Marc-Antoine Charpentier - Intermedes d'Andromede; Le Ballet de Polieucte

"In 1682 Comédie-Française mounted a full-scale revival of Pierre Cormeille's machine play 'Androméde' (1650), which had not been seen in Paris for 27 years. This revival coincided with the premiere of 'Persée' — Quinault and Lully's operatic version of the same myth — which had been playing at the Paris Opéra for three months (premiéred April 17).

"This spectacular 1682 production of 'Androméde' aimed to re-establish the pre-eminence of the Comédie-Frangaise in lyric theatre. Marc-Antoine Charpentier had been engaged to provide a new musical score, which included an overture, nine instrumental numbers, eight accompanied choruses, five vocal solos, and two sung duos. The cantata-like structuring of the choral and balletic interludes brought Corneille's machine play more in line with the aesthetic of opera. The original aerial flights and spectacular machine effects of Giacomo Torelli were re-created by Dufort, the resident machinist of the Comédie-Frangaise. This new production of 'Androméde' opened on 19 July 1682, and was given a total of 45 performances during the 1682-83 season. The review in the Mercure Galant singled out for praise the climactic battle scene with the sea monster, in which Pegasus, Perseus's flying horse, was played this time by a live horse. Because of Lully's restrictions on theatre music, which limited public theatres to only two singers, the singing roles and the chorus were taken by actors of the Comédie-Frangaise: Monsieurs de Villiers, Guérin, La Grange, Hubert, Verneuil, and Mademoiselles Dyot (perhaps Guyot?) and Hennebaut.

"Charpentier's incidental music for the machine play is remarkable for both its length and its high quality. The Prologue is set at the summit of Mount Pamassus, where Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy, meets with the Sun — who arrives after the overture in his blazing chariot. They praise the King, in whose honour the performance is being given, and the Sun invites Melpomene to join him in his chariot to proclaim the rare qualities of this youthful prince throughout the world in a single day. To the music of an instrumental prelude Melpomene flies up and takes her place next to him, and together they sing praises to the Sun King ('Cieux, écoutez; écoutez, mers profondes') — with which the chorus of shepherds joins in ('D'un héros qu'en tous lieux'). Then Melpomene and the Sun depart to a musical envoi in order to spread the news of Louis's fame to the rest of the universe.

"The first act takes place in Ethiopia, in the capital city of the kingdom of Cepheus. Cassiopeia, Andromeda's mother, is en route to the temple with Perseus to decide by casting lots which maiden is to be the next to be sacrificed to the sea-monster that is plaguing the land. The heavens open, and Venus appears on her star. The people sing her a hymn of praise ('Reine d'Erice et d'Amathonte') while Venus slowly descends. Cassiopeia bids the group be silent to hear Venus's prophesy: Andromeda is to be wed this evening, and the gods will join in the festivities. As Venus departs, the chorus sings a song of thanksgiving ('Ainsi toujours sur tes autels'). Phineus, Andromeda's cousin and fiancé, considers Venus's prophecy to be a good omen; Perseus, however, reveals his feelings for Andromeda to the Queen. An instrumental rondeau is played as an interlude while the scene changes.

"The second act is set in a luxurious garden with white marble vases, orange trees, and an arbour. Andromeda is gathering flowers with her nymphs to fashion a floral crown for Phineus. Meanwhile, one of his pages sings a song in anticipation of Phineus's arrival ('Qu'elle est lente, cette journée'). When Phineus arrives Andromeda in turn has Liriope, one of her ladies-in-waiting, sing a song for him ('Phinée est plus aimé qu'Androméde n'est belle'). Afterwards, the page and Liriope sing a musical dialogue, that concludes with the oracle delivered by Venus in Act 1: before the day is out, Andromeda will have married a man worthy of her. This refrain is taken up by the chorus, representing the followers of Phineus ('Joignons nos voix'). Then the King, accompanied by Perseus, suddenly arrives to announce that the lot has fallen upon Andromeda: she is to be the next sacrificial victim. Aeolus and his eight Winds descend to thunder and lightning, fly around above the stage, and carry away Andromeda in one of their clouds. Perseus, left alone with the King and his entourage, vows that he will rescue her. The instrumental air entitled 'The Winds' (which no doubt accompanied Andromeda's enlévement) is performed as an entr'acte.

