Topic: Love can transpose things bass and viol to form and dignity.

[Mandryka]

The music here, by Telemann for solo bass viol, was recently discovered. Thomas Fritzsch plays it  like a dream, full of mood changes, psychologically rich,  it makes me think of the wonderful Tobias Hume as played by Susanne Heinrich.

[Mandryka]

There's a huge amount to enjoy on this solo CD by Wieland Kuijken.  A rich and complex polyphonic suite by Johannes Schenck which is full of passion and fantasy, a reminder of the context of Bach's last three cello suites; a handful of ricercari by Diego Ortiz and preludes by Christopher Simpson which are surprisingly abstract; melodically attractive pieces, some of them quite substantial, by Tobias Hume and Abel. In the case of the Hume, Kuijken is open to the complex emotions in the music, a sort of deep psychological content  - confirming my suspicion that Hume is a great great composer.

Kuijken's sense of expression and control is perfect for my tastes, as is his seriousness. He plays intimately and meditatively. Well recorded.

[Mandryka]

I had up to now believed that the emotional depth of  music for Lyra viol by Tobias Hume was a sort of blip, a feature of his music which made him a composer beyond the dominant  style of his time. But this extraordinary recording of excerpts from the Manchester Gamba Book played by Dietmar Berger shows that so much music played in the Lyra way - i.e. with a polyphonic texture created by chords like some of the Bach suites for cello - are extremely soulful. This recording is wonderful, inexhaustible, life enhancing, desert island blah blah blah.

[Que]

blah blah blah.

Those are the best! 

Q

[Mandryka]

A very truthfully recorded, civilised and humane performance - the approach reminds me of Pandolfo & co. in the same music, but there's maybe more blend from Kuijken Bros. and Mr. Kohnen. It is easy going, congenial: no sense of swagger, sforzandi not too strong, tempos relaxed, there's a sense of abandon too - the players have abandoned their egos. This is far from Forqueray the devil and jolly good thing too. I haven't had a chance to hear the Dollé on the same recording. Like it (like Pandolfo too.) it's a bit of a big old wooly sweater of a performance - comforting and comfortable.

[Mandryka]

A  passionate and theatrical performance of a few pieces by Marais and Forqueray, led by Fahmi Alqhai.

The dramatic life at Versailles was dominated by two polar opposites: Mollière and Racine. Comedy of manners and the passionate tragedy. Maybe this recording reveals a similar contrast in viol music: Forqueray = Racine and Marais = Mollière. That's probably nonsense.

[aligreto]

A cross post from the Listening Thread due to a recent purchase of mine....





The music from the various composers featured is of very good quality and, for the most part, upbeat with quite a bit of dance music featured. The playing and recording are both very fine. Most enjoyable and certainly warmly recommended. This CD certainly belongs in this thread.

[Mandryka]

I enjoyed discovering Telemann's viol fantasies on Thomas Fritzsch's CD when it first came out, in fact I enjoyed them more than any other Telemann I've ever heard! Are we really sure that they're by Telemann?

We now have the appearance of all the fantasies recorded by Jonathan Dunford, played with his disctinctive nobility, rich sound, emotional restraint and seriousness. I guess that two recordings have appeared so quickly is a testimony to their musical quality.

[Mandryka]

Extremely impressive Sainte Colombe selection from the great Pere Ros, accompanied in just three pieces by a musician  I've never come across before called Itziar Atutza. The two play in a really complementary way, even the sounds of their respective instruments, one wiry and one a bit plumper, work beautifully together. It's astonishingly well recorded.

But all this is as nothing compared with the approach. It's spacious. Like the greatest musicians, these two know how to use silence to create poetry. There's air between the phrases, the music is living and breathing, but calm, stable without be static, gentle without being feeble, dancing without being ecstatic, austere without being frugal, simple without being simplistic, expressive without being emotional, rapt without being rapturous.

Sorry for that.  I'd better shut up I think.

[aligreto]

Extremely impressive Sainte Colombe selection from the great Pere Ros, accompanied in just three pieces by a musician  I've never come across before called Itziar Atutza. The two play in a really complementary way, even the sounds of their respective instruments, one wiry and one a bit plumper, work beautifully together. It's astonishingly well recorded.

But all this is as nothing compared with the approach. It's spacious. Like the greatest musicians, these two know how to use silence to create poetry. There's air between the phrases, the music is living and breathing, but calm, stable without be static, gentle without being feeble, dancing without being ecstatic, austere without being frugal, simple without being simplistic, expressive without being emotional, rapt without being rapturous.

Sorry for that.  I'd better shut up I think.

I think that you make a compelling case 

[Mandryka]

Jordi Savall and Wieland Kuijken made two recordings of music for two viols by Ste. Colombe père for Astrée, and I very much like this their second one. Their approach is self assured. You never for a second have the impression of a virtuosic improvised second viol part responding in the moment to a simpler written out first viol part. Nevertheless I find their composure very satisfactory in these pieces, which I find very moving. Who, apart from Tobias Hume, was better than Sainte Colombe at using the viol poignantly, psychologically, emotionally?

There's a real spiritual, abstract, eternal side to Ste Colombe Père's music - spacious, and other worldly, a real high point of the baroque.

I also like the rather fat sounds of their instruments together.

