober exposition to ecstatic culmination.”
My Lady Nevell’s Ground (CD2, tr. 3) is another where the melody above is the chief feature...lengthy semiquaver flourishes [are] deliciously lightly realized by Pienaar, like chancing on a byway of imaginative fantasy. I love the sparkle of his fast arpeggiation of the final chord, the byway terminated.
-- MusicWeb International
Dowland: Melancholy; Britten: Nocturnal - Guitar Music / Boëls
Pavans and galliards by the Elizabethan master of melancholy, complemented by a new recording of Benjamin Britten’s magnificent Nocturnal inspired by both Dowland’s music and by the playing of Julian Bream. After the success of ‘The Golden Age of the Guitar in Europe’ (2CD, 96157), Brilliant Classics releases a second album by the French guitarist Pascal Boëls, a unique collection of music by 17th and 20th-century English masters. In a booklet introduction, the guitarist explains how he sees Dowland as ‘a universal genius, eternal wanderer who – already! – knew how to rub shoulders with all facets of the human soul.’ Pascal Boëls plays a personal selection of Dowland’s piece originally written for solo lute, pieces which embody a spirit of introversion such as the ‘Forlorn Hope’ Fancy and the ‘Lachrymae’ Pavan which became famous across Europe, much imitated and adapted by other composers of the day.
Lightening the mood are also the kind of courtly dances and romances which delighted the composer’s aristocratic patrons such as the Earl of Essex and King Christian of Denmark. The English guitarist Julian Bream played Dowland’s pieces on the guitar from an early stage of his career, and made a best-selling album of them for RCA. It was this antique palette of gentle, musing expression that inspired Benjamin Britten to write a Nocturnal for guitar which builds as a sequence of eight variations towards (rather than away from) the Dowland song on which they are based. The resulting work, according to Bream, was the greatest solo work ever written for guitar, exploring a slippage between wakeful and dream states with a subtle ambiguity between major and minor harmonies and a language that bridges the divide between the 17th and 20th centuries.
Byrd, Dowland, Henry VIII et al: Renaissance English Recorders / Résonances Consort
Renaissance English Recorders' with Julien Martin and the Résonances Consort revisits almost a century of music making and music publishing, corresponding roughly to the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The repertoire is selected from various sources including two highly important publications of instrumental music: John Dowland’s Lachrimae from 1604 and Anthony Holborne’s Pavans, Galliards & Almains from 1599. The tradition of playing harpsichords in ‘consort’ was widespread in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. To recreate that sound, Skip Sempé, Olivier Fortin and Emmanuel Frankenberg perform music played on virginals and harpsichord.
Dowland, Byrd, Morley et al: The Fall of the Leaf - English Keyboard Music / Nuti
Celebrating the golden age of English keyboard music from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, this personal anthology features works by the greatest composers of the time. John Dowland’s beguiling Pavanes and Galliards, transcribed by Martin Peerson and William Byrd, are punctuated by John Tomkins’ dazzling song-variations, Thomas Morley and William Tisdall’s whirling dances, and ravishing madrigals set by Peter Philips and others. John Amner’s masterful O Lord, in Thee is all my trust contrasts with William Byrd’s evocative, chiming variations The Bells, showcasing the different styles of these composers. This recording extends Giulia Nuti’s oeuvre of critically acclaimed recordings on historical harpsichords; her solo recital Le Cœur et l’oreille: Manuscript Bauyn (Arcana, 2017), recorded on the harpsichord built by Louis Denis in 1658, was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. In this recording Giulia plays an exquisite Italian virginal from c. 1575.