"The scene changes in the third act to a barren landscape with high cliffs bordering the sea. Two Winds are seen tying Andromeda to the foot of a rock, while the chorus of Ethiopians looks on from the shore and sings a lament (Charpentier's music unfortunately has not survived). The Queen, in despair, vows to throw herself into the sea. The sea-monster approaches, but at that instant Perseus appears in the sky on his winged steed Pegasus. As the chorus urges the hero on in his battle Perseus slays the monster; he then frees Andromeda, and flies away on Pegasus. The Ethiopian people sing a chorus of victory ('Le monstre est mort, crions victoire') in which they acknowledge that Perseus, not Phineus, is the man worthy of Andromeda. The act closes with the arrival of Neptune, who rises from the depths of the sea in a sparkling mother-of-pearl conch shell drawn by two sea-horses. Neptune is incensed by Perseus's interference, and plots his revenge. The instrumental entr'acte that follows is a caprice — an Italianate capriccio comprising a succession of fugal sections in contrasting tempi.

"Act 4 takes place in the vestibule of a stately royal palace. Perseus declares his love for Andromeda, and then departs — lest she mistake feelings of gratitude for love. Andromeda reveals to her nymphs that her affection for Perseus is growing stronger, and she rejects Phineus when he arrives, explaining that if he could leave her to the monster before, he could now leave her to Perseus. Juno then appears in the sky in her chariot drawn by two peacocks, and promises to lend her support to Phineus. At the end of the act, the King and Queen have made ready their wedding preparations, and the chorus sings a wedding song ('Vivez, vivez, heureux amants'). Two airs are played during the interlude: an instrumental repeat of the preceding chorus, and an 'English gigue'.

"The final act is set in a bronze temple, where Phineus pleads with Andromeda for the last time. But when Andromeda and her mother both treat him with contempt he departs to take his revenge on Perseus. It is then reported that Perseus has used the head of Medusa to petrify Phineus and his warriors. Mercury arrives in the sky to announce the imminent arrival of his father Jupiter, and the chorus implores Jupiter to give Perseus and Andromeda his blessing ('Maître des Dieux, hâte-toi de paraître'). Jupiter descends from the sky on his gilded throne situated on a cloud, flanked by two other clouds bearing Juno and Neptune, who have been appeased by the sacrifices made by the lovers. Suspended mid-air on his throne, Jupiter declares that the marriage of Perseus and Andromeda must be celebrated among the gods. Perseus and Cepheus climb onto Juno's cloud, while Andromeda and Cassiopeia climb onto Neptune's, and to the slow and stately song of the chorus ('Allez, amants, allez sans jalousie') they ascend to the heavens to take their places amongst the stars.

"During the 17th century, annual theatrical productions became part of the academic fare of Jesuit colleges in France. Usually drawn from saintly and pious subjects, these student plays were accompanied by balletic interludes of song and dance on allegorical themes. For the Collége d'Harcourt, Marc-Antoine Charpentier composed such a ballet to accompany a production of Pierre Corneille's Christian tragedy 'Polyeucte Martyr'.

"Evidently Charpentier used some precomposed music for this event. His overture was originally composed for Moliére's comedy 'Le Dépit amoureux' — possibly for a given revival at the Comédie-Francaise on 11 July 1679.

"The title page of the composer's manuscript reads: 'Ouverture du prologue / ['du depit amoureux' is crossed out] de Polieucte pour le college d'Harcourt'. Evidently Charpentier added to it the twelve dances that would comprise what he referred to as 'le ballet de Polieucte'.

"Further light on this is shed by Paul Lacroix's catalogue of the 'Bibliothèque dramatique de Monsieur de Soleinne'. Here Lacroix lists a collection entitled 'Recueil de pieces dramatiques représentées dans les anciens colleges de Paris', containing a ballet entitled 'Le Combat de l'amour divin et de l'amour profane' that was performed at the Jesuit College d'Harcourt on 8 August 1680. According to the catalogue, the ballet was 'aprés Polyeucte, de Comeille'. Unfortunately this fivret has not survived, but it seems likely that Charpentier's allegorical dances made up the ballet that was danced for this performance. The titles of the individual movements suggest a spiritual struggle which is acted out in dance-pantomime: 'Profane Love, Games and Pleasures'; 'Pantomimes for the same [dancers]'; 'Sadness', 'Signs of Zeal'; 'Grace and the Virtues"; 'Desperation'; 'The Picklocks', "Noble and Base Feelings'; 'Cupid Blacksmiths', 'Triumphal March'; 'Joy Alone'; 'Combatants'. One dance carries the cue 'Why has the tender heart not returned?', thus translating the feelings expressed in a spoken passage." (John S. Powell. From the liner notes.)

