Vivaldi - "Le Quattro Stagioni" (The Four Seasons) - Anne Sophie-Mutter (violin) - Trondheim Soloists - (DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON)

Is not every day that I find I classical recording that absolutely baffles me. This one is one of those.

Anne-Sophie Mutter is a revered violinist in the classical music world. Her technique and skills are amazing, she’s a virtuoso beyond question. I never figured her as much of a baroque expert, though. When I was looking for a new version, in modern instruments, of Antonio Vivaldi’s magnificent “Quattro Stagioni” (The Four Seasons), I certainly got very optimistic when I saw her in the cover, though I also felt somewhat cautious. Would she do a overly romantic reading of the score? Would she play it safe?

It turns out, she really did whatever she wanted with Vivaldi’s music. This is no mere romanticizing of a baroque work; this is 100% making it a virtuoso fest, suited totally to the emotions and the desires of the interpreter. Mutter, leading the Trondheim Soloist in this recording, makes the most out of the music for her own benefit, sometimes getting on the way of a more fluid discourse for the score. The slow parts are excruciatingly slow, the pianissimo parts are so low they can’t be heard, and on the other hand, the forte parts are loud as thunder, and the fast parts played at speeds that would probably make Vivaldi faint in amazement. Though it works from time to time, Mutter’s playing with the tempos and the accents got on my nerves in more than one occasion.

“Spring” is harmless enough. By the end of the last movement, we’re certain a storm is about to arrive, and not just one created by Vivaldi in the music. “Summer” is a complete different beast. It starts glacially slow and quiet, then it builds up tension, until it explodes in the fast section. All works well enough though the solo violin parts seem to have been taken from a Paganini concert instead of from a Vivaldi one; the last movement of the concert, though, just leaves me trying to catch my breath. The speed is unbelievable, the ensemble and the soloist trying to show us how fast this music can really go. The breaks in-between the bursts of speed are contrastingly slow, to a point where the work starts to feel more like a rhapsody made of different barely-related parts than like a baroque violin concert. “Autumn” gets a very solemn treatment in the last movement (the one where recordings usually fail to impress me), the hunting march moving forward with an impulse and determination rarely heard. “Winter”, as the darkest, at times fastest concert of the four, is probably the more chaotic here, and the rhapsodic feel returns, with stark contrasts that go from pianissimo to fortissimo in the blink of an eye, with fast sections played so violently that, without exaggeration, make the music sound almost like metal.

In the end, this is an unusual reading of the score, probably not one for baroque purists, but one that, once understood, can provide a lot of enjoyment. It certainly is one of the most romantic, expressive, and definitely, FASTEST “Four Seasons” around. I’d recommend it but with reserves. Try a more relaxed version first. Then aim for an authentic-instruments one. Then you will be ready for the display of pyrotechnics that this album contains.

As a side note, there’s also a recording of Giuseppe Tartini’s “Devil Trill” Sonata in the album. Though it totally pales in comparison with Vivaldi’s superb music, it’s a nice piece that showcases a more earthly, less thunderous side of Mutter’s playing.

3.5/5

Bach - Brandenburg Concertos - Christopher Hogwood - The Academy of Ancient Music (DECCA)

This is the first time I have heard one of my favorite works, Johann Sebastian Bach’s 6 Brandenburg Concertos, played in authentic instruments. I had always preferred recordings of baroque music with small-size ensembles, but played with modern techniques and in modern instruments (with the exception of the harpsichord, which, in the presence of a continuo part, must be included, or the music wouldn’t feel “baroque” to me.) The dry, cold sound of antique instruments can’t compete with the fuller, richer, warmer sound that contemporary ones can provide. But the current trend in classical music is to have baroque music played with the same forces and techniques that must have been the norm when they were composed and performed back in the late 17^th, early 18^th century. Thus, it was just a matter of time before I faced an authentic version of Bach’s orchestral masterpieces.

