#ClassicsaDay #AltBaroque Week 4

The Classics a Day team offers a unique challenge for September. Participants are to share music from the Baroque Era on their social media posts. What makes this a challenge is to avoid the big names. So no Bach, Handel, or Vivaldi. (And no Pachelbel's Canon). 

 The Baroque Era ushered a sea change in musical styles from the Renaissance. Church modes gave way to major and minor keys (still in use today). Linear polyphony was replaced by a melody with chordal harmony. Viols were traded in for violins. New forms of music were developed: operas, oratorios, cantatas, and sonatas. 

 Many composers contributed to that development -- many more than the Big Three. Here are my posts for this #AltClassical challenge. For the fourth and final week, I picked some unusual composers.

09/23/24 Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini (1720-1795): Concerto per il cembalo

Little is known of Agnesi's life. While her music is well documented in historical records, much is now lost. Only fragments of her 6 operas and 5 concertos survive.

 

09/24/24 Ivan Lukačić (1587=1648): Quam pulchra es

Croatian composer and monk Ivan Lukacic studied in Rome before returning to Croatia. He was music master at the cathedral in Split and published several collections of motets in the 1620s.

 

09/25/24 Caterina Assandra (ca.1590 - after 1618) O Dulcis Amor Jesu (Op. 2, No. 11)

Assanda was a Benedictine nun. She was also an organist and published two collections of music in the early 1600s. Her Opus 1 is lost, but Opus 2 survives.

 

09/26/24 John Baston (fl. 1708–1739): Recorder Concerto No. 2

Baston was an English recorder virtuoso. His concertos, performed during play intermissions, were so popular he published them in 1729.

 

09/27/24 Julie Pinel (fl. 1710–1737): Printems

Pinel was a French harpsichordist. Few details of her life are known, save for her collection of songs, published in 1737, Nouveau receuil d'airs sérioux et à boire.

 

Next month:

Bruckner From the Archives, Vol. 4 Offers Stylistic Contrasts

The fourth volume of this extraordinary series presents Burckner's Fifth Symphony. It also includes two works for string quintet. Every recording receives its first release here. 

As with the previous volumes, the source recordings come from John F. Berky. Berky is the Executive Secretary for the Anton Bruckner Society of America. Over 12,000 Bruckner recordings are in their archives. The selections here aren't just rare recordings.  They're recordings that provide insight in the Bruckner and his interpreters. 

Christoph von Dohnanyi conducts the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in a 1963 aircheck. Dohnanyi was only 34 years old, and already creating a sensation. He also was of the generation immediately after the Romantics. 

His approach to Bruckner is straightforward and business-like. His goal was to be a transparent conduit between the composer and the audience. It's an exciting performance. And it's one I think most current listeners would be comfortable with.  

The string quintet performances, on the other hand, are purely Romantic. The Vienna Konzerthouse Quartett (and violist Ferdinand Stangler), were members of the Vienna Philharmonic. These artists were the last generation to play under the Romantic Era conductors. 

This is old-school string technique -- overripe portmantos, full-bodied dynamics, and emotive phrasing.  All harkening back to the glories of Old Vienna. This was the performance style Bruckner most likely imagined for these works. And they are gorgeous.

Lani Spahr's superb restorations do much service to the music. He brings out the inherent qualities of these recordings. And he does so without unnaturally "enhancing the sound."

Another fine addition to this series.  

Anton Bruckner: From the Archives, Volume 4
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra; Christoph von Dohnanyi, conductor
String Quintet in F major; Intermezzo for String Quintet
Vienna Konzerthaous Quartet with Ferdinand Stangler, second viola
SOMM Recordings, Ariadne 5031-2
2 CD Set

#ClassicsaDay #AltBaroque Week 3

The Classics a Day team offers a unique challenge for September. Participants are to share music from the Baroque Era on their social media posts. What makes this a challenge is to avoid the big names. So no Bach, Handel, or Vivaldi. (And no Pachelbel's Canon). 

 The Baroque Era ushered a sea change in musical styles from the Renaissance. Church modes gave way to major and minor keys (still in use today). Linear polyphony was replaced by a melody with chordal harmony. Viols were traded in for violins. New forms of music were developed: operas, oratorios, cantatas, and sonatas. 

 Many composers contributed to that development -- many more than the Big Three. Here are my posts for this #AltClassical challenge. For the third week, I focused on composers of the Middle Baroque, running from about 1680 to 1705.

 

09/16/24 Giovanni Zamboni (later 17th century–after 1718): Sonata VII

Zamboni was a virtuoso of several instruments, including the guitar, lute, mandolin, and theorbo. He's credited with being one of the last composers to write for the lute in 1718.

 

09/17/24 Mrs. Philarmonica (fl. 1715): Sonata for 2 violins

"Mrs. Philharmonica" was an alias of an unknown 18th-century Englishwoman. She published a set of six divertimenti, or sonatas, for two violins and continuo.

 

09/18/25 Maria Margherita Grimani (b. before 1700; fl. 1713–1718): Sinfonia to "Pallade e Marte"

Grimani was the first female composer to have an opera performed in Vienna. She was also known for her oratorios.

 

09/19/24 Henry Madin (1698–1748): Te Deum

Madin entered King Louis VXV's service in 1736. At Versailles he became "Sous-maître de la Musique de la Chapelle du Roi."

 

09/20/24 Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690–1749): Concerto grosso a quattro Chori

Stölzel served the Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. He wrote a vast amount of music, including an estimated 1,300 cantatas. Less than half survive intact.

 

Gubaidulina: Triple Concerto and Rejoice! Exceptional.

Some composers build on established traditions. They take standard forms and common musical expressions and create something new. Other composers create their own sonic world, seemingly from scratch. Sofia Gubaidulina is one of those. 

Her 2017 Triple Concerto was inspired by Beethoven's. But she takes that inspiration in unexpected and innovative directions. Beethoven's concerto was for violin, cello, and piano. Gubaidulina substitutes the bayan for the piano. 

The bayan is a button accordion. It's a characteristic instrument of Russian folk music. There's nothing folk-line in Gubaidulina's treatment, though. All three solo instruments use extended techniques to create otherwordly sounds. The soloists glide around each other and the orchestra. In the process their sound blends and fragments like a kaleidoscope's image. 

Gubaidulina has her own musical language, but it's one with a rigorous internal logic. Every time I listened to the concerto, that logic became a little clearer. It's an amazing aural journey. 

The NDR Radiophilharmonie plays with disciplined energy under the direction of Andrew Manze. This is a live recording. At the conclusion, the applause begins tentatively, as if not wishing to break the spell. (It soon picks up.)

Also included is Rejoice! Sonata for Violin and Cello. To me, this 1981 work is a sonic ice sculpture. It's transparent, yet substantial. Exceedingly delicate, yet emotionally powerful. And it's a work to test the talents of its players. 

Biaba Skride, violin, and Harriet Krijgh, cello rise to the challenge. Harmonics sound with crystal clarity. Glissandi, string plucks, and bent notes sound clean and unforced. It's a work that is both intellectual and emotional.  

Gubaidulina writes like no one else. If you're familiar with her style, know that these are some of her best compositions. If not, be ready for some real adventures in listening.

Sofia Gubaidulina
Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Bayan
Rejoice! Sonata for Violin and Cello
Biaba Skride, violin; Harriet Krijgh, cello; Elsbeth Moser, bayan
NDR Radiophilharmonie; Andrew Manze, conductor
Orfeo

Collegium Vocale Gent Perform Near-Perfect Gesualdo

Carlo Gesualdo was a tortured soul. Its physical manifestations included spousal abuse and even a double murder. And it's there in the music he wrote. 

Gesualdo was composing right at the end of the Renaissance. Within a decade there would be a stylistic sea change. 

The Baroque Era replaced church modes with major and minor keys. It simplified harmony and minimized polyphony. And many of the older forms, like madrigals, didn't survive.

In many ways, Gesualdo's music looks past the Baroque to the Romantic era -- and further. His extreme chromaticism sounds as fresh today as it did for 16th-century audiences. 

This collection features his fourth book of madrigals. This Opus 5 set is for five voices and was published in 1596. At this time Gesualdo had a choir of professional singers on staff. So these works were not written for amateurs. 

 Philippe Herreweghe conducts the Collegium Vocale Gent in some sensitive and expressive performances. The singers have full, rich chordal sound. And when they split off into individual lines, they maintain a crystalline clarity. Most remarkable, though, is the accuracy. 

Geusaldo uses chromatic motion to lean into emotional climaxes. These are hard to sing, but the Collegium Vocale Gent delivers. This is highly expressive music, and at times, a  little unsettling. 

If you're familiar with Gesualdo, you should find this release outstanding. If you're not, this is a great recording to start with.  

Carlo Gesualdo: Silenzio mia
Il quatro libro di madrigali, 1596
Collegium Vocale Gent; Philippe Herreweghe, director
PHI LPH043