Giovanni Legrenzi - Dies Irae; Sonate a Quattro Viole; Motetti

"Born in Clusone in 1626, Giovanni Legrenzi had an eventful career that was marked by several positions in particular. Not only was he organist at Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo and maestro di capella in Ferrara, but he was also a candidate for various other important positions, including those of maestro di capella for San Petronio in Bologna and for the Cathedral in Milan. He had even been offered one of the four 'sous-maître' positions at Louis XIV's Chapelle Royale after the departure of Thomas Gobert in 1668. We also know that he had hoped to win a place at the Viennese Court, as can be seen from a letter dated 1665 in which Legrenzi asked the Duke of Mantua to intercede on his behalf with the Emperor.

"Even though he did not gain the post he desired, it is certain that Legrenzi had many fruitful contacts with the Viennese Courts. Several of his oratorios were written for the 'Capella dell'Imperatrice' or the 'Capella dell'Imperatore' from 1665 onwards, as well as in 1676, 1692 and 1707. Later, undoubtedly with the same end in view of gaining a place in Vienna, he dedicate his volume of instrumental pieces entitled 'La Cetra' to the Emperor. Published in 1673, it is composed of violin sonatas. It seems that Legrenzi had nevertheless taken care to include two compositions in this publication that would certainly appear to its dedicatee as a highly respectful token of the Emperor's acquaintance with musical tastes in Austria at the end of the 17th century, these being two 'Sonate a quatro viole da gamba'. The viola da gamba and more particularly the 'concerto de viole' was still very much appreciated in German-speaking countries and especially in the circle around Leopold I, a musician as well as Emperor. The dedication, however, failed yet again to have its desired effect. We should add that Legrenzi had also failed to win the post of maestro di capella for St. Mark's in Venice several years earlier, losing the post by only one vote. Legrenzi would have to wait for Antonio Sartorio's departure in 1681 before finally gaining this pinnacle of his career.

"Legrenzi was an extremely productive composer: his works include twenty operas that were performed in Ferrara and in Venice in particular between 1668 and 1684, the ten oratorios already mentioned that were performed in Vienna, printed collections of instrumental music both sacred and secular that make up 18 opus numbers, as well as a great quantity of various works that remained in manuscript form.

"Such is the case with the 'Dies Iræ' recorded here, the most important work of the recording. The manuscript was curiously enough preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (Vm 1298) with the title 'Prosa pro mortuis, 8 voc. cum 3 viol. et organo del Sgre Maestro Legrenzi'. How did this manuscript come to find its way to Paris? Could is be linked to the offer made to him to become a member of the Chapelle Royale? Whatever the truth may be, it seems that his music had indeed been heard in France, in particular at the private concerts organised by Nicolas Mathieu, parish priest of the church of Saint André-des-Arts; many Italian names are to be found in the list of composers whose works were performed at these concerts, including Rossi, Cavalli, Cazzati, Carissimi, Stradella and Legrenzi. What is more, we know that the Abbé Mathieu's library contained many volumes of Italian music.

"This 'Dies Iræ' may well be associated in one way or another with the discover of Italian music that was being made by those who madeup the Abbé's inner circle. It is highly likely that it is only one part of a much larger composition, i.e. a full Requiem Mass. The composition call for two vocal quartets accompanied by a viol quartet. Even though the manuscript's use of the word 'viol.' may give rise to come confusion as to whether viols or violins were intended, the low tessituras used and the polyphonic style employed unequivocally display the characteristic style of the ensemble of viols. As far as the voices are concerned, it is clear that we are dealing with an ensemble of eight solo voices rather than block choral writing; the soloists take over all the verses either as solo voices, duos, trios, quartets or sextets and, naturally enough, the 'tuti'.

"The ensemble of viols adds its commentary to a good number of the verses, not only to the sections in eight parts but also to certain of the others, providing a polyphonic accompaniment to several solos. It plays a solo role only in the few bars of the Symphonia at the beginning of the sumptuous 6-part 'Ingemisco'.

"This 'Prosa pro-mortuis' nevertheless raises other questions, one of these being the date of its composition and the other being the identification of the chapelle for which it was written. It is not at all easy to provide an answer to the first of these questions, but it is possible to supply a possible solution for the second. Certain elements of the work make one think that it could have been composed for Vienna; on the other hand the concerto de viole that Legrenzi had used in the two 'Sonatas' from 'La Cetra' that had been dedicated to the Emperor Leopold I, and on the other the work's astonishing similarity to the 'Requiem' by Johann Kaspar Kerll that had been published in 1689. Kerll was the organist to the Viennese Court and had been a pupil of Carissimi in Rome. His Requiem also makes use of a vocal ensemble accompanied by a quartet of viols. Its 'Dies Iræ' is intricately structured also; each verse is presented in a different way and uses various combinations of singers and viols. Given that the date of Legrenzi's work remains unknown, it is there not possible to trace an exact link between the two compositions; we can only discuss their similar styles.

"Other works by Legrenzi recorded here include not only the two 'Sonate a quatro viole da gamba' from 'La Cetra' but also two motets for solo voice. These motets come from Legrenzi's op. 10 entitled 'Acclamationi divote', a volume of motets for solo voice and continuo that was published in Bologna in 1670. The source material for these motets is the copy that was preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. The motet 'Angelorum ad convivium' is here presented in its original form for solo voice and continuo, whilst the poignant motet 'Suspiro Domine' for bass is accompanied here by the concerto di viole. This accompaniment was written specifically for this recording by Philippe Pierlot in the polyphonic style that was often to be met with during the 17th century. We should add that various other scores often make use of this type of accompaniment, but that such sources are often silent as far as to precisely which of the instrumental parts should be either realised or reconstituted. (Jérôme Lejeune, tr. Peter Lockwood. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Ricercar Consort, Philippe Pierlot

1. Sonata Sesta A Quatro Viole Da Gamba

2. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Dies Irae

3. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Quantus Tremor

4. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Tuba Mirum

5. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Mors Stupebit

6. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Liber Scriptus

7. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Judex Ergo

8. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Quid Sum Miser

9. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Rex Tremendae

10. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Recordare

11. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Quaerens Me

12. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Juste Judex

13. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Ingemisco

14. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Qui Mariam

15. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Preces Meae

16. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Inter Oves

17. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Confutatis

18. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Oro Supplex

19. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Lacrimosa

20. Prosa Pro Mortuis: Pie Jesu

21. Ricercar Del Secundo Tono

22. Angelorum Ad Convivia

23. Sonata Quinta A Quatro Viole Da Gamba

24. Suspiro Domine

flac/16-bit

Antonio Lotti; Johann Sebastian Bach - Missa Sapientiae; Magnificat

"According to a recently discovered source, Antonio Lotti was born not in Hanover, as had been presumed previously, but on 5 January 1667 in Venice. His parents - the 'sonatore' Matteo Lotti and Marina Gasparin, the daughter of a 'baracol' - married in 1662 in the Venetian church S. Marino, and it was also there that their son Antonio Lotti was baptized on 25 January 1667. Antonio Lotti spend the greater part of his life in the city on the lagoon, where he received his training from the Maestro di cappella of San Marco, Giovanni Legrenzi, and the local tenor and counterpoint teacher Lodovico Fuga. In 1689 Lotti himself was hired as a falsetto, and in 1702 also as second organist at San Marco. He occupied various positions in the chapel until in 1736 he was able to prevail in the competition for the coveted office of 'Maestro di cappella'. He occupied various positions in the chapel until in 1736 he was able to prevail in the competition for the coveted office of 'Maestro di cappella'. He held his post until his death in Venice on 5 January 1640. Lotti wrote numerous sacred music compositions for San Marco and for other institutions such as the ospedali, the orphanages that were famous for the well-grounded musical education of their pupils. At the same time, with nearly twenty successful stage works, Lotti was considered as one of the leading representative of Venetian opera, and it was above all this reputation that led in 1717 to an invitation to Dresden by the Prince Elector of Saxony, Friedrich August. Lotti spent about two years, with his opera troop at the Saxon court, until the conclusion of the festivities in honor of the marriage of Friedrich August and Princess Maria Josepha of Hapsburg in 1719. Five large-scale stage works were written during this time. The Italian musicians also occasionally performed in the court church, and a number of sacred works by Lotti have survived in the Saxon State Library: Masses and individual Mass movements, a requiem, and various psalm settings. In terms of style and because of the high quality of their performance, Lotti's church music compositions were perceived by his contemporaries as being novel. In a report by the Dresden Jesuits, for example, it is written:

"'In a manner completely new here the Italian musicians, who were sent by his Highness the Prince Elector from Venice to Dresden, brought our church to life when they [...] embellished a High Mass, which lasted almost three hours, with such admirable artistic skill both in terms of the voices as well as the instruments, such as one has never before heard in Dresden.'

"Even outside Dresden these performances did not remain unnoticed. Johann Sebastian Bach's predecessor in the position of Thomaskantor, Johann Kuhnau, pointed out Lotti's exemplary stylistic separation of opera and church music, and praised the 'admirable gravity, strong and perfect harmony and art, in addition to the exceptional charm' of Lotti's work which he had heard in the Dresden court church.

"As far as we can see, Lotti seems in later years to have written works above all in the old church style originating from Palestrina. Perhaps with Lotti in mind, the Dresden Kapellmeister Johann David Heinichen sarcastically remarked in the foreword to his 'Generalbaß in der Composition' ('Thorough bass in Composition'): 'I have observed in other places various notable examples, that when formerly renowned theater composers in their old age had lost all their fire and inventiveness, they then finally started to become good church composers and, contrary to their former habit, to work hard on counterpoint. One could deduce various things from this.'

