Early Music at Saturday Lunchtimes ...

[doversoul1]

At least one is mentioned on the full playlist

Christiane Karg, soprano
Arcangelo:
Sophie Gent, violin
Jonathan Manson, viola da gamba
Monika Plustilnik, lute
Rachel Brown, flute
directed by Jonathan Cohen, harpsichord/organ

[aeolium]

Handel's Nine German Arias sung by Christiane Karg with Arcangelo directed by Jonathan Cohen, recorded in May at the Schwetzingen Festival

Christiane Karg, soprano
Arcangelo: directed by Jonathan Cohen, harpsichord/organ

Die ihr aus dunklen Grüften, HWV 208;
Künft'ger Zeiten eitler Kummer, HWV 202;
Das zitternde Glänzen der spielenden Wellen, HWV 203;
Süße Stille, sanfte Quelle, HWV 205;
Flammende Rose, Zierde der Erden, HWV 210;
Singe, Seele, Gott zum Preise, HWV 206;
In den angenehmen Büschen, HWV 209;
Süsser Blumen Ambraflocken, HWV 204;
Meine Seele hört im Sehen, HWV 207.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b063d3f6

I enjoyed this broadcast yesterday. The third aria, Das zitternde Glänzen der spielenden Wellen, reminded me of an aria of Nireno in Giulio Cesare. I just wonder whether, in the arias where a flute was used in accompaniment, an oboe might have sounded better (Handel did not specify the particular solo instrument to be used), especially as Handel writes so eloquently for oboe in his operas and wind concerti.

[doversoul1]

Dufay and his predecessors: 1 August

14th- and 15th-century vocal music by Dufay and his predecessors performed by La Fonte Musica, recorded at this year's Resonanzen Festival in Vienna

La Fonte Musica, director: Michele Pasotti, lute
Alena Dantcheva & Francesca Cassinari, sopranos; Gianluca Ferrarini, tenor
Ermes Giussani & Susanna Defendi, slide trumpets
Teodoro Baù, viola da gamba; Efix Puleo, fiddle; Federica Bianchi, Gothic organ.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hurrah!

[doversoul1]

I am listening now. Not sure how HIPP this performance, especially the singing is but it sounds much more dramatic than a lot of music from this era and very easy (for want of a better word) to listen to.

Just imagine a Prom like this….

[Black Swan]

A really fantastic concert. The only down side is Radio 3's inane policy of not publishing the entire playlist. As we all know this really makes no sense. But a really great and enjoyable concert.

[Richard Tarleton]

Likewise. Have just listened with great pleasure.

[doversoul1]

Lute music by De Visée and Saint-Luc: 8 August

Evangelina Mascardi performs a concert of lute solos by De Visée, and Saint-Luc from the Konzerthaus in Vienna as part of the 2015 Resonanzen Festival.

Saint-Luc: Le defaite des Français par les Allemands devant Turin
De Visée: Pieces in A minor
De Visée: Suite ou Le ton de la chèvre
Saint-Luc: Seven pieces
De Visée: Les Sylvains de Mr Couperin
Evangelina Mascardi (lute).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b064mhvy

Maybe Richard T could enlighten us about these composers?

[Roehre]

A really fantastic concert. The only down side is Radio 3's inane policy of not publishing the entire playlist. As we all know this really makes no sense. But a really great and enjoyable concert.

The BBC's policy is despicable, inane and straightforwardly stupid.
On top of that: that the titles were not given in the broadcast either (only some slight "translations") is simply beyond me completely.

Here it is:

Johannes Ciconia
Ut te per omnes / Motette (?)
O felix templum jubila / Motette

Da padua
Imperial sedendo

Jacopo da Bologna
Sotto l'imperio del possente Prinçe / Madrigal

Johannes Ciconia
Con lagrime bagnandome
O virum omnimoda / Motette (?)

Johannes Ciconia
Le ray au soleyl / Kanon

Jacopo da Bologna
Lux purpurata radiis – Diligite iusticiam

Filipotto de Caserta
En Attendant

Johannes Ciconia
Una panthera

Antonello da Caserta
Del glorioso titolo
----
Guillaume Dufay
Resveillez vous et faites chiere lye / Chanson
Hé, compagnons, resvelons nous (1420-1440 ca.)
Vasilissa, ergo gaude
Apostolo glorioso

For those who like this kind of 13/14C Avant-garde (please note that the Dufay chansons are hardly recorded, but Ciconia's Panthera and Le ray au soleyl are something of his most recorded works), this set might be of interest. In my experience it is a most rewarding set, it discloses the era from Machaut through Musica subtilior upto Dufay brilliantly after two or three listenings.
Some of the works from the Musica subtilior composers were not met by their successors upto well into the 20C.

