Topic: Italian Music from the Late Renaissance and Baroque

[bioluminescentsquid]

Recent video from Catalina Vicens, playing the notorious Toccata by Giovanni Picchi from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book on a contemporary harpsichord.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDd5UcLMo1I

I don't know how I feel about this performance. I've played this piece many of times, it's a crazy little piece with lots of running and crazy turns. She makes it into a leisurely stroll in the park, a bit too relaxed and graceful for my idea of the piece. Her style works in earlier Italian music, even Byrd, but I dunno about this piece. Of course, still marvelous playing.

[Que]

.

This recording gets a lot of praise - just have a look at the Amazon reviews... And the music is by Agostino Steffani (1654 - 1728) definitely worth discovering.
But the performances miss the mark, at least to my taste....

I think to voice of Cecilia Bartoli, who deserves praise for championing the composer, has grown to heavy for this repertoire. Her quite present vibrato doesn’t help either, nor does her overly dramatic approach on the music. The rest of the performance falls into line with that: too heavy with too much of everything.... Too dramatic, overbearing choral singing which is too loud or too numerous  (or both). This doesn't sound like an Italian composer (based in Germany) who was a contemporary of Alessandro Scarlatti at all....
On the up side: the smaller pieces besides the Stabat Mater fare better and there is a great line up of soloists, though the effect is not as impressive as one would expect. The performances are very energetic.

On this rare occasion, I agree with the Gramophone reviewer:

The proclamation that Cecilia Bartoli ‘continues her Mission to discover the music of Agostino Steffani’ might lead an unsuspecting public to assume nobody of note has recorded Steffani’s Stabat mater before, but the celebrated work sent by the composer in 1728 to London’s recently founded Academy of Ancient Music has been recorded eminently by Gustav Leonhardt (DHM) and Harry Christophers (Coro). Bartoli sings little during this 73-minute collection – and her contributions are the weakest link. It seems odd to assign the star diva’s pinched vowels and restrained timbre to the simple plaintive introduction (‘Stabat mater dolorosa’) instead of a member of the choral ensemble. Franco Fagioli sings in the same unbridled way in his brief solo ‘Quis est homo’ (in fact, it’s hard to tell the countertenor and Bartoli apart); Daniel Behle and Julian Prégardien are clumsy in the tenor duet ‘Inflammatus et accensus’. This anachronistically over-egged performance is exacerbated by an overpoweringly loud choir and adds up to a strange kind of pseudo-Baroque Rossini rather than the stile antico intimacy and contrapuntal refinement Steffani’s music cries out for. Diego Fasolis presents six other shorter works, most written for Munich early in Steffani’s career: the Choir of Radiotelevisione Svizzera is disciplined in the concise yet impressive eight-part Beatus vir and short antiphon Triduanas a Domino but the brass doubling is a fiction invented by Fasolis. Bartoli returns to centre stage for a garish performance of the motet Non plus me ligate.

Still an enjoyable disc, but compared to how promising it looks on paper - ultimately a failure...

Q

[JCBuckley]

.

This recording gets a lot of praise - just have a look at the Amazon reviews... And the music is by Agostino Steffani (1654 - 1728) definitely worth discovering.
But the performances miss the mark, at least to my taste....

I think to voice of Cecilia Bartoli, who deserves praise for championing the composer, has grown to heavy for this repertoire. Her quite present vibrato doesn’t help either, nor does her overly dramatic approach on the music. The rest of the performance fall into line with that: too heavy with too much of everything.... Too dramatic, overbearing choral singing which is too loud or too numerous  (or both).

Q

I completely agree - I bought this CD having been very taken with the O'Dette recording of Steffani's Niobe, but have never returned to it after the first listening. I find Bartoli much too overbearing and unsubtle.

[Que]

The other day I took this of the shelf:



And it failed to win me over....and I never really loved it...
It's edgy but rather mechanical and bloodless. I missed a bit of warmth and TLC (tender loving care)..

So, I'm considering other recordings ans am open for suggestions! 

I prepared a shortlist of recordings of Corelli's Concerti Grossi Opus 6 to check:

- Ensemble 415 & Chiara Banchini  (Harmonia Mundi) I love her Geminiani on Zig Zag!
- Gli Incogniti & Amandine Beyer (Zig Zag) Live and supposedly including applause, I don’t know...
- Modo Antiquo & Frederico Maria Sardelli (Tactus)
- Alessandro Stradella Consort & Estevan Velardi (Dynamic) The dark horse on the list...

Q

[Draško]

So, I'm considering other recordings ans am open for suggestions! 

I prepared a shortlist of recordings of Corelli's Concerti Grossi Opus 6 to check:

Q

The one I have is Avison Ensemble/Beznosiuk. I like it but don't have any other point of reference.

[Que]

The one I have is Avison Ensemble/Beznosiuk. I like it but don't have any other point of reference.

I'll add it to the shortlist.  Thanks. 

Q

[Florestan]

The other day I took this of the shelf:



And it failed to win me over....and I never really loved it...
It's edgy but rather mechanical and bloodless. I missed a bit of wamth and TLC (tender loving care)..

So, I'm considering other recordings ans am open for suggestions! 

