Critic’s Notebook: Debbie Does Vienna - A Belated Handel-Premiere* in Vienna

Also reviewed for Die Presse: „Deborah“ im Konzerthaus: Händels Chöre reißen mit

G.F.Handel, Deborah Y.Kenny, S.Gritton, J.Bowman etc. The King's Consort / R.King Hyperion

Handel’s Deborah gets its long-overdue Vienna premiere at the Konzerthaus

There are still first times — even for a composer as well-known and well-loved as Georg Friedrich Handel. His oratorio Deborah finally had its modern* Vienna premiere on Sunday night at the Konzerthaus — just shy of 300 years after its debut in London. (*A little further research showed that t had actually been performed at the Musikverein in 1916!)

A rarely performed and seldom recorded work, Deborah has had a knotty reception history from the start: Handel’s second English-language oratorio was a flop at its premiere, and the libretto — not without some justification — was mocked as sub-par. Later, the piece was dismissed as a pasticcio, given that Handel, unusually even for him, recycled a remarkable number of earlier pieces: only about 32 percent of the score is newly composed. As a result, Deborah has always sat awkwardly between Esther (his oratorio breakthrough) and his early oratorio blockbuster Saul.

And yet it has its undeniable charms: a grand-scale cast and loads of glorious choruses. These delights were put to vivid use in the Grosser Saal by the Amsterdam Baroque Choir & Orchestra under their director, Ton Koopman.

In the title role, soprano Sophie Junker impressed with a bright, velvety, powerful — if surprisingly vibrato-heavy — voice, which came into especially moving focus in the aria “In Jehovah’s awful sight.” Opposite her, Jakub Józef Orliński, a rising star among countertenors, sang the role of Barak. He started off solidly and only got better from there: his focused, clear, and piercing tone — mesmerizing especially at full volume (and it gets very loud) — had undeniable charm. Think Andreas Schager, but for the Baroque and with better intonation.

That said, not everything sparkled. Koopman’s own organ playing was occasionally smudgy, the violins had their patchy moments, and the chorister doubling as the high priest of Baal was, frankly, out of his depth. Still, another chorister, Kieran White, made a convincingly vivid herald, and Amelia Berridge was delightful as Jaël, especially when merrily recounting how she nailed Sisera’s head to the ground with a wooden tent stake.

Granted, the ABO doesn’t currently play at the level of the Ensemble Pygmalion — but when the 26-head strong choir let rip with “O Baal, monarch of the skies!” you could see feet tapping along in the audience rows. Rightly so. Especially given that they performed a whole lot better than any such local ensemble could reasonably have been expected to do, the singular boo that rained down was rather inexplicable.


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Critic’s Notebook: More English than Toast with Marmite and Cheddar, Fair Oriana

Also reviewed for DiePresse: Resonanzen-Festival: Very charming, indeed

A delightfully frothy mix of British, all-too British baroque from Fair Oriana at Vienna’s Resonanzen Festival.

“Resonanzen“, the annual early music festival of Vienna‘s Konzerthaus, continues and on Sunday had arrived on Venus. It’s an astoundingly British planet, it turns out, courtesy the vocal duo Fair Oriana, who offered a program of better- and lesser-known English composers and those who made their living on that sceptered isle, this other Eden, demi-paradise. The program was accordingly tailored to fit the love goddess theme and was backed by a minimalist combo of cembalo, viola da gamba, theorbo (and baroque guitar), oboe (and traverse flute), as well as the amiable narrator Timothy Vaughan.

With their golden hair, golden dress with vertical folds, and classical gesturing, the two singers – Fair Oriana-founder Penelope Appleyard and Lucinda Cox (the replacement for the other co-founder, Angela Hicks) – looked as though two of the caryatid columns had flown over from the Musikverein across the road. The way these two sopranos – with similarly bright, piercing timbre; Appleyard’s a little starker, brittle; Cox a little warmer and more diffuse – presented Purcell, Pepusch, Handel & Co., was most charming, indeed -- in its gentle, genteel way downright innocent.

Penelope Appleyard had also provided the texts – faux-Shakespearean, dotted with anachronistic modern references – that Timothy Vaughan read, in English, to the amusement of the involved audience. With a carefully measured dosage of harmless ribaldry, he kept the audience chuckling along. And when the band returned after the break wearing, wait for it, sunglasses all; a baseball cap here, a leather jacket there: my, what merriment this caused. There was a heavy whiff of pre-Raphaelite music-theatricality in this, combined with the guileless charm of a college theater production – and the whole thing was more English than toast with marmite and cheddar. Handel’s “As steals the morn” und Purcells “Now that the sun” closed this pallidly-attractive, entertaining evening.

