Three more Ricercar

NOTE: All of the releases on this program  are on the Ricercar label. For more information: https://outhere-music.com/en/labels/ricercar

I. Silvestro Ganassi: La Fontegara (Le Concert Brisé/William Dongois). Ricercar CD RIC 395.

Silvestro Ganassi (1492–1565) holds a special place in music history as having written the first in a long line of treatises on diminution in his La Fontegara. It was published in Venice in 1535. This wonderful recording is an outgrowth of a scholarly research project, lead by William Dongois, for the Haute Ecole de Musique of Geneva. In Ganassi’s own words, “Diminution is nothing except an ornament for the counterpoint.” The principal aim of the treatise was to facilitate the imitation of the human voice on instruments. Ganassi was among a number of renowned piffari in Venice for the Dodge and a member of Scuola Grande of San Rocco.  His years of service for the Doge coincided with the period that Adrian Willaert was maestro di cappella of the Basilica of St. Mark.

This recording is comprised of a program of composers contemporary with Ganassi. The recording has 18 pieces all of which are highly ornamented using Ganassi’s diminutions drawn from La Fontegara as a basis. Given the unusual rhythmic patterns not only based on values of 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, and 24, but also on 5, 7, 10, 14, 20, and 28, musicologists have considered La Fontegarato be more a theoretical treatise than a practical manual. However, hearing Dongois and the other members of Le Concert Brisé play these divisions it is clear to this listener that it was not only a theoretical work.

They perform five anonymous dance tunes and one by Pierre Attaingnant and employ percussion and a full complement of the ensemble. As with every piece on this recording these dances are highly ornamented using figures from La Fontegara as models for the improvisations. A major aspect of the research project was to explore the use of the Ganassi embellishments in polyphonic compositions. Le Concert Brisé performed a number of Renaissance masterpieces including Mille regrets and Douleur me bat by Josquin, Fortuna desperate by Busnois, Gombert’s Mort et fortune and Dezilde al Caballero, Sacro fonte by Willaert, Italia mia by Verdelot, Tromhoncino’s Zephyro spira, Per dolor by Marchetto Cara and Anchor che col partire by Cipriano de Rore.  Not only were the compositional lines embellished with virtuosic Ganassi examples but purely improvised lines were being playing by one or more instruments while the unembellished line was being played at the same time.  William Dongois had a dominant role improvising with breathtaking virtuosic lines on the cornetto. However, the entire ensemble played with flawless precision and imagination. This recording could constitute a graduate level class in Renaissance improvisation all by itself. A spectacular recording.

II. Cantilena Anglica Fortunae: Selected Harpsichord Works of Heinrich Scheidemann and Samuel Scheidt (Yoann Moulin, harpsichord). Ricercar CD RIC 394.

Heinrich Scheidemann was born Wöhrden in Schleswig-Holstein, where his father was organist and probably his first music teacher. In Amsterdam he studied with Sweelinck from 1611 to 1614, with his master going as far as to dedicate one of his own Canons to his pupil. Here I must say that this was until now, the extent of my knowledge of the composer, I knew through my reading on the Dutch master that he was one of his pupils, but as to his music, this is my first introduction and I must say that I am impressed. He is held to be one of the most important composers and organists of his generation in northern Germany and became the organist of the Catharinenkirche in Hamburg, a position he would hold until his death from the plague over thirty years later. His music certainly shows Sweelinck’s influence, especially in the quicker pieces, such as the ‘Gagliarda in D’ and the ‘Praeambulum in D’ which also shows a degree of originality in the way the opening section undulates and gradually develops into the piece’s main theme. This originality shines forth in other works such as the ‘Fuga in D minor’, with its slow stately pace drawing out the fugal structure of the piece, something which really shines in his ‘Pavana Lachrymae’.