"Soon after Lotti's death his church music, like that of most of his contemporaries, began to disappear from the repertoire. Only in Venice were a few of his stile-antico compositions, which were less tied to a particular period, still occasionally still performed into the early nineteenth century. Thus, in 1770 Charles Burney, the writer on music who toured in Italy and France, heard in the Venetian church of San Giovanni e Poulo 'a mass sung in four parts, without other instrument than the organ. [...] The composition [...] consisting of fugues and imitations in the stile of our best old church services. [...] Upon the whole this seems to be the true stile for the church: it calls to memory nothing vulgar, light, or prophane [sic]; it disposed the mind to philanthropy, and divests it of its gross and sensual passions.'

"Burney's report marks a turning point in the history of Lotti reception: Had Lotti struck the right note for the ears of his contemporaries with his works in concertante style, the music historiography emerging toward the end of the eighteenth century saw in him above all a representative of stile-antico composition, a view that especially in Germany continued to be propagated in the early years of the nineteenth century. A central role was played by the rediscovery and publication of an eight-part 'Crucifixus' by the prominent music theorist Adolf Bernhard Marx in the 'Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung' in 1819. Marx combined the publication of the work with the intention, proposed in a manifesto-like manner, of promoting along with Lotti's easily accessible 'Crucifixus' the acceptance of stile-antico compositions, after previously published works in this genre by Palestrina, Sarti, and Fux had not been particularly well received with the public. The publication received great attention, as a result of which musical historiography, which often displays a tendency toward typification and quick historical classification, for a long time failed to take notice of a substantial part of Lotti's sacred music œuvre. Accordingly, the most extensive edition of selected works up to now, which appeared in 1930 in the series 'Denkmäler Deutscher Tonkunst', contains works exclusively in the old style.

"Since to the present day the full breadth of Antonio Lotti's sacred music has hardly been explored in its full breadth, and in particular a catalogue of his works is lacking, the context and date of origin of the 'Missa Sapientiae' lie in obscurity. Yet the work, accompanied by independent instrumental parts and fashioned in the modern sacred-music style appears to have been quite well known by Lotti's contemporaries, as shown by the wide dissemination of preserved sources and the unusual fact that prominent composers such as George Frideric Handel, Jan Dismas Zelenka, and Johann Sebastian Bach owned copies of this Mass.

"George Frideric Handel, who probably knew Lotti personally from his time in Venice and from a sojourn in Dresden, copied the Mass incompletely and without the text, as is the case in almost all his copies of works by other composers. In this way, Handel collected a store of so-called borrowing material from which he could take rhythmic models, thematic ideas or even whole sections of movements for his own compositions. Indeed, many fruits of this collecting activity can be found in his works. For example, the chorus 'Blest be the hand' ('Theodora', HWV 68) clearly comes from the 'Domine Deus', 'Agnus Dei', and the instrumental sections in the chorus 'Virtue will place thee' ('The Choice of Hercules', HWV 69) is taken from the 'Gloria in excelsis'. One could list further examples, including some in 'Jephta' (HWV 70).

"In contrast to Handel, Jan Dismas Zelenka, whose official duties in Dresden included the procurement of musical repertoire for the Catholic court church, copied Lotti's Mass ca. 1730 for performance purposes. In so doing, he adapted the work to the usage in Dresden in that he provided for a more colorful wind instrumentation. Thus, for example, he strengthened the string tutti over longer stretches with oboes, added a group of woodwinds to the interplay of the high strings and continuo in the 'Laudamus te', and transformed the oboe part into a trumpet part in the 'Gloria in excelsis'. The name 'Missa Sapientiae' also originates with Zelenka, who gave Mass compositions by other composers nicknames of this sort, apparently to be able to tell them apart more easily. Strictly speaking, the name 'Missa Sapientiae' therefore refers not to Lotti's original work, but to Zelenka's Dresden version of it, which is also to be heard on this recording.

"At the beginning of the 1730s, Johann Sebastian Bach, who like Zelenka had a large music library at his disposal, started collecting Latin sacred music by Italian composers. While doing so, he selected works of older masters as well as those of his own contemporaries, among these Lotti's 'Missa Sapientiae'. This copy of the Mass traces directly back to Zelenka's version, and was made in part by Bach, in part by a scribe. Whether Bach performed the 'Missa Sapientiae' in Leipzig is not known, at least no set of parts has been preserved. Moreover, the use in the 'Gloria in excelsis' of a variant of the eighth psalm tone not usual in the Protestant north may speak against a performance of the work in Leipzig. The reason for Bach's increased interest in Latin church music was his own productions of Masses which began at this time. They commenced with a 'Missa in B Minor' consisting of a 'Kyrie' and 'Gloria' - dedicated by Bach in Juli 1733 to the new Prince Elector of Saxony and Polish King Friedrich August II in the hope of acquiring a position at the Dresden court and future commissions. In later years, the Mass was completed to become the famous, large 'B-Minor Mass'.

"Lotti's 'Missa Sapientiae' was probably of interest to Bach in various respects: Lotti, as is generally known, numbered among the composers of whom the prince elector was particularly fond, and the Mass offered an opportunity to study a typical example of the Venetian tonal language. Moreover, the 'Missa Sapientiae' came quite close to the intended dimensions of the 'Missa in B Minor': In spite of the limitation to the 'Kyrie' and 'Gloria', both works call for a large instrumental ensemble, and the choir is expanded from four to five or six voices in individual passages. The division of the movements are similar in many respects, even if the 'Domine Deus' in Lotti is divided into three individual movements. In the first of these individual movements, 'Domine Deus, Rex coelestis', a violin (or alternately a flute in Zelenka's version) and a muted oboe concertize alongside the solo soprano, and are thus at least atmospherically reminiscent of Bach's corresponding setting. A conspicuous analogy in the instrumentation is found in the 'Quoniam tu solus', which in both cases features a soloistic brass instrument. Completely different from the 'Missa Sapientiae', Bach allows the 'Qui tollis' to develop in flowing transition out of the 'Domine Deus', whereas Lotti sets a clear caesura at the end of the 'Domine Deus', 'Agnus Dei' with a concluding fugue. Lottis link the following movements 'Qui tollis' and 'Qui sedes' in that he musically fashions the analogous text 'miserere nobis' nearly identically, and only a crass harmonic tension of the first section is not taken up again later. The choral writing of the 'miserere nobis' section is enveloped by the instruments in a delicate, typically Venetian carpet of sound that Bach unmistakably echos in the 'Crucifixus' of the 'B-Minor Mass'." (Thomas Krümpelmann. From the liner notes.)

"When Johann Sebastian Bach submitted his application for the position of Kantor at Leipzig's Thomaskirche, he already must have sensed that there was a considerable discrepancy between the supposed and the real performing ability of the choir of St. Thomas'. Indeed, Bach saw himself forced to strengthen the choir parts with trombones in his two audition pieces, the cantatas BWV 22 and 23. It can be assumed that this was due not to reasons of timbre, but primarily to insecurities in the performance. The abilities of the municipal musicians, too, were far from adequate, something that Bach realized only with time. After assuming his office at the end of May 1723, Bach went to work with great élan; perhaps he wanted to prove himself to those critics who viewed his appointment with skepticism. Almost all the works of his first year's cycle of cantatas are distinguished by their exceptional difficulty in comparison to the compositions of his predecessor Johann Kuhnae and those of his two co-candidate Georg Philipp Telemann and Christoph Graupner, who had been favored by the town council.

"Among the festive compositions of the year 1723, the 'Magnificat' occupies an outstanding position. For a long time, it was thought that the work was composed for Christmas 1723, since the score of the work, originally in E-flat Major, contains four interpolated Christmas movements. However, examination of the autograph score shows that the movements related to Christmas were later additions. It would seem obvious that the performance on 25 December 1723 was not the first; yet, since the composition was written in Leipzig - unequivocally proven by the paper of the score - it follows that the E-flat Major Magnificat, BWV 243a, was intended for the feast of the Visitation on 2 July 1723. On this day, which was solemnly celebrated in Leipzig - like the feast of the Purification on 2 February and the feast of the Annunciation on 25 March - the reading is song of praise to Mary from the Gospel of St. Luke; the work was not intended for the main church service, but rather for the vespers service in which the 'Magnificat' could be performed in Latin. This feast, five weeks after his assumption of office, was Bach's first chance to demonstrate his special talents - and the new Thomaskantor did not pass up the opportunity. Instead of the usual four-part vocal setting, the choral movements have been expanded to five parts; Bach found models for this in the library of the Thomasschule, since his predecessors Johann Schelle and Johann Kuhnau likewise preferred five-part writing with three high voices for festive compositions. It remains uncertain, though, how Bach was able to conceal the dearth of capable sopranos among the pupils of the Thomasschule.

"The biblical song of praise to Mary is - as in numerous other compositions of the time - broken down into its individual statements, which are set as chorale movements and arias. Unusual in Bach's way of treating the text is at all events the splitting off of the concluding words 'omnes generationes' in the 'Quia respexit', and their assignment to the choir. In this manner Bach emphasizes the generations who praise Mary. In spite of the brevity of the sentence fragment, he creates a choral section important for the balance of the work. The choice of text means that none of the arias are in the otherwise still pre-dominant da-capo form. Contrasts are achieved through the choice of new, closely related keys, various compositional techniques, and a varied instrumentation. The unity of the work is established by the use of the music of the opening chorus again for the doxology, the song of praise to God.