Performers: New Chamber Opera, Gary Cooper, Rachel Elliott, James Gilchrist, Thomas Guthrie, Giles Underwood

1. Andromède: Ouverture

2. Andromède: Prélude Pendant Que Melpomene Vole Dans Le Char D’Apollon

3. Andromède: Récit D’Apollon 'Cieux, Ecoutez'

4. Andromède: Chœur De Bergers (Ensemble) 'D’un Héros Qu’en Tous Lieus A Suivi La Victoire'

5. Andromède: Prélude (Scène III)

6. Andromède: Chœur Des Suivants Du Roi Et De La Reine 'Reine D’Erice Et D’Amathonte'

7. Andromède: Replique De Choeur 'Ainsi Toujours Sur Tes Autels'

8. Andromède: Rondeau (Intermède Du Premier Au Second Acte)

9. Andromède: Petit Prélude De Caprice

10. Andromède: Air D’un De La Suite De Phinée 'Qu’elle Est Lente, Cette Journée'

11. Andromède: Air De Liriope 'Phinée Est Plus Aimé'

12. Andromède: Dialogue 'Heureux Amant!/Heureuse Amant!'

13. Andromède: Chœur De La Suitte De Phinée Et D’Andromède (Ensemble) 'Joignons Nos Voix'

14. Andromède: Dialogue 'Le Ciel Le Veut'

15. Andromède: Chœur De La Suitte De Phinée Et D’Andromède (Ensemble) 'Douce Union Que Chcun Doit Bénir!'

16. Andromède: Les Vents (Intermède Du Second Au Troisième Acte)

17. Andromède: Chœur D’Ethiopiens 'Le Monstre Est Mort'

18. Andromède: Un De La Suite Du Roy 'Quand Le Danger Presse'

19. Andromède: Duo 'Vous Êtes Sa Digne Conquête'

20. Andromède: Chœur D’Ethiopiens 'Le Monstre Est Mort'

21. Andromède: Caprice (Intermède Du 3ème Au 4ème Acte)

22. Andromède: Chœur De Peuple 'Vivez, Vivez, Heureux Amants'

23. Andromède: Premier Air (Intermède Du 4ème Au Cinquième Acte)

24. Andromède: Deuxieme Air — Gigue Angloise

25. Andromède: Chœur 'Maître Des Dieux, Hate-toi'

26. Andromède: Chœur 'Allez, Amants, Sans Jalousie'

27. Le Ballet De Polieucte: Overture

28. Le Ballet De Polieucte: Amours Profanes: Jeux Et Plaisirs

29. Le Ballet De Polieucte: Panthomimes Pour Les Mesmes; Inquietude; Attention Ou Aplaudissement; Tristesse

30. Le Ballet De Polieucte: Marquis De Zelle

31. Le Ballet De Polieucte: Les Graces Et Les Vertus

32. Le Ballet De Polieucte: Le Despespoir

33. Le Ballet De Polieucte: Les Crotcheteurs

34. Le Ballet De Polieucte: Sentiments Généreux Et Lasches

35. Le Ballet De Polieucte: Amours Forgerons

36. Le Ballet De Polieucte: Marche De Triomphe

37. Le Ballet De Polieucte: La Joye Seulle

38. Le Ballet De Polieucte: Pourquoi N'avoit Pas Le Coeur Tendre Retourné

39. Le Ballet De Polieucte: Combattants

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Nicola Porpora - Or Sì M'avveggio, Oh Amore: Cantatas for Soprano

"'I have been studying Handel and his era for more than two years; [...] to my great astonishment, I have observed the superiority of Porpora in respect of both grandeur of style and dramatic power.'

"This forceful statement, taken from a private letter which Romain Rolland sent to the Italian scholar Giuseppe Radiciotti around a century ago, displays an attitude verging on consternation at the unexpectedly high standard the Frenchman had discovered in the music of Nicola Porpora. Even today the Neapolitan composer remains completely unknown to the general public. In musicological circles, although his output has not yet been systematically studied, there is at least a general acknowledgment of his importance, and there has been some valuable research into specific aspects of his work. We have chosen to include on this CD cantatas that are not only of outstanding quality (and thus intrinsically deserving of revival), but which also convey the least monolithic view of Porpora's style. By representing the diversity of Porpora's music, we can do justice to some of the variables inevitable in the work of a prestigious composer: the tastes and demands of patrons, the historical moment at which his creative achievements took shape, and the natural and continuous transformation of his aesthetic philosophy over the course of time.

