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.

iTunes vs. Amazon

With a day off to go shopping from my chair (i.e., online), I began looking to see if I had missed any “Bach” from what I could find in digital downloads.

My two principal places to shop would be the iTunes Music Store and Amazon Digital Downloads.

I started at Amazon. I always look at what they recommend to me, thinking, “that must be all the classical they have.” They love trying to force Keith Jarrett albums down my throat because I once told them I owned a few.

This time around, I simply typed “Bach” in the search window, and it registered some 14K results. I’ve gotten through some 55 pages so far, looking at a lot of albums. Curious to know what some sound like, etc., I of course heard a lot of J.S.B. but also his sons. There’s a lot of Bach out there.

So, I found a recording by the London Baroque. It caught my fancy, and it costs $8.99 through Amazon. It’s offered in their non-DRM, 256kbit resolution (mp3). Just to check, did Apple carry this album?

They sure did. Somehow, despite Apple’s store within iTunes, I found the Amazon searching experience easier. I’d never encountered this CD through Apple’s interface (despite it being years old). Interestingly enough, Apple’s cost is $1 more. Non-DRM (iTunes Plus), and same resolution (albeit in Apple’s preferred AAC format).

I compared other albums, such as those from John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach cantata series. Amazon: $14.99, Apple: $19.98. Same file resolution.

Here I am, an Apple fan (I carry the stickers on my car, the tattoos on my… (just kidding)). Isn’t Amazon the clear choice? For a classical fan, it seems like Amazon just might be the clear winner. For your extra money, you could have Apple’s AAC-encoded tracks, but, thus far it’s only Apple that is suggesting they are in fact a better quality format.

A true test, no doubt, would be to download one of these from each store, compare the results, and see what we have. Of course, it would be my ear against yours, and I am not sure you’d trust my ear. After all, I’m just a guy with a blog. If I had the resources, it would be fun to have a whole room full of folks and test them on the MP3 vs. AAC business. Or not, you could just save yourself some dough buying from Amazon, in lieu of buying plastic and aluminum CDs.

Consequently, I think if I found a recording that was super-special to me, I’d still buy it on CD (it’s roughly 8-10 times more data on CD); I am looking forward to two CDs coming via mail to me right now as I type this.

Now, a few comments on what I don’t like.

1. I found a CD of Bach’s French Suites by Christophe Rousset that seemed to be labeled wrong through Amazon. Skip that.
2. Many times, the Amazon reviews on their digital downloads don’t match the actual recording!! I might be reviewing the London Baroque trio sonats, but the reviews are for E. Power Biggs on the organ. Yowsah.
3. The Amazon album artwork is not always crisp and clear, the Apple artwork from Apple is.
4. Apple sometimes offers a PDF for the CD as liner notes. Amazon, haven’t seen it.
5. The previews for Amazon’s tracks are heavily encoded. You don’t hear the track at the same resolution at which it’s sold. That can be misleading. “Crappy sound, not going to buy,” when in fact, the MP3 you download sounds fine.

No doubt, Apple and Amazon are the biggest competitors right now in the buying model of online music (rather than the rental model). For what I see now, there isn’t any one true, clear winner; Amazon for now is beating Apple through more aggressive pricing and a larger classical catalog.