"By virtue of an old Leipzig tradition, which can be traced back to the beginning of the seventeenth century, the 'Magnificat', the song of praise to Mary, could be extended on Christmas by inserted movements related to the feast. In comparison to the better-known D-Major version, which recent research has shown to have been first performed on 2 July 1733, the E-flat Major version sounds fresher and, particularly in the trumpet parts, more radical, although at the expense of extreme technical demands. Perhaps the Leipzig town musicians or their superior had told the Cöthen court Kapellmeister, 'who at the beginning could not reconcile himself with the transition from Kapellmeister to Kantor', that they could play anything. Several years later Bach expressed himself about their abilities with great reservation: In the 'Entwurff einer wohlbestallten Kirchen Music' ('Plan for a well-appointed church music') of August 1730 it is tersely stated that decency prohibits him 'however from reporting anything approaching the truth about their qualities and musical skills.'

"The high range of the vocal parts, which was typical of Bach's Cöthen works, also seems to have caused problems at the performances in Leipzig. It is conceivable that Bach therefore had in mind a considerably lower pitch than was usual in Leipzig. The so-called French chamber pitch [...] is a whole tone lower than today's normal pitch and a semitone lower than the pitch usual during Bach's time [...]. The lower pitch adopted for the recording lends the strings and winds a more mellow timbre, which underscores the individual chracter of the E-flat Major version.

"In Bach's time, the pitch level was not standardized, and could therefore be chosen as required. As a result, the organ, which is fixed at a specific pitch level, had to transpose; and with many wind instruments there were several idiosyncracies that had to be taken into consideration, which could explain some of the differences in the instrumentation of the two versions. The revision of this work, which Bach undertook during the period of national mourning after the death of August the Strong, was intended to make the piece easier to perform by means of the transposition from E-flat to D Major, and above all with the simplification of the demanding and, when played on natural trumpets in E-flat, exceedingly difficult trumpet parts. Nevertheless, this revision resulted in a repertoire work no less brilliant." (Ulrich Leisinger, tr. Howard Weiner. From the liner notes.)

Performer: Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, Thomas Hengelbrock

1. Antonio Lotti - Missa Sapientiae: Kyrie. Kyrie Eleison

2. Antonio Lotti - Missa Sapientiae: Kyrie. Christe Eleison

3. Antonio Lotti - Missa Sapientiae: Kyrie. Kyrie Eleison

4. Antonio Lotti - Missa Sapientiae: Gloria. Gloria In Excelsis

5. Antonio Lotti - Missa Sapientiae: Gloria. Laudamus Te

6. Antonio Lotti - Missa Sapientiae: Gloria. Gratias Agimus Tibi

7. Antonio Lotti - Missa Sapientiae: Gloria. Domine Deus, Rex Coelestis

8. Antonio Lotti - Missa Sapientiae: Gloria. Domine Fili

9. Antonio Lotti - Missa Sapientiae: Gloria. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei

10. Antonio Lotti - Missa Sapientiae: Gloria. Qui Tollis Peccata Mundi

11. Antonio Lotti - Missa Sapientiae: Gloria. Qui Sedes

12. Antonio Lotti - Missa Sapientiae: Gloria. Quoniam Tu Solus Sanctus

13. Antonio Lotti - Missa Sapientiae: Gloria. Cum Sancto Spiritu

14. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Magnificat Anima Mea

15. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Et Exultavit

16. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Von Himmel Hoch

17. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Quia Respexit

18. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Omnes Generationes

19. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Quia Fecit

20. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Freut Euch Und Jubiliert

21. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Et Misericordia Eius

22. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Fecit Potentiam

23. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Gloria In Excelsis

24. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Deposuit Potentes

25. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Esurientes Implevit

26. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Virga Jesse Floruit

27. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Suscepit Israel

28. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Sicut Locutus Est

29. Johann Sebastian Bach - Magnificat, BWV 243a: Gloria Patri Et Filio

flac/16-bit

Giacomo Carissimi - Complete Motets of Arion Romanus

"'A 17th-century Arion': In 1670, the dedication of a cycle of 'sacred songs' to the Bishop of Costanza, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire Franz Joseph, marked the consecration of Giacomo Carissimi as the 'Roman Arion' and represented a definitive confirmation of his fame and important as maestro of maestros, the inventor of a new way of making and listening to music. Arion, born in Lesbos and resident in Corinth at the court of the tyrant Periander in the 7th century B.C., has to all intents and purpose become a myth, and his enormous fame has stripped him of his concrete reality and made him an emblematic figure surrounded by divine power, a symbol of a new concept of music and poetry destine to remain as an example for centuries to come.

"A singer of matchless gifts, a lyric poet of the utmost refinement and sensibility, Arion is recorded as a flesh-and-blood historical figure by Herodotus, who describes him as the inventor of the dithyramb, the ancient Greek hymn sung and danced in honour of Dionysus, characterised by variable metres and extravagant form that reach almost orgiastic lengths. This would place him at the very origins of tragedy according to the doctrines elaborated by Aristotle. In actual fact, throughout the long evolution of poetic form, the form of the dithyramb has been exploited brilliantly in moder works, and it is in the 17th century that it enjoyed a kind of revival enriched with exhilerating new meaning. In that sense Carissimi was an exemplary figure, gifted with charisma and surrounded by intrigue to a much greater extent than so many of his contemporaries were, and in this sense the comparison with Arion takes on a deeper significance.

"Athanius Kircher had already explained with convincing precision that the defining quality of Carissimi's music was its capacity to make the listener feel an enormous range of emotions, and ultimately reach spiritual fulfilment. It was the range of liveliness and the density of content that Kircher saw as the essence of Carissimi's creative genius, hence Arion as a metaphor for changing emotions and the utmost skill in the elaboration of form. Just as Arion was miraculously saved by a dolphin that guided him through the treacherous waters that were about to submerge him, Carissimi had plunged into the difficult waters of oratorio through which he guided the listener on a path that seems to avoid difficulty or danger such is its gentle, reassuring smoothness, belying spontaneous expression of passion. Compared with the many musicians of generations immediately previous to his, Carissimi seems far superior to those whose scholarly efforts seemed to be a vain attempt to vindicate their mediocre work. At that time Carissimi, the maestro of maestros, was considered a composer truly able to mould personalities as diverse as the French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier or Giovanni Paolo Colonna from Bologna, thanks to the incomparable fascination held by his creative powers and the extraordinary facility with which he seemed to teach others to take charge of sound and musical texture. It is this perfect synthesis of doctrine, which is converted into expressive substance, and the endless freshness of his inspiration that make of this man the Arion of the 17th century, inevitable destined for imperishable fame. (Claudio Strinati. From the liner notes.)

"'Jacomo Carissimi 'sive' Arion Romanus: the 'Melopoet's' dive': Within the specific double-faceted tradition promoted by the Ensemble Seicentonovecento, with the 'sive' of our title our intention today is to suggest a reflection that will help us to reveal one of the metaphors of the Maestro of the San'Apollinare church; thus, in addition to the 'Vir frugi' suggested by Lino Bianchi and the 'Magister humilitatus' I discussed elsewhere, this 'sive Arion' can be considered the key to an understanding 'in reverse order' - from maestro to work/from work to maestro. Plutarch tells the story of a journey made by the famous musician and poet Arion during which the sailors on the ship that was carrying him from Sicily plotted to kill him in order to steal his money. In a dream Apollo promised to help the artist who, as soon as he saw he was in danger, sang one of his hymns, threw himself into the sea and was rescued by a dolphin that had been attracted by his singing. The god then transformed his protégé's lyre and the faithful animal who had saved him into constellations of the boreal sky. The dolphin is the symbol of regeneration, of wisdom, of conversion (in a number of legends dolphins are considered pirates who have been transformed by their repentance), and has an important role in rites of passage and as a psychopomp to lead the soul of the deceased to the afterlife: Christ the Saviour Himself is known to have been represented by a dolphin.

"In Arion's plunge into the sea we see man's self-abandonment into the arms of divine Providence: the longing to reach the gates of salvation - 'in this aiming for a future that contains the notion of returning' - has further echoes in some texts set by hte 'Melopoet' Carissimi: this is the case with one of the motets for solo voice in the collection 'Convertere ad me qui relinquis me peccando ad fontem pietatis abyssus egestatis revertere'. The title of the collection 'Arion Romanus sive Liber primus sacrarum cantonium' refers to the supernatural qualites of the mythical canto and of our composer alike: the poetic dedication 'to the Feast of the Pentecost' where the works of Carissimi, known as 'musical models' even in their time, are defined as 'composed of art and special sweetness merged together', as well as many other philosophical elements displayed in typical laudatory style, extols the rose as 'King' and 'Eye' of flowers. It shows an important relationship between the flower's geometrical principles as symbol of the golden numbers 5 and 12 and those of music which, like 'Orpheus's potion', revives the body and achieves the reconciliation of the universe 'mostly because Music is considered as being either Mistress, or comparison and symbol of a government which through its laws is perfect and absolute'.

"Carissimi's works, as 'models' both new and old, are defined as Gems, Pearls, Marguerites, Roses 'worthy to be woven or to bestow victory on Apollo's crown', while the example they set is recognised as a gift from Heaven. Just as Palestrina was elected as a renewer of polyphonic singing, so Carissimi, as tastes evolved, seems like a kind of fixed star and - 'Sicut stella' - his theories and 'models' appear as golden precepts: 'Every note of his was a gem because it gave a glow to the most precious of art.'