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Photos © Manuel Chemineau

Briefly Noted: London, Circa 1740 (CD of the Month)

London, circa 1740: Handel's Musicians, La Rêveuse, F. Bolton, B. Perrot (released on August 18, 2023) Harmonia Mundi HMM902613 | 68'57"

Gambist Florence Bolton and theorbist Benjamin Perrot, who co-direct the early music ensemble La Rêveuse, continue to survey the lesser-known corners of 18th-century music in England. The concept for the first half of their latest release is to bring together music of Handel with other pieces by the virtuosos who performed under him during his English period.

Flutist Carl Friedrich Wiedemann and oboist (and flutist) Giuseppe Sammartini both became principal players in Handel's orchestra. Both were likely featured in humorous engravings by William Hogarth: Sammartini's notorious bad temper was lampooned in The Enraged Musician. Traverso player Oliver Riehl and soprano recorder player Sébastien Marq contribute remarkable solo playing in concertos by Wiedemann and Sammartini, respectively.

Violinist Pietro Castrucci, whom Handel met when they both worked for the Ruspoli family in Rome, later came to London and became the concertmaster of Handel's opera orchestra. Florence Bolton takes the solo part in a gamba sonata by Castrucci, as well as contributing a wide-ranging booklet essay giving a vivid portrayal of musical taste in the period. Handel is represented by a fine trio sonata, featuring the gorgeous, intertwined violins of Stéphan Dudermel and Ajay Ranganathan. As lagniappe, there is the Hornpipe that Handel wrote for the budding concert series at Vauxhall Gardens, organized by the entrepreneur Jonathan Tyers at one of the summer retreats from London for the nobility. (The Prince of Wales, who used his artistic patronage in his ongoing campaign for popularity against his father, King George II, was a patron and even maintained a Prince's Pavilion there.).

The second half of this pleasing disc goes in a completely different, folk music-influenced direction. Cellist and composer James Oswald, although not directly connected to Handel, was a Scotsman active in London from the 1740s on, later even becoming chamber composer for King George III. Born in Crail, a town in Fife (the region where my own Scottish ancestors lived for a time), he made many arrangements of Scottish folk tunes, beginning with a popular Sonata of Scots Tunes in five movements. The recording also features a selection of melodies from his Caledonian Pocket Companion, an anthology of twelve volumes, rounding out this diverting late-summer delight.

Briefly Noted: Tiranno

Handel / A. Scarlatti / Monteverdi / Monari, Cantatas, K. Lindsey, Arcangelo, J. Cohen (released on May 28, 2021) Alpha 736 | 75'34"

The latest solo recital disc from mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey, released last year, is just now reaching my ears. She partners again with Jonathan Cohen and the early music ensemble Arcangelo, the same as her previous album, with Ariadne-themed pieces by Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti, and Haydn. This new recording is devoted to the Roman emperor Nero, again with secular cantatas by Handel and Scarlatti père, as well as one by Bartolomeo Monari (1662-1697) and excerpts from Monteverdi's opera L'Incoronazione di Poppea.

The program ingeniously traces an arch between the two Scarlatti cantatas, Il Nerone and La morte di Nerone, which serve as bookends. In between, we get glimpses of the women who loved Nero and were betrayed by him: his mother, Agrippina, whom he had assassinated; his wife, Octavia, foisted on him by the scheming Agrippina, whom he divorced, exiled, and then executed; and his mistress and second wife, Poppea, whose death he caused either by poisoning her or causing her to miscarry a child after he kicked her in the abdomen.

The Richmond-born mezzo-soprano remains in good form in this remarkable disc. The bottom range has become richer, although a few high notes sound squeezed and slightly off in the aria "Veder chi pena" in the first Scarlatti cantata, perhaps intended to show Nero's loss of mental stability as he relishes the suffering of his people while Rome burns. Her voice still displays amazing virtuosity overall; the melismatic technique is in a class of its own, with runs so clearly delineated, as in Handel's showpiece "Orrida, oscura" from the cantata Agrippina condotta a morire. Cohen's ensemble adds outstanding instrumental contributions all around.

In the Monteverdi selections, Lindsey matches well with tenor Andrew Staples's Lucan in "Or che Seneca è morto" and gives dramatic force to Ottavia's lament "Addio Roma!" The duet "Pur ti miro," with soprano Nardus Williams, is a less suitable pairing in some ways, but still lovely. Never has that love duet of emperor and mistress rang more hollow than when it is followed by Bartolomeo Monari's fine cantata La Poppea, on Nero's murder of his great love. The cycle of bad karma comes full circle with Scarlatti's La morte di Nerone - both of these last two cantatas are given world premiere recordings on this disc. Nero finds himself abandoned by all and, depending on the telling, commits suicide or forces someone to kill him, dying on the anniversary of Octavia's death.

