Impressive debut from the Phoenix Consort & Adam Whitmore in effective and evocative choral works by Alexander Campkin

I Saw Eternity is a new release on Convivium Records, in fact a debut release from choral ensemble Phoenix Consort, directed by Adam Whitmore. The group were founded during the pandemic, and comprises current or former students at Durham University. In their short time together, they have already won a couple of competition prizes and toured in northern Spain, and for their debut disc, they have recorded a collection of choral works by Alexander Campkin (b.1984). The music charts a personal journey from darkness to light for the composer, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, aged just 17. The diagnosis brought a possible career as a viola player to an end, and led Campkin to focus on composition. He has composed numerous choral, orchestral and chamber works, and has been the composer in residence with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra ensemble, BSO Resound. Some of the choral works here have been previously recorded, but a number are premiere recordings. 

 

As is somewhat inevitable with a whole album of similar scale choral works by one composer, there is a certain homogeneity of style that emerges throughout the collection. Settings of the various Christian or spiritually inspired texts are predominantly relatively homophonic, and tempi are on the slower side on the whole. There is frequent use of choral parts diverging from a single note, building up a cluster, before returning to the core single note. And ringing, often challengingly extended, soprano lines at the top of the texture are common. However, this might imply a complete lack of variety, and this would be unfair. Calm me, O Lord, for example, departs from the simple homophonic opening with independent voices repeating fragments of text over the lower voices moving at a slower pace. This piece contains some of the most intense of Campkin’s settings, along with Dazzling Darkness, a setting of Henry Vaughan’s (1621-1695) The Night. Here, there is a little more energy in the tempo, with quicker rising scales and even whistling creating more varied textures. But those clusters built up over scales do abound – in Bright Apollo they ring out clear and appropriately bright, and similarly in Bright Shadows (after another Vaughan text), appearing once again in I flying, although here combined with an effective twisting triplet figure. There are three pieces with I Saw Eternity in the title, all again setting texts by Vaughan. That technique of moving away from a single note to a cluster and back is used as a kind of motif here on the word eternity, although the harmonies in I saw Eternity like a shadow are more adventurous. There is one arrangement here too, Campkin's choral arrangement of Ivor Gurney's (1890-1937) Sleep, with Campkin highly effectively replicating the lilting piano accompaniment in choral textures, Gurney's darker harmonic language also shining through. The final works on the disc provide some elements of departure from the mould, with more energy and pace, and an impressive build to the final chord in Tommy’s Carol, and a lively rhythmic energy in Awake, Awake!, an effective setting of The Bellman’s song, a traditional hunting song, also known as The Moon shines bright. There are certainly some strong choral works here that would benefit exploration by choral groups capable of meeting their challenges, and I am also prompted to explore more of Campkin’s compositions in other genres. 

 

The Phoenix Consort demonstrate strong command throughout, embracing the soundworld and managing the tuning of those dense clusters well. The sopranos do ring out bright at the top, although very occasionally the extended nature of the high lines leads to a slightly brittle sound which would benefit from a little more bloom in the recording. The extended techniques of whistling and humming are confidently executed in Dazzling Darkness, as is the improvisatory individual repetition in Calm me, O Lord. 

Campkin, A. I Saw Eternity: Choral Works by Alexander Campkin. Phoenix Consort, Adam Whitmore. Compact Disc & Download. Convivium Records CR100.

CD Review - Over the Rainbow

Just time before Christmas to add a late review of a lovely disc I received from Convivium Records. Over the Rainbow is a collection of songs and duets performed by brother and sister BBC2 Young Chorister finalists from 2019, Will James and Kate James. There's a great variety of repertoire here, from Britten's Corpus Christi Carol, sung with purity of tone by Kate, and a surprisingly haunting rendition of Sleep by Ivor Gurney, with Will adding edge in the lower registers of his treble voice, through to effective arrangements by George Arthur of the Robbie Williams classic, Angels, and the title track, Over the Rainbow. In the latter, the arrangement has the blended voices colliding beautifully, and there's poignancy in the added cello (from Sarah Butcher). Angels again effectively matches the two voices, creating a rippling duet over a lilting piano accompaniment - played as throughout the disc by Malcolm Archer. In these lighter numbers, Will and Kate might have relaxed their

impeccable chorister diction, but these are nevertheless enjoyable renditions. George Arthur's arrangements of Simple Gifts and Were you there? also make great use of weaving and twisting the two blended voices together, and in Were you there?, he makes great use of the overlapping, clashing parts, as well as using echoes as the voices tumble over each other, and the piano tolls out the bells in the final verse. Will brings a mournful tone, and a little more expression to Dowland's Flow, my tears, and Katehe Turtle Dove, in Vaughan Williams arrangement, has more depth of tone too, with a suitably folk simplicity. There's lots more here - sixteen tracks in all - and this is a 

highly impressive collection from two clearly talented young singers. Definitely worth checking out - perhaps a last minute Christmas present, if you get in quick!