"Giovanni Barrista Mocchi, a loyal student of Carissimi's at the Jesuit German-Hungarian College, ensured the publication in Costanza - the city of the 15th century Council which managed the feat of restoring the unity of the Church after its schism - of a new Catholic and 'Roman' 'icon'. The 'Notice' to further readers and performers is below:

"'To the Musicians. Take note of two things. Don't be frightened by the difficulty of one or two of the songs in this collection: there are no difficulties that cannot be easily overcome even by a student [...] Few of you can use as an excuse their excessive length, which can immediately by remedied by omitting a few verses from the songs for solo voice. Finally I would point out that it was be a good thing to engage Singers, Melopoets and Composers at whatever fee they ask on behalf of those who will thus savour the art of music more deeply than hearing it from raucous lips. I trust you are well and look upon my effort with favour [...] J.B.M.'

"'After us will already be what it once was: '[...] my Arion crowned with music flowers will sing everywhere'.' (Flavio Colusso. From the liner notes.)

"'Reflections on the texts and music of the 'Arion Romanus': 'Arion Romanus' is the title of a published collection of 28 motets by Giacomo Carissimi compiled by Giovanni Battista Mocchi. (The attribution of some of these motets to the composer is currently in doubt). Mocchi (c. 1620-1688) was born in Marino, as was Carissimi, and was a singer at the German College in Rome in the 1630s under Carissimi's direction. For several months in 1646 he studied composition with Carissimi; around that date, like many other Italian musicians of the time but unlike his illustrious teacher, he left Italy to cross the Alps. Subsequently, even when he held the post of 'maestro di cappella' for the Palatine counts in Neuberg, he frequently returned to Rome to keep up his contacts with his teacher and other Roman composers.

"For his project dedicated to Carissimi, Mocchi turned in 1670 to the printer David Hautt the younger in Constance. He was official printer to the local diocesan bishop, Johann Franz, to whom the publication was dedicated. It appears that the Bishop was a fervent Marian devotee and this, as we shall see, had a certain relevance to the content of 'Arion'.

"Rather unusually for Roman musical circles, the only publications entirely devoted to Carissimi's music while he was alive were produced in Germany (the other was printed by Fridericum Friessem in Cologne in 1666): otherwise Carissimi's works featured only in anthologies. Why did the Maestro of Sant'Apollinare not personally promote the publication of his works? Carissimi, the famous maestro of a Jesuit college that was certainly not short of funds, had many admirers and patrons, including Queen Christina of Sweden, who named him 'Maestro di Cappella of the Court Ensemble'. The composer was probably very frugal (he did not have to pay for anthologies) and perhaps even too humble to turn to wealthy patrons, however willingly they might certainly have supported him.

"Looking at the texts set to music in the 1670 publication, we note that none of the 28 motets has strictly liturgical texts. This does not means that these sacred pieces were not appropriate for liturgical use, even in the 17th century: it would be perfectly proper for them to replace the Responsory or to be sung during Communion; in the Office of Hours they can be sung instead of the antiphons, especially the Marian motets as an antiphon before the Magnificat. In any case they were all suitable for the musical forces attached to cardinals, princes and patricians, not least of which were those belonging to Christina of Sweden.

"The use of texts set to music normally meant altering, combining, paraphrasing or transforming textual material that already existed. We also find snatches of biblical texts that haven't been altered that are also present in liturgy, notable from the Psalms and the Song of Songs, but also from Isaiah. We can spot references to Ecclesiastes 17:21 or 23 ('Convertere ad me', a spiritual song appropriate to the period of All Souls) or to Numbers 12:17 (the central section of 'Sicut Mater'). In 'Convertere' the concluding allusion to the Song of Songs does not refer to the Madonna, as is usually the case, but to the human soul that has to start loving God. Other motets that feature Psalm texts, include 'Benedicte gentes', which starts with a direct quote from Psalm 6:8-9 (start) and from Psalm 61:9, and then continues to paraphrase freely. Taking these quotes as a guide the motet is appropriate for Lent, the period following Easter or the Feast of St. Joseph. As far as the prophet Isaiah is concerned we must once again turn to the 'Sicut Mater', which begind with a quote from 66:13 and ends with 35:2. The central sections of the motet, on the other hand, are less specific and the motet, which is stated as 'De Tempore', is appropriate for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany; the conclusion draws particular attention to Mary's status as the Mother of God, which is unusual for Carissimi. At least seven motets in our publication are dedicated to the Madonna. It is not surprise to find references to the Song of Songs, but in 'Salve Virgo' we also find references to the antiphon 'Salve Regina', to the 'Ave Maria' and to the Gospel according to St. Luke.

"In three cases we find references to spiritual literature of the Middle Ages. 'Panem caelestem' shows clear assonance with the prose and mystic poetry of the Franciscan St. Bonaventura (c. 1217-1274): a similar case if 'O quam dilecta Mensa', which also has a refrain taken from two rhyming verses of the 'Giubilo' attributed to St. Bernard of Chiaravalle (1090-1153), who re-founded the Cistercian Order: both motets are liturgically suited to the Feast of Corpus Domini. The same thing seems to go for 'Ave dulcissime Angelorum panis'.

"Who collected or wrote these texts? We know for example that Domenico Mazzocchi and Alessandro Stradello themselves wrote the text of some of their sacred music: we can presume that the same went for Carissimi. We must, however, consider that he also had as eminent colleagues Jesuit father who could act as consultants and even as authors of sacred and spiritual texts set to music.

"Carissimi's motets are usually made up of several sections: that is, they are divided up into a series of sections of variable structure. The main formal elements are: monody in recitative style, the concertato (lively or alternatively more contemplative and closer to the madrigal), the arioso in 4/4 with moving bass, the arioso section in 3/2, the aria and the madrigal proper.

"The 'Arion Romanus' offers us the peerless art of Giacomo Carissimi made accessible in ever possible way to small ensembles. As regards the four 'unica' in this publication and in particular the precious 'Panem caelestem' and 'Benedicte gentes', we are grateful to the pupil Giovanni Battista Mocchi and the printer David Hautt for saving these masterpieces that would otherwise have been lost forever." (Wolfgang Witzenmann. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Ensemble Seicentonovecento, Flavio Colusso

1.1. Mortalis Homo

1.2. Sicut Stella Matutina

1.3. Convertere Ad Me

1.4.  Domine Deus Meus

1.5. Panem Coelestem Angelorum

1.6. Anima Nostra Sustinet Dominum

1.7. Laudemus Virum Gloriosum

1.8. O Dulcissime Jesu

2.1. Sicut Mater Consolatur

2.2. Ecce Sponsus Venit

2.3. Hymnum Jucunditatis Cantemus

2.4. Viderunt Te Domine

2.5. Quis Est Hic Vir

2.6. Omnes Gentes Gaudete Cum Maria (Victore)

2.7. O Beatum Virum

2.8. Egredimini Filiae Sion, Et Videte

2.9. Benedicite Gentes

2.10. O Beatum Virum

2.11. Gaudeat Terra, Jubilent Montes

2.12. Salve, Virgo Immaculata

3.1. Audite, Sancti (Justi)

3.2. Quo Tam Laetus Progrederis

3.3. Quasi Aquila

3.4. Exurge, Cor Meum, In Cithara

3.5. Ardens Est Cor Nostrum (Meum)

3.6. Ave Dulcissime Angelorum Panis

3.7. Desiderata Nobis

3.8. O Quam Dilecta Sunt Tabernacula

flac/16-bit

Giacinto Scelsi - The Orchestral Works 1

"Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988) was one of the creative geniuses of our time—one whose legacy and artistry will continue to inspire, impress and mystify appreciative listeners and critics well into the 21st century. Amazingly, for a composer who died so recently (scarcely more than a decade ago), little is known about his life. He forbade anyone to photograph him, and he purposely and routinely changed or concealed details of his personal and public life even from those with whom he had daily contact. Born in La Spezia (Liguria) to an ancient aristocratic family, Count Giacinto Scelsi d’Ayala Valva was courtly and engaging, with a presence—and piercing blue eyes—that could overwhelm; less fortunately, neurotic episodes darkened long periods of his life.

"Scelsi never attended a regular school, but instead was tutored privately at home. Nor did he have any regular academic training in music. He studied composition privately in Rome (no one knows for how long) with Giacinto Sallustio, a pupil of Respighi. Later he took sporadic lessons in Vienna with Walter Klein, a Schönberg student, and with Egon Kohler, in Geneva, a disciple of Scriabin. Scelsi spoke fluent English and French in addition to his mother tongue, and wrote many articles and two volumes of poetry in French.

"Scelsi was not a composer who fit any previous historical model of the profession. He was independently wealthy, and thus able to create without the need to satisfy any segment of the public, no matter how common or esoteric. His social milieu was a strange assembly of wealthy friends in high society, Tibetan monks with whom he meditated and chanted, and the most famous musicians, poets, and painters of his day. Although a description of 'avant-garde' would not be inaccurate, he had little to do with and did not seek entry into any other current of music or art that was exploding in every direction from the intellectual and social chaos of the 1960s. Above all, he was a visionary who knew that his message would at first be comprehended by very few and that many years would pass before even the connoisseur could assimilate his intent. But his time has come: the history of contemporary music will have to be rewritten, for the second half of the twentieth century is now unthinkable without Scelsi.

"Scelsi's primary concern in music was with the basic elements of sound itself. He was obsessed, for example, with the sound of a single note — its natural components both above and below the fundamental pitch, its microtonal variations, and physical interactions that occur when elemental sound components are combined. The micro-intervals color and shape the sound, revolve it around a pulsating sphere whose center, in Scelsi's own words, was always his destination. In aural and spiritual dimensions, there are clear parallels between Scelsi's music and South Indian classical music and Tibetan chant.

