Nicola Porpora & Giovanni Battista Costanzi - 6 Cello Sonatas

"After having attended the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gest' Cristo, Nicola Porpora (1686-1768), one of the first teachers of singing of the Neapolitan school, debuted with Agrippina at the Palazzo Reale of Naples in 1708; from 1711 to 1725 he was Kapellmeister (maestro di cappella) of the Prince of Hessen-Darmstadt — who was temporarily in Naples with the Austrian army — and composed the operas 'Flavio Anicio Olibrio' (1711) and 'Basilio re d'oriente' (1713), then 'Arianna e Teseo' (1714) and 'Temistocle' (1718) for Vienna, the serenades 'Angelica' (1720) and 'Gli orti esperidi' (1721). From 1715 to 1721 he was teacher of singing and composition at Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio in Naples. In Rome, 'Berenice regina d'Egitto' (1718) — composed by Porpora and Domenico Scarlatti, 'Eumene' (1721), 'Adelaide' (1723) and 'Didone Abbandonata' (1725) were performed. In Venice, he worked as a teacher in the Ospedale degli incurabili until 1733, when he accepted to move to London in order to lead an opera company (Opera of the Nobility) which debuted with 'Arianna in Nasso' (1733). After a short period spent between Venice and Naples, he moved to Dresda for 'Filandro' (1747), an opera composed for the birthday of Maria Antonia, princess of Baviera. His career was constantly vexed by a ruthless competition: on the Italian scenes his competitors were Leo and Vinci, Handel in London, Hasse in Dresda; the latter later achieved the role of Oberkapellmeister in the capital of Saxony, which forced Porpora to move to Vienna until 1758, when he moved back to Naples where he had a teaching post at Sant'Onofrio. Amongst his students, he had some of the most renowned evirati singers (emasculated singers), such as Caffarelli and Farinelli (later, in 1750, Porpora also became Haydn's teacher, who had previously been his assistant). 

 

"Surely, Porpora did not become famous because of his didactic production, but because of his vast catalogue of vocal music, both operatic and chamber music; however the reception of his solfeges — both in printed editions (in 1858, almost one hundred years after his death, Porpora's 'Elements of Singing' was released in London) and in direct adoption by several singers — makes him even more remarkable; moreover, he is considered a real founder of schools, in the same way as Chopin and Liszt were for piano during the Romanticism. 

 

"His mastery in vocal teaching also reflects on the not copious, but still refined instrumental production, whose roots are to be found in the influential style imposed by Arcangelo Corelli in Rome, where the latter would lead an orchestra composed by well-known cellists (for instance, Giovan Lorenzo Lulier, Giovanni Bononcini, Filippo Amadei), who might not be famous for the Sonatas or the Concertos, but they surely are for the Cantatas. 

 

"Giovanni Battista Costanzi (Rome 1704-1778), composer and cello virtuoso, made his technique available to the author, in order for the notation to be suitable for his instrument. Therefore, both Porpora's violin and cello are explicitly 'singers,' more strongly than they usually are in baroque music — where they are oriented to emulating the vox humana — due to the fact that in Porpora's operas they sing as celebrities of the theatre scene, not as models of an abstract voice. The part of the first cello is particularly peculiar to Chamber Symphonies and of Sonatas for two violins and two cellos. The agile and melodious virtuosity of the first cello is affected by Porpora's habit of listening to Neapolitan cellists, such as Giovanni Carlo Cailo, Rocco Greco and, most importantly, the young Francischello Alborea and Francesco Supriano (the latter created an innovative method which contains several varieties of musical figures used by Porpora). In order to further verify the relationship between voice and cello, it is useful to take into consideration an interesting case of Cantata by Porpora himself ('Or sl m'avveggio, oh Amore'), which contains a part for concertante cello that duets with the soprano and uses the same variety of musical figures as the Sonatas. 

 

"Listening to Porpora's Sonatas, rarely performed or even recorded, contributes to document the rich Neapolitan cellist scene which consists of not only the operas composed by the virtuous artists themselves, but also of the cantatas and serenades with one or two obbligati cellos and concertos for cello (both cases are operas by Leonardo Leo). This music, neglected for a long time, has the triple role of increasing the knowledge about authors who are usually mentioned only in cases of Opera Houses, completing the linguistic overview which aims at explaining the virtuous appearance of this instrument during the first half of the Eighteenth Century (previously present only in Vivaldi and Bach's operas, who also knew the Neapolitan music), and showing the basis on which the galante and the classic cellos (that of the renowned concertos of Franz Josef Haydn) are founded." (Carlo Fiore, tr. Giuseppe Leone. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Adriano Maria Fazio, Anna Camporini, Katarzyna Solecka, Pedro Alcacer, Lorenzo Profita