After having heard modern-instrument recordings of the Brandenburg Concertos for all my life, I can say I am less disappointed than I expected to be with my first taste of authentic-Brandenburgs. Though the dry sound and the lack of techniques like vibrato are all here, the music is played very energetically by The Academy of Ancient Music under the direction of Christopher Hogwood. His tempos, though faster than most (and faster than I would like) are consistently good and he never lets his musicians give anything but their best to make this set of concertos quite a satisfying but flawed experience. Though at times the dry and uneven sound of antique instruments gets in the way (like in the first movement of the first concerto where the horns practically devour all the rest of the instruments with a harsh, crude sound –could be the engineering, too-), the performance never sounds mechanic, it’s always full of vibrant life (it’s almost impossible to drain the life out of Bach’s music anyway).

Going into specifics, the rendering of the second concerto is one of the best I’ve heard, with all the right tempos, perfect phrasing, and a fantastic solo trumpet; the third, one of my favorites, is one of the weakest of the set, with an opening movement that fails to capture the spirit of Bach’s superb music, and a third one clear in its counterpoint but without the purely-musical drama that other versions have conveyed (I’m glad there were no bizarre experiments like in Marriner’s version; Hogwood left the cadence between the first and last movement intact); the fourth is efficiently played, the fifth is vibrant and another success, while the six, my least favorite concerto out of these 6 masterpieces, receives a by-the-number treatment that makes it the most forgettable one.

There’s but one real BIG complain here: in the spirit of being as authentic as possible, Hogwood used manuscript copies of the concertos for the orchestration and the music, and because of that, we’re deprived of the first concerto’s third movement and the Polonaise section in the last movement. There’s a few other changes in the instrument parts in all concertos, but the second most radical change appears in the fifth concerto, where Hogwood pretty much eliminated the long harpsichord solo at the end of the first movement. Though interesting ideas, these changes make this set suffer in comparison with other ones where the music itself has been left untouched. For this reason, I can’t recommend this version as the first one for someone trying to get familiar with the Brandenburg Concertos. This is an excellent addition to a collection with at least one other recording of these concertos already there.

Alongside the Brandenburgs we get three concertos that we usually find thrown around to fill space in recordings of Bach’s orchestral music: BWV 1060, here adapted for violin and oboe, BWV 1062 for two harpsichords, and BWV 1064, arranged by Hogwood himself for three violins. There are better versions of all three concertos, and their presence here, though welcomed, doesn’t make or break this album, which is worthy of recommendation, but with the reserves I’ve pointed out

3.5/5

Bach - St. John Passion - Benjamin Britten - English Chamber Orchestra (DECCA)

"Bach almost persuades me to be a Christian."

Roger Fry, quoted in Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry (1940)

I’m not a believer. While I can’t presume to know the truth either way, I’m more inclined to believe there is none out there. But I can’t be certain of that either. I doubt. That’s the best way to put it. But just as some events in life bring me closer to absolute denial, there are a few things that sometimes make me wonder: “what if it’s true?” Of those, probably Johann Sebastian Bach’s religious music is the more important, the one thing that always makes me doubt towards the other side, the believing side, for only an illuminated mind could write music of so high, so unreachable beauty. Bach’s devotion didn’t hinder him from expressing himself; on the contrary, it stimulated him, it helped him create works of gigantic scope and reach, music that sounds like nobody else's before or after him, sounds that transport us to places that are not of this Earth. I’m not a believer, but when I listen to some of Bach’s religious music, I believe. He makes me do so. And one of those works is this Passion.

The St. Matthew Passion has always overshadowed this other, less famous work. While parts and excerpts of the St. Matthew Passion have even been used in popular media, the St. John Passion remains largely unknown except for classical music aficionados. The magnitude of the work is a little smaller, the scale of the forces needed and the duration of the composition not as sumptuous as its big sister. But the same beatific melodies, the same consolatory passages, the same devotion is here. All it takes is a few minutes to realize we’re listening to another masterpiece in the same level as the St. Matthew Passion or Handel’s “Messiah”: the opening, quiet, continues to grow with a wave-like ostinato below the chorus that brings to mind images of thousands of souls singing for their Lord, moving and flowing like a river, like a sea before the arrival of a terrible storm. The music is beautiful yet there’s a hint of danger, of sadness, of gloom, we are let know that upcoming events will leave us like orphans. The music ascends to the heavens, yet it somehow predicts the suffering that is yet to come.