"Some writers have claimed that Scelsi was the first Italian to write in the twelve-tone system, but there is no evidence to support this conjecture. After a few lessons with Klein, Scelsi lost interest —to him it was even more structured than the tonal system — and never pursued it. The inexorable pull toward Zen Buddhism and other oriental influences following a catastrophic nervous breakdown soon led him to a path that has few if any precedents in Western music.

"Nevertheless, despite his obsession with a single note and his search for new structures (or eliminating them completely), some of Scelsi's pieces use traditional compositional techniques of Western music. These include polyphony and counterpoint, which emerge as both ancient and modern musical artifacts—a juxtaposition of time created by looking to the unknown abyss of the future while at the same time recalling a known or imagined reconstruction of the past.

"In the 1960s, Scelsi engaged the string quartet 'Quartetto di Nuova Musica' (Massimo Coen and Franco Sciannameo, violins; Giovanni Antonioni, viola; Donna Magendanz, cello) to study and play his music, experiment with sound and notation, and record and publicly perform his music in Italy and abroad. On one memorable occasion (he rarely left home during this period) Scelsi traveled with the quartet to Athens for the Hellenic Festival of Contemporary Music 1966, and the world premiére of his fourth string quartet. An ecstatic audience demanded a complete repetition of the piece as an encore.

"A constant presence, in addition to Scelsi, was the noted Italian composer Vieri Tosatti (1920-2000) — Scelsi's amanuensis and collab- orator for nearly three decades, from the mid 1940s to the early 1970s. Tosatti's exact role in the actual creation and writing down of Scelsi's music is unknown. Scelsi often referred to himself as a 'messenger' rather than a composer, and the extent to which this was true in the literal sense was known following Scelsi's death only to Tosatti himself. In the final years of his life, blind and living near Rome, Tosatti preferred to remain silent on the matter.

"Despite a few live performances and a trickle of recordings from the 1960s on, most of Scelsi’s music, especially the large orchestra pieces, remained unknown until October 1987. The occasion then was a series of performances at the International Society of Contemporary Music Festival in Cologne. At the festival, Scelsi's music created an unprecedented enthusiasm —a thrill of discovery —for sold-out crowds. Since then performances of his works have continued to reach a wider public and a cross-over audience of symphony, chamber music, and new-music aficionados, as well as fans of new-age and psychedelic music.

"'Canti del Capricorno' is a collection of twenty songs written between 1962 and 1972, mostly for and in collaboration with soprano Michiko Hirayama. Some of the Canti are written specifically for soprano voice, while for others the exact voice is not specified. Improvisation and 'personal inspiration' play a large part in the interpretation of the songs.

"There is no word-text. Rather, the sounds are phonemes — speech-like cells, often jarring — that predate or transcend language as a means of expression.

"'Canti del Capricorno No. 1' (percussion and soprano) is a dark piece whose colors are emphasized by a difficult vocal technique that requires two simultaneous pitches to be produced.

"'No. 2' (tenor) begins in the lowest register and morphs into a pointed middle register with the notes becoming smooth, fluctuating within their space. The characteristic rhythm is anapestic (short-short-long).

"'No. 18' (soprano and percussion) evokes a primitive ritual. The percussion supports and propels the voice, engaging the singer in a fiery and urgent battle.

"'No. 14' (tenor and percussion) is a companion to Canto No. 18. Primitive ritual is again suggested as the voice and percussion engage in a dramatic duel.

"'No. 15' (soprano) is an alternating earthly battle and celestial tranquility between the birds and the beasts—the five strophes of the bird alternating with the four of the beast.

"'No. 19' (voices and instruments) suggests the union of nature and mankind through the sounds of the breath as well as the plaintive sounds of the instruments.

"'Hymnos' (1963), about eleven minutes, is Scelsi's longest continuous single movement. It demands a large orchestra divided antiphonally into two almost identical groups, symmetrically placed on each side of the central axis made up of the organ, timpani, and percussion.

"The note of obsession, so typical of Scelsi, is the unison D (re) with which the piece opens. There are microtonal variations around the note, which struggles for survival as the tonal center moves first to F and then to B-flat. In aural and spiritual dimensions, there are clear parallels with oriental music.

"About halfway through the piece, as a result of accumulated pedal tones and their harmonics, the aura of a phantom choir miraculously appears — or so it seems— in a spine-tingling revelation. The chant-like sounds that emerge (but are nowhere evident in the score) are a nod to the title, Hymnos, a Greek word and the origin of the English word 'hymn'.

"'Hurqualia' (1960) was the first of the Scelsi pieces for orchestra written at the height of the composer's maturity. As with 'Hymnos', Scelsi obsesses on a single note—in this case a different note for each of the four movements. The overall impression of the piece corresponds somewhat to the traditional notion of symphonic construction in four movements. Scelsi's subtitle, which no one who ventures within listening distance of the work is likely to contradict, is 'A Different Realm'. 'Hurqualia' (the h is silent) reveals a shocking Scelsi: the music is violent, impulsive, loud, fast.

"The first movement, a kind of introduction or overture, begins serenely with sounds reminiscent of the mantra-like syllable 'Om', It builds gradually to a massive and destructive explosion of brass and percussion. The percussion takes an active part, and the drums are struck con la mano—by hand—instead of with sticks, much in the manner of Indian tabla. The end is sudden, on a single drum stroke.

"The second movement introduces tension of another sort, within a self-contained structure and under a surface of quiet expression. The central focus is on B-natural, with branches up to a minor third (D-natural) and shrinking to a conflicting and unresolved C-sharp.

"A melodic element, with violent rhythmic accents, is stressed in the third movement. The fourth movement begins (like the first) on E-flat, but the true pole emerges as B-flat. This movement is the richest and most complex of the work. The drums are again used as tabla, and enormous groups of clusters bring the piece to a violent climax.

"'Hurqualia' is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, timpani, four percussionists, strings (but no violins) and three sets of amplified instruments.

"Scelsi gives instructions for the independent dynamics of three amplified groups (oboe, english horn, E-flat clarinet in the first group; horn, tenor saxophone, musical saw, viola, and double bass in the second; and two trumpets and trombone in the third). The origin of the title is unknown.

"'Konx-Om-Pax', a twenty minute work for choir and orchestra, is Scelsi's crowning achievement. The orchestra is the largest ever assembled by Scelsi. The piece is in three sections, and uses relatively simple material but projected onto an enormous landscape of sound.

"The order, structure, and detail of this piece surpasses any of Scelsi's previous works. Even the organ stops are meticulously specified, and the joining of 'all' in the third movement, combining the massive forces of orchestra and choir, makes an inevitable allusion to a previous 'ode to joy'. The title is the word 'peace' in three languages: ancient Assyrian, Sanskrit, and Latin. In a subtitle, Scelsi describes Konx-Om-Pax: Three aspects of Sound: as the first motion of the immovable, as creative force, as the sacred syllable 'Om'.

"Such wildly different music demands a new approach in learning and playing for both the conductor and the musicians. There is no precedent for learning or teaching Scelsi's music; experimentation guides progress; perfection is elusive. At the very least, every technical and musical skill in terms of color and intonation that the musicians have achieved in their conservatory training is demanded in full measure; at the same time the listening mechanisms and parameters which musicians rely on innately to play accurately and musically are stretched to new limits. In the end the musicians have to use and simultaneously abandon the very skills that are needed to play any music—and to make that leap into the soundscape that is Scelsi's mind and music.

"As an artist and as a human being Scelsi's sole purpose was centered on a desire to listen to cosmic forces. This desire emanated from transcendental thought as he searched for the divine essence of religion outside of geographic and temporal borders. He used elements from known traditions to reach moments of transcendence, reaching out, through his music, for entry into the profound realities of the universe, with undaunted spirit and a fervent hope for universal peace." (Riccardo Schulz. From the liner notes.)

 

Performers: Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic, Carnegie Mellon Choir, Juan Pablo Izquierdo, Pauline Vaillancourt, Douglas Ahlstedt

1. Canti Del Capricorno No. 1

2. Hymnos

3. Canti Del Capricorno No. 2

4. Canti Del Capricorno No. 18

5. Hurqualia: 1

6. Hurqualia: 2

7. Hurqualia: 3

8. Hurqualia: 4

9. Canti Del Capricorno No. 14

10. Canti Del Capricorno No. 15

11. Konx-Om-Pax: 1

12. Konx-Om-Pax: 2

13. Konx-Om-Pax: 3

14. Canti Del Capricorno No. 19

 

flac/16-bit

Contagious Orgasm & Guilty Connector - Guilorga

Collaborative effort from the two Japanese noise/industrial projects, released as a CD in 2000 on Utsu Tapes, which is owned by Kohei Nakagawa (Guilty Connector). A strange and captivating blend of harsh noise, samples and melodic EBM-type beats.

1. Connect

2. Searching Sentence Slave Masochist

mp3/224kbps

Samuel Barber - Cello Concerto; Medea (Suite); Adagio

"The years immediately following the end of World War II saw a consolidation of the success that Samuel Barber had encountered in the concert hall with his 'Symphony No. 1' and 'Essay for Orchestra' (Naxos 8.559024). While the romantic and expressive traits that inform these works remained at the heart of his idiom, the 'Cello Concerto' and 'Medea' are marked by an increasingly sophisticated use of the orchestra, as well as a greater harmonic stringency and emotional variety. 

