Tag: Hyperion Records

CD Review, Choral Music, early music, File Under?

Brabant Ensemble Sings Guerrero (CD Review)

Guerrero: Missa Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, Magnificat, and Motets

Brabant Ensemble, directed by Stephen Rice

Hyperion

 

The Spanish Renaissance composer Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) does not have the profile or deep discography he deserves. Brabant Ensemble, directed by Stephen Rice, seek to raise the former and enhance the latter with Missa Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, Magnificat, and Motets, a Hyperion CD of pieces by Guerrero that have not previously been recorded. While hearing them is past due, it is welcome all the same.

 

The ensemble has an exquisite blend, doubtless helped in part by being populated by performers who also collaborate together in other ensembles, notably the Ashby sisters (Stile Antico). Rice selects tempos that are measured, never rushed, resulting in clarity of textual utterance. Contrapuntal entrances are seamlessly coordinated.

 

The motets are artfully crafted. Gaude Barbara features diverse smaller groupings of the ensemble, with lines shifting between them, creating a varied texture. It is an effusive opener for the recording. The six-part Simile Est Regnum Caelorum is similarly jubilant, juxtaposing homophonic and polyphonic entrances, with frequent cadential elisions.

 

Quomodo Cantabimus Canticum Domini, on the other hand, uses lines from Psalm 137, one of the most wrenching of those lamenting the Babylonian captivity. Here, the upper voices move through a plangent harmonic sequence, the basses held back until the words “In a strange land.” The staggering of entrances creates a feeling of isolation and confusion, which fits the words perfectly. Ductus est Jesus, a setting of the text of Jesus’s temptations in the wilderness, nearly steps out of the Renaissance frame in its theatricality of utterance, with dramatic depictions of Satan’s suggestions and resolute rejoinders from Christ. O Crux Splendidior is doleful yet dignified, with melancholy harmony supported by flowing lines.

 

Missa Ecce Sacerdos Magnus is a five-voice (the altos divisi throughout) cantus firmus mass. In addition to melodic material from the chant’s incorporation, the chant text is sung at times by some of the parts instead of the text of the Ordinary of the mass. Depicting the “great priest” in a text primarily from Ecclisiastes, the chant is a clear reference to Christ and also to its dedicatee, Pope Gregory VIII.

 

The Kyrie manages some rhythmic shaping to accommodate the entire chant melody. Free material against it includes a soaring soprano line, which then descends in a quarter note sequence imitated in the tenor and bass voices. The Gloria is one of the first sections of a piece on the recording in which homophony and paired question and answer phrases dominate, rendering the text compactly. The Credo, on the other hand, is an expansive rendering that takes its time with the various textual allusions. My favorite movement is the Sanctus – Benedictus, which contains a brilliant, canonic Osanna that is performed gloriously by the Brabant Ensemble. The luminous Agnus Dei returns to the chant text and expands to six voices. Canonic entries and rhythmic variations allow for considerable pliancy, with a vibrant soprano line leading the mass to an extended final cadence.

 

A second set of motets reveals the variety of approaches that Guerrero adopted. Peccantem Me Quotidie is even just as  emotive as Ductus est Jesus, depicting a penitent’s fear of Hell and implorations for mercy. The five-voice Beatus Es Et Bene Tibi Erit is a compact setting with an effusive closing section. Quae Es Iste Tam Formosa is an early work, with paired entrances reminiscent of earlier composers and considerable dissonance in its second part. Even though these techniques would be dispensed with in Guerrero’s later music, the motet is well-constructed and attractive. 

 

Magnificat Secundi Toni is an alternatim setting for four voices, with the sopranos dividing in the last verse to reinforce the sonority. The chant verses are used as material for the polyphonic sections, making the Magnificat an economical setting that, like the most contrapuntal sections of the mass, demonstrates Guerrero’s mastery of technique. 

 

The Brabant Ensemble are extraordinary advocates. Hopefully, the pieces programmed here will gain wider currency.

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, early music, File Under?

Orlando Consort Continues Their Machaut Edition (CD Review)

Orlando Consort

Machaut: The Fount of Grace

Hyperion Records

Matthew Venner, countertenor; Mark Dobell and Angus Smith, tenors; Donald Greig, baritone

 

Guilliame de Machaut (1300-1377) was a supremely talented poet and composer. He was an innovator, creating the first polyphonic Mass and developing polyphony in chansons as well. After Machaut, there is little evidence of composers in the Medieval era who set their own words to music. Works devoted to courtly love make up the majority of his output. Fount of Grace adds several topics to that of love poems: devotional and historial components loom larger than on other recordings of Machaut by Orlando Consort. 

