Early Music on Record Review

[Nick Armstrong]

This looks very good

1145
'Serpent & Fire, Arias for Dido and Cleopatra', soprano Anna Prohaska's latest recording is with Giovanni Antonini's period instrument group Il Giardino Armonico, and features music by Purcell, Handel, Hasse and Cavalli, among others.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07tyr4h

Here’s a taster.
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/adv...ll&label=&cat=

I found the singing too hooty/swoopy, had to switch it off.

[doversoul1]

I found the singing too hooty/swoopy, had to switch it off.

I’ve just listened through. I have to agree with you. It didn’t sound as good as it looked on the video. The singing sounded sort of acrylic. There are so many excellent sopranos in this repertoire now that I suppose I am spoiled.

[doversoul1]

24 September

9.00
BACH, J S: Goldberg Variations, BWV988
Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)

Vivaldi: Concertos for 2 violins
Giuliano Carmignola (violin), Amandine Beyer (violin), Gli incogniti

11.45am Disc of the Week
Francois Couperin: Lecons de Tenebres
BROSSARD: Stabat Mater and Trio Sonatas
COUPERIN, F: Trois Lecons de Tenebres
Lucy Crowe (soprano), Elizabeth Watts (sopranos), La Nuova Musica, David Bates
HARMONIA MUNDI HMU807659 (Hybrid SACD)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07wr2gh

Caliban: A very good week in deed

[doversoul1]

8 October

9.00am
CASTELLO, D: Sonate concertate in stil moderno, Libro I
Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr (conductor)
AAM RECORDINGS AAM005 (CD)

10.45am
Kate Bolton-Porciatti on Early and Baroque New Releases
Kate Bolton-Porciatti joins Andrew to discuss an eclectic array of recent Early Music releases including Cello concertos by CPE Bach, Caldara Cervantes operas, and Telemann Fantasies

CPE Bach: Cello Concertos
Nicolas Altstaedt (cello), Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen (conductor)

TELEMANN: 4-25
Fabio Biondi

Caldara: The Cervantes Operas
Maria Espada (soprano), Emiliano Gonzalez Toro (tenor), Joao Fernandes (bass), La Ritirata, Josetxu Obregon (artistic direction)

MURCIA, SANZ,
Pierre Pitzl (guitar/direction), Private Musicke

Pierre de La Rue
The Brabant Ensemble, Stephen Rice

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07y9nl8

Have we had this reviewer on the programme before?

[Richard Tarleton]

New to me!

Santiago de Murcia (1682-1732) and Gaspar Sanz (1640-1710) are both standards of the guitar repertoire. Canarios is ubiquitous - settings of it from absolutely everybody, most famously Sanz - it is one of the Sanz pieces used by Rodrigo in his Fantasía Para Un Gentilhombre, dedicated to Segovia. Here it is danced. Every guitarist there is plays this

I hope the version played tomorrow is as good as this.

[Quarky]

. Here it is danced. Every guitarist there is plays this

Highly entertaining! A candidate for Strictly - brilliant girl dancer, but her partner? Spindly legs and weak ungainly movements - 2/10.

[ostuni]

I thought that Castello was very impressive: the players deserved a name-check. Pavlo Beznosiuk (violin), Josué Meléndez (cornett), Benny Aghassi (dulcian), with Egarr and William Carter accompanying. Particularly spectacular dulcian playing from Aghassi, a player known to those of us who are following the All of Bach videos.

[doversoul1]

I thought that Castello was very impressive: the players deserved a name-check. Pavlo Beznosiuk (violin), Josué Meléndez (cornett), Benny Aghassi (dulcian), with Egarr and William Carter accompanying. Particularly spectacular dulcian playing from Aghassi, a player known to those of us who are following the All of Bach videos.

So did I and I am very glad to see that the AAM is again exploring off-the-beaten-track composers (I hope many will follow).

I also thought Pierre de La Rue by The Brabant Ensemble was very good. It’s a kind of music (to me) that makes you stop doing what you are doing and listen.

(Oh, maybe I shouldn’t be doing anything else when music is being played...)