Lindsey, who was born in Richmond, has been gracing these pages since 2005, when she was a young artist with Wolf Trap Opera Company. She has returned to the area the last few years mostly with Washington Concert Opera, most recently in Gluck's Orphée last month. She will come back to Wolf Trap this summer, in a recital combining Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben and Fauré's La Chanson d'Ève on July 8.

Briefly Noted: Sandrine Piau Enchants (CD of the Month)

Handel, Opera Arias and Concerti Grossi, S. Piau, Les Paladins, J. Correas (released on January 7, 2022) Alpha 765 | 72'08"

This new release from Alpha had me at Sandrine Piau, whose recordings and live performances we have followed for twenty years (last reviewed in Washington in 2016). Add to that the programming, which allows Piau to incarnate some of Handel's notorious seductresses, sirens, sorceresses, and wronged women: Alcina, Lucrezia, Cleopatra, Melissa, Almirena, Adelaide. One final point to recommend it even before listening: this is the fourth collaboration of Piau with Jérôme Correas and his ensemble Les Paladins. Correas, a bass-baritone known from several blockbuster operas recorded by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, founded this group in 2001. In these tracks recorded at the Théâtre de Poissy, "on the eve of a lockdown" in October 2020, is the sense of urgency that Correas describes, as the musicians "raced against the clock to bring this recording to life." Piau adds that the location was also the site of her first recital recording, an auspicious return.

The musical relationship is one of comfort and trust, judging by the ease in Piau's voice, as Correas and his musicians move as one with her every whim, from soaring antics down to breathy depths in an amazing cadenza and embellished da capo adorning "Da tempesta" from Giulio Cesare. In "Piangerò la sorte mia" from the same opera, taken at a lush crawl, Piau's plangent floating tone is matched by warm strings and active continuo from Benjamin Narvey's theorbo. Correas, taking the harpsichord part himself, accompanies the brilliant, tortured gem "Alla salma infedel" from the cantata La Lucrezia. In the equally unfamiliar "Desterò dall'empia dite" from Amadigi di Gaula, there are amazing acrobatics among Piau, trumpet, and oboe. Instrumental selections, including movements from Handel's concerti grossi and one sparkling overture (from Amadigi di Gaula), round out a phenomenal disc, complete with authoritative program notes by Barbara Nestola, head of research at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles.

On ClassicsToday: BR Chorus in Handel’s Glorious Occasional Oratorio

Filling In The Gaps: Handel’s Glorious Occasional Oratorio

by Jens F. Laurson

When bonnie Prince Charlie, Charles Edward Stuart, south towards London went, he was bent on the disposition King George II to put the House of Stuart back on the British throne. The conglomerate of warring Scottish brutes setting out to sack the capital to settle the succession the old-fashioned way was met with some anxiety in the metrop. Handel, having come from the German principality, knew that his bread was buttered on the House of Hanover’s side: A rousing oratorio to lift the spirits was in order. Enter the “Occasional Oratorio”, put together – on very short notice – for just that occasion. (Joshua, Alexander Balus, and Judas Maccabeus were also written around the time to extoll his erstwhile and once-again overlords’ virtues.)

George Frideric Handel’s Occasional Oratorio—essentially a pastiche cantata—was meant to buck up the London crowds (and curry political favor) as England was facing a war of succession from Jacobite Charles Edward Stuart. The work presents us with a conundrum: Those for whom having the fringe ... Continue Reading [Insider content]

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On ClassicsToday: A (Very!) Fine Messiah From Václav Luks and Collegium 1704

A Fine Messiah From Václav Luks and Collegium 1704

by Jens F. Laurson

To say that there is no dearth of recordings of Handel’s Messiah is putting it mildly. Even granting that every generation needs its interpretations of the classics, there is a glut. On the downside, not all of them are very good. On the upside, choice is a beautiful thing and there is bound to be... Continue Reading

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Briefly Noted: Coronation Music (CD of the Month)

An English Coronation, 1902-1953, Gabrieli Consort, Roar, and Players, Chetham's Symphonic Brass Ensemble, S. R. Beale, R. Pierce, M. Martin, E. Slorach, P. McCreesh (released on May 3, 2019) Signum Classics SIGCD569 | 159'21"

From this American's perspective, the only thing to be regretted about the final demise of monarchy would be the ceremonial and music associated with it. Paul McCreesh has put together this 2-CD collection of the best music composed for the coronation of English rulers, following up on a similar compilation of music for the coronation of the Doge in Venice, recorded in two slightly different versions. With forces ranging from intimate to vast, he has recorded music from Gregorian chant to Tallis and Byrd to William Walton and David Matthews in the resonant acoustic of Ely Cathedral and two smaller churches. All of the music is drawn from the coronations of Edward VII (1902), George V (1911), George VI (1937), and Elizabeth II (1953).