 

After thirty-five years, Orlando Consort gave their last performance on June 7, 2023. The Fount of Grace is the tenth of eleven recordings of Orlando’s survey of Machaut. The title references a name for the Virgin Mary, to whom some of the programmed works offer devotions, explicitly or in a veiled fashion.

 

Le lay de la fonteinne is the most overtly religious, petitioning the Blessed Virgin for love and grace. Like traditional lays, the rhythm scheme and melodic framework are complex, with different rhythms and melodies in each couplet, apart from the first and last, which provide a refrain to begin and end the piece. Odd-numbered lines are monophonic, while even-numbered lines are performed as three voice unison canons; a reference to the trinity that, late in the piece, is supported by an evocation of its formula. The singing of the canons is quite beautiful, with the overlapped lines delivered with clear diction and vivacious rhythms. At over twenty-four minutes in duration, it is by far the program’s longest work and, thematically, its centerpiece.

 

Machaut also references occurrences of his day, a particularly fraught time in France, beleaguered with plague, pestilence, and the Hundred Year’s War, which at the time of these compositions was going quite badly for the French. The motet Tu qui gregem/plange regni/Apprehende arma is an example. It references taking up arms against the foe at a point during the Hundred Years War when the nobles of France were in desperate straits, with some taken hostage by the English forces. Likewise, Christe qui lux/Veni creator spiritus/Tribulatio proxima est implores Christ to be with those in danger. The counterpoint, which includes canonic and free passages, is finely knit, with upper voices Matthew Venner and Mark Dobell leading off the proceedings with an ardent duo that, soon enough, is accompanied by the other voices in fascinating overlapping relations. The ballade Donne Signeurs, urges noblemen to be good to their subjects. A sustained tune sung by tenor Angus Smith, an upper register melody performed by Venner, and harmonies incorporated by the other vocalists, with a sonorous bass line by Donald Greig, create a fascinating, vibrating texture. 

 

Courtly love is not neglected on the program. Two versions of the Rondeau Tant doucement me sens emprisonnez are included, one for two voices and the other four. The theme of being imprisoned by love is a venerable one among chansons, and this text expresses it well. The duet’s two voices move at different rates, with a fetching melismatic top voice. The quartet is even more varied in rhythmic activity. With Tant doucement … Machaut creates a tour-de-force times two in the chanson genre.

 

The Orlando Consort still sound in fine voice and will be sorely missed. At least we have one more Machaut recording to which to look forward. 

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey
CD Review, early music, File Under?

De Profundis Sings Morales (CD Review)

Morales: Missa Desilde al cavallero, Missa Mille Regretz, Magnificat Primi Toni

De Profundis, directed by Eamonn Dougan and Robert Hollingsworth

Hyperion Records

 

Cambridge’s De Profundis has quickly become a go-to ensemble for Spanish vocal repertoire from the Renaissance. An all-male group with a sonorous sound that includes an incomparable bass section (hence the group name), they have released extraordinary recordings of Vivanco, Esquivel, and Ribera. Now De Profundis is turning its attention to Cristobal de Morales (c. 1500-1553), with a projected 12-album project to record his masses and Magnificat settings. The first disc in the collection, released in 2023,  includes Missa Desilde al cavallero, Missa Mille Regretz, and the Magnificat Primi Toni.

 

Often nicknamed “The Golden Age,” the mid-to-late Renaissance was indeed a fertile time for composers in Spain. During the first half of the sixteenth century, Morales was one of the finest of them. His music followed the death of Josquin and preceded that of Victoria, Lassus, and Palestrina. He held prestigious positions as part of the Papal Choir and at Toledo Cathedral, but according to musicologist Kenneth Kreitner, frequently suffered from illness that steadily caused a decline in his ability to perform his duties. Whatever ailment plagued Morales, he continued to compose until near his passing. Even in the sixteenth century, fifty-three-ish would not be considered a ripe old age. Still, Morales left behind a large body of compelling music. It should be exciting to experience it in the De Profundis edition. 

 

Mille Regretz is a famous chanson by Josquin, performed here with light instrumental accompaniment. Morales uses it to create a cantus firmus mass, a common form at the time in which a pre-existing piece of music was used in long note values throughout a mass. Here, it is offset by a newly composed superius part. There are two versions of the Sanctus and portions of the Agnus Dei, one in an earlier manuscript and then revised movements in the printed copy, which have helpfully been supplied here side by side for comparison. Morales likely preferred the later version, but the canonic material from its earlier incarnation is truly rousing. It is not surprising that this is Morales’s most famous mass setting, both for its Josquin hat tip and extraordinarily beautiful music.

