CD Reviews - November & December 2019

Young Kentucky-born violinist Tessa Lark treads a well-worn path with the title of her debut recording, Fantasy. However, her choice of repertoire here is far from predictable, with three of Telemann’s Fantasies, and her own Appalachian Fantasy nestling amongst the more familiar Schubert Fantasie and Ravel’s Tzigane. Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was an incredibly prolific composer, and yet his work is still surprisingly often overlooked. The twelve Fantasies for solo violin are gems, and whilst clearly showing influences of Bach and Corelli, they have their own distinctive voice, and Lark gives us three of them here. The dark Grave of the first contrasts with its dancing Allegro sections, and the fourth has great energy in its outer sections. The fifth is perhaps the showiest of Lark’s selection here, but it too has a brief moment of calm in its brief Andante before the final dashing Allegro. In all of these, Lark’s tone is bright and full of life, and she brings out the challenging counterpoint and frequent double-stoppings with poise and ease. Schubert’s Fantasie for Violin and Piano is an extended single movement (at around 25 minutes in all), although it does have a number of distinct sections, and Schubert draws on one of his own songs, Sei mir gegrüsst for the basis of four variations that form the bulk of the piece, following a beautifully singing opening and a playful allegretto, with violin and piano in canon. Lark and Amy Yang (piano) enjoy the playfulness here, and both instruments have a lot to show off about in the challenging variations. Apart from wanting a tad more richness of tone in the opening, there is little to fault here, and this is definitely a performance of equals, with Yang relishing the rich textures of Schubert’s writing for the piano. Lark then follows the Schubert with a real treat – her own composition, Appalachian Fantasy, highlighting another side to her musical heritage as a traditional fiddler. With her violin retuned to produce the traditional open string double-stopping drones, she draws on the melody from the Schubert, as well as bringing in traditional Appalachian tunes, such as Cumberland Gap and Bonaparte’s Retreat, in a fabulously infectious demonstration of her phenomenal talent here. Fritz Kreisler’s (1875-1962) Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta, despite the mouthful of a title, is a typically delightful Kreisler encore concoction, harking back to the heyday of the Viennese waltz, and Lark and Yang give this warmth and a sense of sweet nostalgia. Ravel’s Tzigane is a bravura showpiece for violin, although again, the piano part is not to be sniffed at, and Yang rises to its challenges well. Lark throws off the virtuosic gypsy flourishes with appropriate abandon, making this a lively and exuberant finish to the disc. All in all, this is a highly impressive calling card, amply demonstrating the range of Lark’s talents.

Various. 2019. Fantasy. Tessa Lark, Amy Yang. Compact Disc. First Hand Records. FHR86.

You may have had the opportunity to catch Musica Secreta performing in the Brighton Early Music Festival, and launching their new CD, From Darkness Into Light, which includes the complete Lamentations of Jeremiah by Antoine Brumel (c.1460-1512/13), recently discovered by Musica Secreta co-director, Laurie Stras, in a Florentine manuscript. An abbreviated form of the work, consisting of just two verses and refrain, have been known and performed for many years, but incredibly, Laurie Stras found the complete set, with no fewer than an additional seventeen verses, hiding in plain sight in a sixteenth century manuscript. As a close supporter and friend of Musica Secreta, I can’t claim complete independence in terms of a review of their performances here (although they are stunning!), but this is incredible music by any measure, and the Brumel is joined on recording with a selection of music taken from a convent manuscript, including works by Josquin des Prez (c.1450/55-1521) and Loyset Compère (c.1445-1518). All the music is sung exquisitely here by the nine female voices of Musica Secreta, accompanied by Claire Williams on organ and Alison Kinder on viol. I can’t recommend this highly enough.

Various. 2019. From Darkness Into Light: Antoine Brumel, The complete Lamentations of Jeremiah for Good Friday. Musica Secreta, Deborah Roberts, Laurie Stras. Compact Disc. Obsidian Records CD719. 