The pieces range from expected favorites like Parry's I Was Glad, Handel's explosive Zadok the Priest, and Walton's Coronation Te Deum to less expected discoveries. McCreesh expands his main ensemble with the Gabrieli Roar, a partnership with a number of youth choirs, which adds voice to his projects and gives young singers training. The pieces with mass numbers of singers gain in vigor and excitement what they lose just slightly in refinement. The instrumental works include regal marches and heraldic brass fanfares. Much here to make Anglophiles and royal nostalgists rejoice.

Briefly Noted: Mr. Handel's Dinner

Handel (et al.), Concertos, Sonatas, Chaconnes, M. Steger, La Cetra Barockorchester Basel (released on May 17, 2019) Harmonia Mundi HMM902607 | 76'31"

The last time recorder virtuoso Maurice Steger was in the area, he played with Les Violons du Roy in a blockbuster concert at Shriver Hall. The concept of his new album is to recreate the free-wheeling virtuosity of the pieces Handel led from the organ during his oratorios. The latter, rather than the often somber performances they receive these days, were usually given in a secular, even theatrical setting, with Handel dazzling the crowd at intermission with his own concertos or those of others adapted for his use.

Accordingly, many of these pieces are arranged and adapted by Steger as star vehicles for himself. The disc opens boldly with Handel's Concerto in F Major, which the composer adapted from his own recorder concerto for himself to play at the organ. Steger has mingled the two versions, often bringing out the recorder part from its embedded place in the organ version, even adding a striking improvisation in between movements, as Handel often did on these occasions. Steger entertains with dizzying finger precision and surprising embellishments, especially in Geminiani's Concerto Grosso in E Major, made after Corelli's Sonata, Op. 5, No. 11, and here arranged for alto recorder.

Steger plays on six different flutes, from a breathy tenor recorder in a Ground in D Minor by Gottfried Finger up to the fife-like "sixth flute," or high soprano recorder, in William Babell's Concerto for Sixth Flute and Four Violins. The "voice flute" has an especially pleasing turn in Handel's Trio Sonata in C Minor, especially in dialogue with the harp in the Andante movement. Other pieces feature the pleasing ensemble sound of La Cetra, the Baroque orchestra from Basel, particularly the suite of pieces from Handel's Almira, where the theorbo fills out the continuo part of the Sarabande movement with rich melodic fancy.

CD Review: Hallenberg as Farinelli

Tom Huizenga and Charles T. Downey, Recording reviews: a Glass harpist, arias for Farinelli
Washington Post, January 26

Farinelli: A Portrait, Ann Hallenberg, Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset (released on February 17, 2017) Aparte AP117 | 79'13"

The idea of castrating a pre-adolescent singer to create an extraordinary voice type is horrifying and unthinkable. But in earlier centuries, these men, with their voices frozen in treble mode, were celebrated in Italy, and none was more famous than Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the early music ensemble Les Talens Lyriques in 2011, the conductor Christophe Rousset led the Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg in a recital of music written for Farinelli by Handel, Geminiano Giacomelli, Johann Adolf Hasse, Leonardo Leo, the singer’s brother Riccardo Broschi and his patron Nicola Porpora. It joined similar Farinelli or castrato-themed recordings by Vivica Genaux, Philippe Jaroussky, Cecilia Bartoli and others.

The soundtrack of Gérard Corbiau’s highly fanciful 1994 film on Farinelli’s life digitally blended the singing of a male countertenor and a soprano to approximate the sound of the castrato. Contemporary accounts speak of the sweetness and power of the castratos’ tone, though the only recorded evidence was left by Alessandro Moreschi, a castrato who sang soprano in the Sistine Chapel Choir until 1914, and who no one claimed was the equal of his legendary antecedents. Moreschi sounds, if anything, most like a treble: pale in timbre, mostly devoid of vibrato and occasionally unstable — just on steroids in terms of breath support and volume.

Farinelli, in keeping with the style of the day, could certainly toss off melismatic passages with ease and added ornamentation in slow arias, something reflected in the music written for his voice. Even in this live performance, Hallenberg has relatively few bumps along the way in the long streams of running notes of the fast arias, and her ornamentation and cadenzas are florid and thrilling. The long-breathed vibrato sound is silky and refined, as in the aria “Alto Giove” from Porpora’s “Polifemo.” The only downsides are the normal artifacts of live performance caught by the microphones, such as noisy page turns, audience noises and Rousset’s sharp exhalations at opening downbeats.