This is just the first movement. For me to describe all the recitatives and chorales and arias would be pointless (and difficult). People already familiar with the art of the composer will know the kind of music that is to be expected here. A little more intimate than the St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion is another one of those rare musical works that make me doubt my doubts. It really is divine music. Sad, nostalgic, but full of hope, as were, supposedly, the last days of the life of Jesus. At the end of the piece, after more than 130 minutes have elapsed, we leave terribly sorry for what has happened but very optimistic of the future. We leave resurrected.

A note about this recording (and the only reason I don’t give it a perfect score): while the playing, in modern instruments, is perfect and the conduction impeccable (with all the right tempos and understanding of the devotion in the music), I don’t like the fact that the vocals are sung in English, using a translation of the German original. We don’t all understand German, but that’s not necessary, that’s what the texts that come with the discs are for. Music such as this could be in any language, and we’d always understand what it means.

4.5/5

Bach - Great Organ Works - Helmut Walcha (DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON)

The organ, that all-powerful, gigantic, extremely-loud instrument that has always been linked to religious music, had in Johann Sebastian Bach its undisputed master of all times. Later centuries brought about a lot of good music for organ, but the work of the German composer has never really been equaled. Nowhere is this more evident than in this great double set of recordings by German musician Helmut Walcha, the blind organist who, because of his lack of sight, penetrated the depths of the instrument like few had before him, forming a relationship where all the facets of the music shined through in all their glory. Free of visual noise, Walcha’s senses could concentrate on sound; he had to use his ears to make up for the shortcomings of his eyes. On this record, his strong integration with the aural world can’t be more obvious, as he understands the strengths and weaknesses of the big pipe organ and makes the most out of every detail. Walcha is probably the best possible partner for Bach’s majestic music.

The set, divided on two discs, contains many of Bach’s best-known organ works. Three Toccata & Fugues, including a vibrant version of the famous one in D-minor and a more controlled version of the one known as “Dorisch” (“Dorica”). Especially in the former, Walcha’s playing is more relaxed, less virtuosic but more connected with the material than Karl Richter’s version (one of my favorites, too). The only moment where I prefer the Richter version now is by the end of the fugue, where Walcha’s recording lacks the menacing emphasis of the Richter one.

Other works included here are two Fantasia & fugues, two Prelude & fugues, the glorious (and famous) Passacaglia & Fugue in C-minor (which receives the best treatment I’ve found yet), a Trio Sonata in D-minor, and two sets of more religious-oriented pieces: the Canonic Variations on “Von Himmel hoch, da komm ich her”, and the exquisite 6 Chorales “Schubler”, including the famous one based on the melody of the middle choral movement of the cantata “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”. All of these, while less exciting than the larger, more purely musical-oriented works like the toccatas , the passacaglia and the preludes, show the devotion of the man to the music and of the man to his god in a very eloquent way. One can easily tell that, just as Bach’s devotion for his God was absolute, so was the faith the interpreter had for both the same divinity and the music of the baroque master.

The recording itself, made in two organs in two different occasions, is good; especially considering it was made more than 40 years ago. I recommend this disc as a perfect introduction to the organ music of the composer who best understood the instrument, played by one of the musicians who better understood that relation.

4/5

Bach - Six Favourite Cantatas - Joshua Rifkin - The Bach Ensemble - DECCA

Johann Sebastian Bach’s religious music is, arguably, the best in its kind ever to grace the Earth. There’s no need to give any more evidence but to name a few of his more majestic works: The St. Matthew Passion, the St. John Passion, the Magnificat, and his glorious Mass in B Minor, all stand as the pinnacles in music written inspired by a higher power. If we add Bach’s cantatas to his gigantic catalogue, there can be no doubt as to the certainty of the original claim.

On this double-disc by DECCA we have a collection of six of Bach’s most loved cantatas. All of them require rather small orchestral and vocal ensembles, but they demand a lot from them. From the beautiful chorales to the fugues to the tranquil recitatives and the expressive arias, there’s just too much good music on this set. Bach plays with the instruments and soloists and the meaning of the texts with a use of symbolism that requires more knowledge than average to be detected, but just a good pair of ears to be appreciated. Everyone can enjoy the peaceful music of these Cantatas, from the layman to the expert, and also from the deeply religious to the sharply atheist. This music doesn’t demand you to believe in god, it just asks you to believe in the art of a man whose faith inspired him to create some of the best music in history.

