Bach - Sonatas & Partitas - Chung

 

 Rating: 2/5

Review:

Not for me

 

Kyung Wha Chung’s is a very fine violinist, but I’m afraid this recording didn’t do it for me. A number of professional reviewers have expressed admiration, but for me her tone often sounds harsh and her phrasing and tempo variations seem to me to be idiosyncratic to the point of seriously distracting from the music. In the mighty Chaconne from the D minor Partita, for example, rather than the long, involving and often spiritual journey it should be, it felt to me more like a series of brief, disjointed vignettes and lost much of its meaning.

I don’t want to be too harsh. This is a personal view which many others don’t share and there are, of course, many ways of interpreting these magnificent works. Chung meets the technical challenges here very well, so this recording may well appeal to you. For me, though, Rachel Podger, Viktoria Mullova and Isobel Faust, in their different ways, all get to the heart of the works and of Bach in a way that Kyung Wha Chung doesn’t.

de la Rue - Missa de Sancta Anna - Scola Descantus/Moll

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Uninspiring

I’m afraid I’m not keen on this recording. Pierre de la Rue was a magnificent composer but this doesn’t do justice to his work. The choir sound soulless and unengaged, the balance is poor with very dominant sopranos, intonation isn’t perfect and the overall effect is distant (both geographically and emotionally) and a bit soggy. De la Rue’s deep passion and sometimes slightly edgy settings are smoothed over in a monotonous, rather dull sound.

There are some superb recordings of de la Rue by Amarcord, The Brabant Ensemble, Beauty Farm, Cappella Pratensis, The Clerk’s Group and others. My advice is to try one of them and avoid this.

Zamboni - Lute Music - Genov

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Very pleasing lute music

Zamboni is a new composer to me so this was a bit of a punt, but I’m glad I tried it because it’s a very pleasing collection.

Zamboni was active in the late 17th- and early 18th-centuries, making him a generation or so before Bach and Weiss. His lute music, to my ears anyway, isn’t as inventive as either of them, but it’s certainly good stuff, full of melody and a wide variety of well-evoked moods. Yavor Genov plays it very well, with a sound technique and a touch which brings out the feeling of what he’s playing. The recording is good; there is some rather intrusive fret noise in places, but it’s not enough to spoil my enjoyment.

This is perhaps not essential lute music, but anyone with a love of the lute (like me) will find much to enjoy here and I can recommend it.

Ballard - Premier livre de luth 1611 - Kolb

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Very enjoyable

This is a very enjoyable disc of Late Renaissance/Early Baroque lute music.

Robert Ballard is a new composer to me. The music is rewarding; it doesn’t have the emotional intensity of Dowland, say, nor the inventiveness of Kapsberger, but it has an elegant charm which makes it well worth listening to. Robert Kalb (also new to me) is plainly a fine lutenist who handles some pretty virtuosic passages with no hint of strain and gives the music a refined grace which suits it very well.

The recorded sound is very good and I can recommend this disc warmly.

Arcadlt - Estote fortes in bello - Josquin Capella/Bruser

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Lovely sound, but...

This recording has good things about it but it has its faults, too.

There is a good selection of Arcadelt’s work, including his Missa Ave regina caelorum and Lamentations. The singers are good, with a nice blend and the lower pitch and very resonant acoustic makes of a very pleasing overall sound. However, there is little in the way of engagement with the text which, combined with the somewhat muddy texture, does get rather samey and in the end, slightly dull.

It’s not a bad recording by any means, but rather more attention to detail rather than just basking in a lovely sound would have improved it considerably. A qualified recommendation only.

de la Rue - Missa Nunca fue pena mayor etc - Ars Aniqua de Paris

Rating: 2/5

Review:
A poor recording

I’m afraid I don’t like this recording at all. I have tried both this and Ars Antiqua de Paris’s recording of de la Rue’s Missa Puer natus est nobis and my response to both has been very similar.

To put it bluntly, the singers aren’t very good, and nor is the direction. There is almost nothing in the way of blend or, more importantly, balance so the impression is of a group of people doing their own thing with little reference to anyone else – which entirely negates much of the point of polyphony. The singers themselves sound tentative to the point of being scared much of the time, intonation is occasionally dodgy, there is some intrusive vibrato...it just sounds pretty grim to me.

