Baron - The Lute at the Court of Frederick the Great - Polato

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Pleasant but not brilliant

This is an interesting disc and it is good to have Baron's music available, but I do have some reservations about it.

Baron was a younger contemporary of Bach and Weiss who was a composer and lutenist at the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia in the mid 17^th Century.  I hadn't come across his work before this disc and as a lover of the lute was very keen to find out more.

Baron was plainly a good composer but not a great one.  The music here is pleasant and features the lute in combination with other instruments as well as in two solo sonatas.  It's all perfectly listenable stuff but, despite Baron's reputation at court as an expressive, emotional composer and player, I found it just a bit bland.  The sonatas certainly don’t have the depth and variety of those of his contemporaries Bach and Weiss, although they are an enjoyable listen.  The same can be said of much of the disc – nice, but rather unmemorable 

Polato's playing is good but sounds a little strained at times as though the music were taxing his technique, so it isn't always as relaxed and natural-sounding as you'd hope.  I don't think the recording helps, either.  Certainly on my download, the lute sounds rather tinny and distant and as though it were at the bottom of a well.  It's a real disappointment when compared with, say, the excellent job Naxos do with Robert Barto's series of Weiss sonatas or Linn's superb recordings of Jakob Lindberg. 

I do go back to this disc from time to time, but it's not among my favourites.  If you're keen on the lute you may well find this interesting, as I do, but for really fine recordings of great music of this period I'd recommend Weiss played by Barto or Lindberg, Bach played by North or O'Dette and several others before this.

Sainte-Colombe - Pieces de Viole - Pandolfo

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another great disc from Pandolfo

Paolo Pandolfo is now firmly established in the very first rank of gamba players, and this disc will only enhance his standing. It is an absolute cracker, full of virtuosity, great and imaginative music and a truly beautiful sound.

The melancholy, soulful sound associated with Sainte-Colombe in the film Tous Les Matins du Monde is well represented here - and wonderfully evoked by Pandolfo - but there is so much more as well. Lively dances, characterful preludes and others give a real variety of mood and tempo, all held together by superb musicianship. There is accompaniment on several pieces from Thomas Boysen on either theorbo or baroque guitar, and it works wonderfully.

Whether you're looking for some Sainte-Colombe to try or know his work well this will make a terrific addition to your collection. I love this disc and if you have any interest at all in music of this period I am sure you will, too. Very highly recommended indeed.

Handel - The Secret Handel - Hogwood

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Great music and excellent playing, but...

This is another volume in Hogwood's "The Secret..." series about which I have the same, purely personal, reservations as I do about the others. The idea is good and Hogwood was a superb musician and considerable scholar, but this doesn't quite come off as a top-notch set for me.

The music, of course is excellent, with some quite subtle but interesting differences from the versions we may be used to. Hogwood is a fantastic musician and plays it all wonderfully. However - and this is almost certainly a personal thing - I find the sound of the clavichord somehow rather unsatisfying. It is a small, quiet domestic instrument and it just seems to me to be straining to be heard all the time - fine for practice and personal use but not really for shared performance. This means that for me this isn't a wholly successful set. It is interesting throughout and charming in places but as a satisfying musical experience it falls a little short.

You may well not share my reservations about the clavichord so please don't let me put you off. These are two discs of superb music, excellently performed. They just didn't quite fit my personal taste.

Grieg - Lyric Pieces - Hough

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very fine disc

I tried this disc because I like Stephen Hough's work very much and I think this is well up to his usual extraordinarily high standard.

I make no pretence at being any kind of an expert on Grieg, and many of these pieces were new to me so I cannot offer comparisons or profound insights into Hough's interpretation, but to me these recordings ring with an unfussy sincerity and a genuinely lyrical sense which really makes them speak to me. There is a variety of tone and mood - surprisingly forceful at times, tender or meditative at others, but untrammelled by self-indulgence or empty gesture. There is an unsentimental freshness throughout which is underpinned, I am sure, by deep scholarship and thought.

Hyperion do their usual excellent job on the recorded sound and the presentation, and Jeremy Nicholas's notes are interesting and readable. Others with more knowledge of this repertoire will doubtless be along shortly with more in the way of analysis, but for what it's worth I think this is a very fine disc of lovely music, beautifully played and I can recommend it very warmly.

Domenico Scarlatti - Sonatas - Tharaud

Rating: 5/5
 
Review:
A terrific recording

This is a terrific recording. I love Scott Ross's and Christophe Rousset's recordings on the harpsichord and, after a long search, I am delighted finally to have found a performance of Scarlatti on the piano which I really like.

These pieces form a small selection from Scarlatti's huge output of well over 500 keyboard sonatas. They are very well chosen to give an excellent variety, from the energetically vigorous to the deeply contemplative and the programme as a whole is very rewarding. It is Tharaud's playing, though, which makes this disc something special. He uses the piano's expressive ability to bring out all the depth and nuance in the music with just enough rubato and dynamic variation to show exactly what Scarlatti means in each sonata without using over-emotional gestures which obscure the music and overlay it with misplaced romanticism. His ornamentation is similarly beautifully judged.

This is, I think, exemplary playing of Baroque music on a modern piano. With lovely recorded sound, good notes and attractive presentation this is an excellent disc all round. It has been a revelation to me and has become a firm favourite. Very warmly recommended.

Bach - Cello Suites - Queyras

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent, distinctive interpretation

I like this interpretation of the Cello Suites very much. Jean-Guihen Queyras is a fine cellist and he brings something both fresh and thoughtful to this marvellous music.

Queyras has a distinctive approach which I found quite a surprise in many ways. His tempi are often quite brisk and he has a very decisive approach to phrasing which shapes the lines somewhat differently from some of the great interpretations I am used to - and I think it works very well. He has a superb technique which he uses to allow him almost to skip and glide over the notes in places, so those wonderful wide arpeggios in the prelude of the Third Suite really sway and dance, for example. He never trivialises, though, so the Sarabandes have real depth and gravitas in every Suite while never becoming stodgy, and for me his approach sheds new light in lots of places.

I found this set a revelation in many ways. The vigour of many of the movements is a joy, without any sense of rush or strain and there is a genuine depth of understanding and scholarship throughout, I think. The recorded sound is superb and Queyras's cello sounds wonderful in a lovely, resonant acoustic. I have a lot of versions of the Cello Suites (I used to be a very bad teenage cellist) and this will be played just as often as my dearly loved sets by Isserlis, Fournier, Ma and others. It's a lovely interpretation and very warmly recommended.

Bach - Harpsichord Works - Rousset

5/5
Review:

Superb Bach

This is a terrific recording of Bach's English and French Suites, plus the Klavierbuchlien. Christophe Rousset is a brilliant harpsichordist and he is at his best here.

These are among Bach's finest keyboard works, in my view. They show all his greatness in melody, counterpoint and expression of human emotion and although they are performed somewhat less often than some of Bach's other works I think they are hugely enjoyable and satisfying.

Christophe Rousset plays them excellently. He has the technique to make even the trickiest parts sound quite natural and he has a deep understanding of Bach. That essential pulse is there throughout and he judges rubato and ornamentation perfectly to my ears. His tempi are generally quite brisk and are almost breakneck in some places (try the closing Gigue of the Second English Suite, for example) but he carries it off very well and it never feels rushed or inappropriate. I go back to this set time and again with great pleasure.

If you want a harpsichord version of these works you can't go wrong with this - the playing is superb and the recording is excellent. Wholeheartedly recommended.

(For a different but equally good piano interpretation, I would recommend Angela Hewitt's recordings of the English and French Suites, now included in a fantastic box of all her Bach recordings.)