[doversoul1]

29 October

10.20
Looks like a selection of vocal works and includes:
Josquin: Missa Di DadiDESPRES: Missa di dadi; Missa Une mousse de BiscayeThe Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips (conductor)GIMELL CDGIM048 (CD)

Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli & MotetsPALESTRINA: Missa Papae Marcelli; Tu Es Pastor Ovium; O bone Jesu; Confitemi Domino; Ad te Levavi Oculos Meos; Benedixisti Domine; Veritas Mea Et Misericordia Mea; Jubilate Deo; Confirma Hoc Deus; Ave MariaSistine Chapel Choir, Massimo PalombellaDG 4796131 (CD)

Durante: RequiemDURANTE, F: Requiem Mass in C minor; Organ Concerto in B flat majorAlexandra Kidgell (soprano), Katy Hill (soprano), William Purefoy (countertenor), Mark Dobell (tenor), Ben Davies (bass), Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford, Clive Driskill-Smith (organ), Oxford Baroque, Stephen Darlington (conductor)CORO COR16147 (CD)

10.45am – Sarah Lenton on new releases of opera DVDs
includes;
HANDEL: Alcina
Patricia Petibon (Alcina), Philippe Jaroussky (Ruggiero), Anna Prohaska (Morgana), Katarina Bradic (Bradamante), Anthony Gregory (Oronte), Krzysztof Baczyk (Melisso), Elias Madler, Lionel Wunsch (Oberto), Freiburger Barockorchester, MusicAeterna (Chorus of the Perm Opera), Andrea Marcon (musical director) (conductor), Katie Mitchell (stage director)
ERATO 9029597436 (2 DVD) / ERATO 9029597435 (Blu-ray)

11.45am – Disc of the Week
BACH, J S: The Art of Fugue, BWV1080Rachel Podger (violin), Brecon BaroqueCHANNEL CCSSA38316 (Hybrid SACD)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080xl25

[Richard Tarleton]

11.45am – Disc of the Week
BACH, J S: The Art of Fugue, BWV1080Rachel Podger (violin), Brecon BaroqueCHANNEL CCSSA38316 (Hybrid SACD)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080xl25

This arrived yesterday - a marvellous recording, beautifully played and the instrumentation makes the different voices very easy to follow. It takes the contrapuncti and canons in a different order to my other two recordings, for reasons which aren't entirely clear to me - grouping them as to type, it seems, rather than using their actual numbers. Indeed, if I do have a criticism of the disc it is that I (as a by no means musically illiterate punter) find the booklet notes fairly impenetrable, compared for example to Ms Hewitt's in her AofF set which are a model of clarity. But a great recording, beauty as well as intellectual roughage.

[doversoul1]

5 November

Before Mozart Tsunami rushes in;

9.00am
[...]
Monteverdi: 17 Peccati CapitaliArias and excerpts from L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Ariose Vaghezze, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, VIII Libro dei Madrigali, Selva Morale e spirituale, L’Orfeo, III Libro bei Madrigali.
Cappella Mediterranea, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon (conductor)ALPHA ALPHA249 (CD)

JS Bach & Telemann: Sacred CantatasBACH, J S: Cantata BWV170 'Vergnugte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust'; Cantata BWV82 'Ich habe genug'TELEMANN: Der am Olberg zagende Jesus TVWV 1:364; Jesus liegt in letzten Zuegen TVWV 1:983
Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor), Freiburger BarockorchesterERATO 2564649159 (CD + DVD)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b081sxgm

[MickyD]

I very much liked the Monteverdi excerpt this morning - a great idea, excellent singers and a first-class recording acoustic. It's the sort of compendium I might well buy, as I confess to finding whole Monteverdi operas rather wearisome.

[doversoul1]

I’m not too keen on aria collection type of CDs but this did sound and does look very attractive. Here are the samples.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Alpha/ALPHA249#video

[doversoul1]

19 November

11.45am - Disc of the week

Gesualdo: O Dolce Mio Tesoro
GESUALDO: Madrigali libro sesto, 1611
Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe (conductor)
PHI LPH024 (CD)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b083194s

[ardcarp]

I really enjoyed the Gesualdo! What amazing care and attention to detail went into this. The singers are all of soloists-in-their-own-right calibre (including, from the UK, the excellent Tom Hobbs) and yet the ensemble lived and breathed as one. I had no idea Herreweghe inhabited this world, but he brought as much life and clarity to it as to the Baroque.

BTW, Barbara Strozzi features on next week's Record Review.