The vocal ensemble Fieri Consort, BREMF Live! alumni, have released their third album, focussing on the music of Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677), ‘Virtuosa of Venice’. This gives them the chance to show off their considerable talents in more soloistic repertoire, with works for one, two or at most three voices. They are joined by Toby Carr (theorbo/baroque guitar), Aileen Henry (baroque harp) and Harry Buckoke (viola da gamba), and Carr and Henry also present delightful solo pieces by Giovanni Kapsberger and Ascanio Maione respectively, as well as a beautifully delicate duet from Buckoke and Carr by Bartolomeo Selma y Salaverde. Strozzi was one of the most prolific composers of her time, and the selection of pieces here demonstrates her remarkable expressive range. Sopranos Lucinda Cox and Hannah Ely have beautifully clear and blended voices in the sweetly flirtatious ‘I baci’ (Kisses), whilst Ely’s pairing with bass baritone Ben McKee in the more racy ‘Morso e bacio’ (Bite and kiss) has suitably more bite. Meanwhile Cox joins mezzo Nancy Cole for the gently throbbing ‘Sospira, respira’ (Sigh, breathe). The entwined virtuosic lines of ‘Il ritorno’  (The Return) are delivered with great sensitively and skill by Cox and tenor Tom Kelly. Tenors Kelly and Josh Cooter have great fun with the comically melodramatic ‘Al battitor di bronzo’ (To a brass door-knocker), whilst Ely enjoys the occasional unexpected sensuous chromaticisms amid the dancing lines of Benedetto Ferrari’s ‘Amanti’ (Lovers), with its swinging baroque guitar accompaniment. Monteverdi’s sweet ‘Si dolce e’l tormento’ (So sweet is the torment), as well as Nicolò Fontei’s gentle duet ‘Dio ti salvi pastor’ (God save you Shepherd) receive expressive readings. The disc ends with the passionately moving ‘Lagrime me’ (My tears) from Strozzi, sung with moving expression by Ely, followed appropriately by Cole, Kelly and McKee singing Strozzi’s ‘Conclusione dell’opera’ with great warmth and tenderness. A wonderfully constructed programme, demonstrating the variety of expression in Strozzi’s music, as well as the outstanding talents of these singers and players – highly recommended!

Various. 2019. Barbara Strozzi, Virtuosa of Venice. Fieri Consort. Compact Disc. Fieri Records FIER003VOV.

First Hand Records have a fascinating project on the go remastering early EMI stereo recordings from the 1950s. The third volume focusses on music for harpsichords – not just one, but for most of the disc, four. As contemporary harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani informs us in his disc notes, the instruments of that time, known as ‘revival harpsichords’, were hefty beasts, with iron frames and pedals more akin to pianos, rather than the more historically faithful reproductions that the early music movement has led us to expect. Surprisngly, these weighty instruments actually were capable of much less in terms of volume, so in recording with the Pro Arte Orchestra here, the harpsichordists took advantage of techniques such as shifting register to bring out melodies, and lots of sudden dampening effects. The orchestra also has to play pretty quietly most of the time, even though the harpsichords would have been very closely recorded. And the four harpsichordists? George Malcolm (whose own Variations on a Theme of Mozart appears here) was a conductor and composer as well as a harpsichordist, and Thurston Dart was a musicologist, and key figure in the British early music revival. They are joined by two Australians – pianist Eileen Joyce, more known for weighty romantic piano repertoire, and Denis Vaughan, conductor and performer. The four gave annual concerts together until the early 1960s. Here they play Vivaldi’s D minor Concerto for 4 harpsichords (arranged by Dart), as well as Bach’s arrangement of another Vivaldi Concerto, and Bach’s Concerto for 3 harpsichords (with Vaughan on continuo).The orchestral sound is definitely dated, with smooth strings, and plenty of vibrato, although there is still a surprisingly light energy for most of the time, and the jangling harpsichords, particularly in the faster movements creates a lively soundworld that takes the listener along on an enjoyable journey. Following this are four short solo pieces performed by another harpsichordist, the American, Ralph Kirkpatrick. His playing is definitely less showy than the quartet, and he achieves more of the expressive potential of the instrument in the Sweelinck and Pachelbel in particular. The disc (very generous at nearly 85 minutes) ends with a Bach Cantata, ‘Bide with us’, sung in English by the Bach Choir and unnamed soloists, with the Jacques Orchestra conducted by Reginald Jacques. The singing – both choral and solo – is overly warbly and without the clarity of focus we would now expect in such repertoire. However, there is some delightfully delicate playing from the solo oboist and cellist in the second and third movements. Overall, a fascinating insight here into a different period in music-making, and well worth it for the Kirkpatrick and some of the livelier 4 harpsichord movements.

Various. 2019. Early Stereo Recordings Volume 3. Thurston Dart, Eileen Joyce, George Malcolm, Denis Vaughan, The Pro Arte Orchestra, Boris Ord, The Bach Choir, Jacques Orchestra, Reginald Jacques. Compact Disc. First Hand Records FHR60. 