Dowland: Complete Lachrimae / Musicall Humors Viol Consort
‘London, April 1604. With the freshly printed partbooks of his Lachrimae under his arm, John Dowland walks from the printing house to his home in Fetter Lane. He should have been back in Denmark long ago, but for the moment all his thoughts are on the new publication he is carrying, his latest and most ambitious work to date: a complete cycle of instrumental music, twenty-one dances, honourably dedicated to Anne of Denmark, Queen of England.’ For Dowland has just completed one of the greatest masterpieces of Renaissance music. He had left England to enter the service of the Danish court, disappointed at not being appointed court composer to Elizabeth I, but he seems to have made the best of all his setbacks to compose this magnificent collection of purely instrumental works, much of it bathed in the melancholy typical of late sixteenth-century England.
Musicall Humors – a collective of the finest gambists of their generation – performs the complete set of pavans, galliards and ‘almands’, grouped into suites, each with its own character. A character inspired by the music, but reinforced here by the changing composition of the consort and the players taking turns to perform the ‘top line’, so that each musician’s personal playing style gives each piece a specific colour.
REVIEWS:
Dunford immerses the five-person gamba ensemble led by Julien Léonard and Lucile Boulanger in a rich and often extremely fragile-seeming web of voices and moods with a composure and sovereignty that moves and inspires. Everything breathes in the most wonderfully sonorous interplay, nothing groaning excessively. And when they dance, they maintain their posture and dignity like a dream.
-- ConcertoNet
We are faced with an absolutely referential recording, of intense and unprecedented beauty. Musicall Humors offers us the complete collection, but in a sequence of pavans followed by galliards, which refreshes our ears with the contrast, compared to the usual arrangement.
-- Scherzo
Gibbons: Keyboard Works
Orpheus Anglorum / Genov
John Johnson and Antony Holborne share much in common, in their music and in their careers, but this album, in setting their work side by side, reveals their individual style and approach to the instrument. It is assumed that they both were born in the 1540s, without authoritative record, but their work in the royal court of the 1560s is attested. Johnson made his career as an accomplished performer, while Holborne’s energies were focused on writing for the instrument. In the case of Johnson, the pavans, galliards and grounds recorded by Yavor Genov incorporate an amalgam of native and foreign (especially Italian) elements. His works show the English taste for cross-relations, surprising harmonic and tonal relationships and, above all, variation. However, like Holborne, he developed the form of the pavan during the course of his career, endowing it with increasing richness of ornamentation and expression, to be enjoyed in full in the melancholy undertow of the Passingmeasures Pavan. Holborne’s lute music is still more painstakingly elaborate, designed perhaps less for public show than private reflection, to give as much pleasure to the musician as to his courtly audience. With two albums on Brilliant, of music by Kapsberger and Zamboni, the young Bulgarian lutenist has introduced himself to international audiences and proved to be a thoroughly sympathetic interpreter of this idiom which trades on subtle intimacies of phrase, decoration and inflection.
PAVANE - BEST OF FAURE / VARIOUS
Devienne: 6 Flute Duets, Op. 2 / Pavan, Ballardini
François Devienne (1759–1803) was a contemporary of Mozart and one of the few virtuosos who didn’t have to flee his own country to get noticed. Born in Joinville, France, the youngest of the 14 children of a saddle maker, Devienne received his formative musical instruction as a choirboy in his hometown and quickly developed into a flute player of formidable gifts, studying with Felix Rault. He was active in Paris as a flautist, bassoonist and composer and played bassoon at the Paris Opera. He was also a sergeant and member of the Military Band of the French Guard, where he was given the responsibility of teaching his military band colleagues’ children in its Free School of Music. After the Revolutionary period, when the Free School became the National Institute of Music, later chartered as the Paris Conservatory in 1795, Devienne was appointed as flute professor, where he taught from 1795 to 1803. He also wrote the Méthode de Flûte Théorique et Pratique (1793), which was reprinted several times and did much to improve the level of French wind music in the late 18th century.