[Mandryka]

This is Jonathan Dunford's first recording of music by Ste. Colombe (Père),

The musicians who remind me most of Jonathan Dunford and Sylvia Abramowicz are The Tatrai String Quartet. Dunford seduces not with song but with rhetoric. Dunford's art is all about nuanced and fluid declamation. His music making is like a renaissance acid etching, the grey shading seems to get to the heart of the matter, the essence of things, without the distraction of the painters' colours. Paradoxically, this restrained music making seems full of passion to me. But it is more demanding. That's to say, Savall and Kuijken work to create an atmosphere which I can bathe in, which I can let wash over me. Dunford does none of that - you have to listen in a focussed and attentive way to get anything out of what he does.

[Mandryka]

Two  pieces by Ste. Colombe on this compilation CD from Jerome Hantaï and others, played with distinctive  lightness and quietness and elegance and poetic expression. Just 15 minutes but I thought what they do is rather satisfying.

[Mandryka]

This is Jonathan Dunford's second recording of music by Le Sieur de Ste. Colombe  - music from a manuscript for which Dunford himself found the attribution.

It contains three suites from the manuscript. The last of the three, the D minor, seems to me an astonishing piece of music with immediate impact and obvious depth of feeling and complexity of idea. It ends with an attractive chaconne

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/9T7RIfNT69Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/9T7RIfNT69Y</a>

Dunford presents the music like ricercare - the sense of the musician searching for the possibilities of what can be done with an idea, the sense of the musician letting his imagination roam, is very palpable. The result is something which is very much about the balance between intellect and feeling - I like that myself. The performances are intense, and they demand intense listening, my experience is that the moment I lose concentration or good will, all is lost. It's as if I have to engage with Dunford and Ste. Colombe, follow them on their journey, or they'll just abandon me by the wayside. As often is the case for me, finding the right volume (low) is essential, if not it sounds crude and dull.

In his notes to the recording, Dunford uses the word "exquisite", and that is right. I'm reminded that Bach's contribution to this genre was the end of a rich line that includes some major musical poems by Hume, Stoeffken and indeed Le Sieur de Ste. Colombe.

Dunford recorded and published this release by himself, and it's available in good MP3 and on Spotify. This seems a shame because for me, good MP3 and spotify is not really ideal.

[Mandryka]

I first got to know Anne-Marie Lasla and Sylvie Moquet through their participation in the Ensemble de Violes Orlando Gibbons, who made a fabulous recording of suites by Matthew Locke. This recording of music by St Colombe père on Alphée has been released as a stream and download, though unfortunately not the best quality. The performances have all the moody dusky sounding inwardness, like soliloquies,  that Ste Colombe demands IMO - it’s for me completely captivating.

Anne-Marie Lasla and Sylvie Moquet also made a recording of music by Du Mont, Marais and Louis Couperin which I have but I can’t remember a thing about it!

[aligreto]

Cross post from The Listening Thread:


Marais: Suite in D major from Pieces de Violes, 3me livre 1711 [Spectre de la Rose]





I thought that this piece is given a very fine, spirited and driven performance here. Definitely worth a listen for its energetic display in this music which is exuberant and exciting but yet controlled and contained. This is an assertive and appealing performance which has great presence. I was impressed.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Some of these recommendations look very interesting, esp. the one with Pierre Hantai.

I was just watching a few Jordi Savall  performances on YouTube last night and wondering which of his CDs (featuring him playing viol solo or in small ensemble) are must-haves.?? Thoughts?  (I do have the soundtrack to Tous Les Matins, which I have enjoyed for years.)

[Draško]

I was just watching a few Jordi Savall  performances on YouTube last night and wondering which of his CDs (featuring him playing viol solo or in small ensemble) are must-haves.?? Thoughts?  (I do have the soundtrack to Tous Les Matins, which I have enjoyed for years.)

I think bits from Ste. Colombe discs are featured on Tous les Matins du Monde soundtrack.

[Mandryka]

Some of these recommendations look very interesting, esp. the one with Pierre Hantai.

I was just watching a few Jordi Savall  performances on YouTube last night and wondering which of his CDs (featuring him playing viol solo or in small ensemble) are must-haves.?? Thoughts?  (I do have the soundtrack to Tous Les Matins, which I have enjoyed for years.)

To ironise

Top tier

Luis de Mila
Lessons for the Lyra Viol
Mr Demachy
Ste. Colombe père - both, but especially v.2
The second Tobias Hume


Second tier (or whatever the expression is)

Christopher Tye
Caurroy (maybe)
Louis de Caix d’Hervelois
John Jenkins
Matthew Locke
Dowland Lachrimae
John Coprario
Henry Purcell





With Savall the bowing can be a bit crude and lyrical, and he has a tendency to dominate ensembles. But there’s a great sense of discovery which can compensate. What I like most about him is that he seems to make music sound more ancient than it is - so stuff which is right on the borders of baroque and renaissance tends to sound backward looking to renaissance rather than forward looking to baroque,  which suits my musical tastes.

[Mandryka]

Christine Plubeau and Isabelle Saint-Yves play viol like cello, the push against the string to make an intense and rich singing sound. I don't like this approach much, I prefer the style that Padolfo pioneered, I want it to sound like Aeolus is playing rather than Bianca Castafiore. But anything with music by Ste. Colombe (père) is well worth hearing at least once IMO.

Unfortunately the booklet is nowhere online. Johan van Veen's review makes reference to what sounds like an interesting debate between Ste Colombe and De Machy about harmony and melody, my guess is he lifted it from the booklet. If anyone knows anything about it please let me know. Van Veen's review is here

http://www.musica-dei-donum.org/cd_reviews/BayardMusique_308-500.2.html

The recording includes a tombeau to his father by Ste. Colombe's son -- and that really is operatic. It features a descent to  the underworld like Froberger's tombeau for Blancrocher -- I guess it must have been a trope of the time.