"The parallel often drawn between Handel and Porpora has long-established roots, and is closely connected with the two men's open rivalry on the London operatic scene. The Italian composer arrived on English soil between late summer and autumn 1733 at the invitation of the so-called Opera of the Nobility, for which he worked until its collapse in 1736–7. While it is true that the ferocious controversies arising from this rivalry have long clouded the image of Porpora with reductive, rough-and-ready judgements (he is often mentioned solely as Handel's 'opponent'), it did at least ensure, by acting as a stimulus to research now and then, that his name never entirely disappeared from music history books. In 1951, Frank Walker (a pioneer of Porpora studies) gave the first clearcut description of the composer's importance at the time of his arrival in London: 'When Porpora came to England in 1733, at the age of forty-seven, he had done more than pursue his own shadow. He had to his credit, after a quarter of a century's hard work, twenty-eight operas, three oratorios and a dramma sacro, six or seven serenatas and much church music.' Porpora was indeed one of the most sought-after composers in the celebrated theatres and principal musical establishments of the major European cities. Both before and after his sojourn in Britain he maintained a highly prestigious international career (divided between Naples, Venice, Dresden, Vienna, Turin, Rome, Milan, and so on), enjoying considerable influence on the contemporary musical scene and leaving a large number of excellent pupils (including Haydn, Farinelli, Caffarelli and Corri). One aspect of Porpora's work which Walker did not seem to hold in high esteem when writing his article (and he could hardly have done otherwise, since the fundamental thesis on the subject, by Everett Lavern Sutton, appeared only in 1974) was his significance as a composer of chamber cantatas, a repertory to which he made an abundant contribution in terms of both quantity (over 130 works) and quality.

"At the peak of Porpora's London popularity there appeared an extremely successful collection of twelve cantatas (for soprano or contralto with basso continuo or obbligato harpsichord, and in certain cases a concertante instrument as well) entitled 'Nuovamente composte opre di musica vocale' ('Newly composed works of vocal music'). Published in an elegant edition in 1735 (neatly and accurately printed, on high-quality paper and with ample margins), these exquisite pieces were subsequently to become, from the late eighteenth century to the end of the nineteenth, the principal yardstick for assessing the composer's style in dictionaries of music, along with the 'Sonate XII di violino e basso' ('Twelve sonatas for violin and bass'), the 'Sei duetti latini sulla Passione di Cristo' ('Six Latin duets on the Passion of Christ'), and a few sacred pieces. The high production costs of the publication were borne by Frederick, Prince of Wales, who evidently saw in this collection a fitting monument to his patronage: integrally planned and executed by a refined avant-garde composer of the calibre of Porpora, and setting unpublished texts by the greatest poet of the age (Metastasio), it epitomized the aesthetic aims which the prince championed in England in the realms of opera, poetry, and painting.

"The cantatas assembled in this volume clearly display the principal features of Porpora's compositional style at this stage in his career, notably his legendary melodic elegance, the remarkable fidelity of the music to the sentiments expressed in the text, and his skill in writing recitative, which was regarded as exemplary (more than one author described him as 'the father of recitative'). 'Già la notte s'avvicina (La pesca)' was included in this sumptuous publishing venture, and neatly illustrates all these stylistic features, as well as the unusual nature of the bass line in the pieces in the collection, which owes its exceptional cantabile quality to the fact that it was mostly conceived for the cello (an instrument of which the Prince of Wales was a creditable amateur exponent). Also connected to England, but for quite different reasons, is 'Or sì m'avveggio, oh Amore', whose forces include a concertante cello for the only time in Porpora's cantatas. This work has survived only because it is contained in a volume from the private collection of the London musician Benjamin Cooke (the younger), whose books were transferred in 1883 from the library of the Sacred Harmonic Society to constitute a substantial part of the collections of the newly founded Royal College of Music. How the piece came into Cooke's hands has still to be established, even though the use he made of it is obvious enough: well known at the time as an excellent teacher, he adapted it as a tool for his pupils to study continuo. The voracious but selective curiosity of this late eighteenth-century collector must have had no difficulty in finding compositions by Porpora on the market even years after he left England: works by the Neapolitan composer were still circulating and arousing the interest of British musicians (and would long continue to do so), and we know that precious manuscript copies passed through the hands of such personalities as William Savage, Richard Stevens and William Robinson. However, there is nothing to show that 'Or sì m'avveggio, oh Amore' was actually written in England. Stylistic analysis does not yield any elements that can help us to date it very precisely: we can do no more than assert that this cantata broadly corresponds to traits shown by the composer during his years in Naples in the 1720s and his London period of the mid-1730s, although it certainly dates from a few years before the publication of the 'Nuovamente composte opre di musica vocale' (1735).

"We can, however, be sure of the dating of the earliest cantata on this CD, 'Credimi pur che t'amo', completed in Rome (as is indicated by Porpora himself on his conducting score) on 4 July 1712. A constant exchange of composers and performers between Naples and the capital of the Papal States was the norm in the early eighteenth century: one need only think, for example, of the careers of Alessandro Scarlatti and Giovan Carlo Cailò and their respective influence on the Roman operatic scene and the Neapolitan string school. The young and promising Porpora must have quickly entered this virtuoso circle, assimilating the influences of the surroundings in which he found himself. Although the instrumental sections of this cantata are written in the style of the concerto grosso (with systematic alternation between soli and tutti), and while some passages in the vocal lines display a Scarlattian flavour, and the character of the recitatives and certain harmonic options immediately call to mind the Roman milieu, there are many elements which (even to a modern ear) evince considerable originality and powerful innovations. An example is found in the conclusion of the last movement of the opening Sinfonia. Such innovations would not have stood out so strongly in the artistic climate of Naples, where the far-reaching transformations of musical language that Porpora himself, Leo, Vinci and their contemporaries were shortly to export to the world were already being prepared and tried out.