Various. 2020. Over the Rainbow. Will James, Kate James, Sarah Butcher, Malcolm Archer. Compact Disc. Convivium Records CR059.

CD Reviews - September 2018

Mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly and pianist Joseph Middleton have recorded a wonderful selection of songs, covering 120 years of composers associated with the Royal College of Music, as teachers, students or both.  I heard them perform much of this repertoire in a lunchtime BBC Prom in August, and it was one of my concert highlights of the year so far (read my review here).  The title of the CD, ‘Come to Me in My Dreams’, comes from Frank Bridge’s (1879-1983) beautifully rhapsodic setting of Matthew Arnold’s text, with its bluesy piano opening, passionate swells and dramatic break on ‘truth’.  But the disc opens with a total gem, a touching miniature, ‘The Lost Nightingale’ by Muriel Herbert (1897-1984).  This is a stunning collection, by any standards, but what makes it exceptional is the strong sense of communication and commitment to the texts. From the tender sadness and dislocated syncopation of voice and piano in Ivor Gurney’s (1890-1937) ‘Thou didst delight my eyes’, to the tolling bells and beating heart of the repeated note in Arthur Somervell’s (1863-1937) ‘Into my heart an air that kills’, Connolly always delivers the texts with intensity and passion, without ever becoming mannered in delivery. Her soft, honeyed tone and delicate articulation of ‘drips, drips, drips’ in Stanford’s (1852-1924) ‘A soft day’ is particularly striking. In addition to Connolly’s phenomenal expressiveness and control, Middleton’s playing also deserves equal credit. His rippling watery accompaniment to Parry’s (1848-1918) ‘Weep you no more, sad fountains’ is a perfect example of the subtlety of his touch throughout. In addition to Benjamin Britten’s (1913-1976) set ‘A Charm of Lullabies’, we have ‘A Sweet Lullaby’ and ‘Somnus, the humble god’, two songs written for the set, but rejected by Britten, discovered by Connolly in the Britten-Pears Library, so world premiere recordings here. ‘A Sweet Lullaby’ combines a simple lilting rhythm with an undercurrent of unsettling harmonies, and the urgency of the darker undertone increases, such that the final wail leaves the ‘lullaby’ far from calm. ‘Somnus, the humble god’ is also dark, with its rumbling, rocking piano part and a final stanza likening sleep to death. Many songs here will be unfamiliar to many, but there are some real treasures here.  Cecil Armstrong Gibbs’ (1889-1960) ‘Sailing Homeward’ has a great dramatic arc in its two short minutes, and E. J. Moeran’s (1894-1940) ‘Twilight’ is full of achingly pastoral sadness and loss.  Rebecca Clarke’s (1886-1979) ‘The Cloths of Heaven’ is beautifully lyrical and Romantic, and Connolly’s smooth line is matched by soft textures from Middleton.  Michael Tippett’s (1905-1998) 'Songs for Ariel' are highly atmospheric, and Connolly relishes the drama and quirkiness of Tippett’s settings here. Mark-Anthony Turnage’s (b.1960) ‘Farewell’, written for Connolly, concludes the disc, with Turnage exploiting Connolly’s full range to convey the passion and directness of Stevie Smith’s text. Connolly sounds distraught, almost crazed, delivering the line ‘I loved you best’, contrasted with a beautifully relaxed, bell-like tone in the final ‘ding dongs’, against the high tinkling piano. A wonderful collection of English song, highly recommended.

Various. 2018. Come to Me in My Dreams. Dame Sarah Connolly, Joseph Middleton. Compact Disc. Chandos CHAN 10944.

