Corelli: Concerti Grossi Op.6 Volume II - Eu. Galante, Biondi

Arcangelo Corelli
Concerti Grossi Op.6 - Volume II
Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi
Opus111 OPS30-155

There is no shortage of recordings of Corelli’s celebrated and only set of Concerti grossi, Op. 6. Some favour large groups, others much smaller ones. Europa Galante inclines towards the latter category, with 12 players, in addition to the two violins and cello of the concertino, which provides the contrasting element. This is the second volume of the recorded set, containing Concertos Nos 7-12. Two of these, one of them the much-loved Christmas Concerto, are ostensibly in the serious da chiesa mould, while the four remaining pieces are concerti da camera with their closer identity to dance measures.

But often the dividing line between the two is blurred and the matter is, anyway, hardly of overriding importance. The playing is enjoyable for the most part, though I felt a lack of Corellian nobility and resonance in the Seventh and Eighth Concertos. The two concertino violinists ornament the music tastefully and spontaneously yet are inclined to overdo it with fussy arabesques, and in one or two of the slow movementsI felt an intrusive element of sentiment creeping in. I also found the spacious, reverberant recording acoustic is inappropriate to the modestly-sized band. A mixed pleasure.

Nicholas Anderson, BBC Music Magazine

Corelli: Concerti Grossi Op.6 Volume I - Eu. Galante, Biondi

Arcangelo Corelli:
Concerti Grossi Op.6 - Volume I
Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi
Opus111 OPS30-147

There are for most of us definitive interpretations of familiar works, some of them live, some recorded. We can never quite put them out of our minds when listening to further performances. For me, the definitive recorded version of the Corelli concertos remains Trevor Pinnock's; no one else has yet captured so well the spirit, and in particular the harmonic intensity, of these works. That said, Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante play with all the precision and virtuosity one could wish for. The concertino ornamentation is often daring, as are some of the tempos. They have opted to use a light, off-the-string bow stroke as the norm, which enables them to produce almost transparent textures. There are moments, as in the sprightly Allegro of the Christmas Concerto, when everyone seems to be playing on a single bow hair. Elsewhere, they achieve what I can only describe as a gently brushed effect in such movements as the Adagio of Concerto No. 4 or the first Allegro of No. 6. The harpsichord continuo playing of Ergio Ciomei and the cellist Maurizio Naddeo is exquisite throughout, and the organist Fabio Bonizzoli contributes artfully, here and there (for example, the Allegro of Concerto No. I and the Adagio of No. 12), to the concertino ensemble timbre.

However, Biondi and Europa Galante romp through these works, indulging here and there in a little well-placed ntbato, with seemingly hardly a glance at the harmony. For all their sophistication, and even wit, these performances fail to convey the dynamism crafted into the sequences and trills, the pathos of the suspensions, the engagement of the antiphonal and echo effects: elements central to Pinnock's interpretation. Certainly, the lightness of their preferred bowing would have hampered the projection of these elements, though one begins to suspect that they were never priorities. Where is the exhilarating joy of the opening Allegro of Concerto No. 4? Where is the passion of the slow movements? Without due attention to the harmony, these performances are, ultimately, deprived of drama and represent, at best, understated reflections of Corelli's flesh-and-blood music. The humanity of this music, fired by virtuosity, inspired a generation of concerto composers, most notable among them Handel. This quality is what, ideally, should inform readings of these works.

JAS, Gramophone.net

Barsanti: Concerti Grossi - Auser Musici, Ipata, Motzo

Francesco Barsanti
Concerti Grossi - Opera III
Auser Musici, Carlo Ipata, Attilo Motzo
Tactus TC 690201

Francesco Barsanti was one of the many extraordinary Italian instrumentalists – virtuosi and composers – who throughout the 18th century, travelling across the whole of Europe, contributed in a decisive way with their activity to the definitive success of instrumental music – in particular the sonata, the concerto and the symphony – and to the formation of an international language. Lucca, the town where he was born in 1690, seems to have been particularly rich in this kind of musician, going back even to earlier centuries: it is enough to remember, apart from Barsanti, Gioseffo and Francesco Guami (obviously for different types of instrumental music), Gio. Lorenzo Gregori (his name is linked to the first steps of the history of the concerto, but he worked only in Italy), Francesco Xaviero Geminiani (the greatest diffuser of Corelli’s works and style), Filippo Manfredi (another excellent violinist who besides performing in France and Spain, had a school in Italy, particularly in Genoa: it was probably due to one of his pupils that Niccolò Paganini gave his first concert at Lucca, where he then composed many of his masterpieces) and finally Luigi Boccherini, the worthy climax to such a long tradition.