"'Or che d'orrido Verno' is among Porpora's finest chamber cantatas. It cannot be securely dated, but may have been written when the composer was active in Naples or Venice (or perhaps even Dresden), between 1725 and 1730, or else in the late 1740s. The work features a twosection sinfonia (with no tempo marking) and assigns exceptionally brilliant roles to both the singer and the concertante flute. However, the demands on virtuoso technique do not overshadow the prominent, delicately handled echoes between voice, solo instrument and string accompaniment that characterize the writing (a typical trait of the composer, here illustrated in exemplary fashion in the sensual, poignant 'Lungi dal ben che s'ama'). Indeed, refinement, subtle interplay between the parts, and highly intensive (at times obsessive) exploitation of the thematic material were among the distinctive features of Porpora's output in general. These elements, combined with extremely rich melodic invention, a mastery of compositional technique, and a keen sense of theatre and dramatic pacing, marked him out for a successful career. Today, after centuries of neglect, all these characteristics surge from the pages of his scores with explosive force, showing how groundless are the widespread stereotypes which portray Porpora exclusively as a skilful purveyor of bravura arias for the use of his pupils. In the aesthetics of so profound and refined a musician, virtuosity was a means to an end: his requirement of an extremely high level of technique from performers was an instrument to enable him to obtain a seductive, spellbinding naturalness of style, necessary in its turn to create for the intellect and the senses a pleasure that would 'move the passions'." (Stefano Aresi, tr. Charles Johnston. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Auser Musici, Carlo Ipata, Elena Cecchi Fedi

1. Or Sì M'avveggio, Oh Amore: I. Or Sì M'avveggio, Oh Amore

2. Or Sì M'avveggio, Oh Amore: II. Dolce Pace, Lieta Calma

3. Or Sì M'avveggio, Oh Amore: III. Più Che Nel Ciel Tra' Numi

4. Or Sì M'avveggio, Oh Amore: IV. S'asconde Amor Nel Volto

5. Credimi Pur Che T'amo: I. Sinfonia. Presto

6. Credimi Pur Che T'amo: II. Sinfonia. Andante, E Spiritoso

7. Credimi Pur Che T'amo: III. Sinfonia. Allegro

8. Credimi Pur Che T'amo: IV. Credimi Pur Che T'amo

9. Credimi Pur Che T'amo: V. Sì, Sì, T'adoro Ma

10. Credimi Pur Che T'amo: VI. Sarò Pur Nell'amarti

11. Credimi Pur Che T'amo: VII. Amami E Non Languir

12. Già La Notte S'avvicina 'La Pesca': I. Già La Notte S'avvicina

13. Già La Notte S'avvicina 'La Pesca': II. Lascia Una Volta, Oh Nice

14. Già La Notte S'avvicina 'La Pesca': III. Non Più Fra Sassi Algosi

15. Or Che D'orrido Verno: I. Sinfonia. [Untitled]

16. Or Che D'orrido Verno: II. Sinfonia. [Untitled]

17. Or Che D'orrido Verno: III. Or Che D'orrido Verno

18. Or Che D'orrido Verno: IV. Lungi Dal Ben Che S'ama

19. Or Che D'orrido Verno: V. Pur Fra Tanta Mia Pena

20. Or Che D'orrido Verno: VI. Nocchier Che Mira

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Nicola Porpora - 6 Sinfonie da Camera, Op. 2

"Nicola (Antonio) Porpora was an Italian composer of Baroque operas and teacher of singing, whose most famous singing student was the castrato Farinelli. He graduated from the music conservatory Poveri di Gesù Cristo of his native city, where the civic opera scene was dominated by Alessandro Scarlatti.

"Nicola Porpora's first opera, 'Agrippina', was successfully performed at the Neapolitan court in 1708. His second, 'Berenice', was performed at Rome. In a long career, he followed these up by many further operas, supported as maestro di cappella in the households of aristocratic patrons, such as the commander of military forces at Naples, the prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, or of the Portuguese ambassador at Rome, for composing operas alone did not yet make a viable career. However, his enduring fame rests chiefly upon his unequalled power of teaching singing. At the Neapolitan Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio and with the Poveri di Gesù Cristo he trained Farinelli, Caffarelli, Salimbeni, and other celebrated vocalists, during the period 1715-1721. In 1720 and 1721 he wrote two serenades to librettos by a gifted young poet, Metastasio, the beginning of a long, though interrupted, collaboration. In 1722 his operatic successes encouraged him to lay down his conservatory commitments.

