Early Music articles from May 1995

Early Music archives from May 1995

New light on Robert Cambert in London, and his 'Ballet et Musique.' (17th-century French opera writer)
May 1, 1995... Among the many Continental musicians who found employment in London after the Restoration of Charles II, one of the more notable is the Frenchman Robert Cambert. Together with the Catalan Louis Grabu (Master of the King's Musick, 1666-74), he...

Music and musicians of early Tudor Westminster. (UK)
May 1, 1995... It is now over 30 years since the appearance of Hugh Baillie's pioneering study of music and musicians in 16th-century London.(1) Of considerable value, it focused mainly on the religious institutions of the City: relatively little attention,...

Domenico Scarlatti and the Florentine piano. (18th-century musician)
May 1, 1995... In collecting material for his study of Domenico Scarlatti, Ralph Kirkpatrick came across evidence which, on the face of it, indicated that Scarlatti made extensive use of the Florentine cembalo col pian' e forte, invented and perfected by...

The earliest paintings of the clarinet.(Iconography)
May 1, 1995... The use of iconography is perhaps one of the most pleasant and compelling aspects of any organological study. While it is certainly interesting to examine surviving instruments and documents, a work of art in which instruments are shown being...

'Gallimaufry' at Covent Garden: Purcell's 'The Fairy-Queen' in 1946. (Henry Purcell)
May 1, 1995... The history of Henry Purcell's opera The Fairy-Queen is well known to those who take an interest in such matters. After its premiere to popular acclaim in 1692 at the Dorset Garden Theatre it was revived the following year, the score lost some...

Mozart's pedal piano. (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)(Instruments)
May 1, 1995... The documentary evidence It has become almost a commonplace nowadays to perform and record Mozart's keyboard music on copies of late 18th-century Austrian and South German fortepianos. Indeed, Mozart's own concert instrument, by Anton Walter...

Sense and sensibility in late-medieval music: thoughts on aesthetics and 'authenticity.'(Performing Matters)
May 1, 1995... Who does not accord them the highest praises, whose compositions, spread throughout the whole world, fill God's churches, the palaces of kings, the houses of private individuals, with the utmost sweetness [dulcedo]? (E, xix.8)(1) Almost all...

Music Education and the Art of Performance in the German Baroque.
May 1, 1995... Taking as his point of departure the music of J. S. Bach, John Butt has been pursuing a series of excursions into aspects of Bach's environment, whether parallel repertories, the philosophical background, or as here the traditions of music...

Orlando di Lasso's Imitation Magnificats for Counter-Reformation Munich.
May 1, 1995... Neither Lassus nor the Bavarian ducal court are traditionally associated with the ideals of the Counter-Reformation. Certainly the composer continued to base sacred works upon smutty secular songs well into middle age; in fact, most of the...

Il codice Squarcialupi: MS. Mediceo Palatino 87, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana di Firenze.
May 1, 1995... One's first impression is of sheer magnificence. 432 pages of large-format vellum, uniformly ruled with six-line staves, each opening headed with the name of the composer in elegant blue and red lettering, most filled with complex music copied...

Robert Parsons: Latin Sacred Music, vol. 40.
May 1, 1995... This volume fills a striking gap in editions of mid-16th-century Latin polyphony in England. Robert Parsons has hitherto been known to choirmasters largely through one piece (which is, admittedly, the masterpiece among his Latin-texted works) -...

Keyboard Music by Peter Philips.
May 1, 1995... For his recording of Keyboard music by Peter Philips (Hyperion CDA66734, rec 1993) Paul Nicholson has chosen 18 pieces, approximately half the total number of surviving keyboard works by Philips. All but three are from the Fitzwilliam Virginal...

The Maydenhead of Musicke: Music for the Virginals from Parthenia (1613) and Parthenia In-Violata.
May 1, 1995... Music from two tenuously related sources, the first English keyboard prints, is played by Gary Cooper on The Maydenhead of Musicke: music for the virginals from Parthenia (1613) & Parthenia In-Violata (Dervorguilla DRVCD 106, rec 1993). In...

For Two to Play: Harpsichord Music for Four Hands.
May 1, 1995... Clearly a more equal partnership is involved in For two to play: harpsichord music for four hands (Virgin Classics 7 2435 45019 20, rec 1992), impeccably performed by Davitt Moroney and Olivier Baumont. The programme is planned in ingenious...

Canto del cavallero.
May 1, 1995... Columbus year saw the release of an impressive number of recordings of Spanish Renaissance music, mostly, it must be said, by northern European artists and ensembles. Yet Spain has her own exponents, and there are none more assured than Jose...

La guitarra espanola.
May 1, 1995... Moreno's playing finds its true home in the Baroque, particularly on the Baroque guitar, on which he is ebullient and sparkling. I find his Renaissance playing a trifle florid, particularly in the over-abundance of spread chords. He freely adds...

Amando e Desiando: Spanish and Italian Music from the 16th Century.
May 1, 1995... An altogether more northern European, Protestant approach to Renaissance music is found in Amando e Desiando: Spanish and Italian music from the 16th century (Akantus ALCD 010, rec 1993). Here the trio of Lena Susanne Norin, Peter Soderberg and...

Francesco Canova da Milano: Lute Music.
May 1, 1995... The vihuela in its plucked form was not unknown in Italy in the first half of the 16th century. The instrument was included as an alternative to the lute in the published tablatures of music by Francesco da Milano, the foremost Italian lutenist...

The Winged Lion.
May 1, 1995... As the recorder continues to gain recognition as a solo instrument the world over, a number of high-profile performers have chosen to refute the current climate of academic purism and have wholeheartedly adopted substantial works from the early...