I don’t like to be so critical, but I really think this is a poor recording which does no justice to the music. De la Rue was a wonderful composer and there are some excellent recordings of his work; this isn’t one of them. My advice is to try some of the fine recordings by The Clerk’s Group, Henry’s Eight, Amarcord, Gothic Voices and others and to leave this one well alone.

de la Rue - Missa Puer natus est nobis etc. - Ars Antiqua de Paris

Rating: 2/5

Review:
A poor recording

I’m afraid I don’t like this recording at all. Pierre de la Rue was a wonderful composer and there are some excellent recordings of his work; this isn’t one of them.

To put it bluntly, the singers aren’t very good, and nor is the direction. There is almost nothing in the way of blend or, more importantly, balance so the impression is of a group of people doing their own thing with little reference to anyone else – which entirely negates much of the point of polyphony. The singers themselves sound tentative to the point of being scared much of the time, intonation is occasionally dodgy, there is some intrusive vibrato...it just sounds pretty grim to me.

I don’t like to be so critical, but I really think this is a poor recording which does no justice to de la Rue’s music. My advice is to try some of the fine recordings by The Clerk’s Group, Henry’s Eight, Amarcord, Gothic Voices and others and to leave this one well alone.

Bach - The Well-Tempered Consort - Phantasm

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another beauty from Phantasm

This is yet another terrific disc from Phantasm. They have made transcriptions of some of Bach’s keyboard music (largely drawn from The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Clavier-Übung III, it’s an interesting and very beautiful collection. The music, of course, is simply wonderful, Phantasm’s playing gives it depth and meaning and their overall sound is magnificent, as always – rich, clear and quite thrilling to my ears.

I love this disc. It’s beautifully recorded by Linn and the notes and presentation are excellent. Very warmly recommended.

Josquin - Missa Da pacem etc - The Tallis Scholars/Phillips

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Fabulous

This is another wonderful entry in The Tallis Scholars’ cycle of Josquin’s masses, now nearing completion. The two masses here have had a chequered history of attribution; currently the Missa Mater patris is thought to be by Josquin and the Missa Da pacem by Bauldeweyn. Peter Phillips, in his typically scholarly and readable notes, makes a good case for at least some of Missa Da pacem to be by Josquin and includes it in this cycle on that basis. Whoever wrote it, it forms part of a lovely and very rewarding disc.

I ran out of superlatives for The Tallis Scholars many years ago, but they are all deserved here. Their trademark purity of sound, blend, fluency of line and engagement with the text are all fully in evidence and the effect is, as so often, fabulous. The overall sound is beautiful and the depth and spirituality of the music comes through so that the whole disc is a monumental pleasure. Phillips’s notes give some fascinating technical detail about the music’s structure, too, which in itself is very rewarding.

It is probably enough to say that this is well up to the stellar standard of The Tallis Scholars’ best recordings. Very warmly recommended.

Bach - Cello Suites - Bertrand

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent recording

I am very impressed by this recording. Perhaps to my shame, I had not heard Emmanuelle Bertrand before so I approached this with a little dubiety because there are now so many recordings of the Bach Cello Suites and I wasn’t sure we needed yet another. I was wrong.

Bertrand is plainly a wonderful cellist. Her technique is impeccable, so she makes light of the technical challenges in these wonderful works and makes them sing and dance delightfully. She also plainly “gets” Bach, because his dancing rhythms and his fabulous emotional expressiveness all shine through here. Her tempi are generally on the brisk side but never inappropriately rushed and she uses rubato with restraint, thought and care to phrase and give meaning to the music while never disrupting Bach’s essential pulse. Her approach reminds me slightly of Paul Tortelier (a very good thing) but she’s her own woman who puts Bach first but invests the music with her own sense.

There is real emotional depth here in movements like the Sarabande from the Fifth Suite, joyous beauty in the Prelude to the Third Suite, delightful vigour in the closing Gigues, and so on. Bertrand’s cello sounds fabulous throughout (although the acoustic is slightly over-resonant in places for my taste). The whole thing is a real pleasure which I suspect will take its place among my best-loved recordings of the Cello Suites. Very warmly recommended.

Palestrina - Lamentations - Cinquecento

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another gem from Cinquecento 

This is yet another superlative recording by Cinquecento, who are now among the very finest ensembles in this field.

This truly emotive music from Palestrina and, for me at least, utterly falsifies the notion that he was all about form and technique but had little real musical depth. The Lamentations truly lament here without ever becoming turgid or depressing, and Cinquecento really do it proud. They sing with impeccable technique, of course and produce their customary beautiful sound, but they also engage fully with the text to bring out its real spiritual depth and meaning.

