Michael Dervanreviews four new releases.
MARTIN: POLYPTYQUE; MARIA-TRIPTYCHON; PASSACAILLE
Muriel Cantoreggi (violin), Juliane Banse (soprano), German
Radio Philharmonic Orchestra/Christoph Poppen
ECM New Series 173 3930
***
Polyptyque, subtitled Six images de la Passion du Christ, for violin and two string orchestras, was written for Yehudi Menuhin when Frank Martin was 83. Muriel Cantoreggi brings to the fastidious Swiss composer's work an early music austerity which doesn't seem entirely apt, and Christoph Poppen matches with a lean-toned orchestral contribution.
The Marian tripytch, Maria-Triptychon (setting the Ave Maria, Magnificat and Stabat Mater), was finished five years earlier in 1967, and is altogether better served by the radiant Juliane Banse; though, in a surprising glitch, ECM offer no texts. The Passacaille (a 1962 orchestration of a 1944 organ work) sounds clear, but a little too chilled. www.ecmrecords.com
MICHAEL DERVAN
HAYDN: DIE SCHÖPFUNG
Chetham's Chamber Choir, Gabrieli Consort and Players/Paul
McCreesh
Archiv Produktion 477 7361 (2 CDs)
****
Paul McCreesh has long shown a flair for attention-grabbing projects. His new Haydn Creation is the opposite of early music petite. It uses an orchestra of 100-plus players (larger than is required for Richard Strauss's Elektra) and a chorus to match.
He's also touched up the familiar but not always successful English of Baron van Swieten's translation of his own German libretto. The effect is splendiferous in a thoroughly indulgent way, especially when it comes to the colours of woodwind, brass and choirs, and the pacing has an appealing, natural spring.
Among the soloists, I preferred the simpler style of the Adam and Eve (Peter Harvey and Miah Persson) to the Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael (Sandrine Piau, Mark Padmore and Neal Davies).
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MICHAEL DERVAN
BUXTEHUDE: HARPSICHORD MUSIC VOL 1
Lars Ulrik Mortensen
Naxos 8.570579
****
Legend has it that Bach walked more than 200 miles to hear the playing of Buxtehude, and then got into trouble for overstaying his leave by a couple of months. Bach's enthusiasm was fully merited, and organists regularly mine the rich vein of Buxtehude's organ music, some of which, as Lars Ulrik Mortensen shows, can work well on the harpsichord.
If you've any doubts, just try the exuberant flourishes of the opening Toccata in G, BuxWV165, the high-lying Canzonetta in A minor, BuxWV225, or the busy Fugue in B flat, where the mean-tone tuning of Mortensen's Ruckers-style harpsichord produces tensions that would be quite lost in equal temperament. Along with pieces usually heard on the organ, the disc includes three suites of dances that organists shy away from.
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MICHAEL DERVAN
FRESCOBALDI: KEYBOARD MUSIC FROM MANUSCRIPT SOURCES
Martha Folts (harpsichord)
Naxos 8.570717
US harpsichordist Martha Folts has two elements of rarity to her new CD. Firstly there's the repertoire, pieces by the great 17th-century Italian master, Girolamo Frescobaldi, which have been culled from manuscript sources rather than the composer's printed collections.
And then there's the instrument, a soft-toned harpsichord made by Jerome de Zentis in Italy in 1658 (restored by Keith Hill in 2004), which captivates the ear with its unusual resonances. Folts's playing is sometimes a little stiff, a little predictable when dealing with the improvisatory brilliance of Frescobaldi's writing, perhaps too reserved in communicating his sense of caprice. Yet the CD has some ravishing moments which make it well worth investigating.
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MICHAEL DERVAN