 

During his lifetime, Magnificat settings by Morales were even more highly regarded than his Mass settings. Written during his time in Rome in the Papal choir, Magnificat Primi Toni is quite dramatic in its declamation, particularly the “Fecit Potentiam.” The “Quia Respexit” unfurls staggered contrapuntal entrances, a device that is used to stirring effect in a number of passages. Although the bass section has already been lauded, the countertenors sing with exquisite tone and control, as evidenced by the “Quia fecit mihi magna” and “Et misericordia eus.” 

After two works among Morales’s best known music, the CD concludes with a relatively obscure mass, Missa Desilde al cavallero, found in only a single copy. It deserves wider currency. Based on an anonymous 16th century Spanish song, the mass sits astride cantus firmus and parody types, an amalgam that Morales exploits with insightful creativity. An accompanied solo performance of the song is quite lovely, giving context to the mass that follows. Organ and bajón, an early version of the bassoon, provide accompaniment to the mass as well. The entire performance is compelling, but there are some highlights. The shimmering close of the Gloria, buoyed by corruscating lines, and the finely-tuned chords of the Credo’s “Et incarnatus est,” leading into a gently rendered Crucifixus. As was the custom, the Osanna sections feature buoyant fuga, followed by the incandescent ambience of the Agnus Dei movements. 

 

De Profundis will release the next volume of the Morales edition in 2024. In the meantime, revel in its auspicious beginning.

 

-Christian Carey

 

 


by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, Piano

Hamelin plays Bolcom’s Rags

William Bolcom – The Complete Rags

Marc-André Hamelin

Hyperion Records

 

William Bolcom has been an important exponent of the ragtime revival. He helped to mount Scott Joplin’s ragtime opera Treemonisha, has performed Joplin and much of the ragtime repertoire. Bolcom may have had a hand in Joshua Rifkin’s famed Joplin recordings, which were used in the movie The Sting. As Bolcom tells it, he played Rifkin rags by Joplin at a party before the recording was made. Bolcom also encouraged contemporary American composers to return to ragtime, trading many rags with composer William Albright (one of the pieces on this recording is a collaboration between them), and performing the rags written by a number of others, mainly during the 1970s. His own catalog of rags is considerable, and considerably varied. 

 

Joplin’s sheet music often included the admonition, “do not play fast,” instead urging a deliberate pace. Bolcom takes this to heart, and pianist Marc-André Hamelin, the interpreter on this recording, pays studious attention to the details of tempo and phrasing that define ragtime. Like most classic rags, Bolcom uses titles that hearken back to ragtime progenitors past (“Eubie’s Luckey Day,” “Seabiscuit’s Rag”), give a sense of character and gesture  (“Tabby Cat Walk,” “Rag-Tango”), or are punnish (“Brooklyn Dodge”).

 

Many of Bolcom’s rags are suavely stylish, such as the well-titled “Contentment” and “Tabby Cat Walk.” Of course, not fast is not ubiquitous. In a set of rags titled “Eden,” the third, “The Serpent’s Kiss,” is rollicking, “girl on the railroad tracks” music with a taste of silent film accompaniment. The Allbright-Bolcoe collaboration, “Brass Knuckles,” avails itself of splashes of dissonance, recalling Nancarrow and Monk through a Joplin lens. In “Rag-Tango” and “Estela – Rag Latino,” other genres are successfully amalgamated into ragtime. It is difficult to pick favorites, but I’m partial to “Three Ghost Rags,” in which music of times past is echoed. Hamelin plays this group with particular sensitivity.

 

Like Joplin’s rags in the 1970s, Bolcom’s in the 2020’s deserve wider currency. Some are quite difficult, requiring the chops of a pianist of Hamelin’s caliber. Others would be excellent pieces for competitions or study. The liner notes, with an essay by Bolcom, give an erudite, encapsulated view of classical rags and contemporary contributions. Highly recommended.

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey
Birthdays, CD Review, Chamber Music, Classical Music, File Under?, Piano

Celebrating Mendelssohn’s Birthday with Piano Works

Celebrating Mendelssohn’s Birthday with Piano Recordings

 

February 3rd is Felix Mendelssohn’s birthday. To celebrate, here are two reviews of recent recordings of piano music by the composer.