The excellent notes are written by Bruno Turner. I have owned his recording with Pro Cantione Antiqua of Palestrina’s Lamentations Book Four for years, and although I respect Turner greatly, that disc has never been a favourite Palestrina recording. This one is and I am confident that it will continue to be a favourite for many years. Very warmly recommended.

Bach - Cello Suites - Starker (1997)

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Not a favourite

I have the profoundest respect for Janos Starker who was a magnificent cellist, but this, his fifth and final recording of the Bach Cello Suites, doesn’t quite hit the spot for me.

There is no doubt that Starker is technically superb, his cello sounds wonderful and he has plainly thought deeply about the Cello Suites for many years. However, I find that there is a point at which interpretive phrasing can become excessive rubato which loses the flow and Bach’s essential pulse; Starker goes beyond that point too often for me. The prelude to the First Suite just doesn’t run as I would like and the wonderful prelude of the Third Suite also loses much of its flowing beauty in Starker’s slightly halting phrasing. I also found the Sarabande of the Fifth Suite (an astonishing movement) lacked a little of the depth and power I often find in it.

At this level of excellence, preferences are almost purely personal and others may disagree, but I prefer other recordings including Fournier, Isserlis, Watkin, Gastinel I’ll be sticking to them.

Bach - Sei Solo (Violin Sonatas & Partitas) - Zehetmair

Rating: 4/5

Review: 
Technically brilliant but rather remote

Thomas Zehetmair is an astonishingly brilliant violinist, but I didn’t get on well with his first recording of the Sonatas and Partitas from 1983. I found them very remote and forbidding, but I was looking forward to hearing this new recording. For me it’s better and more approachable, but doesn’t really speak to me.

My reservations are almost entirely personal; Zehetmair’s technique is unimpeachable and he plainly thinks deeply about the music and gives it an interesting, thoughtful interpretation which I am sure many people will find rewarding. For me, though, he still sounds intellectually remote and the music lacks much in the way of the warmth of, say, Rachel Podger or Isabelle Faust. Even Viktoria Mullova’s interpretation (which I love) is very sinewy but retains quite a welcoming feel as though she wants you to join her in the music. Zehetmair still sounds to me as though he’s a long way away in his own intellectual world and isn’t very interested in whether anyone else is with him or not.

As I say, all of this is a very individual response; others may feel very differently about what is a virtuosic performance. Personally, though, this isn’t a favourite.

Camerlohe - Solo per la Gallichone - Eglhuber

Rating: 4/4

Review:
Enjoyable lute music

This is an enjoyable disc. Camerlohe was a new composer to me; his music is amiable and listenable, but not all that memorable, I think. However, Christoph Eglhuber and his chamber ensemble play it very well so that it has genuine charm and some musical depth.

I suspect that this is a disc for lute lovers like me rather than being of more general appeal, but it is good to have these pieces available and played with skill and commitment. It’s a worthwhile release which is well worth a try.

Kapsberger - Virtu e nobilita - Jacobs

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent disc

This is an excellent addition to the available recordings of Kapsberger.

Concentrating on the works Kapsberger composed for Pope Urban VIII, Fred Jacobs has produced a disc full of beautiful sound and also of genuinely fine music. Kapsberger’s trademark eccentric musical quirks are here, of course, but there is also a great deal of lovely, more conventional music. Jacobs is a fine player and the recording is excellent so Jacobs’s theorbo sounds wonderful throughout. The whole thing is a pleasure; there are a number of excellent recordings of Kapsberger available (most notably for me by Paul O’Dette) and this stands well with them. Warmly recommended.

De Rippe - Un perfaict sonneur de leut - O'Dette

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another gem from Paul O'Dette

De Rippe was a new composer to me, but I will listen to anything Paul O’Dette chooses to record. This turns out to be lovely, rewarding Renaissance lute music of the highest quality.

O’Dette has brought together a deliberately and delightfully varied programme, “representing all three of the most popular forms in the repertoire of the time: fantasias, intabulations of vocal pieces (in our composer’s case, mostly ‘chansons’), and dances,” as he says in his notes. It’s great stuff, full of technical virtuosity and with a very pleasing overall effect. O’Dette, of course, plays it beautifully, making light of the technical challenges and bringing the music’s inner quality out fully. The sound of his instruments is very beautiful throughout ane excellently recorded by Harmonia Mundi.

