Goebel BWV 1079 Videos

I found some of Musica Antiqua, Köln on You Tube. Here they are in a short Bach canon from BWV 1079, the Musical Offering. Damn, they could play.

Mac Daddy

I miss writing about Apple stuff since devoting this blog only to music. So, excuse this, but this is good.

The anti-trust case in Iowa against Microsoft shows just what kind of company Microsoft is.

They seem to admit that Apple has all the goods before they do, and Apple seems more correct in saying “Microsoft: Start your photocopiers now.” Microsoft shows very little innovation in the personal computer OS. They simply lust over what Apple already has, and it even makes them drool.

How much time?

How much time do you devote to listening? And I do mean, serious, unadulterated listening? In academia, we called this “active listening.” Do we have enough time in life to enjoy recordings?

I’m making great progress on my CD scanning project–re-ripping CDs, and scanning their covers for inclusion in iTunes, but how many really get a good, serious spin?

Tonight I decided to focus on Concerto Italiano recordings, after reading a piece/interview with Alessandrini, the director. He started his Concerto Italiano, evidently, with Fabio Biondi. I much prefer Biondi’s readings, but CI can be elegant and a little less intense.

I had a good discussion at work recently about listening to music, and multitasking. A colleague reported always doing school work as a child with music or television. We today both manage multitasking well, but I still think the quality of my work improves without distractions. Listening to good music, like this track of CI performing a Bach cantata sinfonia (from the A Portrait CD), only grabs my full attention, and writing/concentration is all lost.

Corelli: Sonata for Strings, Volume 4

Purcell Quartet, Corelli Trio Sonatas, opp. 3, 4 on Chandos Chaccone

This CD has been with me for some time, having purchased it likely in Rochester, NY during my college days, and becoming an early introduction to Corelli’s beautiful trio sonatas for string ensemble. This music, with its tidy Neopolitan harmonies and encyclopedic style, forged lessons for future composers who were more daring and extrovert.

The Purcell for me have an odd violin tone, not to my ideal preference, yet this is perhaps one of the better CDs they have produced on Chandos. The tempi seem so right for most all the movements, no matter fast or slow. There’s moment to foot-tap, some for smiling, and all capture that sweetness of style inherent in Corelli’s music.

The recording quality is not ideal, and the violinists Mackintosh, Weiss, and Wallfisch could play with a little more passion in the slower areas. Their faster passagework is immaculate. Movements like Op. 3, no. 12, III play-out as an example: combinations of fast racing, then a conclusion so sweet you’d swear it was all toffee and caramel.

Corelli’s music typifies the best mid-Italian string music of the baroque era. He created the forms others followed and tweaked. The Purcell recorded all of his trio sonatas that were published, and this one CD is but one example of their Corelli project. I am not aware of a better edition out currently, but there is of course room for improvement in the execution of style, and the quality of the recorded sound.

Yet, despite its age, it’s a beloved disc.

Biber: Sonate tam Aris Quam Aulis Servientes

The Rare Fruits Council performs Biber: sonatas equally at home in the chamber as the chapel tam aris quam aulis servientes on Astrée, directed by Manfred Kraemer, violin.

Among Biber’s collections, this is a colorful group combining string ensemble with trumpets. Passionate motives are intermingled with faster, athletic passages that play off strong harmonies. In this recording the 12 sonatas benefit from a rich continuo ensemble, and dark color.

This recording has been lauded by the official press upon its release some years ago. To be praised is the just intonation of the trumpets, and the variation in tempo and dynamic of the excellent Rare Fruits Council. This is some fun music, and it’s played extremely well. Good tempo choices all around, and again, some excellent trumpet playing, admirable both for the creamy metallic tone, but also for the blending with strings, and spot-on intonation.

These sonatas are not as “listenable” as some by Schmelzer, often paired for similiar texture. Adding trumpets in a home setting is not typical. In a church cathedral, it would be festive. The addition of trumpets helps put the performance of these works–at least what it may have been like in the late 17th century–in context.