[Richard Tarleton]

Maybe Richard T could enlighten us about these composers?

Only de Visée (c.1650-1725) known to me I'm afraid - like so much of the early guitar repertoire, I came across him first via Julian Bream's recordings. He was a guitarist as well as lute and theorbo player, played at the court of Louis XlV and was guitar teacher to the young Louis XV. This was very much a period of evolution for plucked instruments, with the guitar evolving rapidly and increasing in popularity (and respecability) and the lute heading for extinction (for the next 200 years at least).

I enjoyed the recital - Evangelina Mascardi also new to me

[doversoul1]

Thank you, Richard. Yes, it was a treat to have an hour of lute music.

What was the advantage of the guitar over the lute?

Roehre
Many thanks for the playlist. Even after a week, R3 website lists only four works.

[Roehre]

...

Roehre
Many thanks for the playlist. Even after a week, R3 website lists only four works.

Not even that Doversoul, each of these 4 listed are groups of works, without mentioning specifically any.

[Richard Tarleton]

What was the advantage of the guitar over the lute?

Good question, and a huge subject - I'm not sure that they were in direct competition particularly, rather that they had parallel evolutions which were musically and (mostly) geographically distinct.

De Visée (who played and wrote for both) regarded the lute (with its many more "courses" or pairs of strings, and more and deeper bass notes including the unstopped diapasons) as superior for part writing, and kept his more sophisticated compositions for it. But Louis XlV and Charles ll of England both liked the guitar, and Louis employed Francesco Corbetta, (and Louis XV de Visée) as court guiitarist. But at the time it was still a 5-course guitar (with 4 pairs of strings and a single top string), which had evolved from the 4-course guitars of the Iberian peninsula.

The lute had evolved from the fairly straightforward Renaissance lute with its 6, 7 or 9 courses of strings (Dowland) into (by the time of Bach and Weiss) monstrous baroque lutes with 16 courses and multiple diapasons. A baroque lutenist spent more time tuning than playing. Well, a slight exaggeration. The chittarone or theorbo was part of the quest for more and deeper notes - Jakob Lindberg talked at a recital about how they experimented with two bridges, which made it impossible to play, but settled for the longer neck, which made it impossible to tune, cue laughter from the audience.

Then - the meteorite seemed to strike in the mid 18th century. Nobody wrote for the lute after Weiss. It disappeared for nearly 200 years. Meanwhile, and separately, modern guitar technique evolved in 18th and 19th century Spain, Italy and France....Then in the 20th century guitarists started to transcribe the riches of the early and baroque repertoire, and of course the early music movement revived the instruments themselves. And this stuff sounds far better on the original instruments (or copies of them) - I now have far more lute than guitar CDs.

The guitar presents fewer practical problems - easier to tune, (nowadays) nylon strings, fixed metal frets....the lute certainly stacks the odds against amateur hackers like me. And don't get me started on lute tablature - 3 different systems (French/English, Italian, German, the latter being particularly impenetrable) which they still use today, in preference to stave. They say it better represents the composer's intention, and is easier to read . But today's great lutenists (Lindberg, North, O'Dette, Smith, Rooley) all seem to have got over it, having started out as guitarists. And acknowledge their debt to Julian Bream.

-

[doversoul1]

Thank you, Richard.
So the guitar didn’t evolve (or took over) from the lute in quite the same sense as the fortepiano did from the harpsichord; the guitar was always there but the lute faded out. We are extremely lucky to be there (for me, not geographically) when Julian Bream came along.


Roehre
I think this Saturday concert has proved to be an excellent programme, yet the presenters are (I’m sure of this) just given the script to read on the spot. Luckily for us, they are the best of the lot (they can sight read any foreign names and titles unlike some) but this programme deserve better. I’d say it’s time the BBC slimed down the Proms and spend more thoughts and money on R3’s daily programmes.

[Roehre]

...

Roehre
I think this Saturday concert has proved to be an excellent programme, yet the presenters are (I’m sure of this) just given the script to read on the spot. Luckily for us, they are the best of the lot (they can sight read any foreign names and titles unlike some) but this programme deserve better. I’d say it’s time the BBC slimed down the Proms and spend more thoughts and money on R3’s daily programmes.

Concur fully