Handel • Colonna
This album features two works that are disparate in style, but the liner notes make the case for them appearing side-by-side, suggesting that Handel must have come across Colonna’s music when he traveled to Rome. But who was Giovanni Paolo Colonna?
Colonna
The excellent liner notes provide us the background of this composer from Bologna, someone, it is suggested, who could have had a far more lucrative career had he chosen to write operas and perhaps even travel outside his hometown. But he remained loyal to the church in Bologna, where he built his career in writing sacred music. Despite this, his music traveled, and was regarded with distinction even outside Italian-speaking lands.
The “concerted” mass by Colonna is presented second in the recording. The comparison we might make might not be Handel’s Dixit Dominus but more like Bach’s B-minor mass? Concerted means it includes instruments, they not only provide a foundation, but they play alone, and have their own moment in the light between parts of movements. The parts copied for the performance of this work indicate large forces used, perhaps larger than what’s employed for this recording. In some ways that may be a good thing, for recording in a concert hall, while providing good acoustics for a recording, makes for far more clarity for us listening in our homes. The color brought to light with the addition of brass and a variety of continuo instruments give this production and performance a “lux” sound, which must have been enjoyed by Colonna’s audience in the day.
The recording of his mass puts the soloists up front, all who are excellent singers. The choir adds weight to the orchestral forces, breaking the feeling of a chamber work, providing a nice contrast in sonics between very intimate settings, such as the 19th track, the ninth movement, Domine Deus, Rex coelestis. The purity of the sopranos, Elizaveta Sveshnikova and Mariana Flores, is angelic in nature. The next movement, slowly opens like a blooming flower, starting with solo voices, then going to the full choral forces, doubled by the instruments.
Even more delicious is the eleventh movement, Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, with the solo voices set in counterpoint before instrumental quotations of the sung content. The style reminds me a bit of Palestrina, but moved into a far more modern era, with more fully developed harmonies and gilded with the sonorities of instruments.
The fifteenth and final movement is among the longer in the mass, at just over five minutes, Quoniam tu solus sanctus. It opens with a fugue between voices and instruments. When the liner notes suggest that Bach must have been familiar with Colonna’s music, we could certainly see what Bach may have admired in a movement such as this. More simple in overall structure, for sure, but what’s also admirable is how he takes the content in the first section and stretches it for as long as he does; at about 3 minutes in, the character changes, with a jumpier subject, forcing first the instruments, then the compliment of choral forces to follow.
It’s in these final moments that we hear the echo, if you will, of Handel’s Dixit Dominus. Maybe not in the extremes of fire and sublimity that Handel approaches, but it’s difficult to not admire the sonic resemblance.
For me, discovering Colonna through this mass was rewarding. As the liner notes go into where we can hear more, you’ll be sure that I seek out more of his music, with the hopes that even more gets recorded.
It’s probably also a very pragmatic decision on the part of Ricercar and Leonardo García-Alarcón to couple a piece by a widely unknown composer with a fairly popular work by Handel. It’s also the kind of approach that works to fill-in concert seats, drawing people in with the familiar, but treating them with the unfamiliar.
Handel
The opening of this work—which I love—reveals the difficulties that challenge those recording this music. The setup here has the instruments up-front, with plenty of clarity, where the chorus is positioned behind, with a loss of the transparency. The instrumental forces are all strong players, including the lead violin, Alfia Bakiev. There are some dynamics in their playing, which have been exploited hard in earlier recordings by some ensembles; here they are not being led to over-do things, which may affect opinions one way or the other; having been recorded so closely, I would have liked for a bit more variation in dynamics, but things also work for the music in the way Handel layers the parts, to provide a kind of natural dynamic effect.
By recording in a concert hall over a church, there are some positive benefits for those listening at home—diction from the choir is far more clear. The chamber choir of Namur, I think, are a strong force. Impressive singing.
The opening tempo is quick, without feeling rushed; but I always feel for the soloists who have to soon match that tempo. Unfortunately, the solo soprano part gets buried in the balance, to the point of losing her. The tenor entrance, later, is far more successful, not only because of the singer’s projection, but his position within the group seems to also play to his favor. Would have preferred less vibrato from the alto (countertenor).
The intimacy of the organ and cello opening the second movement is a treat here, the color projected would have been lost in the confines of a cathedral. The balance, however, is off for the entrance of Paul Antoine Bénos-Dijan, who doesn’t have the same projection power as Elizaveta Sveshnikova in the next movement. The fast wobble (vibrato) in her voice suggests an operatic approach. The Namur choir doesn’t all vibrate like this.
The sixth movement, Dominus a desteris tuis showcases in it’s strong opening why these two sopranos are a good pair, together, their voices mixing well. The sound from the bass, André Morsch is welcome, intense, intelligible, strong. The full choir that follows carries his intensity. It would have been interesting for Colonna to have heard this movement, starting with a delicious melodic lick, a walking bass that can’t quit, and then all of that serving as the foundation for the vocals on top? I think he would have been impressed. At least I am.
In the ninth movement, Handel writes for the two sopranos as the soloists; here we can best hear the differences between each singer. Both vibrate, but in different ways; I’m guessing it’s Flores who is more comfortable not vibrating, but I also have to acknowledge that Sveshnikova’s control of her voice in the higher register is astonishingly beautiful.
The final movement, perhaps the most famous after the work’s opening, follows the Colonna model by highlighting the composer’s abilities at counterpoint. At two minutes in when the tempo changes, I felt like García Alarcón was going for broke, attempting something dangerous. It might have well fallen apart in a cavernous church, but here? All succeed at the cost of the clarity of some of the diction.
Final Thoughts
Musically, this production is strong. Capella Mediterranea usually is a group that I admire across their many recordings. The Colonna mass is probably a little stronger, for me, which might be unfair to say, considering that the Handel is far more familiar, with many recordings in the catalog. The pairing of the pieces isn’t a bad one, and as noted, it gives us a great historical vantage of the evolution of musical style in the baroque.
Both the orchestra and the Namur chamber choir are technically strong and make great music together. As noted, recording in a more intimate environment provides some benefits, especially so for those studying this music. The chamber organ used, over a larger church organ, isn’t ideal, nor is the lack of impact with reverb in many points across the album. That said, it allowed for the adoption of some faster tempos that I think the music, in cases both from Colonna and from Handel, make good interpretive sense.
Valerio Contaldo, tenor, and André Morsch, bass, stand out to me in their excellence; my own dislike of vibrato aside, all the soloists were enjoyable. This may not have been a top recording in absolute clarity across the ensemble, with some balance issues popping up, there’s also something to be said about giving us a natural presentation, as we might hear the performance from the audience’s perspective. This works, most of the time.
Overall, much to enjoy, especially so if this is your introduction to Colonna.