SEE ALSO:
Honoré de Balzac, Sarrasine (trans. Clara Bell)

Latest on Forbes: Emmanuelle Haïm Can 'Handel' The Vienna Philharmonic

It’s more or less a tradition in the ten years of the Theater-an-der-Wien that the season opens with a concert, and more or less a tradition that that concert is played by the Vienna Philharmonic – even if this year’s concert was preceded by the world premiere of Arno Schreier’s Hamlet. (Forbes review here.) It is decidedly not a tradition, and certainly not one for the Vienna Philharmonic, that it was a concert of baroque music. Nor is it a tradition for the Vienna Philharmonic to be led by a woman conductor. (A French female woman, even, as a gender-, nationalism- and click-baiting hack like Norman Lebrecht might take pains to point out.)

An thus the audience in the not-entirely-filled house (and with most of the journalists away, covering a Ralph Benatzky operetta at the Volksoper) experienced an unusual sight: The Vienna Philharmonic on stage with two harpsichords, a continuo organ, and a theorbo (a HIP trope that instrument; a symbol more than a sign of authenticity and in any case inaudible in the entire first half). Unusual and in a way typical for the Theater-an-der-Wien, which likenexts to think outside the box. Emmanuelle Haïm, the third woman[1] to ever conduct the Vienna Philharmonic (or at least a small, baroque-ensemble sized section thereof), had conducted the same George Frideric Handel program at the Lucerne Festival and repeated it here: A first half of orchestral works and the solo cantata Il delirio amoroso (HWV 99) in the second half.

Full review here:

Emmanuelle Haïm Can 'Handel' The Vienna Philharmonic

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Forbes Classical CD of the Week

…If “no plot, no characters, no dialogue” doesn’t sound like a promising premise for an entertaining musical work, think again:…

-> Classical CD of the Week: Handel At His Most English

Read more »

Venice Baroque Orchestra @ Dumbarton Oaks

Vivaldi, Concertos and Sinfonias for Strings, Venice Baroque Orchestra, A. Marcon (Archiv, 2006)

Although the Venice Baroque Orchestra has been on American tours more recently, the last time they visited Washington was in 2011, at the National Gallery of Art. In his recordings of Vivaldi's instrumental music thus far, Andrea Marcon has focused on the pieces featuring string instruments, often in partnership with gifted violinist Giuliano Carmignola. For their program at Dumbarton Oaks, heard on Monday evening, the ensemble brought along five woodwind players, to play four of the composer's concertos scored "con molti strumenti," with a larger consort of instruments than Vivaldi generally used.

Vivaldi composed at least two of these concertos, RV 576 and 577, for the Kammermusik, instrumental ensemble, of Friedrich August, the Prince Elector of Saxony. According to Vivaldi scholar Michael Talbot, the German prince came to Venice for his "clandestine conversion to Catholicism." Visiting the Ospedale della Pietà with their employer, the prince's musicians hit it off with Vivaldi, especially a violinist named Johann Georg Pisendel. The prince and his musicians acquired copies of many Vivaldi pieces and, especially when Pisendel became concertmaster in Dresden, they inaugurated what Talbot refers to as a "Vivaldi cult" in the prince's Hofkapelle in that city.

The VBO's period-instrument oboes, recorders, and bassoon made a splendid, slightly raucous noise in RV 577 ("Per l'Orchestra di Dresda"), especially in the intense slow movement, accompanied only by theorbo. The third movement had a more extended part for solo violin, too, an example of Vivaldi's admiring writing for Pisendel. The concert ended with RV 576 ("Per Sua Altezza Reale di Sassonia"), again buzzing with active details in the first movement, with concertmaster Gianpiero Zanocco not necessarily distinguishing himself in the first two movements, redeemed by a more focused third movement. Two other concertos with prominent woodwind sections, RV 566 and 564a, rounded out the concept, with the Largo of RV 566, a genial intertwining of two recorders, bassoon, harpsichord, and theorbo, standing out as a moment to be treasured.

Other Reviews: Stephen Brookes, Venice Baroque Orchestra goes for broke at Dumbarton Oaks (Washington Post, April 12) James R. Oestreich, Venice and Vivaldi, Center Stage at the Metropolitan Museum (New York Times, April 11)

A concerto for the not quite effective pairing of solo oboe and violin, RV 548, was a bit of a disappointment, not due to the beautiful melodic lead of the oboe lines. The most splendid solo vehicle was RV 316a, a concerto adapted by Bach for the organ, heard here in a version for flautino, a high recorder, played with brilliant finger technique, flowery embellishments, and endless breath support by soloist Anna Fusek. Two concerti grossi, Corelli's op. 6/4 and Handel's op. 3/1, rounded out the program, featuring the string sections in some of their better moments, although the violins often seemed just slightly out of touch with Marcon in the concert's least satisfying aspect.

