Musique Sacrée by Marc-Antoine CharpentierReview by: Rick AndersonNotes, Second Series, Vol. 60, No. 4 (Jun., 2004), pp. 1013-1014Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4487279 .

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SOUND RECORDING REVIEWS BY RICK ANDERSON

For information about the scope of this column, consult the headnote in the September 2003 issue (p. 240 of this volume).

Costanzo Festa. La Spagna: 32 Contrapunti. Huelgas-Ensemble/ Paul Van Nevel. Harmonia Mundi HMC 901799, 2003.

In September 1536, Costanzo Festa asked his patron Filippo Strozzi to intercede on his behalf with a Venetian publisher, hop- ing that the publisher would print Festa's large collection of variations on a cantus firmus taken from the popular basse danse known variously as "La basse danse de Spayn," "Tenore del re di Spagna," or, sim- ply, "La Spagna." Although Festa never did succeed in publishing his collection (and the composition was lost from view for the remainder of the century), a manu- script version was kept in a musuem in Bologna; the seventeenth-century com- poser Lodovico Zacconi was familiar with the pieces and spoke very highly of Festa's achievement. As well he might: Festa's col- lection consists of no fewer than 125 varia- tions on the basic thirty-seven-note theme, all of them displaying a remarkable level of melodic invention and contrapuntal ele- gance. Indeed, this is a work on a scale un- precedented during his period-its like would not be attempted again until Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, to which the "La Spagna" variations have been favorably compared. For this premiere recording, Paul Van Nevel selected thirty- two pieces from the collection, alternating his instrumental settings between the "whole consort" (ensembles consisting of identical instrumental timbres) and "bro- ken consort" (ensembles of mixed timbres) approaches in order to provide textural va- riety. The playing is very fine and the recording exceptional. One wishes that a recording of the complete collection of variations were available; while it might be

a bit overwhelming as a single listening ex- perience, the value of such a recording to music scholarship would be significant.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Musique Sacree. Musica Antiqua K61ln/ Reinhard Goebel. Archiv B0001413-02, 2003.

The Messe pour plusieurs instruments au lieu des orgues (H. 513) that serves as the center- piece for this collection of sacred instru- mental music is rarely recorded, and with good reason: calling for more than thirty instrumentalists as well as vocalists to per- form the plainchant sections, recording the work is an expensive proposition, and the technical difficulties presented by the music itself are considerable as well. This spectacular recording is a signal achieve- ment for Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua K61ln, an ensemble that has been accused in the past (sometimes with good reason) of sacrificing musical pleasure on the altar of historical argument. There are no such problems here, however. Opening the program with Charpentier's sumptuous and brilliant Marche de triomphe pour les vio- Ions, trompettes, timbales, flites, et hautbois (H. 547/1), Goebel makes his intentions clear: this music will be presented as a feast as much for the senses as for the spirit, and no expense or effort will be spared in pre- senting it in all its glory. The result is in- deed glorious; the opening march is imme- diately followed by the Mass, in which brief but powerful instrumental sections alter- nate with vocal plainchant; following the Mass, there is a brief trumpet fanfare and an instrumental offertory, and then a selec- tion of ceremonial music composed for the Feast of Corpus Christi. The playing of Musica Antiqua K61ln's expanded ensemble

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1014 NOTES, June 2004

could not be more tasteful; Goebel expertly balances elegance with exuberance, and the recorded sound is exquisite. Very highly recommended to all libraries.

George Frideric Handel. La Resur- rezione. Nancy Argenta; Maria Cristina Kiehr; Marijana Mijanovic; Marcel Reijans; Klaus Mertens; Combat- timento Consort Amsterdam/Jan Willem de Vriend. Challenge Classics CC 72120, 2003.

Of Handel's many oratorios, only two are both explicitly Christian and biblical in their themes: the Messiah and the Oratorio per la Resurrezione del Nostro Signor Gesit Cristo. The latter is an unusually large-scale composition for Handel, requiring signifi- cant instrumental forces (though no cho- rus is used). Although La Resurrezione had a successful concert run in 1708, the score was not published until 1796, and then in an inaccurately edited version; it was not re- vived for the concert stage until halfway through the twentieth century. After 1708, Handel used the work mainly as a source of musical material for other compositions. Carlo Sigismondo Capece's libretto is quite dark, dealing as it does with the New Testament's account of Christ's three days in purgatory; indeed, Satan himself (sung beautifully here by Klaus Mertens) is one of the soloists and has some of the oratorio's best arias. La Resurrezione has not been ne- glected since an authoritative version of the score was published in 1960, and has been recorded a number of times, notably by the Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood (L'Oiseau Lyre 421 132-2, reissued on compact disc in 1988) and the Musiciens du Louvre under Marc Minkowski (Archiv 447 767-2, [1995, CD]). This latest recording, by the Combatti- mento Consort under Jan Willem de Vriend (playing modern instruments), was taken from a live performance at the Muziekcentrum in Enschede, the Nether- lands, in April 2001, and features an excep- tional cast of soloists. The circumstances of the recording lead to a few predictable and minor sonic glitches (mainly audible bumps and the occasional microphone placement problem), and there are occa-

sional slight slips of intonation among the instrumentalists. But the performance is deeply involving and energetic and gener- ally quite well recorded. While this one does not completely overshadow the Hog- wood version, it would make a good com- panion recording for those libraries that wish to own more than one performance.

Franz Anton Hoffmeister. String Quartets, op. 14. Aviv Quartet. Naxos 8.55952, 2003.

Though Franz Anton Hoffmeister was well known and admired in his day as a composer (especially of flute music), it is as a music publisher that he is best known in this century. Hoffmeister published first editions by Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among other notables. Though his cham- ber works for flute are still performed and recorded regularly, his string quartets-of which he wrote a substantial number-have been somewhat neglected. In fact, as of March 2004 it appears that this is the only commercially available recording dedicated to Hoffmeister's string quartets. These three quartets comprise his opus 14, and were composed around 1790; none of them is of world-shaking musical import, but all reveal Hoffmeister to have been a master of the form and certainly a gifted and elegant melodist very much in the style of Haydn. The D-Minor Quartet is the most sophisti- cated of the three, but the sonata-rondo movement that ends the B-flat Major Quartet is among the most charming. The young Aviv Quartet plays splendidly, with an admirable clarity of tone, precision, and ensemble blend, and the group is recorded equally well on this budget-priced disc. Very highly recommended to all libraries.

Paul Hindemith. Clarinet Chamber Music. John Bruce Yeh, Easley Black- wood, Amelia Piano Trio. Cedille CDR 90000 072, 2003.

Paul Hindemith remains one of the more contradictory figures in twentieth-century music-a self-professed guardian of the tonal tradition who nevertheless wrote some of the most difficult and "modernist"

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