"The 'Cello Concerto' was written for Raya Garbousova. The short score was completed in November 1945, coinciding with Barber's discharge from the air force, with orchestration taking until December. The premiere, by Garbousova, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Sergey Koussevitzky, took place on 5th April, 1946. Despite initial success, and the receipt of the Fifth Annual Award of the Music Critics Circle of New York, the concerto has established itself only at the margins of the repertoire. Barber revised the score prior to his recording with Zara Nelsova in 1950, and made minor changes thereafter. 

"The opening movement, 'Allegro moderato', begins with an abrupt gesture on strings. An understated melodic complex, rather than a theme as such, now unfolds across the orchestra and the soloist joins in almost matter of factly. Only belatedly is the theme stated as a coherent entity. A slower version of the theme becomes a musing soliloquy for the soloist, but the central development quickly emerges as an incisive orchestral tutti. The soloist responds with brusque pizzicati, and a resumption of the initial mood, broadening as before into the theme's more expressive version. The scene is set for a lengthy cadenza, subjecting the theme's constituent elements to the full panoply of cello techniques. The orchestra re-emerges, growing restive in its response, and leading to an agitated coda. 

"The central movement, 'Andante sostenuto', opens with a plaintive siciliana melody on the oboe, subtly derived from that of the first movement and intertwined with the soloist's barcarolle-like motion. A harmonic shift reminiscent of Vaughan Williams brings a more expressively-wrought continuation, before the initial tonality and melody are restored. The orchestra effects a brief but poignant climax, from where the movement sinks into ominous reverie. 

"The finale, 'Molto allegro e appassionato' , opens with another abrupt tutti gesture, before the soloist leads the way with a vaunting melody, inviting vigorous repartee with the orchestra. An inward second theme involves eloquent passage-work for the soloist, building up dramatically in the orchestra. A short solo passage leads to an atmospheric episode, lightly scored in the orchestra's upper reaches and featuring cello harmonics. The initial momentum is now restored, before the second theme returns in sombre hues to effect the work's expressive climax. A further brief cadenza, follows, after which soloist and orchestra steer the movement towards its fateful conclusion. 

"The ballet 'Medea' has a complex history. Commissioned by Martha Graham for the Second Annual Festival of Contemporary Music in May 1946, Barber began work to a scenario entitled 'Cave of the Heart'. The first version, completed in April and scored for thirteen instruments, was first performed at Columbia University on 10th May, under the title 'Serpent Heart'. The original title was reinstated for the New York premiere on 27th February, 1947, by which time Barber had reworked the score into a seven-movement suite for full orchestra, preferring the title Medea, after the principal character. The suite received its first performance on 5th December, with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy. In 1955, Barber telescoped the suite into one continuous movement, 'Medea's Meditation' and 'Dance of Vengeance'. This was first heard in New York on 2nd, February, 1956, with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos. Yet the additional music and greater emotional range of the suite merit revival. 

"'Parodos' introduces the characters with brazen fanfares on brass and xylophone. A melodic sequence unfolds in some of Barber's most tensile orchestration, abounding in subtle harmonic dissonances. 'Choros I' depicts Medea and Jason, though the cool colouring of solo woodwind and brass, later upper strings, offsets any overt expression. The music gains in animation, though the brief climax subsides without inciting a greater emotional response. 'The Young Princess' opens capriciously in solo woodwind and piano. Forceful brass and strings denote the arrival of Jason, the music trying in vain to regain its initial charm. 'Choros II' is a ruminative solo for Medea, her 'meditation', a lilting violin figure punctuating the music's rhapsodic course. 

"'Medea' is the focal point of the suite and, indeed, the whole ballet. The mood is sombre and agitated, tension building gradually and ominously as her 'dance of vengeance' takes shape. A sudden pick up in tempo finds solo wind in an acerbic exchange over a syncopated piano ostinato. The music generates increasing rhythmic aggression, before launching into a tragic climax. 'Kantikos Agonias' follows, an enigmatic and uneasy interlude, before 'Exodos' erupts in violent fashion, aptly evoking Medea's crime, the murder of her children. Gaunt brass and yearning strings provoke a brief climax, enshrining the 'jealousy' underlying her actions, before the music winds down to an equivocal close: human actions are no less real for being the stuff of legend. 

"Few twentieth century pieces have caught the public imagination more than the 'Adagio for Strings'. Barber's original score dates from 1936, when it formed the central movement of his 'String Quartet in B minor, Op. 11'. In 1937, Toscanini heard Barber's 'Symphony No. 1' at the Salzburg Festival and asked the composer to supply a piece for his first season with the newly-formed NBC Symphony Orchestra. Barber offered the 'First Essay' and the 'Adagio', which were both broadcast on NBC radio on 5th November, 1938. The inward nature of the latter probably helped reinforce its public significance, with performances at the funerals of such luminaries as President Roosevelt and Albert Einstein. 

"The hushed but expressive theme, its modal flavour imparting an evocative timelessness, unfolds in a series of dynamic terraces; intensity increasing as the rapt mood is effortlessly sustained. Cellos take up the theme, and the music reaches an impassioned climax. A heartfelt pause, and the melody resumes its elegiac course, resolving as if with a benediction. The extent to which the 'Adagio' overshadowed his other works understandably caused Barber frustration in later years. Yet it is difficult to gainsay Aaron Copland's description: 'The sense of continuity, the steadiness of the flow, the satisfaction of the arch that it creates from beginning to end [...] makes you believe in the sincerity which he obviously put into it.'" (Richard Whitehouse. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Marin Alsop, Wendy Warner

1. Cello Concerto, Op. 22: I. Allegro Moderato
2. Cello Concerto, Op. 22: II. Andante Sostenuto
3. Cello Concerto, Op. 22: III. Molto Allegro E Appassionato
4. Medea Ballet Suite, Op. 23: I. Parodos
5. Medea Ballet Suite, Op. 23: II. Choros. Medea And Jason
6. Medea Ballet Suite, Op. 23: III. The Young Princess. Jason
7. Medea Ballet Suite, Op. 23: IV. Choros
8. Medea Ballet Suite, Op. 23: V. Medea
9. Medea Ballet Suite, Op. 23: VI. Kantikos Agonias
10. Medea Ballet Suite, Op. 23: VII. Exodos
11. Adagio, Op. 11

flac/16-bit

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji - The Complete Songs for Soprano

"Sorabji's mother (Madeleine Mathilde Sorabji, 1874?-1959) seems to have been a soprano of Spanish-Sicilian descent who apparently abandoned a singing career for family reasons. Sorabji's unpublished essay 'Concert Going Memories,' devoted mainly to singers and their art, mentions her having sung the role of Marguerite in a French production of Berlioz's 'Le Damnation de Faust' although he was too young at the time to recall specific details. Sorabji testifies to his mother's encouragement of his attending lieder recitals where he heard some of the great singers of that time, including 'the incomparable Louise Kirkby Lunn,' of whose performance he wrote of the 'utterly unique beauty of (her) voice [...] like purple velvet [...] the incomparable technique and sheer singing mastery, the transcendent distinction and beauty of her performance (which) is as vivid in my memory as it was then' (at least half a century later). Sorabji said that his mother also played piano and organ and gave him his first piano lessons when he was aged about six. There can be little doubt that she also instilled in her only child a love of fine singing which remained with him for the rest of his long life; it is reflected in many of his published reviews and essays. 

"Sorabji was no child prodigy in the conventional sense; whilst he seems to have recognised early on that his future lay in some kind of career in music, its precise directions remained unclear until his early twenties. As a boy, he absorbed large amounts of baroque, classical and romantic repertoire but his enquiring mind also led him to team much about the newest trends in music. Assimilating substantial quantities of contemporary European music was no mean feat in the inward-looking unadventurous environment of Edwardian England, a pre-gramophone age where such work was performed very rarely or not at all. Considered a multi-racial outsider (his father was a Parsi from Bombay), Sorabji must have cut an odd figure in those days, investigating with irrepressible excitement the most recent creations of composers such as Debussy, Rachmaninov, Mahler, Ravel, Bartók, Strauss, Medtner and Schönberg. He conveyed with unremitting enthusiasm the results of his discoveries and endeavoured to persuade various powers-that-were of the urgent need for such music to be heard by English audiences. There was even a story that, when barely 14, the intrepid Sorabji made a solo pilgrimage to Essen to hear the world premiere of Mahler's Sixth Symphony conducted by the composer; when I questioned him on this in the 1970s, he broke into a broad grin, obviously enjoyed the tantalising effect of his deliberate refusal to confirm or deny this rumour and gave away nothing beyond the remark 'Good story, isn't it!'. 

"A gifted pianist but pathologically reluctant performer, Sorabji was unsure what to do with this knowledge; for a time he contemplated a career as a critic and indeed managed to pursue one parallel to his life as a composer until his mid-fifties, contributing articles and reviews to 'The New Age' and 'The New English Weekly' and publishing two books of essays. Around 1915, while planning a book on Ravel, he seemed to stumble accidentally on the idea of composing his own music, a fact all the more remarkable when one considers the sheer prolixity of his output over the following seven decades. As a composer, then, Sorabji was a very late starter; although his first music was composed when he was about the same age as was Beethoven when he published his Op. 1 piano trios, whereas Beethoven had already completed many works before his first publication, it seems that Sorabji wrote nothing at all before the age of 22.

