Sonates pour Violon et Basse Continue by Westhoff

I had always hoped Reinhard Goebel would have produced a CD of Westhoff violin sonatas. His colleauge Manfredo Kraemer did some years later release a single sonata (for solo violin) on a poorly recorded CD with Capriccio Stravagante. Another MAK colleague, the talented David Plantier, has now released some Westhoff on the ZigZag Territories label with Les plaisirs du Parnasse.

This is my first chance at hearing Mr. Plantier as a soloist; his dynamic range and tonal sound is really quite nice. Think one part Goebel, one part Onofri, one part Kraemer, perhaps… of course, that’s an unfair comparison. He’s his own player, but rarely do we find a player with such a penetrating tone, playfulness, and directed intensity.

Westhoff published these works, evidently, in 1694, quite remarkable for their quality and complexity. Both with the technique and the harmonic language, Westhoff was a modernist. The recording here is live-sounding, well done, great depth captured between an up-front violin, and deep, plucked bass from among the continuo group.

The six works included in the collection are played out of order and vary somewhat in quality. The opening #4 is rich and virtuosic. #3 is nervous, changing speeds and moods on a dime. Carry a pocket full of change. What we’re left with is a multitude of sound worlds, presented lovingly one after another. Westhoff seemingly likes strong themes, and milks them, but where others might go and follow the full depths of one’s first theme, Westhoff changes course and presents a new idea. Perhaps these are the traits of the world’s finest composers, but it makes Westoff easy listening.

The intense sonata #2 is full of multiple-stopping, Plantier is quite able to shift between the break-neck speeds chosen for the Allegros, and the more contemplative (if not private) slower movements. Let’s be honest, these sonatas contain lots of opportunities for speed and double stopping. They can’t be easy to play. Both Plantier and his colleagues on basso continuo own these works.

This recording is rich with invention. Rich with tonal color, rich with virtuosic challenges met, and rich with passion. It’s the type of CD you don’t listen to from start to finish. Mix a sonata or two with other Westhoff contemporaries. Like fine chocolates, you may feel too guilty eating them at once.

Very highly recommended. Read what Johan van Veen said about this release.

Veracini Sonatas

Several years ago, John Holloway and his colleagues released an ECM New Series recording of Francesco Maria Veracini’s violin sonatas. Not a complete collection, mind you, but some select examples from the late-baroque Italian master’s works.

I say “master” because Veracini was a famous violinist in his day. He’s most famous for limp. Supposedly, he once jumped out a window and thereafter, he suffered from his leg injury. He wrote in a modern style that borrowed from the Italian models of the day, but extended the technique for string player further. MAK and Goebel came out with Veracini earlier in the mid-1990s with a series of overtures. Holloway chose to visit Veracini after his time with Biber, and before exploring Leclair on disk.

Among his most famous collection is the Sonate Accademiche which has been recorded by Elizabeth Wallfisch for Hyperion. Holloway gives us one of these op. 2 sonatas, alongside others: one from his op. 1 collection, another which can also be played on flute, and another from his collection of “Dissertazioni.”

So, there’s Veracini this composer–one we have to decide if we like. I find him very warm at times, at others, he’s just following a conventional plan. That’s why interpretation is so important. It will make or kill some of his works.

It was perhaps unfortunate that Holloway, Mortensen, and ter Linden opened with the G minor work that also appears on an album by Fabio Biondi (Italian Violin Sonatas). It’s a rich work, for sure. Lots of opportunity for sass all around. Holloway sticks to his clean sound and wet acoustic, common from his earlier recordings. Yet, Biondi captures better the flair and fire hidden beneath the surface. His faster tempi, and wider dynamic nuances make a better companion to Veracini’s sonata. In the second movement, for instance, it ends with this repeated motif on one note… it’s angst, anger; at least, something passionate. Then the movement closes with the opening phrase. It’s a dramatic shift, for sure. Holloway builds up the intensity, but his tempo is just a hair too slow. And then the answer that closes us up is left to be played as vanilla as could be, seemingly ignoring the previous outrage of emotion.

Biondi is a far less serious-sounding violinist by comparison who makes a real show-stopper out of the work. Holloway, in movement 4, seems to have missed the entire dramatic potential of the work. He plays with great intonation, lots of baroque figurations, but… the passion we read about in Veracini’s life is missing in the performance.