Antonio Vivaldi Sonatas.
May 1, 1995... From an older-established generation of Dutch recorder players, Walter van Hauwe's Antonio Vivaldi sonatas (Channel Classics ccs 6194, rec 1993) includes a number of effective arrangements for recorder with various combinations of continuo...

An Italian Ground: Baroque Instrumental Music in the Italian Style.
May 1, 1995... The young Swiss virtuoso Maurice Steger also includes the Vivaldi G minor sonata on his impressive debut recording, An Italian ground: Baroque instrumental music in the Italian style (Claves Records CD 50-9407, rec 1994). Steger studied with...

Kammermusik mit Blockflote.
May 1, 1995... The final disc, Kammermusik mit Blockflote (Ars Musici AM 1105-2, rec 1994) features the Trio Basiliensis - Marianne Mezger (recorders), Paul Simmonds (harpsichord) and Ekkehard Weber (viola da gamba). This is an interesting programme of...

Beau genie: pieces de clavecin from the Bauyn Manuscript, vol. 1.
May 1, 1995... The Bauyn Manuscript is well known as the single most important source of 17th-century French harpsichord music, and has for some years now been available in facsimile. The extensive two-volume, three-part collection was copied by an unknown...

Divers styles dans l'Eloquence: pieces de clavecin from the Bauyn Manuscript, vol. 2.
May 1, 1995... Jane Chapman's second disc, Divers styles dans l'Eloquence: pieces de clavecin from the Bauyn Manuscript, vol. II (Collins Classics 14212, rec 1994) includes more Louis Couperin, notably the beautifully elegiac Pavanne in F sharp minor, as well...

Louis Couperin: Harpsichord Suites.
May 1, 1995... An impressive debut solo recording is that by Laurence Cummings on Louis Couperin: harpsichord suites (Naxos 8.550922, rec 1993). He shows a fine understanding of the unbarred preludes, those elegant-looking but elusive pieces which require...

The Music of Armand-Louis Couperin.
May 1, 1995... A recent recording by the American harpsichordist Jennifer Paul, The music of Armand-Louis Couperin (Klavier KCD 11041, issued 1993) offers the complete 1751 livre on one generously filled disc of nearly 80 minutes (although to achieve this all...

Deutsche Consortmusik.
May 1, 1995... The four recordings under review cover a period of just over a century, beginning and ending with works by two distinguished cantors of St Thomas's, Leipzig - Schein's Banchetto musicale of 1617 and Bach's Brandenburg Concertos of 1721. A...

Dietrich Buxtehude: Abendmusik.
May 1, 1995... The title of the next recording, Dietrich Buxtehude: Abendmusik (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472 77300 2, rec 1992), seems to me pretentious and misleading. No attempt is made here to re-create Buxtehude's celebrated Lubeck Abendmusiken. Instead,...

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber: Harmonia artificioso-ariosa.
May 1, 1995... Tafelmusik, under their musical director Jeanne Lamon, pay a fitting tribute to Biber on the 350th anniversary of his birth (celebrated last year) in Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber: Harmonia artificioso-ariosa (Sony Classical, Vivarte SK 58 920,...

J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos.
May 1, 1995... Tafelmusik give no less satisfying performances of J. S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (Sony Classical, Vivarte S2K 66 289, two CDs, rec 1993-4). I am convinced that they will hold their own with ease in a highly competitive field, not least...

Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B minor.
May 1, 1995... With several fine recordings of Bach's B minor Mass already available, the temptation for conductors entering the lists to 'do something different' must be very great, and there have been instances in recent times of performances in which a new...

The Apocryphal Bach Motets BWV Anh. 159-165.
May 1, 1995... A similar vigour in the choral singing and clarity in the recording would have been welcome in J. C. Altnikol's Nun danket alle Gott and G. G. Wagner's Lob und Ehre und Weisheit, two of the more jubilant items included in a disc of The...

J.S. Bach: Cantatas.
May 1, 1995... The three works on a disc of J. S. Bach: Cantatas (Virgin Veritas 5 45038 2, rec 1993) are the only church cantatas by Bach for solo soprano without any other vocal participation, but in most other respects, not least in expressive quality,...

Boccherini: Sonatas for Violoncello and Basso Continuo; Fugues for Two Violoncellos.
May 1, 1995... An exception to this mild admonishment is the playing of Anner Bylsma on Boccherini: Sonatas for violoncello and basso continuo; fugues for two violoncellos (Sony Classical SK 53 362, rec 1992). Here is a musician who identifies totally with...

Michael Haydn: String Quintets.
May 1, 1995... Bylsma suggests that it has taken the new fashion of 'authentic instruments' to enable Boccherini's spirit, 'long vanished', to show itself again. I take his point to be that much of the music of that period is heard to greater effect on such...

Spohr: Double Quartet in D minor, op. 65; Sextet in C major, op. 140; Quintet in G major, op. 33 no. 2.
May 1, 1995... Such a passage highlights the excellent playing of Jurgen Kussmaul, although he is not always as favourably balanced by the recording as any viola-playing listener might wish. But it also highlights his absence on Spohr: Double Quartet in D...

Schubert: Quartet in E flat, D87; String Trios in B flat, D471; B flat, D581.
May 1, 1995... Spohr's double quartets do occasionally appear as companions to the Mendelssohn Octet, but regrettably the quintets or sextet have yet to find a place alongside Mozart, Brahms or Tchaikovsky. But in the third Archibudelli CD, Schubert: Quartet...

Mozart: Quintets in D major, K593; E flat, K614.
May 1, 1995... The above bracketing of the Griller and Amadeus quartets is in one sense quite inappropriate; as with any of the finest quartets, they each had their own unmistakable sound and personality. I am not so sure one can so readily distinguish the...