(Edited versions of these reviews first appeared in GScene, November & December 2019)

CD Reviews - January 2019

The vocal ensemble Fieri Consort formed in 2012, and two years later became part of Brighton Early Music Festival’s programme for young artists, BREMF Live! Since then they’ve gone from strength to strength, and won the Cambridge Award at the 2017 York Early Music Festival. They gave a stunning performance at this year’s BREMF, as well as several of the 8-strong line-up performing as soloists in the BREMF operas and other festival concerts.  For their second disc, The Unknown Traveller, they have recorded a selection of works from Musica Transalpina, an anthology of mostly Italian madrigals set to English texts, thus fuelling the popularity of madrigals in England at the time.  The anthology was published in 1588 by Nicholas Yonge, Lewes-born singer and publisher (see concert listings for the Lewes chamber music series named after him), although the identity of the translator is unknown (hence the disc’s title).  There are works by Ferrabosco, Palestrina, Lasso, de Monte, Byrd and others.  The Fieri Consort sing one to a part, varying the forces from four to six voices, and their ensemble is always clear and blended, yet the English texts are brought to the fore with precision and smooth articulation.  Conversi’s ‘Zephirus brings the time…’ is given beautifully smooth lines, whereas Ferrabosco’s ‘The nightingale so pleasant…’ has a delightfully swinging delicacy.  They couple this collection with a new work, ‘Short Walk of a Madman’ by Ben Rowarth.  Rowarth uses texts by e e cummings, as well as drawing on Dante’s Divine Comedy for structure for its four movements, Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, and then Paradise Revisited.  The theme of loneliness is also explored, in particular by often isolating the different eight voices in separate tonalities at the same time.  This creates huge challenges for the singers, but the Fieri Consort are totally convincing and highly impressive in their command of these demands.  The second movement in particular has a real sense of torment and madness, with its repetitive, circling motions, and the intertwined tonalities of the third and fourth movements are hypnotic and very effective.  Whilst I’m not sure the placing of this work alongside the Musica Transalpina repertoire entirely works, it certainly demonstrates the range of these young singers’ expertise, and Rowarth’s work definitely has a striking impact.  I look forward to hearing a lot more from these highly talented singers. 

Various. 2018. The Unknown Traveller. Fieri Consort. Compact Disc. Fieri Consort FIERI. 

The New Ross Piano Festival has been taking place in New Ross in the south east of Ireland since 2006.  Over the course of three years from 2014-16, the festival commissioned and premiered fifteen new pieces by different Irish composers in response to the Ros Tapestry, a fifteen-panel tapestry begun in 1998 that traces the history of the Norman invasion of Ireland.  They have now been put together on two discs, forming the Ros Tapestry Suite, performed by 12 different pianists, including the festival’s Artistic Director Finghin Collins, as well as Nicholas Angelich, Piers Lane, Lise de la Salle and Cédric Tiberghien.  Given the nature of the source material, a number of the pieces evoke battle scenes, although it is fascinating to hear the different compositional responses to this. So Sebastian Adams’ ‘The Siege of Wexford’ makes use of violent, throbbing chords, particularly exploiting the piano’s lowest registered, with a hammering conclusion.  Gerry Murphy’s ‘Battles in the Kingdom of Ossory’ is warlike too, but much more ominous, with its repeated ‘Jaws’-like bass. There’s a galloping hunt in Andrew Hamilton’s ‘Hunt in the Forest of Ros’, a wild and watery storm in Deirdre Gribbin’s ‘Ex Voto Tintern Abbey’, and a striking build from jazzy evening chords to a tolling warning in Eric Sweeney’s ‘Evening: The Lighthouse at Hook Head’.  Rhythmic energy and drive abound in John Kinsella’s ‘The Celts…’, whereas the rhythms in Elaine Agnew’s ‘The Abduction of Dervorgilla’ are unsettlingly jerky, even jumpy.  All bar one of the tracks were recorded live, and the sound is consistently clear and full-bodied.  The pianists deserve as much praise as the composers here – these are challenging pieces, and all concerned give highly convincing, often intense, and impressively virtuosic performances.  Cédric Tiberghien and Piers Lane merit particular mention for their characterisation, and in Lanes’ case, precise articulation of the melodic fragments within rich textures of harmonic clusters.  And Finghin Collins, who performs four of the pieces here, gets to demonstrate the greatest variety and command of technique.  Overall, this is a fascinating collection, demonstrating an impressive breadth of contemporary composition for the piano.

Various. 2018. Ros Tapestry Suite. Various. Compact Disc. New Ross Piano Festival NRPF01.

(Edited versions of these reviews first appeared in GScene, January 2019)

Brighton Early Music Festival, 26 October - 11 November 2018

This year’s festival celebrates the richness of 700 years of music from Europe, and looks at Britain’s long and often tempestuous relationship with the rest of the Continent from medieval times onwards. Concerts draw on the important alliances, wars, trade, migrations, revolutions and dissolutions, as a result drawing parallels to some of the current challenges we face (a slight understatement!) in terms of our relationship with the rest of Europe.  Despite the increasing challenges of funding such a festival, Artistic Director Deborah Roberts once again promises us a typically varied and innovative range of concerts, workshops and events.  