I first came across lutenist Jadran Duncumb on his recording last year with violinist Johannes Pramsohler.  He now has his first solo recording out, focusing on Silvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750), who also featured on that previous CD, and Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783).  Weiss was one of the most important composers of music for the lute, and was renowned for his technical ability on the instrument.  Hasse wrote a great deal of lute music for Weiss, who performed as a soloist with the Dresden orchestra, where Hasse was Kapellmeister.  Here, Duncumb performs two of Hasse’s Sonatas, although both of these have been transcribed from their original settings for harpsichord.  The Sonata in A major, dedicated to the daughter of Friedrich August II of Saxony, is a delightful two movement piece, and Duncumb has added back some of the detail in the sprightly Allegro that was removed in the original transcription. The Sonata in D minor by Weiss is an altogether more substantial work of Bach-like proportions, in six movements, and from its opening stately Allemande, through to the graceful Sarabande, and the fluid Allegro that ends the work, Duncumb makes this sound totally natural. In his notes, he argues that lutenist Weiss’ writing for the instrument comes alive in a way that Bach’s doesn’t quite, and in Duncumb’s hands this is certainly the case.  There is a lively energy and fluidity in his playing that never sounds difficult or awkward. He also includes a short but harmonically daring Prelude, and a joyous Passacaglia from Weiss to close the disc. Before that, another Sonata from Hasse, with some delightfully delicate Baroque sequences in its opening Allegro, and dancing Presto to finish. The recording is close and resonant, which does mean that one hears the occasional scraping of frets, but the ears soon get used to this, and the pay-off is a richness of tone that makes this a highly engaging debut solo recording from Duncumb. 

Various. 2018. Weiss & Hasse Lute Sonatas. Jadran Duncumb. Compact Disc. Audax Records. ADX 13713.

Barry Douglas (piano) combines Schubert’s (1797-1828) posthumous Piano Sonata D958 with the Six Moments Musicaux for the third volume of his collection of the composer’s works for solo piano.  He finishes off this volume with two of Liszt’s transcriptions of Schubert songs.  The Piano Sonata in C minor, D958 is the first of Schubert’s final three sonatas, written in the final months of his life.  It clearly has its roots in Beethoven, particularly in its dramatic, emphatic opening, but Schubert’s voice quickly emerges, especially in the beautifully poignant Adagio. Douglas delivers the required power and weight in the opening movement, and generally his approach emphasises the dramatic. However, his Adagio has delicacy and sensitive expression, if not going for quite the sense of transcendence here that say, Uchida, achieves.  His finale is powerfully agile, however, culminating in a thunderously emphatic conclusion. The Moments Musicaux are a set of character pieces, varying in style and from the brief, dancing third to the more substantial angst-ridden sixth. There are folk touches here and there, but ultimately, these are intimate ‘moments’, and Douglas gives them individual voices, from the delicate poise of No. 1 to the thundering insistence of No. 5. He ends this volume with two of Liszt’s transcriptions for piano of Schubert songs.  ‘Sei mir gegrüßt’ preserves the beautiful melodic line, but Liszt’s deft variation shifts the melody from the top to the middle of the texture, and resists the temptation to be overly virtuosic. ‘Auf dem Wasser zu singen’ does something similar, but Liszt adds beautifully pianistic textures, adding a new dimension to the song’s watery theme.  Another strong volume in Douglas’ ongoing Schubert cycle.

Schubert, F. 2018. Works for Solo Piano, Volume 3. Barry Douglas. Compact Disc. Chandos CHAN 10990.

(Edited versions of these reviews first appeared in GScene, September 2018)

Blissful daydreams on a hot afternoon: lullabies and dreams from Connolly and Middleton - Proms at ... Cadogan Hall 4

© Jan Capinski

Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)

Joseph Middleton (piano)

Monday 6 August, 2018

Proms at ... Cadogan Hall 4

Cadogan Hall, London

★★★★★





Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924): A Sheaf of Songs from Leinster, Op. 140 - 'A soft day'
Hubert Parry (1848-1918): English Lyrics, Set 4 - 'Weep you no more, sad fountains'
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): The House of Life - 'Love-Sight'
Ivor Gurney (1890-1937): Thou didst delight my eyes
Arthur Somervell (1863-1937): A Shropshire Lad - 'Into my heart an air that kills'
Frank Bridge (1879-1941): Come to me in my dreams
Herbert Howells (1892-1983): Goddess of Night
Frank Bridge: Journey's End
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): A Sweet Lullaby
Benjamin Britten: Somnus, the humble god
Gustav Holst (1874-1934): Twelve Humbert Wolfe Songs, Op. 48 - 'Journey's End'
Benjamin Britten: A Charm of Lullabies, Op. 41
Lisa Illean (b.1983): Sleeplessness ... Sails
Mark-Anthony Turnage (b.1960): Farewell

'Connolly and Middleton held the audience’s interest ... through a strong sense of communication and commitment to the texts'.

