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The Topping Tooters of the Town = Music of the London Waits 1580-1650 — The City Musick / William Lyons — Avie

The Topping Tooters of the Town = Music of the London Waits 1580-1650 — The City Musick / William Lyons — Avie

by | Jan 24, 2018 | Classical CD Reviews

The Topping Tooters of the Town. Music of the London Waits 1580-1650 — The City Musick, dir. William Lyons— Avie, AV2364, 50:00  ****: This recording of 30 tracks is a compilation of pieces—dances really—from the likes of Anthony Holborne, John Adson, Peter Philips, Thomas Morley, Thomas Ravenscroft, and John Playford. These are names I haven’t heard of late, but reading them right now I can think back to my music history classes. The music represents, according to the liner notes, the zenith of the town musicians in London around 1600 who performed in all sorts of public venues with wind instruments. You may have been exposed to this repertoire, as had I, through arrangements for brass ensemble. The City Musick, however, brings authenticity to this repertoire with recorders, cornetto, shawm, bagpipes, dulcian (a predecessor to the bassoon), and hoboy (early oboe). The harmonies and sound world of these instruments certainly do speak of an earlier time. This music very much belongs to the Renaissance but in a time where the sophistication of instruments and the station of performers was on the verge of meeting the renown of vocal music. The character of these pieces does not betray the pragmatism from […]

Back Before Bach: Musical Journeys = Music by 16th & 17th century German and Franco-Flemish composers – Piffaro/ Joan Kimball /Robert Wiemken – Navona 

Back Before Bach: Musical Journeys = Music by 16th & 17th century German and Franco-Flemish composers – Piffaro/ Joan Kimball /Robert Wiemken – Navona 

by | Sep 4, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

Back Before Bach: Musical Journeys = Music by sixteenth and early seventeenth century German and Franco-Flemish composers – Piffaro/ Joan Kimball & Robert Wiemken, artistic co-directors – Navona Records NV6106, 61:03 (9/1/17) *****: The six members of Piffaro—the Philadelphia-based, self-styled “Renaissance band”—return with four guests in an all-instrumental album designed to show the musical precedents that set the stage for German Baroque and Bach. Conceived in the manner of a Renaissance consort, Piffaro play their arrangements in various enticing configurations of the group’s assembly of lute, guitar, shawms (including a schalmei), harp, bagpipes, dulcians (and even a douçaine), recorders, crumhorns, percussionists, and sackbuts. Because the disc’s 38 tracks have been assembled as if they were the proof of a post-graduate thesis – including seven different settings of “Christ ist erstanden” by Bach and six of his predecessors, and four of “Innsbruck, Ich müss dich lassen” – could listening all the way through at one sitting could be a transformative experience for those so inclined and steeped in history; however, there are a few gems for audiophiles seeking demo tracks. The haunting beauty of Bach’s “Christum wir sollen loben schon” chorale, is followed by an Allemande by Scheidt featuring incredibly nuanced […]

TOMAS LUIS DE VICTORIA: Works for Six Voices – Nordic Voices – Chandos

TOMAS LUIS DE VICTORIA: Works for Six Voices – Nordic Voices – Chandos

by | Jul 23, 2017 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

TOMAS LUIS DE VICTORIA: Works for Six Voices – Nordic Voices – Chandos SACD – 55:40, (6/16/17) : ****½ (Tone Elisabeth Braaten, Ingrid Hanken; sopranos / Ebba Rydh; mezzo-soprano / Per Kristian Amundred; tenor / Frank Havroy; baritone / Rolfe Magne Asser; bass) Sparkling a cappella one-voice-per-part performances of Renaissance polyphony at its zenith. This outstanding six-person ensemble from Norway has been performing choral music, ranging from plainchant to modern works commissioned especially for them, over the course of twenty years. They are surely happiest when they are singing with one voice per part as here, for they possess robust individual voices. This Chandos SACD deserves the closest attention and  headphones to register the full impact, in terms of both separation and integration, of this exquisite group. The expertly crafted virtual sound-stage positions the listener twenty feet back, facing the half-circle with lower voices to the right, higher to the left. The choice of recordings, works by Tomas Luis de Victoria, is obvious enough; he is perhaps the most dramatic of the Renaissance Masters. This recital comprises Motets from a 1572 publication as well as three pieces from Liber Primus qui Missas, Psalmos, ad Magnificat Virginem. Most of our readers […]