Sollazzo Ensemble

The festival the kicks off with the Sollazzo Ensemble exploring La Contenance Angloise, an early English cultural export and musical fashion which took Europe by storm in the 15^thcentury (Friday 26).  Then soprano Elin Manahan Thomas is joined by Elizabeth Kenny on lute & chitarrone for ‘Game of Thrones’, including music by Dowland, Tallis, Carissimi and others, reflecting the political machinations of the time (Saturday 27). The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble meanwhile focus on the influence of the Venetian wind-playing Bassano family, who brought their unrivalled skills to 16th century London (Saturday 27).

Spanish group Resonet are joined by the BREMF Community Choir to bring the music from the Lewes Breviary to life, and show how a European network of monastaries shared and influenced music across the continent (Sunday 28).  

Canto Fiorito & Musica Antiqua Salzburg

The Consone Quartet and Flauguissimo Ensemble take us to Scandinavia for a slice of classical and traditional music from the north (Friday 2 November), whilst Canto Fiorita from Lithuania and Musica Antiqua Salzburg bring us music from across the Hanseatic League, a proto-EU of 11 countries in Northern Europe from the 13^th-17^thcenturies (Sunday 4 November).

A highlight of every BREMF is the BREMF Live! Showcase, and this year promises to be no different, with performances from five emerging ensembles supported by the festival (Saturday 3 November), including medieval vocal ensemble Voice, early baroque group Dramma per Musica, and classical ensemble Pocket Sinfonia.

Fieri Consort

Lux Musicae London will be performing music by John Dowland and others from the court of Christian IV in Denmark (Sunday 4 November), and the Fieri Consort are in the year 1588, considering what might have happened if the wind had not changed, and the Spanish Armada had succeeded in invading Britain – at the same time as the first Italian madrigal anthology with English texts crossed the Alps, a cultural conquest that made madrigal singing the height of fashion across Europe (Friday 9 November).  

Once again, BREMF are also offering us the chance to see rarely performed early opera, and this year we get not one but two, with a double bill of Il Ballo delle Ingrate by Monteverdi, and Venus and Adonis by John Blow.  With a great cast of young soloists, and the Monteverdi String Band, Thomas Guthrie directs productions combining music and dance (6-8 November).

BREMF Consort of Voices

Two powerful concerts will conclude this year’s festival.  First, in Reformation Remainers, the BREMF Consort of Voices, directed by Deborah Roberts, perform music by Taverner, Tallis and Byrd, drawing parallels between the fierce divide brought about by the English Reformation (the break with Rome), and Brexit (the break with Brussels) (Saturday 10 November).  And finally, Peace in Europe, a concert for Armistice Day will include music by Handel, Zelenka and Purcell, performed by the BREMF Players and Singers, directed by John Hancorn (Sunday 11 November).

For venues, times and tickets, visit BREMF.

Brighton Early Music Festival 2014, 24 October to 9 November

This years’s Brighton Early Music Festival has the theme of ‘Cities – Musical centres and the journeys between them’, and we are promised a great line-up again of top world-class musicians, up-and-coming young professionals and the best of local amateur performers too. 

The Sixteen (Credit: MolinaVisuals)

Highlights include the return of The Sixteen, focussing on Warsaw, and the music of Italian maestri at the 17^th century Polish court (Friday 31 October).  On this occasion they are conducted by Assistant Director, Eamonn Dougan, who has directed The Sixteen in two highly-acclaimed recordings of Polish repertoire. 

La Serenissima (Credit: Benjamin Harte)

Venice is the destination for La Serenissima with music by Vivaldi, Albinoni & Caldara (Friday 24 October), and they are followed the same night by a performance from Early Music Live! artists, the Fieri Consort. 

Celestial Sirens

Other destinations include London (BREMF Players and Singers, music by Purcell and Handel, Sunday 9 November), Paris (Musica Secreta, the CelestialSirens and Brighton Festival YouthChoir, with music by Charpentier, Lully & Couperin, Sunday 2 November) and Monserrat (The Telling, Spanish medieval songs and dances, Saturday 25 October). 

BREMF Consort of Voices

Popes, Patronage and Power is the focus for a visit to Rome on Saturday 25 October.  The BREMF Consort of Voices, with narrator Nigel Pittman perform music composed for the Vatican, including music by Palestrina, Josquin, and Allegri’s famous Miserere, with director Deborah Roberts singing the soprano solo.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are in town with The Night Shift, taking music to intimate pub settings, and this year they will by at The Marlborough Theatre (Friday 17 October).

The Borromini Quartet

And in a joint venture with Strings Attached, the Borromini Quartet return to Brighton to take us on a journey from Vienna to Madrid, with music by Haydn, Boccherini and the so called ‘Spanish Mozart’, Arriaga (Sunday 26 October).

For venues, times and tickets, click here, or go to Brighton Dome Ticket Office 01273 709709.