1. Sonata No. 1 In C Major: I. Amoroso

2. Sonata No. 1 In C Major: II. Allegro

3. Sonata No. 1 In C Major: III. Tempo Giusto

4. Sonata No. 1 In C Major: IV. Allegro

5. Sonata No. 2 In G Minor: I. Affettuoso

6. Sonata No. 2 In G Minor: II. Allegro

7. Sonata No. 2 In G Minor: III. Adagio

8. Sonata No. 2 In G Minor: IV. Allegro

9. Sonata No. 3 In G Major: I. Adagio

10. Sonata No. 3 In G Major: II. Allegro

11. Sonata No. 3 In G Major: III. Adagio Staccato

12. Sonata No. 3 In G Major: IV. Allegro

13. Sonata No. 4 In B Major: I. Adagio E Staccato

14. Sonata No. 4 In B Major: II. Allegro

15. Sonata No. 4 In B Major: III. Adagio

16. Sonata No. 4 In B Major: IV. Allegro Staccato

17. Sonata No. 5 In C Minor: I. Adagio

18. Sonata No. 5 In C Minor: II. Allegro

19. Sonata No. 5 In C Minor: III. Adagio

20. Sonata No. 5 In C Minor: IV. Allegro

21. Sonata No. 6 In G Major: I. Adagio

22. Sonata No. 6 In G Major: II. Allegro

23. Sonata No. 6 In G Major: III. Largo

24. Sonata No. 6 In G Major: IV. Allegro Staccato

flac/16-bit

Marc-Aintoine Charpentier - Motets Pour la Semaine Sainte; Messe à Quatre Chœurs

"Marc-Antoine Charpentier was born in Paris in 1643. When he was barely twenty years old, for reasons unknown to us, he journeyed to Rome, where he was overpowered by the music he heard in the churches there: Renaissance polyphonies, masses and motets of all magnitudes in the new style, and, above all, the works of Giacomo Carissimi, which were sung in the oratory founded by Philip Neri. 'The sober brilliance of this music,' in the words of the musicologist Bukofzer, convinced him to study with the Roman master. Charpentier became familiar with all the genres of religious music: the sacred story—the name given to early oratorios—and its particular declamatory style, of which Carissimi was the great exponent, as well as traditional counterpoint, works for multiple choirs, and the concertante style, which emphasized instrumental music. Having refined his composition skills to perfection, he returned from Italy with a melodic suppleness, an expressive solicitude, and a freedom of invention unique among French musicians of the time. 

 

"During his stay in the Eternal City, Charpentier penetrated the mysteries of ultramontane music. Returning to Paris around 1670, he brought with him a short treatise in manuscript form, 'Remarques sur les messes a 16 parties d'Italie,' in which he lucidly analyzed the 'Missa Mirabiles elationes maris' for four choirs by Francesco Beretta. The musicians of Rome had brought to an unrivalled magnificence the writing for multiple choirs started by the Venetians of the previous century. Yet, with a critical eye, and being thoroughly imbued with Italian art, Charpentier was able to unravel the techniques of this genre of composition, which were not as complex as might seem at first glance. He first established that, to start with, 'the trick consists only in finding four different bass lines.' He then noted that, for example, if 'the forbidden intervals sound good with 16 voices, then for eight they are excusable, and for six, four, three, two, and one, they are intolerable.' He therefore concluded that it was 'easier to compose for 16 parts than for eight, because the liberties one takes with 16 don't sound as terrible as they would with 8'! 

 

"It was at this period that he composed his 'Messe a quatre choeurs, H. 4' (for 16 voices). This was perhaps sung as part of the ceremonies organized by the Theatins, starting on August 13, 1672, for the canonization of their founder, Gaetano of Thiene. Alternatively, it may have been sung for the feast of St. Francis Xavier, celebrated at the Jesuit novitiate on December 6 of the same year. Although he set the entire text of the mass to music, Charpentier indicated places where the organist should improvise passages, in order that—if we can believe the annotations in the author's manuscript—the singers would have time to twice change their positions with respect to the altar during the Kyrie, the second time to return to their initial positions. Aiming for the best sonority possible in the space, this work not only uses the opposition and the massive grouping of the choirs; it also exploits all the possible combinations of the four voices of each choir, such as when the four sopranos begin the Gloria by personifying the angels. The strings, in some places, double the voices—'the entire Kyrie with violins' or 'Gloria in Excelsis without violins.' Seeking to best render the sense of the text, the composer sustains our interest by contrasting the monumental force obtained through homophony with the intimacy of the sections given to soloists. According to Catherine Cessac, Charpentier 'appeared as a fantastic architect who possessed in the highest degree the sense of balance and proportion,' but yet 'this architectural aspect never stifled expression.'

"Several years after his return, the rupture occurred that put an end to the many years of fruitful collaboration between the two Jean-Baptistes, Molière and Lully. Molière, in 1672, then called upon Charpentier, which confirms that his musical reputation was already well established. The association did not last long, though: 'Le Malade imaginaire' appeared in 1673, and then the revival of 'La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas' and of 'Le Manage forcé' in 1674, the year of Molière's death. Nevertheless, Charpentier continued until around 1685 to compose for the French theatre, creating various theatrical pieces, overtures, dances, and vocal music. 'Médée,' his only musical tragedy, appeared in 1693; it shows to perfection his sense of drama, which was otherwise almost exclusively reserved for sacred music. 