In the collection, probably the most known of the six cantatas are “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben”, with its very famous choral (twice repeated) commonly known as “Jesu,Joy of Man’s Desiring (the melody of which is not Bach’s original but an arrangement of “Werde Munter” by German violinist and composer Johan Schopp) and tremendous fugal introduction, and “Wachet Auf, Ruft Uns die Stimme”, with its famous, beautiful choral “Zion Hort die Wachter Singen”, adapted as one of the Six Organ Chorales later in Bach’s life. But one of my favorites is certainly also “Liebster Gott, wann wird ich sterben”, with one of the most poetic openings in all of the works. “Ein feste Burg”, “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen” and “Jesu, der du meine Seele” are also plethoric of musical delight and artistry.

The recording here by The Bach Ensemble lead by Joshua Rifkin is made on authentic period instruments and with a total respect for the original scores. As such, for example, in “Ein Feste Burg”, the trumpets and timpani commonly heard in the first and fifth sections of the work have been eliminated, as they were added by Bach’s son, Wilhelm Friedemann, after the master’s death. The playing is quick and agile, very relaxed, with little of the pomp given to Bach cantatas by larger, modern-instrument orchestras, but a sense of intimacy and connection with the thematic material higher than in competing versions. In general, this is a fantastic double set and one I strongly recommend.

4/5

Bach - Complete Harpsichord Concertos - Trevor Pinnock - The English Concert - ARCHIV

Let’s get this out of the way first: this collection really has one of the worst covers I’ve seen in a classical album by a major label. I’m not sure what the pink background and the three berries have in relation with Bach’s Harpsichord concertos (maybe one berry for each disc?) but to say they could have done so much better is a major understatement.

This is a re-release of a collection I used to own in vinyl. I hadn’t realized that until I searched in the internet and realized this was the same ensemble and soloist that played in a 4-vinyl set I used to have when I was around 12 years old. The music immediately reminded me of my loved, lost version. One quick search revealed me that this was indeed the same version I had with a proper harpsichord in the cover performed (as shown below - compare that with the berry cover) by Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert (at 12 years of age I really didn’t pay as much attention to the performers as today).

On to the music and the recording. This collection of all of Johann Sebastian Bach’s harpsichord concertos is outstanding in its price and in its completeness. Here we have all the pieces that the Eisenach master composed and/or transcribed for the keyboard instrument. We have all concertos for solo harpsichord, as well as 2 for 2 harpsichords, one for 3, and one for 4. All the pieces but one (BWV 1060) are transcriptions made by Bach of concertos for other instruments, and as such some of them are not as brilliant as the others. I absolutely love BWV 1052, in my view one of the best compositions by the Kantor, with a first movement that mesmerizes the listener with the musical plight the main theme endures in order to return at the end, and a third movement filled with an energy that has rarely been rivaled since. Other highlight is the concerto in F-minor BWV 1056, with its haunting opening theme, much more subdued in its character than the virulent BWV 1052. The only concerto thought to be initially written for harpsichord, BWV 1060 for 2 harpsichords, breathes with a grace and elegance presaging the classical masters of the late 18th century, its finale rivaling the violin concertos and the BWV 1052 in sheer musical drama. BWV 1057 is a transcription of the 4th Brandenburg Concerto and doesn’t suffer in the transition. On the other hand, I’m not too fond of the transcriptions of the violin concertos, especially the one in E-major (here in D major to accommodate the harpsichord’s range), which loses its vivacity and turns into a good if irrelevant piece. The re-working of the glorious concerto for 2 violins also pales in comparison to the original, even though, if one didn’t know the latter, one would be still marveled at the music of the former. BWV 1065 for 4 harpsichords is a transcription of a concerto by Vivaldi and its different origin is evident, especially in the outer movements.

This recording was made using authentic, period instruments. While I’ve been less than thrilled to listen to baroque music in baroque instruments in the past, this is slowly starting to change. I still prefer the emotion and passion that modern instruments and techniques can bring to the music, but with art so high as Bach’s, the music in the end shines through and actually reveals new facets when performed in antique instruments. As far as the versions go, I’m happy with the tempos and the character given to the pieces, and Pinnock is a fantastic soloist who brings these concertos to life in a exploding fashion, with none of the coldness of other performers I’ve heard who play mechanically as if the music wasn’t meant to be an interaction between three parts: composer-performer-listener. Pinnock and his soloists get this right.

