Early Music on Record Review

[Pegleg]

Thanks DS, dug this out the vault for tonight's listening: Handel Week - Jephtha 2009 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jmxf5

[doversoul1]

24 August

9.00am
uan Sebastian Elkano: a circumnavigation of the Earth between 1519 and 1521 including works by Jon Mirande, Darwish Mustapha and Michael Navarrus
Euskal Barrokensemble
Enrike Solinís (conductor)
Alia Vox AV9933 (2 CDs)

10.20am – New Releases
JS Bach - Sonatas for Viola Da Gamba and Harpsichord (arranged for viola)
Antoine Tamestit (viola)
Masato Suzuki (harpischord)

From Palaces to Pleasure Gardens: Organ music from Georgian London's Pleasure Gardens by composers including Handel, JC Bach, and John Stanley.
Thomas Trotter (1735 Richard Bridge Organ of Christ Church, Spitalfields)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007x80

[doversoul1]

31st August

9.00am
L'incoronazione di Poppea
Sonya Yoncheva (Poppea)
Kate Lindsey (Nerone)
Stéphanie d’Oustrac (Ottavia)
Carlo Vistoli (Ottone)
Dominique Visse (Arnalta)
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie

10.20am – New Releases
Amadio Freddi: Vespers (1616) - lesser-known music in the Baroque Venetian orbit by Ignazio Donati, Amadio Freddi, Biagio Marini etc
The Gonzaga Band
Jamie Savan (cornett and director)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00084bl

[doversoul1]

7 September
Telemann to start the programme but we still have no idea what is to come. Apart from

9.30
Proms Composer: Bach
Hannah French chooses five indispensable recordings of works by Proms Composer Bach, one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period, and explains why you need to hear them.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00089ms

[MickyD]

I thought I was going to enjoy the Dunedin Consort's St Matthew Passion when I heard the orchestra start - but I soon changed my mind when I heard those thin voices sounding so upfront...I have no idea why HF selected this above all others.

[doversoul1]

I thought I was going to enjoy the Dunedin Consort's St Matthew Passion when I heard the orchestra start - but I soon changed my mind when I heard those thin voices sounding so upfront...I have no idea why HF selected this above all others.

I’ve never much liked OVPP. A thinly attended Sunday service was my first impression and it hasn't changed much. I like chorus to be chorus and not a part song (whatever learned musicologists tell us). A pity, as I do like the sound of their instrumental ensemble.

Isn’t the chorus in St Matthew Passion (and other works for the church) meant to be the voice of a crowd/congregation?

[Miles Coverdale]

I’ve never much liked OVPP. A thinly attended Sunday service was my first impression and it hasn't changed much. I like chorus to be chorus and not a part song (whatever learned musicologists tell us). A pity, as I do like the sound of their instrumental ensemble.

Isn’t the chorus in St Matthew Passion (and other works for the church) meant to be the voice of a crowd/congregation?

In the Matthew Passion Chorus II represents Die Glaübigen (The Faithful).

[Nick Armstrong]

I thought I was going to enjoy the Dunedin Consort's St Matthew Passion when I heard the orchestra start - but I soon changed my mind when I heard those thin voices sounding so upfront...I have no idea why HF selected this above all others.

Agreed, I just don’t get it at all.

On the other hand, the Masses performed by Pygmalion under Pichon were a revelation, terrific stuff which has been on a lot this weekend thanks to Qobuz. Can’t believe these have passed me by till now.

[ardcarp]

Agreed, I just don’t get it at all.

Nor me.

On the other hand, the Masses performed by Pygmalion under Pichon were a revelation, terrific stuff which has been on a lot this weekend thanks to Qobuz. Can’t believe these have passed me by till now.

...ditto, except I knew the Cum Sancto Spiritu of the B Minor Mass came from a pre-existing Mass setting. Never quite understood why Protestant Germany and Protestant Bach spawned Catholic Masses. (I'm sure someone will explain!)

[Nick Armstrong]

...ditto, except I knew the Cum Sancto Spiritu of the B Minor Mass came from a pre-existing Mass setting. Never quite understood why Protestant Germany and Protestant Bach spawned Catholic Masses. (I'm sure someone will explain!)

The pieces I knew, but not these excellent performances

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

...ditto, except I knew the Cum Sancto Spiritu of the B Minor Mass came from a pre-existing Mass setting. Never quite understood why Protestant Germany and Protestant Bach spawned Catholic Masses. (I'm sure someone will explain!)

Lutheran services included individual latin sections of the Mass (on special occasions, IIRC - or, possibly, just whenever they felt like popping a latin setting in ... ) - things weren't quite as puritanically iconolclastic as in Henry VIII/Edward VI's England.

The B minor Mass is a collection of individual movements that Bach collected together as an "audition piece" when he was hoping to move from Leipzig to Dresden. Dresden was one of many Catholic states in Germany after the Peace of Augsburg between the (Catholic) Holy Roman Emperor and the Lutherans, ending decades of religious conflict between the individual states in the 16th Century.

[ardcarp]

Thanks Ferney.

things weren't quite as puritanically iconolclastic as in Henry VIII/Edward VI's England.

I remember as a small kid that some local Anglican churches frowned on 'Popish practices', e.g. bowing to the altar, crossing oneself...and genuflecting was definitely out. Crosses were OK but not ones depicting the crucified Christ. Even some cathedrals discouraged using Latin texts for anthems...which had to have English texts supplied.

I clearly remember my first experience of a high Anglo-Catholic church, with bells, smells et al. Loved it. But not enough to end up a True Believer.

[doversoul1]

14 September

9.00am
Purcell: Royal Welcome Songs for King Charles II Volume II
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers

10.20am – New Releases
Praga Rosa Bohemiae: Music in Renaissance Prague – Includes works by Petrus Wilhelmi de Grudencz, Heinrich Isaac, Jacob Obrecht etc
Cappella Mariana
Vojtěch Semerád (director)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008h1q

[doversoul1]

21 September

9.00
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger: Intavolatura di chitarone
Jonas Nordberg (theorbo)

10.20am – New Releases
Louis Couperin: Suites
Rinaldo Alessandrini (harpsichord)

10.45am – New Releases – Alexandra Coghlan on Choral Releases
Peñalosa – Lamentationes - Renaissance music from Spain by Francisco Guerrero, Pedro de Escobar and Francisco de Penalosa.
New York Polyphony

Anamorfosi – including Allegri's Miserere mei, Deus, Monteverdi's Maria, quid ploras and Rossi's Un allato messagier
Le Poème Harmonique
Vincent Dumestre (conductor)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008pmr

[Richard Tarleton]

9.00
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger: Intavolatura di chitarone
Jonas Nordberg (theorbo)

I listened to the extracts played on RR on a car radio in a patch of poor reception, so couldn't make very much of them, but the playing sounded a bit prosaic to me. I'm not sure that I want to hear the fingers on the strings, as Andrew put it - sounds like it was too closely miked, if that was the case. It might have helped if he'd pointed out (Kapsberger being Italian) that the theorbo and the chittarone are one and the same thing - it's "tiorba" in Italian. He mentioned "cittarone" with a hard "c", without explanation.

The best bet for this repertoire remains these two discs - an all-Kapsberger disc by Paul O'Dette on Harmonia Mundi, and an Italian recital by Jakob Lindberg on BIS.
- one of those images looks strangely familiar.