"Given his love of the voice, it might seem curious that he wrote few songs and no stage works, preferring instead to direct the majority of his energies to keyboard writing. Performance of his entire song œuvre would, for example, occupy barely one quarter of that required to present just one of his large piano works, the famous 'Opus Clavicembalisticum'. Sorabji devoted his first two years of composition entirely to songs for voice and piano and to piano concertos. With two exceptions, all his songs are for voice and piano and most feature soprano. 

"Sorabji the song composer seemed particularly drawn to the poetry of the French symbolists and their English contemporaries such as Ernest Dowson. His first ten songs were composed during World War I when his harmonic language had yet to develop into the Busoni- and Szymanowski-influenced yet highly individual one of his maturity. His principal examples at this stage seem to have been Cyril Scott, Scriabin, Ravel, Ornstein and even Roslavets. Although it is uncertain whether his youthful contemporary music researches drew the last of these into his circle of acquaintance, his contemporary writings evidence his awareness of Ornstein's more experimental music, he certainly attended Scriabin's London appearances in 1913 and was later to meet Roussel (and possibly also Ravel) in Paris. (Ornstein was, incidentally, a close contemporary of Sorabji and died only in February 2002).

"A consequence of Sorabji's desire for personal privacy and consequent reclusivity was a reluctance to speak or write about his own music; this accounts for the dearth of recorded interview material. Even in the early days, he devoted little energy to securing performances of his music; only three of the songs written during his 20s reached performance by 1921; others not until the late 1970s and 1990s; only those specified below have received public performance at all. Every song on the present CD is a recorded première.

"Of all Sorabji's articles on singing, singers and vocal repertoire, it is arguably 'The Great French Song Writers' ('Mi Contra Fa', 1947) which points most closely to many of the persuasions in his own song-writing and provides the greatest key to his thinking and ideals as a song composer.  

 

"[...] The 1941 songs almost conclude Sorabji's career as songwriter, although he continued to compose for at least another 40 years. On the strength of his finest contributions to the singer's repertoire, it seems a pity that, for so much of Sorabji's creative life, songwriting appears almost to have assumed the role of what the poet Robert Frost called 'the path not taken'." (Alistair Hinton. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Elizabeth Farnum, Margaret Kampmeier

1. Trois Poèmes: Correspondances

2. Trois Poèmes: Crépuscule Du Soir Mystique

3. Trois Poèmes: Pantomime

4. Chrysilla

5. Roses Du Soir

6. The Poplars

7. L'Heure Exquise

8. Vocalise

9. I Was Not Sorrowful

10. L'Étang

11. Hymne À Aphrodite

12. Apparition

13. (Trois Chants): Le Faune

14. (Trois Chants): Les Chats

15. (Trois Chants): La Dernière Fête Galante

16. Trois Fêtes Galantes: L'Allée

17. Trois Fêtes Galantes: À La Promenade

18. Trois Fêtes Galantes: Dans La Grotte

19. L'Irrémédiable

20. Arabesque

mp3/320kbps

George Enescu - Octet, Op. 7; Quintet, Op. 29

"[...] The modernist era charged Enescu with stylistic ambiguity, a perception that persists to this day. After his Romanian Poem op. 1, which he wrote in 1897 at the age of 15, and both 'Romanian rhapsodies, op. 11' (1901 and 1902), Enescu was known as a virtuoso violinist and an author of bright, charming compositions with a tinge of Bessarabia. As early as 1900, while, at the age of 19, he was working on the 'Octet, op. 7', Enescu faced the aloofness of the public. It wasn't until nearly four decades later that he was acclaimed as a composer, when experts first recognized as a revelation the mythic opera 'Oedipus, op. 23' (1936). Between the rhapsodies and 'Oedipus', Enescu created three symphonies, a poem, suites, compositions for orchestra and solo instruments, and passionate, irresistibly pictorial chamber music, under which are laid an instrumental mosaic and a flutter of imagination. The conception of each of these pieces seems unmatched. 

"'Something trembles in my heart, without interruption, either day or night,' confessed the composer. The instrumental 'technique of trembling' was noted in fact by attentive critics of 'Oedipus.' It is very much present in the orchestral version of the 'Octet, op. 7' and in the 'Quintet, op. 29' heard on this disc, as well as in that opera. The Octet finale is woven with thumping vitality. Its monotonous motion is both staggeringly malleable and truly magical, which Enescu acutely and astutely felt as early as the dawn of the 20th century. 

"Already in the first bars of the early Octet, one may discern the special 'inside-out,' mirror-like concept of Enescu's method of composing. In this system the main theme acts as a condenser, the point 'not of departure, but of conclusion.' In the later Quintet, a distant relative of both late Scriabin and mature Ravel (and at moments Prokofiev), this concept of musical movement reveals a new facet: a spontaneous and associative methodology that simultaneously deciphers and obscures the original theme. But in the finale, one discovers a striking, extremely expressive highly emotional condensing of what at first seemed just elegant play. Later Enescu would become more sophisticated, philosophical and dramatic. The modal pace of his heterophony became more inventive and similar to the steps of a ropewalker. In the ever more extensive instrumental palette, the boundaries between light and dark became less evident, as did the distinctions of form. Characteristic shades of Romanian folkloric instrumentation tread more softly and cautiously. Now only an attentive listener will notice them, in areas such as the piano part in the Quintet's 'Andante sostenuto e cantabile.' Nevertheless, his music still breathes bits of emotional substance, from hidden passion to introverted sorrow, and a sincere and wonderful solemnity. 

"Enescu shares much with those whose fate led them outside of the artistic mainstream. On the surface, his fate is similar to that of French writer Joris Karl Huysmans or Russian painter Natalia Goncharova: he knew both fame and oblivion; he signed no manifestos and belonged to no particular school; he was plagued by false interpretations and the status of both forerunner and imitator simultaneously; his novelty was subtle yet obstinate; his tenderness, flexibility, luminosity and individuality are all singular, intimately rooted in culture. For the Kremerata Baltica and Gidon Kremer — whose artistic strategy is marked by both a unique understanding of well-known repertoire and also a particular, sensitive and delicate tuning to unconventional material — joined here on the Quintet by Lithuanian-born Andrius Zlabys, one of the most gifted Baltic pianists of today, George Enescu's music is a precious discovery: splendid, mysteriously multi-dimensional and utterly thrilling." (Julia Bederova, tr. Elisabeth Konovalova. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Kremerata Baltica, Gidon Kremer, Andrius Zlabys

1. Octet, Op. 7: I. Très Modéré

2. Octet, Op. 7: II. Très Fougueux

3. Octet, Op. 7: III. Lentement

4. Octet, Op. 7: IV. Moins Vite, Animé, Mouvement De Valse Bien Rythmée

5. Quintet, Op. 29: I. Con Moto Molto Moderato –

6. Quintet, Op. 29: I. Andante Sostenuto E Cantabile

7. Quintet, Op. 29: II. Vivace, Ma Non Troppo –

8. Quintet, Op. 29: II. A Tempo, Un Poco Più Animato

mp3/320kbps

Franz Krommer - Three Partitas; Six Marches

"Franz Vincenz Krommer was born (as František Vincenč Kramář) at Kamenice u Trebíče in Moravia on 27 November 1759 (not quite four years after Mozart); he was the son of an innkeeper, Jiří Kramář, who later became Mayor of Kamenice. Between 1773 and 1776 he studied the violin and the organ with his uncle, Antonín Matthias Kramář, in Turán (near Brno), and became organist there in about 1777. In 1785 he went to Vienna, and a year later joined the orchestra of the Duke of Styrum at Simontornya in western Hungary, as a violinist. At about this time he was also musical director and composer for Count Károly’s regimental bands. In 1790 he was appointed Kapellmeister of the cathedral at Pécs, also in western Hungary, and two or three years later entered the musical establishment of Prince Anton Grassalkovich de Gyarak. Krommer returned to Vienna in 1795 and became Kapellmeister to Duke Ignaz Fuchs in 1798. In 1808 he applied, unsuccessfully, for a position as a violinist in the Hofkapelle, but in 1810 he was appointed Ballettkapellmeister at the Hoftheater. In 1815 he was given the post of Kammertürhüter (Chamberlain) to Emperor Franz I, and in this capacity accompanied him to Paris, Milan, Verona, Padua and Venice. Three years later he succeeded his compatriot Leopold Kozeluch as the last official director of chamber music and court composer to the Habsburg emperors, and retained the position until his death in Vienna on 8 January 1831.