What sets this particular recording apart is the intensity of playing. I might compare it to a meal overdone with fat. Compare a lean steak with one full of beautiful marbling. A light sauce with intense flavor versus one mounted with butter, richer, creamier, and somehow just a smidgeon more sinful.

These works are primarily string ensemble sonatas, built upon Austrian models, that in turn looked towards older Italian models. Various themes are presented in quasi-movements, indicated by shifts in texture of tempo. Some are in fact foot-tapping, and the RFC do their part at keeping the pace going. The title suggests that they are universal in scope, being appropriate for use in church and in chamber. I’m guessing the ones including trumpet parts would be more apt for use in the church.

The Gabrieli Consort recorded two of these sonatas with trumpet for their recording of the so-called “Salisburgensis” mass. The sound of trumpet lends these sonatas an almost regal air. One can imagine the sound of rich harmony these sonatas possess when played in a resonant space, with trumpets calling out melodies that carry to listeners far away. Each has shifts of mood, and the Rare Fruits does an excellent job at giving each its time and an appropriate treatment.

Compared to other recordings, this one compares well with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra Consort, and betters the Purcell Quartet.

Biber done right.

Sonate pro tabula

Celebratory music by Biber and his contemporaries: Sonata pro tabula, Musica Antiqua Köln.

MAK is joined on this disc by the Flanders Recorder Quartet… but is that the focus? Seemingly not, trumpet music is what we get the most of, Biber’s “a due” or his introductions “for two” trumpets. I don’t care for their placement on the CD, nor for their musical quality. They belong, I think, in recreation-CDs such as Paul McCreesh’s that use them in context.

With that said, MAK plays with extraordinary precision and passion. This is perhaps no better exemplified than in the Johann Pezel sonata, track 16 for strings. Full force, with tempo and energy in playing. The best word for this style is intensity, one that was likewise present in their live concert in Los Angeles in November, 2006 sans Goebel.

The main Biber work, his Sonata Pro Tabula in C is less convincing than other works on the recording. The Italians, represented by Bertali and Valentini offer some variation in the playing style, my favorite being the Valentini Sonata Pro Tabula on track 2. Like the Schmelzer, these composers manage to combine the color of the lowly recorder with ensemble strings. Most of the music on the CD, including these tracks, is simple fare.

Goebel’s ensemble plays with such importance and penache in each track. They certainly elevate otherwise bland music. An excellent recording, but not of the most excellent music.

Bach: Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248

Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir perform Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium BWV 248 on Erato, (p) 1996.

I remember picking this recording up at discount in a record store in Cleveland, OH, near a favorite Chinese restaurant a friend and I frequented, in an area known as “Coventry.” I was purchasing this after enjoying many a release in Koopman’s prodigious cantata cycle.

To wit, I wasn’t sure what Bach’s Christmas work was all about. Expert Christoph Wolff tells us:

Bach’s CO is a remarkable exception among the composer’s major vocal works, inasmuch as it was conceived to be performed in two different churches on six different feastdays over a two-week period.

The year, 1734, the place, Leipzig. Over two hours, 20 minutes of music. Makes you feel good it wasn’t supposed to all be enjoyed at once. In fact, Bach was re-using a lot of material he had already written in secular cantatas for this sacred purpose. The work, 64 complete movements, is organized as six separate cantatas. The musical material is typical “Bach Cantata,” alternating choruses, instrumental lines, recitative, and solo arias. Especially fetching is track 6 from the second CD, Ich Will Nur Dir zu Ehren Leben. Two wonderful solo violin lines, a foot-tapping tempo, and great singing from tenor Chrisoph Prégardien.

Different in quality, but nontheless beautiful, is track 29 from the first CD, a duet for soprano and bass, with rich contribution from ABO’s double-reeds. Both CDs are filled with quality music from Bach, but why doesn’t this work bill high, as does his Matthew Passion, with critics?

I find enjoying Bach’s (or any composers’) large works more difficult, than say, a single instrumental concerto, or a single cantata movement. Multiply the fact that I, personally, don’t follow the words, and instead, try to enjoy many vocal works on the sheer value of their sound and color. It speaks well, then, that Bach was able to take already high-quality music, and re-use it here, despite the change in context. Yet, was his form to blame for the lack of interest in this work?