I can’t do anything else but recommend this collection to everybody. Great versions of magnificent works at an unbeatable price. Go beyond the awful berry-cover, and you’ll find a treasure where every little penny you spend will be rewarded 10 times over. Or more.

4.5/5

Bach - Das Wohltemperierte Klavier 1 and 2 - Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichord) - DEUSTCHE HARMONIA MUNDI

It’s an undertaking of sorts to listen to the entire two books of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier by Johann Sebastian Bach. They are a monumental work and an essential contribution to the musical vocabulary and the development of music of all times and all genres, including non-classical ones. But they are, after all, 48 preludes and fugues, all played in the same instrument, and in the case of the harpsichord, one with no dynamics capabilities, so trying to listen to all of them in one seating can be quite exhausting. Of course, I didn’t attempt that. I listened to 12 preludes and fugues each day, and I re-listened them at will. The experience was thus much less demanding and much more pleasing.

The music needs no comment. Only Bach could’ve written so academic a work and made it sound so fresh, so inventive, so alive. Only he could have managed to write one prelude and one fugue in each one of the 24 scales of equal temperament and made each one sound so different, so distinct when compared to the other ones. The amount of imagination displayed here is just astonishing. Even with the lack of dynamics of the harpsichord, the music carries an inner beauty and, at times, drama (especially in the minor-key works) that listening to all of the parts does not become an excruciating ordeal, but a revealing adventure. One doesn’t have to endure these works, one has to learn from them.

As for the performance, I have only a few other references to compare this with. I’ve heard some of the preludes and fugues as played by Glenn Gould on the piano, and, also, on the harpsichord. Of course the piano version possesses the dynamics that the ancient instrument can’t provide. But at the same time, the harpsichord one seems more authentic, more truly baroque, more “Bach”. Those two verswions, anyway, were played in a much more frenetic, romantic style than this one by Gustav Leonhardt, who performs a cold, scientific, rigorous reading of the Klavier books. This is very good in the faster pieces (mostly, the preludes), where we don’t endure the tendency to go too fast of other baroque interpreters. But this hurts the experience a little in the fugues, especially in some of the slower ones, which sound too mechanic, even lifeless at times.

For this reason, while I strongly recommend this four-disc set to anyone wanting to discover this great music played on (likely) its intended instrument, I advise caution and patience. Trying to cover all of them in one seating will be almost impossible to accomplish, not so much because of the music itself, which is vibrant and varied, but because of the exact, cold approach of the performer.

3.5/5

Mozart, Saint-Saens et al. - Chamber music works - FIU Chamber Players - Miami, March 2010

The most recent concert I've attended took place in FIU’s Wertheim Performing Arts Center on Thursday March 04. The FIU Chamber Players performed works by Mozart, Saint-Saens, and Brahms, plus a composition/improvisation by the players. On paper, this chamber music concert looked much more to my liking than the first one I reviewed a few weeks ago.

Opening the concert we had the Piano Trio in B-flat, K. 502 by Wolfgang A. Mozart. The performers were Jose Lopez on the piano, Robert Davidovici with the violin and Ross Harbaugh in the cello. I had already watched Davidovici play in the previous concert in FIU and I was quite pleased to see him return, now to play a piece by one of my favorite composers. Needless to say, the music in the trio was of the highest quality, with that melodic gift that no composer or musician has ever been able to repeat after Mozart. The first playful movement was graciously played by the performers, in what resembled a duel between the two strings, on one side, and the piano on the other. While the piano went crazy with scales and arpeggios, the violin proposed the ideas and the big cello complemented them. In the second movement, once again the Salzburg master proved that he was unrivaled in writing music that is so beautiful, and at the same time, easy to listen to. The violin played with delicacy, with the other two instruments allowing it room to breathe and to shine. The final movement, a return to the playful spirit of the first one, was pure bliss, a perfect rondo of the kind only Mozart could give us. I was very satisfied with the playing by the three instrumentalists.