'Connolly, in her Proms recital debut, and Middleton delivered their programme with assurance and conviction throughout'.

'Connolly always delivered the text with intensity and passion, without ever becoming mannered in delivery'.

Middleton:
'His rippling watery accompaniment to Parry’s Weep you no more, sad fountains, and the beautifully placed delicacy of the opening to Vaughan Williams’ Love-Sight are just two small examples of the subtlety of his touch throughout'.

Read my full review on Bachtrack here. 

CD Reviews - January 2018

If you have any interest in song, particularly English song, then I cannot recommend this disc highly enough – and if you don’t think you like English song, give it a go anyway, I’m sure you will be converted.  Baritone Roderick Williams’ beautiful honeyed tones, accompanied expertly by pianist Susie Allan, communicate this repertoire in a way I’ve rarely heard it before.  George Butterworth’s (1885-1916) ‘Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad’ that open the disc are achingly moving, not least with the added poignancy of Butterworth’s death in the First World War aged 31, just five years after composing the songs.  Williams’ heartfelt sadness in ‘The Lads in their Hundreds’ is almost unbearable, and his characterisation of the ghostly apparition and his old friend in ‘Is my team ploughing’ is deeply affecting.  I have to confess to shedding several tears when I heard them perform this at the CD’s launch, and the recording is no less affecting.  There’s so much here – twenty-eight songs in total – that it’s hard to single things out.  Ireland (1879-1962), Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) and Britten (1913-1976) are all represented here, but also Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) – another casualty of the war, his already fragile mental health never recovered, and he ended his days in a mental hospital.  His setting of ‘Sleep’ by John Fletcher that ends the disc again has added significance perhaps, with its plea for peace and joy through sleep.  There are lighter moments too, with Gurney’s jolly ‘Captain Stratton’s Fancy’, and Peter Warlock’s (1894-1930) brief ‘Jillian of Berry’, and Williams relishes the chance to let loose.  And two songs from the only living composer represented, Ian Venables (b.1955), confirm the art of English song is still alive and well – his fleeting expression of a butterfly in flight, ‘Flying Crooked’ is a delightful miniature, and Williams enjoys the melodic twists and turns, with delicate support from Allan.  Vaughan Williams’ ‘Silent Noon’ and Britten’s ‘The Salley Gardens’ receive particularly touching renditions from Williams – I could rave about every song on this disc, there are truly no fillers here, but space restricts me to urging you to seek this recording out.

Various. 2017. Celebrating English Song. Roderick Williams, Susie Allan. Compact Disc. Somm SOMMCD 0177. 

French harpsichordist Philippe Grisvard has taken part in many recordings, including several with Audax Records’ founder, Johannes Pramsohler, and his Ensemble Diderot.  But the latest Audax recording, a wonderful collection of works for keyboard by Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759), is Grisvard’s solo recording debut.  Whilst the Suites are the most well-known and established of Handel’s keyboard works, Grisvard has also included a number of rarities, and a few pieces by lesser-known contemporaries.  This is a wise move, as it offers the listener much needed variety on a solo instrumental recording.  A particular gem is the arrangement by William Babell (1690-1723) of ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ from Handel’s opera, Rinaldo – Babell’s arrangement of the opera’s overture is also here – in which Grisvard really makes the instrument sing out the aria’s familiar tune.  In his informative notes, Grisvard speculates as to whether these were arrangements by the English composer, or possibly even transcriptions of performances by Handel himself – the bell-like Prelude Presto from Babell that opens the disc certainly sounds like an improvised introduction to such a performance.  The Suite No. 2 has an almost mournful opening Adagio, and the E minor Suite has a delicate, graceful Sarabande.  As well as showing his virtuosic command in the showier movements (such as the E minor Suite’s final Gigue), it is in these subtler moments that Grisvard communicates most directly with poise and grace.  A lively if a little formulaic Capriccio by Wilhelm Zachow (1663-1712), Handel’s teacher, a brief Prelude from contemporary Johann Mattheson (1681-1764), and a pleasing Toccata by Johann Krieger (1649-1725) serve to further demonstrate the imaginative superiority of Handel’s compositions, and the wonderful Chaconne in G major here includes variations from several versions of the work, making it the most substantial piece on offer, and Grisvard clearly enjoys the virtuosic challenges, building through the increasingly complex variations to an impressive conclusion.  This is a delightfully varied and impressively commanding debut from Grisvard.