I prepared a shortlist of recordings of Corelli's Concerti Grossi Opus 6 to check:

- Ensemble 415 & Chiara Banchini  (Harmonia Mundi) I love her Geminiani on Zig Zag!
- Gli Incogniti & Amandine Beyer (Zig Zag) Live and supposedly including applause, I don’t know...
- Modo Antiquo & Frederico Maria Sardelli (Tactus)
- Alessandro Stradella Consort & Estevan Velardi (Dynamic) The dark horse on the list...

Q

I have this:



Love it, but I'm a fan of Pieter-Jan Belder and his ensemble, anyway.

[GioCar]

I grew up with this recording:

Actually in the original incarnation




and although is anything but HIP, I love it.

[aligreto]

The other day I took this of the shelf:



And it failed to win me over....and I never really loved it...
It's edgy but rather mechanical and bloodless. I missed a bit of warmth and TLC (tender loving care)..

So, I'm considering other recordings ans am open for suggestions! 

I prepared a shortlist of recordings of Corelli's Concerti Grossi Opus 6 to check:

- Ensemble 415 & Chiara Banchini  (Harmonia Mundi) I love her Geminiani on Zig Zag!
- Gli Incogniti & Amandine Beyer (Zig Zag) Live and supposedly including applause, I don’t know...
- Modo Antiquo & Frederico Maria Sardelli (Tactus)
- Alessandro Stradella Consort & Estevan Velardi (Dynamic) The dark horse on the list...

Q

I have both the Banchini and the Beyer sets Que and neither will let you down. Just to put your mind at ease regarding the Beyer; these are very stylish and polished performances.

[HIPster]

The other day I took this of the shelf:



And it failed to win me over....and I never really loved it...
It's edgy but rather mechanical and bloodless. I missed a bit of warmth and TLC (tender loving care)..

So, I'm considering other recordings ans am open for suggestions! 

I prepared a shortlist of recordings of Corelli's Concerti Grossi Opus 6 to check:

- Ensemble 415 & Chiara Banchini  (Harmonia Mundi) I love her Geminiani on Zig Zag!
- Gli Incogniti & Amandine Beyer (Zig Zag) Live and supposedly including applause, I don’t know...
- Modo Antiquo & Frederico Maria Sardelli (Tactus)
- Alessandro Stradella Consort & Estevan Velardi (Dynamic) The dark horse on the list...

Q

Hi Que,

The Sardelli/Modo Antiquo is a different beast altogether.  Sardelli uses wind instruments throughout (he makes a convincing case for this in the liner notes).  To my ears, the music benefits immensely from this approach.

I have both the Banchini and the Beyer sets Que and neither will let you down. Just to put your mind at ease regarding the Beyer; these are very stylish and polished performances.

Thanks for your input on these, aligreto. 

I would expect nothing less from these forces.  I may consider one down the road.

The one I have is Avison Ensemble/Beznosiuk. I like it but don't have any other point of reference.

I also like this one too.  Superb playing and sound quality.

However, I find this group to be at their best here:

This one really surprised me on a first listen.  Very nice. 

Happy hunting and good luck, Que! 

Keep us posted, please.

[Mandryka]

I’d like to get to know about Caccini, can someone recommend some things to listen to?

[Que]

I’d like to get to know about Caccini, can someone recommend some things to listen to?

Two personal favourites;:

Q

[Mandryka]

Two personal favourites;:

Q

Thanks -- I'm starting to get curious about him because I've read that he's the major influence on the Gesualdo responsoria, which, thanks to the Ensemble Energeia recording, have finally, after years of trying, started to mean something to me.

[deprofundis]

The music enchanting, magnificent , truly awesome early baroque or late renaissance, who care in the end, this is a great album, the voices are fluid, the sound is incredible, the Brilliant release brilliant too but CPO get the gold  and Brilliant classical get silver...

I really really like these Sacre Lamentazioni, what a fantastic album, word cannot render justice alone, to believe it, one got to hear it, it's one of the best CPO ever, top notch, believe me this is not a leap of fate to buy this album, on contrary this is an album you either always wont to hear or discover a great composer whit a splendid ensemble, chapeau monsieur Maurizio Fornero you just did a peerless album I gave you a 10 out of 10 stars for this on, this is really a ''tour de force'' I wonder what Mandryka think of this album, did he hear it?

["Harry"]

The music enchanting, magnificent , truly awesome early baroque or late renaissance, who care in the end, this is a great album, the voices are fluid, the sound is incredible, the Brilliant release brilliant too but CPO get the gold  and Brilliant classical get silver...

I really really like these Sacre Lamentazioni, what a fantastic album, word cannot render justice alone, to believe it, one got to hear it, it's one of the best CPO ever, top notch, believe me this is not a leap of fate to buy this album, on contrary this is an album you either always wont to hear or discover a great composer whit a splendid ensemble, chapeau monsieur Maurizio Fornero you just did a peerless album I gave you a 10 out of 10 stars for this on, this is really a ''tour de force'' I wonder what Mandryka think of this album, did he hear it?

I do not know if Mandryka has the CD'S  to begin with, but I bought both recordings you mention a few weeks ago. And yes the music is enchanting, magnificent even, high class late Renaissance and very early Baroque music to cherish.
The CPO is truly awesome, and indeed Brilliant takes a second place. Splendid ensembles indeed!

[milk]

Vartolo has a recording of Zipoli's keyboard music. It's very fine music, very high quality.
Susan Alexander-max also recorded these works on a fortepiano. That's also quite good.