This is a first-rate disc all round and warmly recommended.

Cardoso - Requiem etc. - Cupertinos/Toscano

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very fine recording

This is a lovely recording. I have owned and loved The Tallis Scholars’ disc of Cardoso for many years; this is a different in feel but just as good, I think.

Cardoso was a late-Renaissance Portuguese composer and the complexity and overall sense of his music reflects both the period and place. It is beautiful and rich, and reflects almost the final flowering of Renaissance polyphony. Cupertinos, a Portuguese ensemble, understand the music extremely well and sing it beautifully. They are technically impeccable with a lovely blend and fluency of line. They have a fuller, more rounded sound than the Tallis Scholars with rather less laser-like precision while still preserving the distinct structure of the music but have a warmer feel which I like very much. It is beautifully recorded by Hyperion, as always.

Cupertinos are a new ensemble to me but I will be looking out for their recordings in the future. This is a very fine disc indeed and I can recommend it very warmly.

Bach - Cello Suites - Brinkmann

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Not for me

I’m afraid this isn’t an interpretation for me. Mime Yamahiro Brinkmann is plainly a fine cellist but I’m not keen on the way she plays these magnificent works.

Brinkmann’s tempi are generally slow, which in itself is fine and can be very effective. However, she also makes generous use of rubato, so that some phrases can slow almost to a standstill. I found the opening Prelude to the first Suite like walking behind someone who kept making me check my stride suddenly to avoid bumping into her. It was very disconcerting and while it’s not always so pronounced I did find the rubato pretty excessive throughout so that Bach’s essential pulse was often lost.

This is, of course, a personal view which others may not share. Certainly Brinkmann produces a very beautiful sound from her cello which is very well recorded by Arcantus but given the number of outstanding recordings of the Cello Suites by people like Pierre Fournier, Steven Isserlis, David Watkin, Anne Gastinel and others, I can’t really recommend this.

de Févin - Missa Ave maria etc - The Brabant Ensemble/Rice

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Superb performances

This is another superbly sung and produced disc from the Brabant Ensemble, but for me the music isn’t quite as great as some of their other recordings.

de Févin was a rough contemporary of Josquin and in his excellent notes, Steven Rice describes him as “one of the most accomplished creators of sacred music around 1500.” He was also a pioneer of the parody mass and plainly an important musical figure of his time. However, “accomplished” doesn’t necessarily mean moving or deeply spiritual and although I find his music beautiful in places, it doesn’t quite speak to me a some others do – like the Brabant Ensemble’s fabulous recordings of other quite obscure composers such as Phinot and Crecquillon.

That’s not to say that this is a sub-standard disc in any way. The singing is superb: technically impeccable, perfectly balanced, fully engaged with the texts and with that luminous beauty which the Brabants so often create. The recorded sound does it full justice, the notes are full and very illuminating and the presentation is lovely. The only non- five-star thing about this disc for me is de Févin’s music itself. You may well disagree with me about this; Steven Midgley, whose judgement I respect greatly, finds it sublime, so it’s plainly a personal thing. It’s certainly a wonderful performance and I would recommend that you try it and see for yourself.

Telemann - Voyageur Virtuose - Amaryllis

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Excellent Telemann

In recent years Telemann has begun to be recognised for the genuinely great composer that he was, and this disc will serve to further that recognition. It's a cracking collection of six of his Trio Sonatas featuring flute, oboe and cello and I find it a delight.

The music is excellent. It is Baroque chamber music at its best, full of melody, harmonic invention and beautifully varied moods. Telemann's prolific output has led a lot of people to assume that he wrote reams of pleasant but ultimately uninteresting wallpaper but that really isn't the case. These sonatas show his true skill and inventiveness so that while listening to this music it is easy to see why Bach admired Telemann so greatly.

The performances really bring out all the music's qualities. Charm and grace abound, but there is also real bounce and zing in the quicker movements and genuine feeling in the slower movements. Amaryllis are a new ensemble to me and they are terrific, showing an effortless virtuosity, an obvious joy in the music and a wonderful empathy between them. It is exemplary chamber playing and a joy to listen to, very well captured in the excellent recorded sound.

I don't mean to gush, but I really do love this disc. It is in the same league for me as the Purcell Quartet's superb recordings of Bach's Trio Sonatas, which is very high praise indeed. Very warmly recommended.