Various. 2017. Handel: Works for Keyboard. Philippe Grisvard. Compact Disc. Audax Records. ADX 13709.

Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Sinfonia Antartica, his seventh symphony, has its origins in the composer’s music for the film Scott of the Antarctic in 1948.  The symphony followed in 1951, and it makes use of a wordless soprano soloist (Mari Eriksmoen here) and a female chorus, also worldless (the singers here drawn from the Bergen Philharmonic Choir and the Edvard Grieg Kor) – hauntingly ethereal here, without being overly intrusive.  But the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, under Sir Andrew Davis are the stars here, with some breathtakingly taut and controlled playing, perfectly capturing the desolation and desperation of Scott’s ill-fated expedition.  There is a real sense of the expanse of the landscape, and impending doom, and the crashing entry of the organ at the end of the third movement is truly terrifying.  Vaughan Williams wrote his Four Last Songs, settings of poems by Ursula, his second wife and longtime muse, shortly after their marriage in 1953 (although their love affair had begun in 1938).  The songs were orchestrated by Anthony Payne (b.1936) in 2013, and were premiered at the Proms by mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston, but here they receive their premiere recording by a male voice, none other than baritone Roderick Williams.  Payne’s sensitive scoring, and Williams’ aforementioned rich tones, bring these brief romantic gems to life.  The disc is finished off with Vaughan Williams’ Concerto for Two Pianos.  This started life as a Concerto for Piano, but his piano part proved overly challenging, and the suggestion of a version for two pianos followed.  Pianist Joseph Cooper (1912-2001) was charged with the arrangement, but Vaughan Williams changed the ending and added a new cadenza.  It opens with crashing, percussive explosions from the pianos, setting up a lively, energetic Toccata.  The central Romanza is more lyrical and romantic, with some subtle writing for woodwind, and the final Fugue and Finale, separated by a cadenza, return to the opening’s lively extrovert style.  Canadian pianists Hélène Mercier and Louis Lortie add great muscular attack and bite to the outer movements, as well as bringing sensitivity, lush lyricism and subtlety to the Romanza.  Once again, Davis and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra provide sumptuous orchestral textures in support. 

Vaughan Williams, R. 2017. Sinfonia Antartica, Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Four Last Songs. Louis Lortie, Hélène Mercier, Roderick Williams, Mari Eriksmoen, Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Edvard Grieg Kor, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis. Hybrid Super Audio Compact Disc. Chandos CHSA 5186.


(Edited versions of these reviews first appeared in GScene, January 2018)

CD Reviews - July 2017

The first volume of conductor Rumon Gamba’s latest recording project of British Tone Poems, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales is a promising start.  The disc opens with ‘Spring’, a Symphonic Rhapsody, by Frederic Austin (1872-1952).  This is a lush, filmic work, sounding perhaps more summery than spring-like, but nevertheless infectiously positive in outlook.  William Alwyn’s (1905-1985) brief ‘Blackdown - Tone Poem from the Surrey Hills’ follows, and is subtler in its pastoral hues, despite being written when he was just twenty-one.  Sir Granville Bantock (1868-1946) drew on a poem by Shelley for his tone poem, ‘The Witch of Atlas’, a work full of atmosphere and delicate orchestration and frequent solo passages, detail which Gamba & the BBC NOW bring out beautifully. Troubled composer and poet Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) ended his days in a mental hospital, destroyed by his experiences in the First World War.  Philip Lancaster and Ian Venables have worked on his sketches for ‘A Gloucestershire Rhapsody’, creating a performable work, darker and more wistful in tone, and it is given a sensitive and touching performance here. Henry Balfour Gardiner’s (1877-1950) ‘A Berkshire Idyll’ also contains darker moments within its ostensibly sunny outer frame, and definite tinges of Debussy and Delius, and again there are plenty of opportunities for individual members and sections of the orchestra to shine, which they certainly do here. The disc concludes with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ (1872-1958) early sea-inspired work, ‘The Solent’, with its hints of his Sea Symphony to come.  Even in this early work, it sits in another league of invention, with some particularly haunting quiet string writing. Whilst all these works sit in a relatively limited and harmonically safe soundworld (to our ears now), what stands out is the imaginative and varied orchestration and use of colour to illuminate these quintessentially English landscape portraits.  With richly warm and delicate performances from Gamba and the orchestra, this is a great start to what will surely prove to be a fascinating series.