"After a rebuff from the court of Charles VI at Vienna in 1725, Nicola Porpora settled mostly in Venice, composing and teaching regularly in the schools of La Pietà and the Incurabili. In 1729 the anti-Händel clique invited him to London to set up an opera company as a rival to Händel's, without success, and in the 1733-1734 season, even the presence of his pupil, the great Farinelli, failed to save the dramatic company in Lincoln's Inn Fields (the 'Opera of the Nobility') from bankruptcy.

"An interval as Kapellmeister at the Dresden court of the Elector of Saxony from 1748 ended in strained relations with his rival in Venice and Rome, the hugely successful opera composer Johann Adolph Hasse and his wife, the prima donna Faustina, and resulted in Nicola Porpora's departure in 1752. From Dresden he went to Vienna, where he gave music lessons to the young Joseph Haydn, who lived with Porpora as accompanist and in the character of a valet, but allowed later that he had learned from the maestro 'the true fundamentals of composition'. Then Porpora returned in 1759 to Naples.

"From this time Nicola Porpora's career was a series of misfortunes: his florid style was becoming old-fashioned, his last opera, 'Camilla', failed, his pension from Dresden stopped, and he became so poor that the expenses of his funeral were paid by a subscription concert. Yet at the moment of his death Farinelli and Caffarelli were living in splendid retirement on fortunes largely based on the excellence of the old maestro's teaching.

"A good linguist, who was admired for the idiomatic fluency of his recitatives, and a man of considerable literary culture, Nicola Porpora was also celebrated for his conversational wit. Besides some four dozen operas, there are oratorios, solo cantatas with keyboard accompaniment, motets and vocal serenades. Among his larger works, his 1720 opera 'Orlando, one mass, his 'Venetian Vespers', and the serenata 'Arianna in Nasso' (1733) have been recorded." (Biography from The Bach Website. See here.)

Performers: Artifizii Musicali, Guy Delvaux

1. Sinfonia No. 4 In D Major: I. Adagio

2. Sinfonia No. 4 In D Major: II. Allegro

3. Sinfonia No. 4 In D Major: III. Adagio

4. Sinfonia No. 4 In D Major: IV. Allegro

5. Sinfonia No. 5 In E Minor: I. Affettuoso

6. Sinfonia No. 5 In E Minor: II. Allegro

7. Sinfonia No. 5 In E Minor: III. Adagio

8. Sinfonia No. 5 In E Minor: IV. Giga. Allegro

9. Sinfonia No. 3 In G Minor: I. Adagio Sostenuto

10. Sinfonia No. 3 In G Minor: II. Allegro

11. Sinfonia No. 3 In G Minor: III. Adagio

12. Sinfonia No. 3 In G Minor: IV. Allegro

13. Sinfonia No. 1 In G Major: I. Adagio

14. Sinfonia No. 1 In G Major: II. Allegro

15. Sinfonia No. 1 In G Major: III. Allegro

16. Sinfonia No. 1 In G Major: IV. Presto

17. Sinfonia No. 2 In C Major: I. Adagio

18. Sinfonia No. 2 In C Major: II. Allegro

19. Sinfonia No. 2 In C Major: III. Affettuoso

20. Sinfonia No. 2 In C Major: IV. Allegro

21. Sinfonia No. 6 In B-Flat Major: I. Adagio

22. Sinfonia No. 6 In B-Flat Major: II. Allegro

23. Sinfonia No. 6 In B-Flat Major: III. Affettuoso

24. Sinfonia No. 6 In B-Flat Major: IV. Adagio

25. Sinfonia No. 6 In B-Flat Major: V. Allegro

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Per Nørgård - Songs from Evening Land

"Exactly 25 years ago I had my first intense encounter with Per Nørgård's music. I had just been accepted on trial by the vocal ensemble Ars Nova, and one of the first jobs on the programme was Nørgård's 'Wie ein Kind'. My qualifications for rehearsing music with this degree of difficulty were close to zero, but I struggled determinedly to learn my part, and my amazement, joy and excitement were great when I was at last able to hear all the parts united in a totality. At the time, of course, I was not aware that the experience was to be of great importance to the direction my artistic career was to take later. 

"Subsequently I have had many opportunities to work with Per Nørgård's music in solo contexts – with among other things the opera 'Nuit des hommes' and the cantata 'The Will-o'-the-Wisps Go to Town'. The unmistakable Nørgård vocal lines have continued to appeal to my urge to explore the possibilities of my voice and to make use of expressive devices that are otherwise rarely justified in the classically trained use of the voice. 

"In the winter of 2008 I drove to Langeland and visited Per Nørgård. My idea was to do a CD with a collection of vocal works from the whole of Per's production, as an opportunity to sum up all the experience I had gained from his music over the years. During the next few months we exchanged ideas for the repertoire on the CD and arrived at the result that is now presented here. 