His output includes opera, extensive educational work, and approximately 300 instrumental works that were mostly written for wind instruments. There are about 20 flute concertos, mainly written for his own use, and many of his works are still popular today in standard flute repertoire. His VII Concerto in E minor, for example, contains all the poetry and aesthetics of his music – it is quintessentially beautiful, charming, melodious and witty. Devienne's compositions for flute, revived by Jean-Pierre Rampal in the 1960s, became well-known among flutists. Unfortunately, Devienne’s fortunes declined suddenly in the new century and he died in 1803, four months after being committed to the Charenton insane asylum.
The Six duos Op.2 were written in 1786 for the captain of the guard of the Artois Count. They are a collection of six duos for two flutes, each of them divided into two movements. The general atmosphere exuded throughout the set is playful, fresh and bright, possibly because of the absence of the slow and thoughtful second movement that traditionally would have been placed between the first and last allegros. There is no shortage of singable and lyrical melodies, though: the Gracioso con Variatione, the second movement of the third duet, is a prime example. The movement markings chosen by Devienne are primarily Allegro, Rondeau, Gracioso and Menuetto. Every tempo mark is set between a moderate and a fast, lively tempo, in order to develop either the lyrical themes or display the shimmering virtuosity of the flutes. In fact, it seems that the composer’s aim was to make the listener feel like there is only one flute playing instead of two: the sound, the articulation and the phrasing of each must be as similar to one another as possible. Needless to say, these are the greatest difficulties to deal with for the musicians. Furthermore, the pieces were written to accompany the lives of the aristocracy, for example celebrations and tea parties, which is why this kind of music is also called ‘salon music’. The two flutists made their recording using the first edition sheet music published by Sieber in Paris, c.1786.
Dowland: Lachrimae
Simpson: Ayres & Graces / Chelys Consort of Viols
Not much is known about Christopher Simpson’s life, except that he was a seminal writer for the viol. Even today modern violists use his manual The Division Viol as a guide to the practice of ‘divisions’, the improvised embellishments that were so fashionable during his time. Much of his music nevertheless goes unperformed, and the present collection of Ayres here receives its first recording, by Chelys, a British quartet of young violists. Describing the collection as being ‘for two trebles and two basses’, the manuscript sources also include parts for continuo. Chelys have therefore enlisted the aid of Dan Tidhar and James Akers in the twenty airs, pavanes, galliards and other dances that fall comfortably into five suites. On the disc are also some examples of Simpson’s Divisions, for two treble viols and for treble and bass viol respectively. As a result, the programme offers fascinating insights into Simpson’s music and the viol during the mid-17th century. By turns melancholy, lively and graceful, these Ayres are glowing examples from the tail-end of the great English tradition of music for viol consort – a tradition to which, some ten years after Simpson’s death, Purcell with his celebrated Fantazias would add the final chapter.
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Chelys pace the Ayres beautifully (the galliards are lilting, the aires tuneful) and ornament the repeats...Woven into the 'Ayres & Graces' are dialogues and antiphony, countermelodies, cascading sequences, chromaticism and hemiolas, to which Chelys and their colleagues Dan Tidhar and James Akers artfully draw our attention.
– Gramophone
“[E]ach movement is worthwhile: the B flat major Pavin, to take just one example, is an especially toothsome feast of gently squeezing harmonies… Performed by the four viol players of Chelys and their keyboard and guitar playing colleagues, they sound wonderfully supple, propulsive and alive.” – The Guardian
The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, Vol. 5
Music to Hear - Alfonso Ferrabosco, Music for Lyra Viol from
Anthony Holborne: The Fruit Of Love
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
Jane Pickeringe's Lute Book / Jacob Heringman
No question, recordings of lute music are primarily snapped up by specialists and serious fans of the instrument--it's probably a rare thing for an undecided record store shopper to just impulsively pick up and purchase such a disc as this perfectly fine program of music from "Jane Pickeringe's Lute Book". However, owing to the extraordinary talents of lutenist Jacob Heringman and the eight- and ten-course lutes featured on this recording, it's not inconceivable that a sympathetic listener would be drawn to this gentle, genteel, and agreeably tuneful music and to the ear-friendly sound. Although most of the represented works are by anonymous early-17th century composers, such luminaries as Byrd and Dowland appear in this mysterious collector's manuscript.