"Krommer was one of the most successful and influential of the many Czech composers active in Vienna at the turn of the nineteenth century. The extent of his reputation is indicated by the rapid spread of his published compositions in reprints and arrangements by German, French, Italian, Danish and even American publishers, and by his honorary membership of musical institutions in Vienna, Innsbruck, Paris, Milan, Venice and Ljubljana. His three-hundred-odd works include at least nine symphonies, a score of concertos for various instruments, over seventy string quartets and a similar number of pieces for other chamber music combinations. He also left an impressive body of Harmoniemusik – music for wind band. The bulk of these are Partiten for pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons, often with (as in this recording) ad libitum parts for a contrabassoon to strengthen the bass-line, and for a trumpet to impart a dash of martial colour to the music (and to bring the ten-part ensemble up to the standard complement of Austrian military bands – a shrewd piece of salesmanship). The most important of these Partiten are thirteen works issued as Krommer’s Opp. 45, 57, 67, 69, 71, 73, 76, 77, 78, 79 and 83, first published between 1803 and 1810, and in many cases subsequently reissued, often by different publishers. They were preceded by a number of similar works ascribed (not always with absolute certainty) to Krommer, some of which may date from his days with Count Károly’s bands. The title is misleading. A partita is a suite of dance movements (like Bach’s) or a set of variations; Krommer’s Partiten (or Harmonien, as he and his publishers also called them) are symphonies for wind instruments, in four movements, only one of which (the second or the third) is in dance-form: a minuet." (Robin Golding. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Wind Ensemble, Bastiaan Blomhert

1. March, Op. 31 No. 1
2. Partita In B-Flat Major, Op. 45 No. 1: I. Allegro Vivace
3. Partita In B-Flat Major, Op. 45 No. 1: II. Andante
4. Partita In B-Flat Major, Op. 45 No. 1: III. Menuetto: Allegro - Trio
5. Partita In B-Flat Major, Op. 45 No. 1: IV. Rondo
6. March, Op. 31 No. 6
7. March, Op. 31 No. 5
8. Partita In E-Flat Major, Op. 45 No. 2: I. Allegro
9. Partita In E-Flat Major, Op. 45 No. 2: II. Romance: Allegretto
10. Partita In E-Flat Major, Op. 45 No. 2: III. Menuetto - Trio
11. Partita In E-Flat Major, Op. 45 No. 2: IV. Rondo
12. March, Op. 31 No. 3
13. March, Op. 31 No. 4
14. Partita In B-Flat Major, Op. 45 No. 3: I. Allegro
15. Partita In B-Flat Major, Op. 45 No. 3: II. Adagio
16. Partita In B-Flat Major, Op. 45 No. 3: III. Menuetto - Trio
17. Partita In B-Flat Major, Op. 45 No. 3: IV. Rondo
18. March, Op. 31 No. 2

flac/16-bit

Girolamo Frescobaldi - Keyboard Music: Fantasie Book I; Ricercari; Canzoni Francesi

"As is apparent from their dates, the Fantasie and Ricercari come at the beginning of Frescobaldi's creative career. The Fantasie were published in Milan after his return from a stay in Flanders in the entourage of Cardinal Bentivoglio. From the dedication, dated Ferrara, 8th November 1608, to Francesco Borghese, Duke of Regnano and General of the Holy Church, they seem to be the prime fatiche (first efforts) that Frescobaldi had accomplished in Rome for the entertainment of the dedicatee. In fact the Ricercari too are described as primo e picciolo patio dell'ingegno mio (the first little part of my creative talent) in the dedication to Cardinal Aldobrandini, who, although he was responsible for the destruction of Ferrara and its refined civilisation, had also been the recipient of the dedication of the Madrigali a 1, 2 e 3 soprani, the masterpiece of Frescobaldi's teacher, Luzzaschi.

"In the Fantasie the apparent choice of,instrument and the aim of relieving Borghese, whose ears had often deigned to honour the composer (orecchi si sono degnati di far pill voile [onore alla mono di Frescobaldi]) of his heavy cares, would seem to indicate a non-liturgical chamber work, better suited to the harpsichord than the organ. The cultivated taste of the second part of the sixteenth century and the first part of the seventeenth was inclined towards music for entertainment based on counterpoint rather than the lighter form of dance music. Pietro della Valle, in a letter to Lelio Guidiccioni (1640) clearly states that the first style of Frescobaldi, probably referring to the Fantasie, the Ricercari and the Toccatas of Book 1 of 1615, were much more pleasing to Guidiccioni himself than the more modem galanterie alla moderna that did not please him so much (a VS. non place tanto), developed by the composer in the appendix to the first Libro di Toccate of 1637, because, through experience he had learned that to give pleasure to everyone, this manner is more fashionable, although less scientific. [...]
 
" The use of the harpsichord could be inferred also from the regular absence of ties, always missing in themes with long note values. In any case the harpsichord is to be preferred when performing Frescobaldi, in spite of his title of Vatican organist [...]. In the records of the time the continual presence of Cardinals, principally Well Monte and Montalto, at secular gatherings, sheds some light on the apparent contrast between the position of Vatican organist and the chamber music of Frescobaldi, who indicates specifically where the organ is to be used. The liturgical part of the second Libro di Toccate reveals a probable request for this on the part of the hierarchy that would lead to the single volume clearly intended for the organ, the Piari Musicali of 1635, in the Preface of which Frescobaldi, in apparent opposition to his other publications (Stampe d'intavolatura, ed in Partitura), declared explicitly that the principal aim was to give pleasure to organists (principal fine è di giovare alli Organisti). This naturally does not prevent the use of the organ but it is important to confirm that, contrary to common belief, the organ was not the principal instrument intended by Frescobaldi, including for the Fantasias." (Sergio Vartolo, tr. Keith Anderson. From the liner notes.)

Performer: Sergio Vartolo

1.1. Fantasie Book I: I. Prima Sopra Un Soggietto
1.2. Fantasie Book I: II. Seconda Sopra Un Soggietto Solo
1.3. Fantasie Book I: III. Terza Sopra Un Soggietto Solo
1.4. Fantasie Book I: IV. Quarta Sopra Doi Soggietti
1.5. Fantasie Book I: V. Quinta Sopra Doi Soggietti
1.6. Fantasie Book I: VI. Sesta Sopra Doi Soggietti
1.7. Fantasie Book I: VII. Settima Sopra Trè Soggietti
1.8. Fantasie Book I: VIII. Ottava Sopra Trè Soggietti
1.9. Fantasie Book I: IX. Nona Sopra Trè Soggietti
1.10. Fantasie Book I: X. Decima Sopra Quattro Soggietti
1.11. Fantasie Book I: XI. Undecima Sopra Quattro Soggietti
1.12. Fantasie Book I: XII. Duodecima Sopra Quattro Soggietti

2.1. Ricercari: I. Ricercar Primo
2.2. Ricercari: II. Ricercar Secondo
2.3. Ricercari: III. Ricercar Terzo
2.4. Ricercari: IV. Ricercar Quarto Obligo Mi, Re, Fa, Mi
2.5. Ricercari: V. Ricercar Quinto
2.6. Ricercari: VI. Ricercar Sesto, Obligo Fa, Fa, Sol, La, Fa
2.7. Ricercari: VII. Ricercar Settimo Obligo Sol, Mi Fa, La, Sol
2.8. Ricercari: VIII. Ricercar Ottavo Obligo Di Non Uscir Mai Di Grado
2.9. Ricercari: IX. Ricercar Nono Obligo Di Quattro Soggetti
2.10. Ricercari: X. Ricercar Decimo Obligo, La, Fa, Sol, La, Re
2.11. Canzoni Francesi: I. Canzone I
2.12. Canzoni Francesi: II. Canzone II
2.13. Canzoni Francesi: III. Canzone III
2.14. Canzoni Francesi: IV. Canzone IV
2.15. Canzoni Francesi: V. Canzone V

flac/16-bit

Johann Baptist Vanhal - Missa Pastoralis; Missa Solemnis

"One of the most curious aspects of Vanhal's large musical output is the surprising number of sacred works given that at no stage in his long career was he employed first and foremost as a church musician. Among these works are around fifty settings of the Ordinary of the Mass, a substantial body of work by contemporary standards. Haydn, for example, who like Vanhal cannot be considered a 'professional' church musician, composed a dozen Masses, half of them late in life and for very specific occasions. Leopold Hofmann, Vienna's leading church musician for much of his life, wrote over forty Masses although the exact number remains uncertain. We know that Vanhal enjoyed close associations with a number of monastic foundations and it is possible that they commissioned works from him from time to time. Nonetheless. it cannot be discounted entirely that he wrote many of these works front inner conviction. There was certainly little financial gain to be had in composing church music in comparison with other genres and Vanhal, the most important and successful freelance composer in Vienna. would have been only too well aware of this.

"[...] In stylistic terms there is a strong kinship between [the Missa Solemnis] and the Missa Pastoralis that goes far deeper than instrumentation. Both works display a similar complexity of internal musical organization, one which takes precedence over the structure of the text, notably in the long Gloria and Credo movements. Vanhal takes care to set the text intelligibly but, like all composers. he devotes special care to sections like the Qui tollis, Et incarnates and Agnes Dei. The two Masses also include some thrilling contrapuntal writing for the chorus. the high point being the brilliant concluding Dona nobis fugue of the C major Mass.

"Long after his death and when his multitude of symphonies, quartets and concertos lay forgotten, Vanhal's Masses and motets continued to be performed in cathedrals and churches throughout Austria, Bohemia and the South of Germany. Their survival into the age of Brahms and Wagner was not due solely to the forces of conservatism at work in the church but rather a testament to the enduring artistic worth of the music." (Dr. Allan Badley. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Tower Voices New Zealand, Aradia Ensemble, Uwe Grodd

1. Missa Pastoralis In G Major, Weinmann XIX:G4: Kyrie
2. Missa Pastoralis In G Major, Weinmann XIX:G4: Gloria
3. Missa Pastoralis In G Major, Weinmann XIX:G4: Credo
4. Missa Pastoralis In G Major, Weinmann XIX:G4: Sanctus
5. Missa Pastoralis In G Major, Weinmann XIX:G4: Benedictus
6. Missa Pastoralis In G Major, Weinmann XIX:G4: Agnus Dei
7. Missa Solemnis In C Major, Weinmann XIX:C7: Kyrie
8. Missa Solemnis In C Major, Weinmann XIX:C7: Gloria
9. Missa Solemnis In C Major, Weinmann XIX:C7: Credo
10. Missa Solemnis In C Major, Weinmann XIX:C7: Sanctus
11. Missa Solemnis In C Major, Weinmann XIX:C7: Benedictus
12. Missa Solemnis In C Major, Weinmann XIX:C7: Agnus Dei

flac/16-bit