Various. 2017. British Tone Poems, Volume 1. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Rumon Gamba. Compact Disc. Chandos CHAN10939.

I first heard viola player Timothy Ridout perform in the Brighton Festival with the Teyber Trio in 2015.  This year he was back at the festival, this time with pianist John Reid, and he gave a commanding performance.  For his debut recording, he has recorded, together with pianist Ke Ma, the complete works for viola by Henri Vieuxtemps (1820-1881).  Vieuxtemps was a violin virtuoso hailed at his debut as ‘the next Paganini’.  Yet he also frequently played the viola, and wrote a number of works for the instrument, all of which are here.  Only two movements exist of an unfinished second Viola Sonata, although they amount to nearly twenty-five minutes alone, and make for a striking opening to the disc here.  The opening Allegro is full of melodic invention, and the playful Scherzo that follows is a delight, to which Ridout gives great character.  A transcription by the composer of a movement from Félicien David’s Le Désert, entitled ‘La Nuit’, follows, a sweet, salon piece, exploiting the viola’s rich tone.  Next an Etude, with its perpetual flow of rapid semiquavers for the viola supported by delicate chords from the piano. The first Viola Sonata opens with a beautiful lyrical tune in the viola’s lower register before launching into an energetic allegro. The equally lyrical central Barcarolle is followed by an animated finale, in which there is more of an exchange between the piano and viola, giving Ma the chance to join Ridout in the foreground a bit more.  The only work for solo viola here is the short Capriccio, in which Vieuxtemps underpins a lyrical melody with spread chords, building to a highly virtuosic conclusion, and Ridout’s command here is impressive. Once again, it is a lyrical melody that’s central to the yearning Elégie, perhaps the most passionate piece on the disc, and Ridout is highly engaging here.  The disc closes with a perfect encore piece, Souvenir d’Amérique, a set of variations on Yankee Doodle, full of dazzling virtuosic display, and once again Ridout is in complete command of its demands.  This is an impressive debut recording by any standards, and also great to hear lesser-known repertoire for the Cinderella of the string family.

Vieuxtemps, H. 2017. Complete Works for Viola. Timothy Ridout, Ke Ma. Compact Disc. Champs Hill Records CHRCD130. 

Finally, an intriguing release from harpsichordist Catalina Vicens, inspired by the opportunity given to her to perform on what is possibly the oldest playable harpsichord in existence.  Made in Naples in around 1525, the instrument has been restored in South Dakota by John Koster.  While deciding on repertoire to perform on the instrument, Vicens was inspired by the instrument’s possible history, old maps of Naples and writings from the time, as well as her own musings, and as a result she has written a short story to accompany the disc, titled Il Cembalo di Partenope (‘Partenope’s Harpsichord’ – Queen Partenope was the founder of Naples).  It is an atmospheric and dreamlike tale, I think best experienced in the free download audio book (available here) read by Vicens herself, accompanied with music from the CD.  The music itself is by a range of composers from the early part of the 16^th century, starting with Antonio Valente’s (fl.1564-1580) publication of harpsichord works in 1576 and working backwards.  There’s a surprising variety here, although apart from the opening Fantasia del primo by Valente, they are mostly fleeting miniatures.  The dance-like movements, such as Valente’s Gagliarda napolitana, and the lively Calata ala spagnola by Joan Ambrosio Dalza (fl. 1508) add bursts of energy amongst the more reflective love songs and poetic numbers.  There is Italian and Spanish music, and music written for the lute and the voice too.  The harpsichord has a bright tone, and Vicens plays with great delicacy and poise, making this a delightful collection, aside from the added depth of the instrument’s history and Vicens’ atmospheric accompanying tale.  All in all, a fascinating and absorbing project, beautifully performed and presented.

Various. 2017. Il Cembalo di Partenope - A Renaissance harpsichord tale. Catalina Vicens. Compact Disc. Carpe Diem Records CD-16312.

(Edited versions of these reviews first appeared in GScene, July 2017)