La Folia - The Purcell Quartet, Robert Woolley

Corelli, Marais, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, CPE Bach, Geminiani
La Folia - Variations on a theme
The Purcell Quartet, Robert Woolley
Hyperion CDA 67035

The tune known as 'La Folia' has fascinated many composers since the seventeenth century. Portuguese in origin, the word means 'mad' or 'empty-headed' and until the 1670s it indicated a fast and noisy dance in which the participants seemed to be 'out of their minds'. By the end of the century a new, slower form had developed which threw the accent from the first beat on to the second every other bar and slightly adjusted the harmonic structure to form the perfect symmetry which inspired Corelli to use it in the twelfth of his Violin Sonatas, Op 5. That famous work further inspired Vivaldi, C P E Bach, Alessandro Scarlatti and other composers to write variations on 'La Folia' - including even Rachmaninov (though his 'Variations on a theme of Corelli' seem to indicate that he thought the tune was by that composer). This CD assembles 'La Folia'-inspired works by six composers, starting with the original Corelli Sonata and ending with Geminiani's orchestral arrangement of it. The C P E Bach and Scarlatti works are for solo keyboard. The six pieces are all taken from a series of earlier Hyperion CDs individually devoted to the respective composers.

The Hoffnung Festival of Music (1988)

This CD set was distilled from a 1988 gala at London's Royal Festival Hall by the Philharmonia Orchestra and a multitude of guests, all performing in a satiric salute to Gerard Hoffnung and the peculiar brand of classical music satire that the cartoonist and humorist devised in the 1950s.

It contained Reizenstein’s Concerto populare, which starts out with Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto in the orchestra while the pianist is wrestling with Grieg's. Not only are the themes intertwined but imaginative additional touches abound. On to Rachmaninov 2, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto, Pop Goes the Weasel and Roll Out the Barrel, played in various styles, and back to the Tchaikovsky against the Grieg, except now piano and orchestra are transposed ...

And it included Malcolm Arnold's Grand, Grand Overture (dedicated to President Hoover), of which also the video of a recent performance is available here (illustrating the dedication more clearly than the audio-only version).

Venezia: a sampler

Various composers, various performers
HMI 987076

For those who don't quite understand why such an obsession with the music of Venice (and for those who do), you might like to test this very enjoyable sampler album (out of print as far as I can tell).

Instrumental and vocal music, sacred and profane, from the likes of Gabrieli, Merulo, Monteverdi, Kapsberger, Cavalli, Marini, Rosenmüller, Galuppi, Vivaldi, Tartini, Bonporti, Caldara, Scarlatti, Uccellini, Porpora and Händel (all of whom somehow had a Venice connection), performed by the likes of O'Dette, Manze, Dieltiens, Verbruggen, Banchini, Christensen, Nasilio, JW Jansen, Kiehr, Scholl, Genaux, Fink, Schaffer, McGegan, Aymes, Jacobs and Junghänel.

The pictures are nice, too.

CPE Bach: Four Symphonies Wq.183 - OAE, Gustav Leonhardt

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Four Symphonies Wq.183, Symphony No.5 in B minor
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Gustav Leonhardt
Virgin VC 7 90806-2

It was in August last year that I wrote enthusiastically about a recording of Emanuel Bach's second Hamburg set of symphonies, Wq 183, by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under Ton Koopman on Erato (not currently available). Now it is followed by another, directed by Koopman's compatriot Gustav Leonhardt; this time, though, the band is an all-British group, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. These four symphonies were composed in about 1776 when, according to the German Enlightenment poet, Klopstock, they were performed by 40 instrumentalists comprising an orchestra of horns, flutes, oboes, bassoon, violins in two parts, viola, cello, bass and continuo. Emanuel Bach regarded them as the most substantial works of the kind that he had written; "modesty forbids me to say more," he added somewhat coyly. Koopman chose a much smaller string ensemble than Bach's, consisting of only seven violinists, a single violist, two cellists and a bass. Leonhardt, on the other hand, prefers a considerably larger body of strings: six first and six second violins, four violas, three cellos and bass; both field similar wind groups, that is to say pairs of flutes, oboes and horns with a single bassoon.

While I liked Koopman's spontaneity and his ability to realize Bach's colourful textures I found a tendency towards rhythmic rigidity. Leonhardt's rhythms are invigoratingly taut but with an effective elasticity which suits the quirky temperament of Bach's idiom. Tempos are, by and large, comparable with those of Koopman, at least in the outer movements, but where Leonhardt really scores over the rival set is his more assertive body of strings which lends greater substance to the music and provides opportunity for more telling contrasts between strings and wind; and these are vividly apparent in the first-rate recorded sound which allows the listener to enjoy the subtle nuances in Bach's orchestral textures.

For good measure, Leonhardt gives us an additional symphony, one in B minor from Emanuel Bach's earlier Hamburg set of six, Wq182 (1773). These are for strings only and as a complete set are currently available on Archiv Produktion in excellent performances by the English Concert directed by Trevor Pinnock. The new version of the B minor Symphony is lively but lacks the infectious élan of the Archiv performance. In conclusion a stimulating issue which captures the elusive spirit of the empfindsamer Stil affectingly and with stylistic assurance.

N.A., Gramophone.net