Marcon conducted while playing the continuo part from the harpsichord, an instrument modeled on a 17th-century Italian instrument by Thomas and Barbara Wolf, which made some beautiful sounds. Two encores, Handel's chaconne from Terpsichore and a reprise of the third movement of RV 577, brought the evening to a close -- as well as the season at Dumbarton Oaks, which the audience toasted at intermission with a glass of prosecco.

The Venice Baroque Orchestra returns to the area next season, on the concert series at Baltimore's Shriver Hall (February 12, 2017).

David Daniels Broadens His Horizons

Handel, Oratorio Arias, D. Daniels, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, J. Nelson (Virgin Classics, 2002)

Countertenors have a limited repertory, because the voice part was just not a solo option for composers in many historical periods. This does not prevent them from trying to claim music created for other voice types, as David Daniels showed in his recital debut at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, presented by Vocal Arts D.C. on Sunday afternoon. His voice was not in top shape, with some raggedness at the ends of phrases and shrillness on the top notes -- coughing seemed to indicate he was recovering from something -- which did little to relieve the impression that much of the music he sang was just not meant for this kind of voice. It was still beautiful to hear, as Daniels is a consummate musician with a sure musical taste and a dynamic stage presence.

Beethoven's mini-song cycle Adelaide was a case in point, music composed for a higher voice that tested Daniels at the top of his tessitura. He made most of it work quite beautifully, with a pretty sense of melodic line, but the same problems came to the fore in a set of songs by Reynaldo Hahn. In Hahn's lifetime countertenors were around, singing in church choirs, but that was a tradition with which Hahn had limited contact. A countertenor at the top of his range just does not have the same effect of sound as a soprano or tenor, which came across at the end of Hahn's Paysage, for example. Accompanist Martin Katz, not a finesse pianist, at times almost covered Daniels with forceful playing, making the largely unaccompanied Chanson au bord de la fontaine, a sort of neo-medieval planctus, the highlight of the set, as it featured the quiet beauty Daniels can achieve.

The most incongruous choice was a set of songs by Brahms, who likely would have rolled over in his grave at the sound of a countertenor singing his music. Here Katz was more in his element, giving a beefy sound at the keyboard in these songs, so often predominantly in the lower half of the instrument. High notes were again an issue, as at the climax of Auf dem See, but it was the sounds Brahms likely had in mind at the bottom end that did not match with the countertenor tessitura. Nicht mehr zu dir zu gehen is a magnificently gloomy song, with the piano brooding in the bass end in a way that put the spindly countertenor sound in a bad light, and it was almost certainly not what Brahms was thinking of in O wüsst' ich doch either. The best effect came in the lusty folk song set by Brahms, Mein Mädel hat einen Rosenmund, with its eye-winking "Du la la la" refrain.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, Daniels, Katz show music is more than mere beauty (Washington Post, February 1) Alex Baker, Blackberry Winner (Parterre Box, February 3)

Not surprisingly, Daniels was most at ease in Baroque music, the bread and butter of all countertenors. Henry Purcell actually knew the countertenor voice and wrote for it, and the breezy melody of Music for a While just sat beautifully in Daniels's compass. Both Katz and Daniels showed a crazy bravado in the kooky I'll Sail upon the Dog Star, and Daniels's gifts at dramatic recitative, combining musical sense and dramatic immediacy, were featured in Sweeter than Roses. While Daniels has not put much on record in recent years, we have always admired his work on stage in Handel and Vivaldi operas. No surprise, then, that he had his best moment in Dove sei, amato bene, an aria from Handel's Rodelinda for Bertarido, a role created by the castrato Senesino. A final set of American folk songs, in saccharine arrangements by Steven Mark Kohn, was mostly just a lightweight lead-in to two encores, Poulenc's tricky La Belle Jeunesse and Alec Wilder's Blackberry Winter, a sentimental favorite of Vocal Arts founder Gerald Perman, to whom Daniels dedicated it.

The next recital in the Vocal Arts D.C. series features tenor Javier Camarena (March 24), in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

NSO 'Messiah'

Handel, Messiah, Choir of King's College, Cambridge, S. Cleobury T. F. Kelly, First Nights: Five Musical Premiers

Charles T. Downey, Guest conductor invigorates ‘Messiah’ in spirited NSO program (Washington Post, December 18)

Handel’s “Messiah” is one of the few pieces that the National Symphony Orchestra performs every year, like Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” on the Fourth of July. With something so familiar, surprise is a welcome sentiment for a listener. Nathalie Stutzmann made her NSO debut as conductor Thursday night, leading a whirlwind rendition of “Messiah.” It had its ups and its downs, but one seldom had any reason to doze off.