Felix Mendelssohn

Complete Music for Solo Piano, Vol. 6

Hyperion CD

Howard Shelley

 

Pianist Howard Shelley has been making his way through the compendious catalog of Felix Mendelssohn. The latest entry in his complete set, Volume Six, contains several well-known favorites as well as gems without opus numbers. If one has the impression of Mendelssohn as a neo-Mozartean composer of grace without the oomph of a creator like Schumann from the Romantic generation, the powerful Reiterlied presents a different side of the composer, as does his Sonata in B-flat Major, which should be programmed far more than it currently is. The Fugue in E minor reminds one of Mendelssohn’s affinity and advocacy for Bach’s music. Shelley makes the case for versatility in Mendelssohn but retains the quintessentially burnished and characterful nature of his “Songs Without Words” in recordings of two of the books of this collection. A lovingly crafted addition to what is becoming a benchmark complete works edition.

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Complete Music for Piano Solo

Hänssler Classic 12 CD boxed set

Ana-Marija Markovina

 

Ana-Marija Markovina has released her Mendelssohn cycle all at once in a well-appointed 12 CD boxed set. Where Shelley brings out the luminous qualities of the piano works, Markovina is a classicist, creating interpretations that are lucidly detailed. I am particularly fond of Markovina’s playing in the sonatas and fugues, where she reveals the architecture of these pieces with abundant clarity.

The pieces without opus number, including fragments and juvenalia, are spread throughout the collection rather than put in an appendix. At first, this may seem surprising, however it is an excellent way to measure Mendelssohn’s prodigious development. The composition teacher in me immediately thought of using the fragments and short pieces with students, asking them for Mendelssohnian completions as assignments; they are ideal models. It is wonderful that both pianists have taken on this project, as there is ample room for their distinctive approaches.

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Choral Music, early music, File Under?

Cinquecento Sings Isaac (CD Review)

Heinrich Isaac

Missa Wohlauff gut Gsell von hinnen and other works

Cinquecento

Hyperion Records 

 

While not as famous today as Josquin, Heinrich Isaac (1450-1517) was a contemporary and rival much esteemed during his lifetime. The main work programmed on this recording, Missa Wohlauff gut Gsell von hinnen, makes an explicit connection between the two composers. Comment peult avoir joye?, a monophonic chanson also set polyphonically by Josquin (included on the CD for comparison’s sake), was the subject of a paraphrase mass set early in his career by Isaac. Later, when Isaac was in the service of the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I, the composer discovered a contrafactum text of the song in German, Wohlauff gut Gsell von hinnen. With this in mind, Isaac decided to revisit his earlier mass and greatly expand and elaborate it. The result was one of the most extensive and imposing works of his career. 

 

A six-voice setting, subgroups thereof appear frequently, and the same reduced scorings seldom recur adjacently, creating a wide variety of textures. The male vocal sextet Cinquecento sings with impressive resonance, rendering the counterpoint with clarity, phrasing with sensitivity,  and tutti passages with sonority. They adopt flowing tempos that befit the overlapping lines, particularly those in canon. Missa Wohlauff is a tour-de-force of a variety of canons:  intervallic, proportional, 4-ex-2, and 3-ex-1 (two of them used in the Agnus Dei to end triumphantly). 

 

The recording also contains a half-dozen motets: some of Isaac’s finest. O decus ecclesiae has a tenor built out of the white note, or “natural” hexachord, that subtracts and replaces notes throughout the piece, creating an intricate structure out of initially simple means. The motet is formidably scaled, in excess of twelve minutes in duration, with melismatic upper parts, thickly scored tutti, and a subterranean bass line. The second half moves in a sprightly three against the steady tenor. Recordare, Jesu Christe has a canon in the middle voices and overlapping rhythms in the others that prevent the procedure from being obvious; it closes with a hushed cadence of considerable beauty. Judea et Jerusalem may be by Obrecht, another member of the Josquin generation who deserves more attention today, instead of Isaac. A responsory from the Christmas Vigil built up from the chant in the bass, it consists of imitative counterpoint in long phrases adorned with sumptuous verticals. 

 

Cinquecento’s recording makes an eloquent case for Isaac as a composer of the first rank. Recommended.

 

  • Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Danny Driver Records Ligeti (CD Review)

 

György Ligeti

The 18 Etudes

Danny Driver

Hyperion

 

Composed between 1985 and 2001, the 18 Etudes by György Ligeti are an eloquent summary of the techniques he had developed throughout his career. They rival the best collections of etudes for piano while adding substantially to the variety of technical means to be explored, particularly in the realms of polyrhythm and sonority. 