"It has proved a strange and wonderful journey through time in Per Nørgård's vocal music, where rich, sophisticated chamber music instrumentation illuminates the poems in the different languages, and where we meet a composer who, ever since the earliest works, has tried out recitational and declamatory effects in the use of the singing voice; a method that culminates in the works from the 1980s, in which he makes explicit use of these elements. 

"It has been a constant challenge to work with the material, but there is no doubt that Per Nørgård's music is to a very special degree reflected and echoed in me, and that there was a deeper meaning in my experience of the encounter with his music 25 years ago." (Helene Gjerris. From the liner notes.)

"Per Nørgård (born 1932) is Denmark's great, original composer from the time after World War II. With his lively emotional imagination and his ingenious musical structures he has shifted boundaries and opened up new musical landscapes and modes of awareness that challenge the musicality of the performers and listeners. 

"Per Nørgård was born in Copenhagen, where his parents had a shop selling wedding dresses and other ladies' wear. He has lived most of his life in Denmark, but he has also travelled widely in both East and West. In his student years Per Nørgård was a pupil of Vagn Holmboe; at the same time he was a great admirer of the music of Jean Sibelius.

"In those years Per Nørgård worked with the idea of 'the universe of the Nordic mind', understood as a feeling that nature and the light in the northern regions helped to unite our cultures. Later, like other composers of his generation, he explored the serial music of central Europe. 

"This was the background for Per Nørgård's invention in 1959 of his unique 'infinity series' on the basis of the fractal theories of the mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot. Skewed rhythms, in many cases based on the proportions of the Golden Section and interference phenomena, also became important elements in his music.

"Around 1980 Per Nørgård began to extend his compositional palette once more, looking for means of expressing the darker sides of the human mind. To this end he created a number of works inspired by the schizophrenic Swiss artist Adolf Wölfli. These works included a good deal of highly expressive vocal music as well as the Fourth Symphony, which alternates between idyll and disaster, order and chaos.

"The vocal works on this CD were composed in the 1950s, the 1960s and the 1980s. For Per Nørgård the texts were to a very great extent the crucial inspiration for his vocal compositions. They are powerful, and come from a variety of countries and language areas. The accompaniment to the songs is highly varied, as is the choice of instruments and the sophisticated way they are used to bring out the sonorities and structure of the music.

"In 1953, long before Jess Ørnsbo made his debut as a poet and Per Nørgård had his debut concert, Per Nørgård composed music to Ørnsbo's poem 'Solen så jeg' ('I saw the Sun'). This short, intense song is about maturing enough to love. The instrumentation, with flute, violin, viola and cello, was done in 2010 in connection with the recording of this CD. 

"Over the next few years Per Nørgård composed a number of 'Evening Land works' to texts by the Swedish poet Pär Lagerkvist, specifically the choral work 'Aftonland' ('Evening Land') from 1954, Two Recitatives and Songs from 'Evening Land'. The last of these is five songs about grief, longing and departure. Per Nørgård's idea of 'the universe of the Nordic mind' found its form during the composition of these Lagerkvist songs, and the inspiration from his great exemplar Jean Sibelius is unmistakable in the orchestral-sounding instrumentation of the almost folk-like song lines. 

"Per Nørgård's music from the 1960s is represented by two works. In 'Three Love Songs' a very short poem by Arthur Rimbaud is combined with two poems by Rainer Maria Rilke. 'Three Love Songs was originally composed for soloist and orchestra. For this CD recording Per Nørgård has adapted the instrumentation of the songs to the ensemble of musicians who play in the other works on the CD. The work 'Trois chansons de 'L'Amour la poésie'' was composed to texts by the French Surrealist poet Paul Éluard. They revolve around the relationships between sleep, ravens and the orange-blue earth and with the beloved. The musical idiom is subdued: the erotic intensity is concentrated around the closely interwoven lines of the singer and the solo flute. 

"There is a great expressive leap from the early works to the vocal work 'Plutonian Ode', which Per Nørgård composed to fragments of the American Allen Ginsberg's poem from 1978 with the same title. Here the poet and composer lash out on the issue of the terrible taboo of the time – total nuclear annihilation – with great verbal intensity. Under the inspiration of some stays on Bali, Per Nørgård saw his rendering of this poem as a kind of exorcism. Per Nørgård described this wild, sprawling aria as '... a rhythmically intense threnody to plutonium, viewed as the basic emptiness of total destruction – opposed to the indefatigable will of the human spirit to create connections and meaning. The constant ambivalences of the rhythm are united here with the transformations of words in gradual shifts of meaning (for example 'at last' – 'Atlas' – 'alas').'