Where I found Holloway’s style more appreciated in his reading of some of Biber’s works, this recording of works by Veracini falls short, in my estimation. You get variety; you get some very clean playing; you get some beautiful music, for sure. The reading of the D-major sonata based on a work by Corelli, for instance, is done quite well. But the different tracks begin to blur at times. My real complaint is that they miss some Italiante personality and range of emotion.

Rameau, Scarlatti, Couperin et Bach

The Assad Brothers perform baroque keyboard works.

After reading many positive comments, and after my really warm reception to their Piazzolla CD, I bought this on a whim this evening via Amazon’s Digital Downloads.

Many, to this baroque cat’s ears, are “old favorites,” and the texture of two guitars, roughly separated on each of the two stereo speakers, is quite divine. Crisp, well-articulated. Perhaps the charm is hearing each piece (especially the familiar ones) so lovingly played by these two talented guitarists. While I have recordings of some at faster tempi, here we get warmth instead of speed. Caution. Yet, on the harpsichord alone this might equate to something less interesting. Here, the two guitar’s tone makes up for somewhat slower tempi in places. Ultimately satisfying, no matter the speed.

The recording contains 22 tracks, from Rameu’s Pièces de clavecin collections, and Domenico Scarlatti’s 550+ sonatas. There are also contributions by Bach and Couperin.

Hearing this music for 2 guitars makes you wonder: “was it intended this way?” I mean, you know its not, but then again, I ask the question: “Is this not the best way to hear/listen/perform these works?” In a piece like Rameau’s energetic Les Cyclops, it might certainly seem that the 2 guitar version is superior in every way. Expert dynamics, articulation, and warmth. That’s what keeps getting me here, this music on the guitar sounds far more warm than it would on harpsichord. And it’s a quality that’s so often missing, you rather fall in love with it when you hear it.

Their Bach is so fast and fleeting, perfect, it seems in articulation, that you pine for more. Somehow it doesn’t sound like Bach’s sound world, but it is nevertheless beautiful (as the same, Bach on piano can be beautiful).

And I haven’t even listened to the whole thing. But it’s a good one; very warmly recommended.

La voce nel violino

Enrico Onofri and Imaginarium Record Violin Sonatas

I love the baroque repertoire, especially the early- and middle-era sonatas for solo instruments, such as my favorite, the violin. Onofri here records some pieces he’s done before (Castello, Fontana), but nonetheless, presents a diverse program: Cima, Uccelini, Monteverdi, Castello, Gesulado, Pandolfi, etc.). It only whets the appetite of what more might come from his own ensemble, Imaginarium (including friends Tampieri, Köll, and Doni).

I often tell of hearing Onofri live (I believe with Mr. Doni on organ) in Cleveland, OH, some years ago. It was the best musical performance I’d ever witnessed. It was perfect. Affective. Entrancing.

This same repertoire is now on this disc, at least much like what I heard live. Onofri doesn’t play, say, in the style of Andrew Manze. The violin has a far richer tone, and Onofri plays it at different stress levels (lightly, harshly, and everywhere in between) conjuring different sounds (tone) from the instrument. And unlike Manze and many of his colleagues (among them, Huggett who released some years ago a Fontana/Cima album), Onofri uses affective ornamentation that seems unique. But you also hear it in the early baroque vocal music; it seems quite appropriate.

Trills and turns on notes that aren’t quite true sharps, for instance. In modern parlance we’d call these microtones. Onofri sprinkles them around like a messy chef throws salt into his various stock pots preparing for a grande meal. His sound on this recording is superb; the ambiance captured along with the other continuo (harp, cello,, lute, harpsichord, and organ) is live yet not distant. It allows the sound of each participant to “glow.”

If you liked his earlier release on Winter & Winter, this one is a natural progression. Where there are fabulous moments in that recording, this one is an equal, if not one step ahead in aesthetic gold. My own study of this literature never went far enough for me to say if Onofri’s playing style is absolutely historically authentic, but it seems so by my ear. Even more so, it’s infinitely pleasing to this modern, 21st century ear.

I can only recommend this release on ZigZag with my warmest encouragement.

Washington

I took a few days to visit the nation’s capital and explore fine cuisine.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

We had a great time. Details of the food may be found at MessyCuisine.