 

There are a number of recordings of the Etudes and it is difficult to choose a favorite: different ones excel at various aspects of these multifaceted works. Danny Driver’s is a strong contender. Amply powerful where required, Driver’s playing also brings out a variety of dynamic shadings, with passages of exceptional delicacy (notably absent in some other interpretations). For instance, Driver’s rendition of “White on White,” in which both hands play white note collections, is diaphanous in the beginning and coda and incisive in the moto perpetuo middle. He demonstrates mastery over the technical challenges and has a keen sense for the reference points found in each Etude. 

 

Several interests that Ligeti developed late in his career impacted the language of the Etudes: the minimalism of Steve Reich, African music, and an abiding love of rhythmic canons that expanded to encompass the work of Conlon Nancarrow. One can also see in the list of dedicatees – Pierre Boulez (to whom the first three Etudes are dedicated), Mauricio Kagel, György Kurtág, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard among them – the music and performance qualities of others respected by Ligeti that in turn filter through the Etudes. 

 

There are three books of Etudes, the first containing six, the second eight, and the last book four. Many have self-imposed restrictions that create intriguing, at times playful results. For instance, the first Etude Désordre consists of ascending and descending polyrhythms, with the left hand playing only black keys and the right white keys, thus juxtaposing pentatonic and pandiatonic collections. Galamb Borong also has a different scale for each hand, the two whole tone collections meant to stand in for the scales of Balinese gamelan. Automne à Varsovie is a canon in polytempo, with overlapping relationships of 3,4,5,6,7, and 8, and a perpetually descending motive.

 

Coloana Infinita, the 14th Etude, is the tour-de-force among formidable pieces. The original version was viewed as unplayable by humans, and made into a player piano piece a lá Nancarrow. The revised version is scarcely less daunting, Thick pile ups of chords build a multi-textured ascent. It sounds like at least three hands are required, but Driver manages just fine with two, wielding intensity and virtuosity in impressive fashion. He provides a similarly energetic performance of Vertige, its fortissimo, chromatic music, this time descending, devolves into a soft rumble only at its conclusion. 

 

The final work of Book Three, a brief Canon, is rendered with effusion and a coy, pianissimo coda that is an enigmatic valediction. Canon demonstrates Ligeti’s continued inspiration and considerable imagination late in life. Driver’s recording is a fitting celebration of the composer’s legacy. Recommended.

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, early music, File Under?

Brabant sings Hellinck and Lupi

Lupus Hellinck – Missa Surrexit pastor bonus

Johannes Lupi – Motets

The Brabant Ensemble; Stephen Rice, conductor

Hyperion CD A68304

Lupus Hellinck (1493-1541)  isn’t a household name among mid-Renaissance composers. Based on a new recording of his Missa Surrexit pastor bonus, Hellinck’s work deserves wider currency. Despite having several pieces attributed to him that were actually by more prominent composers (Gombert and Verdelot among them), Johannes Lupi (1506?-1539) has also flown under the radar of many listeners. This excellent compact disc recording by the Brabant Ensemble should do good service in restoring both of them to rightful places of greater prominence. 

Hellinck’s mass juxtaposes imitative lines within tautly constructed movements  – the Agnus Dei, for instance, only has two rather than three sections. The Brabant Ensemble has a well-blended sound, its intonation precise. The counterpoint is well-delineated, especially in the Agnus Dei, where canonic entries proliferate until a luminous cadential close. Particularly lovely are the “Domine Deus,” “Et Resurrexit,” and  “Benedictus” sections, in which duets and trios are employed to good effect. 

Lupi uses a number of motives in each section of a piece that accumulate into large-scale motets.  The ensemble also displays a more daring approach to musica ficta (chromatic accidentals) in the Lupi motets, creating some delightful crunch chords as a result. Several prolonged cadences give the opportunity to play with tempo and dynamics, the Brabant ensemble alternating nimble and expansive approaches, usually to better express the text. The most extensive and impressive of the Lupi pieces is a polyphonic setting of the Te Deum, one of only about sixteen extant examples from the sixteenth century (several of which were alternatim settings). By comparison, there are over a hundred extant Magnificat settings from this time period. Lupi’s penchant for “black notes” often presents quicksilver passages of corruscating counterpoint. Part of the plainchant appears at various points in the piece, including transposed and inverted statements that accumulate into swaths of imitation. Duple and triple meter are also used to delineate sections of the work, with a fast triple meter section concluding the proceedings with a rousing cadential elaboration. 

The Brabant Ensemble sings this music persuasively enough that it stands up besides better known counterparts in the era of its composition, such as Clemens and Gombert. One hopes a second disc of the composers’ works might be in the offing. 

by Christian Carey