Stutzmann is a favorite singer of NSO music director Christoph Eschenbach. The French mezzo-soprano last sang with the orchestra in 2012, and she will return to Washington to sing Mahler’s “Rückert-Lieder” with Eschenbach in June. In 2009, Stutzmann founded a chamber orchestra called Orfeo 55, based in Metz, France. She has had some stints guest-conducting larger orchestras, including performances of “Messiah” this year with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

The quartet of soloists, all making their NSO debuts, was led by the fine tenor Lawrence Wiliford, best when he floated dulcet high notes and in melismatic passages but less effective when he tried to be forceful. Baritone Stephen Powell thundered and raged admirably, while contralto Sara Mingardo was sometimes covered by the orchestra. Airy soprano Emöke Barath wafted her way easily through the showpiece “Rejoice greatly,” at breakneck speed, yet oddly without much virtuoso panache.

Stutzmann seemed to connect most directly with the University of Maryland Concert Choir, superbly prepared by Edward ­Maclary. Stutzmann found in these young singers an enthusiastic partner, and they followed her gleefully, over cliff after cliff in some exceedingly brisk tempo choices. She may not have broken the speed record set for “Messiah” by Rinaldo Alessandrini in 2010, but she came close, clocking in at a performance time of two hours and 15 minutes, with fewer cuts than you might think.

“Messiah” is an odd duck among Handel’s oratorios in that the soloists do not take on roles in the scriptural narrative. Stutzmann centered her performance on the chorus, using all the tools of dynamics and articulation she had to give a vital urgency to what they were singing. “Who is this king of glory?” they sang in “Lift Up Your Heads,” pressing the listener for a reply. In “He Trusted in God,” they jeered at Christ’s sacrifice, with a nasal braying tone and laughing rapidity.

Stutzmann tried to soften some of Handel’s less-than-elegant English text setting, especially noticeable in the choruses he adapted from his own earlier Italian duets. She apparently decided there was nothing to be done with that awkwardly accented first word in “For unto us a child is born,” directing the chorus just to hammer it each time they sang it. The text Handel composed that phrase for began, quite humorously, “Nò, di voi non vo’ fidarmi” (No! I don’t want to trust you!).

The orchestra at times seemed less convinced by Stutzmann’s interpretation, and for the most part, she kept the musicians quite subdued whenever the chorus was singing. Her somewhat over-the-top gestures did not always communicate clearly, resulting in a few slightly confused beginnings to new pieces or sections. Violinist Alexandra Osborne, from the second violin section but seated as concertmaster for this performance, did an admirable job keeping the small group together at a few crucial spots. The continuo part, shared between organ and harpsichord as Handel did at the premiere but here with two players, was varied and fun, including a spry kick of the hooves at the line “Then shall the lame man leap as an hart.”

National Symphony Orchestra
Handel, Messiah
With Emöke Barath, Sara Mingardo, Lawrence Wiliford, Stephen Powell
University of Maryland Concert Choir
Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

SEE ALSO:
Thả Diều, Nathalie Stutzmann conducting Händel Messiah in Detroit (thadieu, December 13, 2015)

Alfred Hickling, Messiah review – scripture and showbiz (The Guardian, January 11, 2015)

PREVIOUSLY:
Charles T. Downey, More of Eschenbach's Bruckner (Ionarts, October 12, 2012)

NSO Messiah:
2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007

Best Recordings of 2015 (#6)

Time for a review of classical CDs that were outstanding in 2014 . My lists for the previous years: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, (2011 – “Almost”), 2010, (2010 – “Almost”), 2009, (2009 – “Almost”), 2008, (2008 - "Almost") 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.

# 6 - New Release

W.F.Bach, Harpsichord Concertos & Sinfonias, Il Convito, Maude Gratton (harpsichord, director), Mirare

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Harpsichord Concertos & Sinfonias Il Convito / Maude Gratton (harpsichord, director) (Mirare)

This is a staggeringly terrific collection of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach harpsichord concertos and sinfonias that sheds all nonsense prejudice one might quite understandably have about galant style works. The Il Convito ensemble and director-soloist Maude Gratton play with such panache, there’s not a second’s time to question if this music is anything but great. It doesn’t sound like it sits uncomfortably between styles with which we are familiar, it simply rocks. The instrument, a Philippe Humeau copy of a 1770 Jean-Henry Silbermann harpsichord, adds to the stormy-silvery impression.