"'Day and Night' from 1982 has texts by Ted Hughes and William Shakespeare. Ted Hughes' poem, 'A Kill', is a description of the pangs of coming into the world, of being born. Shakespeare's balmy declaration of love, on the other hand, also calls night and darkness to mind and is a brief extract from 'Romeo and Juliet', Act II, Scene III.

"'Entwicklungen' ('Developments') was composed to two poems by Rainer Maria Rilke. The first poem, 'Kindheit' ('Childhood'), revolves around the remote, lost, long afternoons of childhood. The second poem, 'Die Genesende' ('The convalescent), describes how life plays with the invalid until healing arrives as a soft, sensitive caress. 

"The last item on the CD, 'Schlafen gehen, Schmerz und Not' is a free version of Nørgård's choral piece 'Abendlied' (from 'Two Wölfli Lieder' from 1980). In this 2012-style 're-mix' Helene Gjerris herself recorded all four choral parts, while Gert Sørensen added gamelan instruments." (Eva Hvidt. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Helene Gjerris, Toke Møldrup, Ulla Miilmann, Jesper Lützhøft, Gert Sørensen, Lotte Wallevik, Johannes Søe Hansen, Anne Marie Abildskov, Tine Rehling

1. Two Recitatives, Op.16: I. Jag Lyssnar Till Vinden

2. Two Recitatives, Op.16: II. Gammal Genius

3. Entwicklungen: I. Kindheit

4. Entwicklungen: II. Die Genesende

5. Plutonian Ode: Recitation (Introduction)

6. Plutonian Ode: I. Recitation

7. Plutonian Ode: II. Aria

8. Trois Chansons De 'L'amour La Poésie': I. Le Sommeil

9. Trois Chansons De 'L'amour La Poésie': II. Les Corbeaux

10. Trois Chansons De 'L'amour La Poésie': III. La Terre

11. Three Love Songs: I. L'étoile A Pleuré Rose

12. Three Love Songs: II. Wie Soll Ich Meine Seele Halten

13. Three Love Songs: III. Opfer (Fragment)

14. Day And Night: I. A Kill

15. Day And Night: II. Silver-sweet Sound

16. Solen Så Jeg

17. Sånger Från 'Aftonland', Part I: No. 1, Allt Är Så Underligt Fjärran I Dag

18. Sånger Från 'Aftonland', Part I: No. 2, Du Människa Som Står Vid Stranden Av...

19. Sånger Från 'Aftonland', Part I: No. 3, Det Är Om Aftonen Man Bryter Upp

20. Sånger Från 'Aftonland', Part II: No. 1, Preludio

21. Sånger Från 'Aftonland', Part II: No. 2, Nu Är Det Sommermorgon

22. Sånger Från 'Aftonland', Part II: No. 3, Tacka Vill Jag

23. Sånger Från 'Aftonland', Part III: Det Är Om Aftonen Man Bryter Upp

24. Schlafen Gehen, Schmerz Und Not

flac/16-bit

Sun Ra - Cymbals

Also recorded in 1973 and first released (this time in 2010 by Troglosound) as a limited bootleg by an Italian label, followed by a full (and in this case extended) release on Modern Harmonic, 'Cymbals' is decidedly more restrained than it's sister release 'Crystal Spears' (see below). Its lineup also varies, with Marshall Allen absent and Ronnie Boykins' double bass backing Ra's organ, Danny Davis's alto, John Gilmore's tenor and Akh Tal Ebah's trumpet (among others). A worthwhile listen if lacking the same psychedelic fury of experimentation as 'Crystal Spears'.

A1. The World Of The Invisible

A2. Thoughts Under A Dark Blue Light

B1. The Order Of The Pharaonic Jesters

B2. The Mystery Of Two

B3. Land Of The Day Star

mp3/320kbps

Sun Ra - Crystal Spears

Originally planned as a release for ABC/Impulse!, these sessions were recorded in 1973 and eventually shelved. While for the initiated Sun Ra listener there is much rewarding exploration here, it is easy to why this was not a viable studio release in an era of diminishing mainstream interest in 'out-there' improvisations. The group is typical of this Arkestra era, featuring (of course) John Gilmore's tenor and Marshall Allen and Danny Davis's alto sax, as well as Akh Tal Ebah on trumpet, Danny Ray Thompson on baritone sax, Eloe Omoe on bass clarinet and Clifford Jarvis on drums, among others. There is no double bass here, Ra's organ filling that role à la organ combo. First released unofficially in 2014 on Italian bootleg label Sinner Lady Gloria, it saw its first official CD/LP/digital release by the American archival label Modern Harmonic (available to buy digitally and as a CD here).

A1. Crystal Spears

A2. The Eternal Sphynx

A3. The Embassy Of The Living God

B. Sunrise In The Western Sky

mp3/320kbps