These 30 works (nearly 75 minutes' worth!) are characterized by nothing if not variety of mood and rhythmic structure, contained in all manner of familiar forms of the period--allemande, galliard, horn-pipe, pavane, fantasia. Heringman, whose credits include more than 50 recordings, many in collaboration with major artists, is a perfect guide to this repertoire. His playing is a marvel of clarity and evenness of articulation across registers, but he also is careful to bring the melody appropriate prominence against subordinate accompanying figures when required. His always tasteful ornaments and ability to obtain colors from a single instrument that make us wonder if we're actually hearing two add up to a rare and entertaining listening experience--nothing earth-shaking or ground-breaking, just solid music-making. The sound is quite resonant yet captures all the close-up detail we could ask for with no distracting squeaking or scraping. [6/29/2002]
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com
A Bridge To Bach - Gibbons, Bach, Et Al / Andrew Rangell
R E V I E W S:
Andrew Rangell always has something interesting to say. After making a series of provocative recordings, mostly Bach and Beethoven, for the Dorian label, Rangell was adopted by the good folks at Bridge, where he has continued to make unusual recordings that are both intellectually and emotionally satisfying.
This time around, Rangell has assembled a program of music composed mostly during the first half of the 17th century – several generations before Johann Sebastian Bach was active. In his extended yet very readable booklet note, Rangell explains this disc's overall title. In some of this music, "one can hear fleeting soundprints of Bach," but that is not precisely what Rangell is trying to get at. "The resemblances are noteworthy," he writes, "but the larger point, for me, is that in the area of articulation, contrapuntal balance, imaginative ornamentation, and rhythmic definition, Bach himself has been my most valued tutor in the study and appreciation of his predecessors."
I'm sure that Glenn Gould, one of the past century's most outstanding interpreters of Bach, would have agreed. Among Gould's recordings is a collection of music by William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (Sony SMK 52589). At one point, Gould claimed that Gibbons was his favorite composer, and that composer's Lord of Salisbury Pavane and Galliard is common to both the Gould disc just referenced and the Rangell disc here reviewed.
For Gould, Gibbons also must have been a "bridge to Bach." There's no mistaking Gould for Rangell, or vice versa, but both pianists clearly adore this music. Both performances are quietly contemplative, and with their perfect proportions and clarity, they make listeners feel that all is right with the world. The same can be said for everything on A Bridge to Bach. The dexterous Rangell uncovers the beauty in all that he touches. He is like one of those professors in college who makes biology or physics not just understandable, but miraculous – even to English majors!
Like Gould, Rangell plays this music not on the keyboard instruments of the early to mid 1600s, but on a modern piano. (In Rangell's case, this is a Hamburg Steinway D.) These recordings, then, will be of little use for authenticists – forgive the neologism, but it seems appropriate – but will deeply satisfy those who believe that the message is more important the medium. Even more than Gould, Rangell uses the piano's full resources to play this music, and this gives his performances colors, excitement, and relevance of their own. Rangell also has a clear advantage in terms of engineering. Bridge's sound is far superior to what Columbia was giving Gould in the 1960s.
Copyright © 2007 by Raymond Tuttle, Classical.net
Also Available - Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1"Andrew Rangell's free-spirited Bach is distinguished by its powerful drive and intensity and a remarkable articulation that illuminates contrapuntal intricacies with microscopic clarity."
-- Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times [2/3/2008]
The Bassoon Abroad - Foreign Composers In Britain / Harris, Ensemble Chameleon
THE BASSOON ABROAD: Foreign Composers in Britain • Jennifer Harris (bn); Ens Chameleon • CARUS 83.463 (69:25)
GALLIARD 6 Sonatas for Bassoon/Cello and Basso Continuo: No. 1 in a; No. 2 in G; No. 5 in d; No. 6 in C. The Advice. TRAD The Bush aboon Traquair. The Flowers of Edinburgh. The Lass of Pattie’s Mill. MERCI 6 Sonatas for Bassoon, op. 3: No. 1 in B?; No. 3 in E?; No. 4 in g; No. 5 in c. LAMPE The Solitary Relief. The Maid’s Request
Elsewhere in this volume, I welcome The Proud Bassoon , a recital of German and French bassoon works from the late Baroque period played by the Scottish Baroque bassoon virtuoso Peter Whelen. Now, here from the same package of goodies sent by publisher Joel Flegler, is another recital of Baroque bassoon works, played by a different outstanding proponent of the instrument, English-born Jennifer Harris. These are works primarily of the French (despite the name) composer Luigi Merci and German composer John Ernest Galliard, both of whom immigrated to England to become part of the lively music scene dominated by another German, George Frideric Handel. Harris, incidentally, has made the counter-move, having transplanted to Germany for her advanced studies and subsequent career as an orchestral and chamber musician. She is currently professor of Baroque bassoon at the Conservatory of the City of Vienna University.
The two principal composers are not well known. Galliard moved to England by way of the Court of Denmark to become chapel-master of Somerset House in London. Merci served James Brydges, first Duke of Chandos, before moving to London as well. Among the few surviving works, both produced a set of six sonatas for bassoon and continuo, four each of which Harris has chosen as the core of this recital. They are remarkable for their timing—the bassoon was just coming into its own as a solo instrument at the time of their composition and publication—and for their quality and variety of style. While not masterpieces on the exalted plane of Handel, they display the considerable melodic gift of their creators, and are substantial works which suggest the discernment and playing skill of the public which bought them for home music-making.
Like the works on The Proud Bassoon , these sonatas often require a soloist of considerable skill to pull them off. New instruments based on surviving period bassoons, courses of study to teach the instrument with its complex, very different fingerings, and still others to teach period performance practice, are now resulting in a crop of outstanding proponents of the instrument and this repertoire. Harris is clearly one of these, and she and the remarkable artists of Ensemble Chameleon are making a most impressive CD debut with this outstanding release. The works may not be masterpieces, but the performances are, with Harris’s imaginative, charismatic, and always virtuoso performances ably seconded by the other four members of Ensemble Chameleon. They are so good they should be named individually: Ulrike Becker plays Baroque cello; Barbara Messmer, violone; Andrea Baur, lute; and Evelyn Laib, harpsichord. The often subtle, continually varied sonorities produced as accompaniment are a constant delight, with the alternate use of plucked strings and harpsichord especially nicely done. Tempos are lively but avoid the Lamborghini-like approach of some ensembles from farther south.
Solo honors are shared a bit. The ensemble, sans bassoon, plays German composer John Frederick Lampe’s ballad The Solitary Relief , taken from a 1756 song collection Apollo’s Cabinet , and Harris joins them for a sampling of Scottish airs from the same collection. Laib takes a solo turn in the same composer’s The Maid’s Request . Becker and Baur play a Galliard ballad, The Advice . They are as impressive individually as collectively.
Carus, known for its superbly engineered releases, has added yet another to its catalog. Notes by the soloist, to which I am indebted, are lively and informative, and provide, along with the context of the works, a clever motivation for the program concept. She also makes an interesting connection between the period settings of Scottish airs interspersed among the sonatas, and the music of Merci and Galliard. All in all, presentation and music, the release is perfect. Some admirers of late Baroque music may shy from this disc because of the drier, stuffier quality of the Baroque bassoon. That would be a shame, as the sonority is ideal for the music and the ensemble. and the music is a delight. Highly recommended.
FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames
John Dowland and his Contemporaries: Come Again
The countless compositions in Dowland’s style demonstrate the great importance attached by his pupil William Brade, and other composers of the time, to authentic sound in the redesign of the English pavan on the continent. Your ticket to exciting musical time-travel!
Stokowski Transcriptions - Bach, Wagner, Mussorgsky / Serebrier, Bournemouth SO
Reviews of the original recordings which make up this set.
"Stokowski's Bach transcriptions have received a great deal of attention on disc lately, but this is one of the very few recordings that has the genuine flavor that Stoki himself brought to them. The obvious first question is: How do these versions compare to the "originals"? Can they be as good? The answer, quite simply, is "Yes, they can." Serebrier doesn't try to duplicate every gesture that Stokowski made. That would be impossible in any case, given the wide range of tempos and other variations among his own numerous recordings of these pieces...Aside from Bach, Serebrier includes Stokowski's own Two Ancient Liturgical Melodies, a sexy conflation of Veni Creator Spiritus and Veni Emmanuel, as well as the Handel and Purcell items. Dido's Lament sounds particularly dark and tragic in this performance. It's clear that the Bournemouth Symphony is having a great time reproducing these ultra-rich, Golden Age sonorities. The engineering supports the interpretations particularly well, giving the strings the necessary sheen and allowing the climaxes to expand hugely. This new release is an unqualified triumph." -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
“José Serebrier brings to his recordings of Stokowski transcriptions the same voluptuous orchestral sheen that the old wizard himself managed on his own numerous recordings of this repertoire. However, Serebrier also has the advantage of superb modern sonics to back him up, making these productions eloquent tributes to a beloved friend and mentor, as well as perfectly valid and compelling interpretations in their own right.” -- David Hurwitz, Classics Online
"It would be hard to imagine a more sumptuous disc. Stokowski, in these 'symphonic syntheses,' enhances Wagner's already opulent orchestration with shrewdly added instrumental lines and with the vocal parts usually given to the strings. Then at times he thins the orchestration down for more transparent textures. José Serebrier conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in thrilling performances, passionate in a genuinely Stokowskian manner and treated to orchestral sound of demonstration quality." -- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone
"José Serebrier deploys an imaginative mix of the great man himself with other early masters. Outstanding items among the latter include Palestrina's Adoramus Te, Byrd's Pavane and Galliard, and a really yummy (but never too droopy) Boccherini Minuet. Stokowski was not really a brilliant orchestrator in terms of timbral variety, but he was a very characteristic one. Key to any successful new recording of his arrangements is string sonority, that special, luminous sheen, especially in soft passages. Serebrier understands this, as others who worked with Stokowski do not." -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
"Further icing on the cake: the two lovely Tchaikovsky transcriptions (the Humoresque will be familiar to knowledgeable listeners from its use in Stravinsky's The Fairy's Kiss), and Stokowski's own Traditional Slavic Christmas Music, a setting where once again Serebrier shows himself able to conjure a truly authentic "Stokowski sound". Mind you, these aren't mere imitations. Serebrier's flexible approach to tempo and willingness to inject a jolt of extra electricity make something quite special out of the climaxes in A Night on Bare Mountain, and it's very clear that the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is having as much fun playing this music as you will have listening to it. The engineering stands among the best from this source as well. Spectacular, sensational, skirting the boundaries of "good taste"--this is the real deal." -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
In Handel's Shadow - Vocal Music by His Rivals in Eighteenth-Century London
The figure of George Frideric Handel cast a long shadow over musical London in the first half of the eighteenth century; casting many of his contemporaries – fine composers themselves – into centuries of obscurity. This recording throws light into forgotten corners and discovers some glittering gems; some of them demanding dazzling vocal fireworks from their performers. Several of these composers set scenes from Classical mythology or Old Testament narratives – but they also explore the underside of the Baroque psyche in one of David’s darkest psalms and in a representation of Arcadian madness.
