The world of compact discs

Contemporary Review, Dec, 1998 by Anthony Paterson

Hyperion has brought us the most spectacular and sonorous recording of recent months, two compact discs which recreate one of the great annual ceremonies that drew visitors to Venice from all over Europe. Lo Sposalizio (CDA 67048) gives us the sounds and music of 'The Wedding of Venice to the Sea' as it was celebrated about 1600. We follow the procession across the Lagoon where the Doge would drop the golden ring into the water and then hear the Mass as celebrated in San Nicolo. Most of the music is by Giovanni and Andrea Gabrielli. This recording also has numerous drum rolls and trumpets interspersed with short pieces of instrumental music. It concludes with a recording of all the bells of Venice ringing out in jubilation. This tremendous undertaking - involving much scholarly research - is the work of Robert King and the King's Consort and draws on such talents as James Bowman as counter tenor. This is surely a unique production and can only be appreciated by a careful listening.

It is difficult to believe that any of Mozart's works still remain virtually unknown yet such has been the fate of most of his songs. Mozart Songs from HYPERION (CDA 66989) is an all British production with the pianist, Roger Vignoles, accompanying the soprano, Joan Rodgers, and the tenor, John Mark Ainsley, in twenty-five, mainly short songs, drawing on texts by various poets. While these are not lieder of a Schubertian dimension, they do show Mozart's endless talent even in slight works like Komm, liebe Zither where a lovesick youth confides his secret to his zither. This well done disc - with excellent texts and translations - enhances our knowledge of Mozart.

Handel's Let the Bright Seraphim achieved renewed popularity when it was sung at the 1981 Royal Wedding. It provides the title for a delightful disc from CARLTON that combines the sound of the trumpet with the rich soprano voice of Jeni Beri (3036601182). Here we have songs and arias by Handel and Purcell interspersed with orchestral music by Handel, Corelli and Scarlatti. The texts are often suitably patriotic such as this from Purcell's Don Quixote of 1694:

Genius of England and from thy present bower of bliss, Arise and spread thy wings. Guard, guard from foes the British state, That on whose smile doth wait the uncertain happy fate Of monarchies and kings.

The trumpet - appropriately an eighteenth century English type - unites the disc and one only has to say that the trumpeter is Crispian Steele-Perkins to know that this is music-making of the highest quality.

Handel is of course a composer identified with the Christmas season as many people regard listening to Messiah as almost a religious obligation It is easy to forget that Handel is not an English, but a German composer. Handel in Hamburg from HYPERION (CDA 67053) recalls his early triumphs as a teenager in the North German port where he first came to fame. Here we have the Parley of Instruments under Peter Holman performing instrumental music from various Handel operas such as Almira and Rodrigo first produced in Hamburg. This recording has been careful to reproduce the authentic 'French sound' produced by orchestras in Handel's time. The violin technique of Elizabeth Wallfisch is particularly outstanding on this disc. Once again Hyperion have brought to light forgotten masterpieces. Indeed this is the first recording of the Suite from Florindo and Daphne.

Only a few years after Handel left Hamburg, J. S. Bach started working on the collection of piano pieces known as The Well-Tempered Clavier which have remained central to the keyboard tradition and exerted tremendous influence on later composers such as Beethoven or Gounod. The latter even helped himself to one of the preludes. Though some listeners will always prefer the sound of the harpsichord, we have had over the years numerous editions by distinguished pianists such as Edwin Fischer and Wanda Landowska (the latter on the harpsichord) and we now have two more notable versions. The Canadian pianist, Angela Hewitt, has brought forth on the HYPERION label a two-CD set of Book One comprising the first twenty-four preludes (CDA 703 1/2). She is an assured and skilful player with a mastery of technique. OLYMPIA has produced a rival from the much older pianist, Tatiana Nikolayeva (OCD 703 ABCD). Her edition consists of four CDs as she does 'the complete 48,' that legendary test of the skill of any musician and she brings her awesome task to a triumphant conclusion. The Hyperion set would win if the sole basis was the quality of material accompanying the recordings as Angela Hewitt provides a notable and lengthy essay giving an assessment of each prelude. However the Nikolayeva has the virtue of being complete. In either case one will hear intimate and controlled playing.

Before Rossini gave up composing to devote his life to eating, he wrote many operas, comparatively few of which are performed today. Yet he was a master of writing tuneful and dramatic arias and we are fortunate to have such a virtuoso singer as Jennifer Larmore to remind us of them in TELDEC'S Amore per Rossini (0630-13147-2), a generous selection of eight pieces from seven different operas. Especially memorable is Sazia tu fossi alfine from Matilde di Shabran, which has never been recorded before. This American mezzo-soprano is as remarkable for the clarity of her voice as the purity of her Italian diction while the English Chamber Orchestra is conducted with rousing dramatic intensity by Giuliana Carella.