The second work of the night was Camille Saint-Saens’ “Fantaisie for violin and harp”. Davidovici came back for the violin part and Deborah Fleisher took charge of the harp. It was my first time seeing this big instrument so close to me, and I was amazed at its size (it really looks smaller when in the context of a big symphony orchestra) and its physical beauty. As for its sound, I already knew the wonders it could do thanks to Mozart and his glorious Concerto for Flute and Harp, but it was a revelation to hear it paired only with a violin. Saint-Saens was another composer with a talent for beauty and melody like no other, and the piece was a perfect showcase for the violin’s lyricism and the harp dream-like delicacies. The work had a few Spanish elements here and there, though in general it sounded more romantic and passionate. The Fantaisie is structured in a few separate sections, each with different subjects, but the spirit is the same throughout the entire score. I was extremely pleased with the music and the performance.

The next part of the concert was my least favorite. Deemed as a “Catch as Catch Can Composition/Improvisation”, what we heard next was clearly jazz, not classical/academic music. Gary Campbell played the saxophone, Jamie Ousley the bass, and Mike Orta the piano, in a work that felt less improvisatory than I expected, with the exception of the soloing by each one of the instrumentalists. What was good about the piece, for me, was the chance to see a big bass, a perennial pawn in the symphonic orchestra, taking center stage, and its user certainly knew how to make the most out of the occasion, with a tremendous solo that sounded as difficult as it looked uncomfortable to play. The musicians were good, their connection very firm, but the piece left me rather cold. There’s just a few jazz pieces I truly love, and this Composition/improvisation will not be entering that group anytime soon. Anyway, it was an interesting experience and a welcomed change of pace.

After the intermission, the same trio of the beginning plus Laura Wilcox in the viola returned to the stage, this time to play Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quartet in A, Op. 26. It was quite a coincidence that both my first two concerts with this group of players have ended with Brahms’ chamber music. Unlike the previous time, however, the Brahms was not the highlight of the event. The playing sure was fiery and impeccable. Amazingly, it was the work itself the one that didn’t get to me. I love Brahms symphonic music and in general all his works for big orchestra, and I like his string quartets, but this time I was left underwhelmed. The first movement seemed to drag forever without the clear purpose of other sonata movements by the Hamburg master, even when the first theme was particularly beautiful. The slow movement was not one of the most memorable. The music became more interesting to me with the arrival of the more ferocious third movement and the dramatic fourth movement. Thus, the concert ended on a high note, but not as high as I could have expected.

In general, the event was a good experience and the performances more than satisfactory. I think the jazz composition was at the same time a blessing and a curse: on one hand, it was a welcomed return to earth from the highs we were flying at after so much beautiful music by Mozart and Saint-Saens; on the other hand, it distracted me (and, as I noticed, the audience) and left us less ready to fully concentrate on the more complicated structures and thematic material of Brahms’ work. Putting a jazz piece in the middle of three classical/romantic compositions was an interesting experiment but one that, in my view, needs not be repeated.

Bach - Solo and Double Violin Concertos - Andrew Manze - The Academy of Ancient Music - (HARMONIA MUNDI)

Bach’s violin concertos are some of my favorite works by my favorite composer. There’s so much simplicity and, at the same time, musical wizardry in these three pieces that, even after having listened to them for so many years, there are still new things I discover with each new opportunity I have to enjoy them. Among the great violin concertos, Bach’s will not be qualified as the most demanding for the interpreter, but they certainly are some of the most rewarding for the listener.

This is the first time I approach these works through a period-instrument recording. As I have said before, in the past I used to like these kinds of versions much more than I do now, probably because modern instruments and techniques help make the music more emotional, passionate, and deep. I’m glad to say that this is one of the best of this “true baroque”-movement recordings I have yet heard.

First off, doing some research on the web I found out something I really hadn’t noticed the first time I listened to the disc: the music is being played at a very-slightly lower pitch than the current norm for these works, around one semitone lower. In true “period instrument” spirit, Manze and the Academy of Ancient Music play these concertos in the key that they would likely have been performed in the 18^th century. When I listened to the album for a second time, I was aware of the change, but it’s not immediately noticeable. Maybe it makes some of the passages sound a little like Vivaldi, but not to a high degree.