Eric VLOEIMANS / Holland Baroque Society – Old, New and Blue – Channel Classics

Eric VLOEIMANS / Holland Baroque Society – Old, New and Blue – Channel Classics

by | Feb 26, 2017 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

Eric VLOEIMANS / Holland Baroque Society – Old, New and Blue – Channel Classics multichannel SACD 35613, 63:05 (12/10/13) *****: (Eric Vloeimans; trumpet/ Marc Constandse; bandeon/ Judith Steenbrink; violin and director) A spectacular collaboration between Dutch genre-hopping trumpeter and Holland’s leading early music ensemble. Dutch jazz has for a long time now distinguished itself from the adjacent Germano-Nordic musical culture through a quality that might best be described as affable eccentricity. While there is no shortage of musical prowess or brainy innovation, what predominates in so many performances I have seen and heard is a lively theatricality, sometimes bordering on the absurd. As long ago as 1967, the ICP Orchestra (Instant Composers Pool) was founded around an original almost game-like concept of improvisation. The founders of the group, Hans Bennick and Misha Mengelberg, played with Eric Dolphy in the heady days of the ‘60s avant-garde and along the way, imbibed the ideals of intensity and freedom. However, in their own interpretation of this radical aesthetic, they evolved counter-balancing notions of comic fun, group interaction, and compositional cleverness equally distributed. So for two generations now, the group has held up the banner of a distinct musical performance, while spinning off many […]

Giaches DE WERT: Divine Theater: Sacred Motets – Stile Antico – Harmonia mundi

Giaches DE WERT: Divine Theater: Sacred Motets – Stile Antico – Harmonia mundi

by | Feb 11, 2017 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

Giaches DE WERT: Divine Theater: Sacred Motets – Stile Antico – Harmonia mundi SACD 807620, 67:19 (2/ 24/ 17) [Distr. by PIAS] ****:  (Helen Ashby, Kate Ashby, Rebecca Hickey, (sopranos) Eleanor Harries, Kate Schofield, Emma Ashby, (altos) Jim Clements, Andrew Griffiths, Benedict Hymas, Ashley Turnell, (tenors) Will Dawes, Thomas Flint Matthew O’Donovan (basses)) Late Renaissance Polyphony from the Court of Mantua performed by the radiant Stile Antico ensemble. There are a number of first-rate a capella vocal groups specializing in Renaissance polyphony. Their virtues are the same: balance, purity of voice, the finest feeling for drama. The groups are supported by deep scholarship (evidenced in this recording by the substantial liner-notes, a veritable treatise on the late Renaissance) as well as superb sound engineering. Stile Antico is without doubt among the very best of our generation in this genre, having delivered a flawless series of polyphonic masterpieces in interesting programs. They differ from their peers in one attractive feature: they have no conductor. The picture on the disc back shows a group of 12 (one to take the picture?) in a circle, the emblem of completeness and balance. The sonics of all Stile Antico Super-Audio recordings place the listener inside […]

“Lamentations” – LOBO: Missa Maria Magdalene; Lamentations; Regina caeli; O quam suavis est, Dominie; GUERRERO: Maria Magdalene et altera Maria – Ch. Of Westminster Cathedral/ Martin Baker – Hyperion

“Lamentations” – LOBO: Missa Maria Magdalene; Lamentations; Regina caeli; O quam suavis est, Dominie; GUERRERO: Maria Magdalene et altera Maria – Ch. Of Westminster Cathedral/ Martin Baker – Hyperion

by | Dec 4, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

A  fine disc of second-tier Renaissance music. “Lamentations” – ALONSO LOBO: Missa Maria Magdalene; Lamentations; Regina caeli; O quam suavis est, Dominie; FRANCISCO GUERRERO: Maria Magdalene et altera Maria – Ch. Of Westminster Cathedral/ Martin Baker – Hyperion CDA6806, 68:37 (5/27/16)  [Distr. by Harmonia mundi/PIAS] ***: Lobo (1555 – 1617) was considered by the great Victoria to be his equal, and many during his lifetime agreed. Posterity has not acceded to this conclusion; though his music is Palestrina-like in many ways, and does reflect a certain degree of emotional intensity, he stuck to the basic two-choir format in an age that was greatly expanding what was possible in the choral art, and ultimately he is regarded as a rather conservative figure. Sevillian to the core, he was a chorister at the noted cathedral, later assuming duties from Guerrero, and ending his life as maestro de capilla. All but one of his known masses are based on music by his beloved mentor, Francisco Guerrero, whose prototype of the Mass of Mary Magdalene is included here. It’s difficult to get excited by this disc, despite the superb performances, unless it is from the standpoint of a completest collector. Baker and his excellent […]