Of the two composers, Samuel Scheidt is probably the better known. Born in Halle, by the age of seventeen he was the organist at the Moritzkirche, where he stayed until he left to study with Sweelinck in Amsterdam from 1607 to 1608, after which he returned to his home town where he was to spend most of his life; he was later to edit the German edition of Sweelinck’s works in the city. You soon appreciate who is the finer composer of the two, with Scheidt coming out on top; it is not a coincidence that the piece that gives this disc its title is by Scheidt. You cannot compare the first two tracks as Scheidemann’s slow and stately ‘G minor Praeambulum’, with its plucked strings sounding somewhat like a lute at times, cannot compete with the exuberance of Scheidt’s allemande ‘Also geht’s, also steht’s’. A much better comparison would be his ‘In dich hab ich gehoffett’, with its slower pace and lighter feel, but here there is no feel of it being played on a lute, this is clearly a keyboard work and the greater creativity shines through. The following ‘Courante’ is lovely, its mix of stateliness and gaiety being just right. The title piece, ‘Cantilena Anglica Fortunae’, with its wonderful set of variations on the English lute song ‘Fortune my Foe’, the best known version of which is by John Dowland, deserves its place on the cover of this disc, it shows a composer happy to work with a simple tune and weave around it complex and imaginative variants.

Whilst the musicianship of Samuel Scheidt shines forth here, Heinrich Scheidemann has an important role on this disc and in the history and development of German music especially for the keyboard; without both of these composers the face of German music might have been totally different. We know that Sweelinck was an influence, especially on J S Bach, and it was through the likes of Scheidt and Scheidemann, who learned at the great man’s knee, that this influence was first felt. This is touched upon in the excellent booklet essay by Jérôme Lejeune as he clearly identifies their position in the history of music, whilst also discussing their music and each of the pieces performed here. The booklet also includes a short postscript by Yoann Moulin in which he discusses the idea behind the recording of these works. Yoann Moulin plays a modern copy of a Rückers instrument from 1615, towards the end of Sweelinck’s life and contemporary to the composition of these pieces. His playing is excellent throughout, his use of the instrument to get the best from this music is exemplary. From the pieces that display the lute-like character of the instrument to those which show it as an instrument for the keyboard virtuoso, his touch is perfect, as he colours each of the pieces well. This is an interesting and historically important issue as well as a very enjoyable and welcome addition to my collection.--Stuart Sillitoe

III. Telemann: Per Tromba & Corno da Caccia (Eolus/Jean-François Madeuf).  Ricercar CD RIC 397.

Their achievement here demonstrates how far such period practice ensembles have come in realising the compositions of a long-distant era with not only formidable accuracy, but also in a manner that is musically appealing rather than raw or unconcerned with the overall aesthetic effect. If the programme seems arcane on paper, the anonymous Suite in E-flat, from a manuscript held by the University of Rostock, includes a dignified Handelian ‘Ouverture’ and a Siciliano, overlaid with a glistening trumpet solo, which are in a similar style to the equivalent movements of the Music for the Royal Fireworks, intimating that Handel’s famous work did not emerge from a cultural vacuum, albeit that the forces used were significantly more numerous in that celebrated instance.

That Suite is a good example of the collegiate sense of interplay that obtains among the performers, as they interact vivaciously for the Aria, and the oboes and trumpet play off each other in its joyful Bourrée. In slower or more solemn movements on this disc, the instruments are nicely integrated, as in the reflective Adagio of the Concerto in F major attributed to Telemann, or the stately opening of his Concerto in D major. The high writing for the trumpet in that work puts Jean-François Madeuf in the spotlight, but he rises to the challenge superbly. Pitted against him, Elsa Franck and Johanne Maître on the oboes are crisp, creating a tone that is contiguous with that of the trumpet but yet also offers a subtly shaded contrast. By comparison they are more wailing and piquant in the Suite in F major which, like some of Telemann’s fully orchestral suites, comprises some descriptive movements. The horns are mellow in that work’s opening, but forceful in the later sections. However, they sound somewhat woolly in the Concerto a 3 by Maximilian Fiedler.

Throughout the disc Jérémie Papasergio performs the bassoon part with a gently rasping quality that draws attention to the fact that its role in this music is often more than simply to provide the underlying accompaniment, but bears real interest in itself, as well as constituting a foil to the timbres of the other instruments. The disc concludes with a lively Aire de Trompette – like the previous Concerto by Telemann, calling upon Elisabeth Geiger’s discreet contribution on the harpsichord – and a March that requires a third oboe and an improvised drum part to simulate the effect of a military parade.

If the music does not break new ground, this recording nevertheless offers an attractive slant upon one of the uses to which the art of music was put in the Baroque era, when composers rarely wrote abstract music for no particular purpose.

Curtis Rogers