For me, perhaps, as a work, it presents so many ideas, themes, and motives. Except for familiar keys, it can be a large work to appreciate. But in pieces, Koopman’s recording is likely a good choice for celebrating Christmas by way of Bach.

Geminiani: Concerto Grossi, op. 3

Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante: Geminiani op. 3 Concerti Grossi, (p) 1997 Opus 111.

Geminiani isn’t as well known as Corelli and Vivaldi, two Italian contemporaries whose music might sound similar to some ears to Geminiani’s. While I think of Tartini as looking forward to the classical era, in Geminiani, we get music slightly older-sounding, rooted in the harmonies of father Corelli, but with some of the fire and dash found in Vivaldi or Locatelli. He was known in his time more as a violinist and theorist than composer.

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Steve Jobs Stylus iPhone Song

Listen to one Mac-fan’s rendition of a song with snippits from Steve Jobs’ Macworld keynote speech.

Scarlatti 2

Pierre Hantaï, Scarlatti Sonatas, “2″. (p) 2005 Mirare

I recently came across the 2nd of the 3 volumes Hantaï has released. It was harder to find than “1″ and “3.” What a sound! He always seems to find really good sounding harpsichords. An interesting essay is to be found inside, with some thoughts on Scarlatti. He tells us that some Scarlatti sonatas aren’t that good, and that some can bore him when listened to–if not played well. To him, “well” is with some passion. Hantaï brings his own brand of passion to 16 tracks by Domenico Scarlatti.

The real gem is track 9, the Sonata K 261. Many of these sonatas are new to me, and despite their freshness, they’re played with unlazy fingers and a both a tonal and interpretive brightness. The ultimate track could be played (K 84) any number of ways, but here Pierre Hantaï’s real gift is revealed: he has that “art of touch” — relishing in the sound of his instrument, and in the mechanics of Scarlatti’s writing. The opening Fuga, K 58, reminds me of a Bach fugue. Where did it come from? What’s its history? Is it true Scarlatti? Or had Domenico picked up on the keyboard fugue tradition? If so, he wrote a gem of an interesting piece. It’s not Bach-caliber, but close, and the sound is rich and sunny.

Hantaï is among my favorite harpsichordists today. His recordings on Mirare have all been excellent, this release included. Not all of Scarlatti’s sonatas for me, are the best works. But Scarlatti is like a mood–and certain moods need certain music. I love the sound of Hantaï’s instrument, and his selection of what to play are likely favorites. They are each interesting and different. Gems like track 9 and track 2, K 239, are likely to stop your thoughts and simply beg your full attention.

Rameau: Nouvelles Suites

“Nouvelle Suites” recorded by Calefax Reed Quintet, (p)2006 MDG.

I was recently impressed searching through the “R”s at Virgin Megastore on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, to find a new recording by the excellent Calefax, and indeed, one with a recording of baroque music.

Here, they offer us 23 tracks of Rameau’s keyboard works for woodwind quintet: oboe, clarinet, saxophones, bass clarinet, and bassoon. The arrangements are well done, and reveal a richness to Rameau’s writing I hadn’t heard before.

What delicious sounds emerge. Take, for instance, the twelfth track, Le Rappel des Oiseaux. How much more bird like could you get? What fruity juice they squeeze from their instruments, each ripe and so well recorded. And when that bass clarinet comes in, the floor is dropped, and admiration surely follows.

Track eighteen, La Poule is no less enjoyable. Here, as elsewhere, the ensemble plays with a comfortable flexibility with tempo that both makes sense and sounds right.

My favorite track is the famous Gavotte with doubles, track eight. Again, the arrangement is well done, the playing, even more so. At times this recording has a Frenchified aire, at other times, I am not sure where the music came from. There is much to admire here on a fine disc.

Bravo, standing ovations, and warmly recommended.

We’re Waiting, Uncle Steve

From the Joy of Tech.