All the three concertos receive excellent treatment here. The recording, crystal clear and with enough depth to create the sensation of a live performance, helps put the soloist instruments at the very front of the sonic universe of this disc. I’ve read comments that criticize how up-front the violin sounds in comparison with the rest of the ensemble, but I think it’s not a big problem. The violins are the soloist instruments, after all. And they don’t take away from the sound as a whole. Every contrapuntal line, every continuo chord and figure can still be enjoyed to its fullest.

The tempos, usually a problem I find with period-recordings (they tend to be faster), are quite right here. My favorite of the three concertos, the double concerto in D-minor, has the same vitality and energy than in modern instrument recordings, the superb counterpoint of the majestic last movement played at the right pace. The same can be said about the A-minor one with its glorious slow movement and its exuberant final gigue. The lack of vibrato and other techniques takes its toll in the opening of the E-major concert, though, with the three opening notes sounding too brief, too rushed, with little power. But this and other minor qualms I have for this version of Bach’s masterpieces (mostly due to the dry sound of the soloist instrument) are irrelevant in the big picture. This is an excellent album, one that I would recommend to anyone looking for antique versions of these three glorious concertos.

The disc also contains an adaptation of Bach’s BWV 1060 concerto, which is thought to be for 2 harpsichords, and has also been played with a violin and an oboe. I’m not such a big fan of new approaches to music that is already perfect, but the idea pays off, and greatly, on this recording.

4/5

Telemann, Marcello et al. - Trumpet Concertos - Sergei Nakariakov (trumpet) - The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra - Hugh Wolff (TELDEC)

A long time I bought this recording exclusively for the Telemann piece (the F-minor one). At the time, I didn’t even check what else was on the disc; I just had to get a CD-version of the concerto written by the ultra-prolific German composer. As I found out later, the rest of the music is of hit-or-miss quality.

First on we have a concerto by Antonio Vivaldi. Originally written for violin and oboe, this piece in B-flat is a light little concerto that doesn’t completely grab my attention. Maybe it’s the fact that, because of the transcription, the trumpet sounds slightly out of place with the music that surrounds it, I’m not sure. As with all Vivaldi, though, one can’t expect anything else but a joyful time.

The second concerto is a D-major one by Georg Phillip Telemann. Unlike the one that steals the show at the end, this one lacks the dramatic punch or the melodic gift necessary to make it unforgettable. Anyway, this is a good rendition by the (then) very young Russian virtuoso Sergei Nakariakov and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Hugh Wolff.

The work of Johann Baptist Georg Neruda was unknown to me until I listened to the Concerto in E-flat, which is the longest one in the disc. The style of this piece is more classical and less baroque than the rest of the music on this album. To be honest, I'm not going to rush and get more recordings of Neruda’s works anytime soon. Though graceful and light, the concerto pales in comparison with the rest, with little character and invention, and short in melodic delicacies.

Things change for the better with Alessandro Marcello’s dark, winter-ready concerto in C-minor. The powerful statement that opens it sets the stage for the rest of the piece, where the trumpet sounds much more involved than in the previous one. The second movement is particularly beautiful, though I’m almost positive that it would sound even more beautiful in its original instrument, the oboe. Nakariakov plays with grace, though I think he could have avoided embellishing the theme when it is so perfect just by itself.

As is my norm, I pretty much ignored Bach’s Agnus Dei from his B-minor Mass here as it’s an adaptation and also an excerpt, unnecessarily cut from one of music’s all-time most glorious moments.

The best has been left for last. Telemann’s concerto in F-minor is also originally an oboe piece, but it has been played so often in this trumpet form that it has become a staple of the instrument’s repertoire. My favorite work by the composer, it’s presented brilliantly here by the Russian trumpeter who seems to understand it perfectly. The ambiguous, imposing first phrase of the concerto has all the necessary energy, though it could be played a hair slower for my taste. Unlike the Neruda piece, here the slow movement gets a great treatment by Nakariakov, who caresses the notes with his instrument. The third movement is an absolute gem of an interpretation, with the right speed and character.

As I said before, the album is not perfect but it’s highly recommended (if still possible to get), if only for the Telemann F-minor concerto and the Marcello work.

3.5/5