 

"Charpentier worked for a time for the nobility, yet he never held a post in a royal institution. In 1679 he was hired as a musician by the Dauphin; the Mercure galant tells us that the king wanted to hear only his music while visiting his son at Saint-Cloud. In 1683, Louis XIV, who had just moved to Versailles with his Court, decided to reform the music of the Chapelle royale. A competition was held throughout all of France, but Charpentier, because of an unidentified illness, could not compete. This unhappy event in effect determined his career in Paris. Some feel that this was fortunate, since it meant that Charpentier's music did not have to be molded into the official, and often quite strict, liturgical functions. In fact, he was one of the few French composers of the time to write masses—at the Chapelle one heard only motets, usually written on the texts of the psalms with extremely varied compositional techniques and musical effects. 

 

"Somewhat previously, perhaps even upon his return from Italy, Charpentier moved into the Marais home of the Princesse de Guise. This noble lady maintained a small ensemble of voices and instruments, and the music that they performed was, according to the Mercure galant, 'so wonderful that that of several other monarchs cannot come close to it.' Until the death of the princess in 1688, Charpentier composed several small-scale masterpieces for this group, which were 'highly regarded by the most knowledgeable connoisseurs,' and in which he made a remarkable and very personal synthesis of French and Italian styles. 

 

"While he worked for the Princess, and probably after having quit the service of the Dauphin, Charpentier collaborated more and more frequently with the Jesuits of the rue Saint-Antoine and of the Church of Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul. He had certainly known them since his stay in Italy. When creating works destined for the Jesuits, he knew that music had to be at the service of faith, like an 'ars persuandi,' counting on emotion and the pleasure of the senses to encourage the faithful to accept the mysteries of religion; Charpentier shared fully in this aesthetic scheme. 

 

"Charpentier's career reached its summit in 1698, at the moment when, on the recommendation of the Duc d'Orleans—the future Regent was studying composition with the musician—and probably of Madame de Maintenon, he was named director of music at the Sainte-Chapelle. Because it was dedicated to Saint Louis (Louis IX), this church, the second in importance in the kingdom after the Chapelle royale, was the only one in Paris reporting to the Court. The recommendations in his favour from nobility must have carried much weight, since this post could not be occupied by a layperson. In this way, the calm atmosphere of an almost monastic cell witnessed the heights of Charpentier's career. 

 

"During the six years that remained to him, Charpentier created the masterpieces of his prime, among which we find three grands motets written for the first nocturne of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday (but presented on each their eve): In to 'Domine speravi, H. 228' on Psalm 71 (Vulg. 70), 'Dominus illuminatio mea, H. 229' on Psalm 27 (Vulg. 26), and 'Conserva me Domine, H. 230' on Psalm 16 (Vulg. 15). Based on the names of the singers that were noted on the manuscript, we know that these were sung in the spring of 1699—Holy Week celebrations must have been particularly sumptuous at the Saint-Chapelle—and these were the last works composed by Charpentier on the texts of the Psalms. Written for soloists, five-part choir this 'French' distribution was rare for Charpentier, being a monopoly of the Chapelle royale and orchestra, these three exceptional works 'demonstrate,' according to Jean Duron, 'the extraordinary sense of composition and of harmony that Charpentier continued to acquire throughout his life.' Each motet is in two or three sections, each of which begins with a different grouping of solo voices—the H. 229, by a short sinfonia and ends with a chorus. The length of Psalms 71 and 27 forced the composer to present the musical images suggested by the text in linkages without breaks or repetition, giving a density and an irresistible energy to the music. Psalm 16, being shorter, allowed the musician to further extend himself and to conclude the piece with a majestic choral tour de force. In sum, the notion of the ensemble, the profusion and diversity of ideas, the depth and concentration of intention, as well as the audacious harmonic exploration, make this triptych an essential milestone in the work of Charpentier. 

 

"Retired from the world, Charpentier died in the peace of his cell at the Sainte-Chapelle on February 24, 1 704, at the age of 60, known and appreciated by a small circle of connoisseurs. Five years later, his nephew Jacques Edouard published some of his motets 'mixed up with symphonies,' and in 1727 he bequeathed to the Bibliotheque royale the 28 manuscript volumes of the 'Melanges,' the works meticulously assembled by Charpentier himself throughout his life. This mindful task, which was exceptional for the period, allows us today to acknowledge the real worth of the most skilful, diversified, and expressive musician of seventeenth-century France." (François Filiatrault, tr. Sally Campbell. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, Christopher Jackson

1. Grand Motet Sur Le Psaume 70 'In Te Domine Speravi', H. 228

2. Grand Motet Sur Le Psaume 26 'Dominus Illuminatio Mea', H. 229

3. Grand Motet Sur Le Psaume 15 'Conserva Me Domine', H. 230

4. Messe À Quatre Chœurs, H. 4: Kyrie

5. Messe À Quatre Chœurs, H. 4: Gloria

6. Messe À Quatre Chœurs, H. 4: Credo

7. Messe À Quatre Chœurs, H. 4: Sanctus

8. Messe À Quatre Chœurs, H. 4: Agnus Dei

flac/16-bit