In accounts that one may have read, “Bad Willy F.B” is depicted as a capricious, frittering man, unsuccessfully trying to escape his father’s shadow. It’s bound to be inaccurate to some degree, but there’ll be truth to it, too. Just look at his excellent portrait by Friedrich Georg Weitsch (on Wikipedia), which shows a flamboyantly rakish W.F., wearing a hat with such a coy attitude, you can see the feather in that cap, although it’s not even depicted. Now compare that to Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait of the youngest Bach son, Johann Christian, which is equally excellent and couldn’t be more different, with the serious, collected, confident young man shown. It makes the stories of W.F. as a socially maladroit, wildly talented virtuoso and reluctant pioneer of free-lance musicianship quite believable. Well, the point is I’ll plop this one into the player many, many more times, because maladroit or not, the early and late compositions on this disc alike light my fire for Johann Sebastian’s boy. The liner notes are very enjoyable and well translated from French into English and German.

# 6 – Reissue

G.F.Handel, Saul, soloists, Concerto Köln, René Jacobs, Harmonia Mundi

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Apollo's Fire @ LoC

The Power of Love (Handel, opera arias), A. Forsythe, Apollo's Fire, J. Sorrell (Avie Records, 2015)

Charles T. Downey, Cleveland’s Apollo’s Fire short of greatness
Washington Post, November 21

How do historically informed performance ensembles from the U.S. stack up against those in other countries? On Thursday night, the 90th anniversary season of the Library of Congress’s free concert series offered the chance to hear a leading American ensemble, Apollo’s Fire from Cleveland, in the same month as the renowned international group Bach Collegium Japan. While this concert was certainly good, the American ensemble fell shy of the greatness heard earlier in the month.

This program was at least a marked improvement over the last Washington appearance by Apollo’s Fire, in 2009... [Continue reading]

Apollo's Fire
With Amanda Forsythe, soprano
Library of Congress

SEE ALSO:
Aaron Keebaugh, Amanda Forsythe shines with Apollo’s Fire (Boston Classical Review, November 21)

David Schulenberg, Glowing Orb Shone Brilliantly (Boston Musical Intelligencer, November 21)

Mark Satola, Apollo's Fire lavishes delights with 'Beowulf' and tour preview double-header (Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 16)

Charles T. Downey, Apollo's Fire Has Fuel, Does Not Ignite (Ionarts, November 11, 2009)

Bach Collegium Japan

Bach, Brandenburg Concertos / Orchestral Suites, Bach Collegium Japan, M. Suzuki (BIS, 2009) Handel (attrib.), Gloria (HWV deest), E. Kirkby, Royal Academy of Baroque Music, L. Cummings (BIS, 2001)

Charles T. Downey, A triumphant return for Bach Collegium Japan
Washington Post, November 5

Many historically informed performance ensembles perform on original instruments. Some play with exceptional virtuosity; a few expand our understanding of a work by playing it. Bach Collegium Japan, which returned triumphantly to the Library of Congress on Wednesday evening, does all of these things. Beyond that, as demonstrated at this concert perhaps even more than on its last visit here, in 2006, the ensemble is never willing to sacrifice musical instinct and ensemble cohesion on the altar of authenticity.

At the heart of the program were two soprano blockbusters, both sung with limpid clarity and sensitive phrasing by Joanne Lunn... [Continue reading]

Bach Collegium Japan
With Joanne Lunn, soprano
Library of Congress

SEE ALSO:
Lawrence A. Johnson, Bach Collegium Japan makes intimate Chicago debut at Rockefeller Chapel (Chicago Classical Review, October 30)

Mark Swed, Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan's impeccable taste shows at Disney Hall (Los Angeles Times, October 27)

Jens F. Laurson, Bach Collegium Japan: Non nisi mota cano (Ionarts, March 28, 2006)

#morninglistening: Handel, Agrippina

#morninglistening to #Handel w/@akamus, @sunhaeim, @bejunmehta, @jjennymr etc on @harmonia… http://t.co/hPrW9c5kmH pic.twitter.com/L4WuKlUrQO

— Jens F. Laurson (@ClassicalCritic) October 12, 2015

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CD Review: Isserlis Has Guts

Bach, Viola da Gamba Sonatas (inter alia), S. Isserlis, R. Egarr (released on September 11, 2015) Hyperion CDA68045 | 59'50"

Charles T. Downey, CD reviews: Cellist Isserlis shows guts in Bach
Washington Post, October 18

Cellist Steven Isserlis plays on gut strings rather than the standard contemporary metal ones, a preference that limits his dynamic range at the loud end of the spectrum, but to which he remains devoted. The sound of gut strings has a “more human quality,” he said during a concert at Wolf Trap in 2013. Although he is not known principally for historically informed performance (HIP), he does collaborate with early music ensembles and specialists, like the fortepianist Robert Levin, with whom he will play Beethoven’s cello sonatas at the Kennedy Center on Oct. 29.

Another example is his new disc with harpsichordist Richard Egarr, the first recording Isserlis has made with that instrument... [Continue reading]

CONCERT NEXT WEEK:
Steven Isserlis (cello) and Robert Levin (fortepiano)
Washington Performing Arts
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater