Cabezón, Arauxo, Cabanilles etc etc

[Mandryka]

I think this selection of music by Arauxo from Roland Götz is attractive. It has (I suggest) a distinctive quality. It is brilliant for showing the poised and dignified aspect of Correa's music. Maybe inevitably, it does so at the expense of mysticism, and of disturbing intensity.

[Mandryka]

This recording is a musical oxymoron.

Odile Bailleux achieves something which I hear rarely and which I value a lot.  It is both dramatic, mainly through astonishing and extreme contrasts of colour and it is serene and majestic. She achieves the latter partly through her tempos and phrasing, which succeed in making the gestures sound confident. But those words "majestic", "serene", "confident" don't do it justice, because they're all words you could use to describe the slightly pompous Bach recordings  of Albert Schweitzer. What Odile Bailleux expresses which elevates this recording is mysticism.

It made me think of Walcha's idea, from the period of his final Bach recordings,  that baroque music is "still, calm and concentrated", like Gregorian chant.

She's helped by her organ, Almonacid de la Sierra (1773, Sanchez), which is grand, colourful and somehow warm and humane. The recording is glorious, you feel you're there! It had me strapped to my seat for the whole hour or more.

[Mandryka]

Damien Colcomb at Lorriel. A particularly fine organ, an interesting programme of relatively rare music played with style. I particularly enjoyed the selections by Rodrigues Coelho, Abraham van den Kerchoven and Peter Cornet. The music of Spanish Netherlands could be a very rewarding area to explore. 

http://www.orgues-koenig.com/lorris-en-gatinais/

[Mandryka]

A couple of rare pieces on this disc by Martin Neu at the newly restored 1735 Corchado organ of the San Hipólito Church in Córdoba, including a Kyrie by Rodrigues Cuelho played in alternatim.

Most of the the disc is given over to everyone's favourite spaniard - Correa!. It's a good selection, in the sense of representative one, because you get an early glossa, a couple of tientos and a batalla. Neu is particularly impressive in the tiento for medió registro. where finds just the right feeling of transcendent flamboyance. This may just reflect my own preference for this aspect of Arauxo's output. And listening to this recording made me think that there's more diversity in his music than I had previously recognised. The Batalla is a great piece for showing off the organ and speakers, maybe not so special from the poetic point of view.

The CD opens with a very baroque piece Diego Xaraba, Neu did not make me think that this is my sort of music.

[prémont]

This is of course on my wishlist. But from now on I am not going to make new acquisitions until I have established myself in my new place, which may take some time.

[Mandryka]

This is nice,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjD-Qv18TCk&ab_channel=L%27AuditoriBarcelona
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Fx_oE5R1A&ab_channel=JuandelaRubia%2Corganista

Hauslaib Claviorgan

Museu de la Música has restored and recovered an exceptional instrument, a claviorgan, for the music world. Its singular sound synchronizes the organ's sonority with that of the harpsichord or spinet. It is displayed in the Museum's permanent collection. Made at the organ workshop of Lorenz Hauslaib in Nuremberg, this claviorgan is a magnificent example of a Renaissance musical instrument which has reached our days without alterations of its original timbre, arrangement and tuning.

Music: Gallarda milanesa, Antonio de Cabezón.
Juan de la Rubia, claviorgan

[Mandryka]

My relationship with this recording has swung from hate (I just deleted a shameful post where I described it as "boots on the clavichord") to love. The reason I've learned to love it has precisely to do with that extremely lute-like clavichord that he's using: there's such an extraordinary contrast between the primitiveness and saturatedness of the timbre, and the expressiveness of Clemencic's music making.

I guess I have moved from not being able to hear the expressiveness (too repelled by the instrument, the density of the counterpoint), to being irritated by the tension between the style of play and the instrument, to my current state of relishing the contrast.

No one I have heard,no one, beats Clemencic's way of expressing the emotional content of Cabezon's music. Each gesture is alive and meaningful. And he's doing it on an instrument which, while not exactly sounding like a bunch of elastic bands twanging, is a bit in that vein of things.

This is a wonderful CD, and is probably so rich as to be inexhaustible.  I used to think that Cabezon was a great composer who wrote no great music. Clemencic makes me revise that opinion.

[Mandryka]

There are some amazing things on this disc by Norberto Broggini, often by composers completely new to me. Estacio  Lacerna, for example, contributes a very original tiento, and the contribution by Jerônimo Peraza is well made and inspired. The most substantial pieces are by Arauxo, played fervently. The instrument is very special.

[Mandryka]

My impression from what I have heard of Cabanilles´ organ music (the above mentioned recordings - I have not found him sufficiently interesting to acquire or to find some scores) is, that the bravura quality is the most prominent feature of this music, and taking this into consideration I find Torrent very satisfying.

My priority list of interest in these three Spanish organ composers is 1)Cabezon 2)Correa de Arauxo 3)Cabanilles

I stumbled across this today, and it has made me think that I've underestimated Cabanilles. I hear a really distinctive organist in Jan Willem Jansen, special for his ability to project something spiritual even in this music. And to project a sense of wonder, discovery . If Jansen played Bruhns or Pachelbel or Buxtehude, I bet it would be quite a thing.

[Mandryka]

If Jansen played Bruhns or Pachelbel or Buxtehude, I bet it would be quite a thing.

Just found it. Initial impressions are not so positive, I'm afraid.

[Mandryka]

Timothy Roberts presents Cabanilles as a brash and emotionally limited bravura composer, on a historic meantime tuned organ (Sant Jaume, Valencia, 1724), played with brassy registrations. Unatmospheric recorded sound. 


http://www.grenzing.com/organosshow.cfm?id=204&ip=204204

[prémont]

Timothy Roberts presents Cabanilles as a brash and emotionally limited bravura composer, on a historic meantime tuned organ (Sant Jaume, Valencia, 1724), played with brassy registrations. Unatmospheric recorded sound. 

This recording was a great disappointment to me. Straightforward and unsophisticated playing, made worse by too close miking, which results in an uncomfortable straight up in your head impression and insufficient feeling of the acoustics of the venue..

[Mandryka]

http://discmedi.com/es/disco/7840/antonio-de-cabeznn/entre-lo-sagrado-y-lo-mundano-ignacio-ribas-talnons--orgue-nrgano

Ignacio Ribas Talens' style of music making is probably too careful, too scholarly, too stiff, too controlled. But it is not tough and aggressive, on the contrary, he makes the the music appear sweet and poetic. What's more, these Andorra organs are the bees knees for Cabezon because of the colours. For once it's clear that Cabezon really wrote obras de música para tecla arpa y vihuela. Registrations are very well chosen to offer enough contrast in the voices to make the polyphony clear, without making one voice dominate the rest.

It had me strapped to my seat.

[bioluminescentsquid]

Very impressed by this release, played on a small late 16th century Claviorganum entirely at octave pitch and above.

There's something here that reminds me of Leonhardt's Alpenlander recordings, with the intimacy of the small instrument and crispness that I've been looking for in Cabezon recordings - just like in the recording of Uriol or Erdas, both favorites.
I guess that this clean, lyrical quality is what makes Cabezon sound different from Sweelinck, although they were both great modal composers churning out variations and toccatas (or Tientos). Of course, Sweelinck's more on the meditative, perhaps plodding side who preferred long, carefully considered works to little bonbons. Arauxo's in the middle.

[bioluminescentsquid]

I think this selection of music by Arauxo from Roland Götz is attractive. It has (I suggest) a distinctive quality. It is brilliant for showing the poised and dignified aspect of Correa's music. Maybe inevitably, it does so at the expense of mysticism, and of disturbing intensity.

Götz seems to have an interesting catalogue that is extremely hard to get; do you know any other discs well?

[Mandryka]

Götz seems to have an interesting catalogue that is extremely hard to get; do you know any other discs well?

I bought quite a few CDs, you could get them easily on Amazon, or direct from here

http://studio-xvii-augsburg.de/cds/

By the way, if anyone can find a track list for his Byrd CD, would they let me know, I ripped it, got rid of the CD and booklet, before tagging the files.

[Mandryka]

Very impressed by this release, played on a small late 16th century Claviorganum entirely at octave pitch and above.

There's something here that reminds me of Leonhardt's Alpenlander recordings, with the intimacy of the small instrument and crispness that I've been looking for in Cabezon recordings - just like in the recording of Uriol or Erdas, both favorites.
I guess that this clean, lyrical quality is what makes Cabezon sound different from Sweelinck, although they were both great modal composers churning out variations and toccatas (or Tientos). Of course, Sweelinck's more on the meditative, perhaps plodding side who preferred long, carefully considered works to little bonbons. Arauxo's in the middle.

Arauxo seems the most  the most mystical of the three. Sweelinck seemed to write the most interesting counterpoint.

You really like a certain type of organ. I bet you will like this thing, let me know if you can't find it and I'll upload it.

José Enrique Ayarra plays Arauxo on two organs in Seville, one at the cathedral and one in Osuna College Church. It's the second organ which is the real star of the show for me, the puppy on the right in this here image:



As you would expect, it's high and acid and full of dissonance and personality. And what's more Ayarra uses it for what sounds to me like a major masterpiece, a piece of music with a real distinctive character, Tiento 60 " de baxon de treinta y dos numeros al compas de segundo tono", whatever that means.

The title has made me think, probably quite unfairly, of somethink that Ochs says to butter up the Marschallin in Rosenkavalier "Da gibt's keine Flausen, keine Etikette, keine spanische Tuerei!"

[prémont]

By the way, if anyone can find a track list for his Byrd CD, would they let me know, I ripped it, got rid of the CD and booklet, before tagging the files.

I own the CD. Will send you the tracklist to morrow.

[bioluminescentsquid]

How do y'all think of this one?

[prémont]

How do y'all think of this one?

Mandryka wrote about it above (reply 47 of this thread). I tend to agree with him. The used instrument is particularly interesting, the repertoire is interesting and the playing engaged. Very recommendable.