Roma Aeterna (PALESTRINA, VICTORIA & Others) – New York Polyphony – BIS

Roma Aeterna (PALESTRINA, VICTORIA & Others) – New York Polyphony – BIS

by | Oct 13, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

“Roma Aeterna” [TrackList follows]- New York Polyphony – Works by PALESTRINA, DE VICTORIA AND GUERRERO; TIM KEELER; ANDREW FUCHS; JONATHAN WOODY – BIS multichannel SACD: BIS-2203 TT: 72:07 (6/3/16) [Distr. by Naxos] *****: Lovely music and a fine recording make this a most listenable disc. This is a lovely disc from BIS, featuring two masses that are stunningly recorded and performed. Previous discs by the New York Polyphony have explored music from the renaissance and contemporary works, but this disc is anchored generally in the 16th century, with a program centered on two of the greatest composers of the era – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Tomás Luis de Victoria. Palestrina’s polyphonic art has influenced composers throughout the ages, and his Missa Papae Marcelli is often regarded as the crowning glory of vocal music from the era. His slightly younger colleague Tomás Luis de Victoria was born in Spain, but went to Rome to study and remained there for two decades. During that time he published a number of works, including Missa O quam gloriosum and the motet Gaudent in coelis. The disc also offers a short work by Francisco Guerrero. The program includes works scored for four as well […]

RESPIGHI: Sinfonia Drammatica; Belfagor Ov. ‒ Orch. Philharmonique Royal de Liège / John Neschling ‒ BIS

RESPIGHI: Sinfonia Drammatica; Belfagor Ov. ‒ Orch. Philharmonique Royal de Liège / John Neschling ‒ BIS

by | Sep 27, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

RESPIGHI: Sinfonia Drammatica; Belfagor Ov. ‒ Orch. Philharmonique Royal de Liège / John Neschling ‒ BIS multichannel SACD BIS-2210; 70:03 (7/8/16) ****: Respighi off the beaten track. Stimulating and enjoyable. Jean-Pascal Vachon’s useful notes to this recording lay out the complex history of Ottorino Respighi’s musical education by way of explaining why this great big Sinfonia Drammatica sounds so unlike what we’ve come to think of as Respighi’s musical language. It’s easy to hear the influence of Respighi’s teacher Rimsky-Korsakov in his highly colorful and effective orchestration. In the numerous pieces based on medieval and Renaissance music (Ancient Airs and Dances, Concerto Gregoriano. Concerto in modo misolidio, The Birds, Church Windows, Metamorphosen), Respighi pays tribute to his teacher Luigi Torchi, a musicologist and expert on ancient music. In the Roman Trilogy, Respighi’s best-known works, we note that as his musical language matured, the composer took his lead increasingly from France and specifically Claude Debussy. However, the composer also studied with Giuseppe Martucci—whose music reflects the influence of his musical heroes, Schumann and Brahms—and with the echt German Romantic Max Bruch. Martucci happened also to be one of the first champions of Wagner in Italy. Small wonder, then, that early in […]

“Flight of Angels” = FRANCISCO GUERRERO & ALONSO LOBO Works – The Sixteen/ Harry Christophers – Coro

“Flight of Angels” = FRANCISCO GUERRERO & ALONSO LOBO Works – The Sixteen/ Harry Christophers – Coro

by | Jun 15, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

A great introduction to a magnificent period of music. “Flight of Angels” = FRANCISCO GUERRERO: Duo Seraphim; Missa Surge propera: Gloria; Laudate Dominum; Maria Magdalene; Missa de la batalla escoutez: Credo; Vexilla Regis; Missa Congratulamini mihi: Agnus Dei I; Missa Congratulamini mihi: Agnus Dei II; ALONSO LOBO: Missa Maria Magdalene: Kyrie; Libera me; Ave Regina caelorum; Ave Maria; Versa est in luctum  – The Sixteen/ Harry Christophers – Coro COR16128, 63:52 ****: The city of Seville in the sixteenth century saw two great adorning musical lights—Lobo and Guerrero—whose music was destined to shine in Spain, Portugal, and ultimately, the new world. Both were singers in their youth, and both reputed to have genteel temperaments and rabidly dedicated to their art. Guerrero was for 30 years the head of music at the Seville Cathedral, while Lobo apprenticed as his assistant when Guerrero was attaining advanced age. The latter would end up being the more prolific, but perhaps the former was more conscientious. Both are among the finest composers of the age, lyrical to a fault, and issuing radiant sonorous pieces of obvious devotion. This can only be called a survey overview (as Christophers admits), but it’s a real gem with some […]