Comentario Vendedor :
Baroque Christmas Music / Francis, Northwest Co
Release Date: 11/16/1999
Label: Helios Catalog #: 55048 Spars Code: n/a
Composer: Henry Purcell, Giuseppe Valentini, Georg Philipp Telemann, Giuseppe Torelli, ...
Performer: Linda Melsted, Virginia Moore
Conductor: Alun Francis
Orchestra/Ensemble: Northwest Chamber Orchestra Seattle
Number of Discs: 1
Recorded in: Stereo
Length: 0 Hours 47 Mins.
EAN: 0034571150482
Works on This Recording
1. Behold, I bring you glad tidings, Z 2: Interlude no 1 by Henry Purcell
Performer: Linda Melsted (Violin), Virginia Moore (Harpsichord)
Conductor: Alun Francis
Orchestra/Ensemble: Northwest Chamber Orchestra Seattle
Period: Baroque
Written: 1687; England
Length: 1 Minutes 22 Secs.
Notes: Audio Producer: Walter Gray.
2. Behold, I bring you glad tidings, Z 2: Interlude no 2 by Henry Purcell
Performer: Linda Melsted (Violin), Virginia Moore (Harpsichord)
Conductor: Alun Francis
Orchestra/Ensemble: Northwest Chamber Orchestra Seattle
Period: Baroque
Written: 1687; England
Length: 3 Minutes 18 Secs.
Notes: Audio Producer: Walter Gray.
3. Sinfonia per il SS Natale by Giuseppe Valentini
Performer: Virginia Moore (Harpsichord), Linda Melsted (Violin)
Conductor: Alun Francis
Orchestra/Ensemble: Northwest Chamber Orchestra Seattle
Period: Baroque
Written: Italy
Length: 9 Minutes 37 Secs.
Notes: Audio Producer: Walter Gray.
4. Overture-Suite for Strings and Basso continuo in A major, TV 55 no A 5 "Festliche Suite" by Georg Philipp Telemann
Performer: Virginia Moore (Harpsichord), Linda Melsted (Violin)
Conductor: Alun Francis
Orchestra/Ensemble: Northwest Chamber Orchestra Seattle
Period: Baroque
Written: Germany
Length: 16 Minutes 38 Secs.
Notes: Audio Producer: Walter Gray.
5. Concerti Grossi (12), Op. 8: no 6 in G minor "Christmas Concerto" - 1st movement, Grave - Vivace by Giuseppe Torelli
Performer: Virginia Moore (Harpsichord), Linda Melsted (Violin)
Conductor: Alun Francis
Orchestra/Ensemble: Northwest Chamber Orchestra Seattle
Period: Baroque
Written: circa 1709; Italy
Length: 2 Minutes 35 Secs.
Notes: Audio Producer: Walter Gray.
6. Concerti Grossi (12), Op. 8: no 6 in G minor "Christmas Concerto" - 2nd movement, Largo by Giuseppe Torelli
Performer: Linda Melsted (Violin), Virginia Moore (Harpsichord)
Conductor: Alun Francis
Orchestra/Ensemble: Northwest Chamber Orchestra Seattle
Period: Baroque
Written: circa 1709; Italy
Length: 2 Minutes 24 Secs.
Notes: Audio Producer: Walter Gray.
7. Concerti Grossi (12), Op. 8: no 6 in G minor "Christmas Concerto" - 3rd movement, Vivace by Giuseppe Torelli
Performer: Linda Melsted (Violin), Virginia Moore (Harpsichord)
Conductor: Alun Francis
Orchestra/Ensemble: Northwest Chamber Orchestra Seattle
Period: Baroque
Written: circa 1709; Italy
Length: 1 Minutes 41 Secs.
Notes: Audio Producer: Walter Gray.
8. Sinfonia Pastorale per il Ss Natale di nostro Jesu in D major by Gaetano Maria Schiassi
Performer: Virginia Moore (Harpsichord), Linda Melsted (Violin)
Conductor: Alun Francis
Orchestra/Ensemble: Northwest Chamber Orchestra Seattle
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1724; Italy
Length: 8 Minutes 32 Secs.
Notes: Audio Producer: Walter Gray.
Notes and Editorial Reviews
This anthology of "Baroque Christmas Music" is a welcome departure from the usual fare of Corelli, Manfredini et al. I'm not sure that the Festliche Suite in A major by Telemann is anything to do with Christmas but it is an attractive and seldom-performed work. I'm less enthusiastic though, about the playing of the Northwest Chamber Orchestra of Seattle under its director, Alun Francis. The French Ouverture is far too slow and far too heavy and the Plainte, a tender piece of writing, is meted out hefty treatment which renders it rather charmless. Other movements fare better though the chosen phrasing is not always effective, and rhythms err on the stodgy side; a less resonant acoustic might have helped matters, I think. By way of a filler for Side 1 are two Christmas Interludes from Purcell's anthem, Behold, I bring you glad tidings (1687). I found the playing of these very unimaginative and emphatically prosaic.
By contrast, the music by Italian composers which takes up the second side of the record, is more successful. The Sinfonia a Ire, per il Santissimo Natale by Giuseppe Valentini, is an attractive piece. He was a contemporary of Bach and Handel and this sinfonia comes from his Op. 1, published in 1701. Like the Christmas Concertos of Corelli and many other Italians, too, this one makes extensive use of the traditional piffero melodies and siciliano rhythm associated with the shepherds of the Roman countryside. Valentini's handling of the material is engaging though I longed for more subtlety in this all-too-bland playing. Best known amongst the pieces assembled here is the Concerto, per il Santo Natale, Op. 8 No. 6 by Torelli. By contrast with the Valentini the 'pastorale' music is treated with a robust fervour and a brisk tempo complying with Torelli's Vivace markings. I remember when I first heard this music on a record borrowed from a public library, when I was at school, the sleeve-note observed that the music provided no problems for the listener!
Finally, comes a Sinfonia pastorale by Gaetano Maria Schiassi, a Bolognese composer born in 1698. It's an exuberant piece which brings out the best in the band. To sum up, whilst I cannot be enthusiastic about the pedestrian performances, especially of the Telemann and Purcell, I can wholeheartedly recommend the repertoire. It has been carefully chosen and the works by Valentini and Schiassi are worth hearing. Good pressings and good presentation.
-- Gramophone [11/1982]
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'A delightful evocation of that momentous Christmas night'
(The Tablet)
'Charming programme ... very beautiful. A highly commendable issue'
(Hi-Fi News)
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Introduction
Shepherds are an indispensable part of our conception of the first Christmas night. It was to them that the Angel of the Lord appeared, bringing them the glad tidings of the birth of the Son of God. Consequently, the sound of shepherd pipes of one sort or another came to be imitated in the numerous Christmas night scenes without which, it seems, no baroque composer felt his output to be complete; and associated with rustic piping was the languid 6/8 or 12/8 metre suggestive of an idyllic pastoral scene. The greatest of all such musical pictures, albeit without specific religious connotation, is in 12/8: the ‘Scene by the Brook' in Beethoven's ‘Pastoral' Symphony. The present recording offers some of the earlier and less frequently heard representations of that momentous night in Bethlehem.
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767), the most prolific composer in the history of music, is said to have written 600 suites and overtures in response to the insatiable demand for French culture in Northern Germany during the early years of the eighteenth century. The French style is displayed strongly in the dotted opening sections of his ouvertures and also in the style and names (Rondeau, Sarabande, Gigue, etc) of the succeeding movements of most of them. Adolf Hoffmann's thematic catalogue of Telemann's orchestral suites (Möseler-Verlag, 1969) lists 137 surviving examples, many including wind instruments (some with concerto-like responsibility), but the majority—some 75—are for string band alone, and it is into this category that the Festliche Suite falls. It is scored simply for first and second violins and bass, to which, of course, a continuo harpsichord is added.
The grandly posturing ‘French' Introduction enfolds a light dancing section in 3/8 metre that avoids the customary fugal writing to be found in the most typical fast sections of such movements. There follows an energetic Marche and Plainte whose nature seems more to provide contrast than to lament some great tragedy. The central section of the next movement, Gavotte, is entitled Gavotte Il en Musette, and it is here that Telemann suggests the French bagpipe, or musette: a sighing melody with piquant pauses, the whole over a drone bass. The instrument known as the musette was immensely popular during Louis XIV's reign to depict rustic and pastoral scenes and, by association therefore, the watching shepherds of the Nativity. A Passepied and double (i.e. variation, in this instance for solo violin) follows, and the Festliche Suite closes with a Gigue in 6/4 time.
Precocious and enormously gifted, Henry Purcell (1659–1695) saw one of his own songs published when he was only eight years of age. At the time he was a chorister at the Chapel Royal. The rest of his short career also centred on London as organist at Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal, as keeper of the royal instruments, and as an active theatre composer, providing music (anything from a single song to the entire score) for some 50 stage works. He died at the age of 36 and was buried amid splendid ceremony in Westminster Abbey.
The two Christmas Interludes are extracted from the anthem Behold, I bring you glad tidings, written in 1687 for contralto, tenor, bass, chorus and small string orchestra. To our ears the Interludes are not noticeably in Yuletide style since the continental conventions of such pieces had not been adopted in the British Isles by Purcell's time.
Born in Florence, Giuseppe VaIentini (1680–1759) moved to Rome while still in his teens and became a disciple, perhaps also a pupil, of Arcangelo Corelli. He made a comfortable living in the Italian capital as composer and violinist, and became known for his virtuosity and for the unconventional style of his violin compositions. Some of them, it is said, treated tonality in cavalier fashion, and he would require his soloist to ascend to uncommon heights. He also wrote operas and sacred music for Rome, but towards the end of his life he seems to have moved to Paris and changed from the Corellian to the more ‘modern' homophonic style so popular there since the invasion of the Parisian audiences by music of the Mannheim School.
Valentini's twelve symphonies for strings in three parts, Op 1, are from a wholly different era. They were published in Rome, Amsterdam and elsewhere in 1701 and are strongly Corellian in character. The last, as was the fashion, is designed for Christmas performance. It is built round two pastoral movements, the first of which occurs immediately after the slow introduction; the second (‘Largo') between the two quick movements. The first of these faster movements is a virile and well-written ‘Allegro'; the finale (‘Presto') displays rapid alternations between forte and piano and, towards the end of the second half, an unusually independent bass line.
While Valentini's work of 1701 is an early example of the use of the word ‘symphony', Giuseppe Torelli (1658–1709) was earlier still in that particular field, producing numerous and often imposing symphonies for use in the San Petronio Cathedral in Bologne well before the turn of the century. Furthermore, he was the first composer to write a concerto for solo violin and string orchestra (published at Augsburg, 1698), and his Concerti Grossi Op 8, which appeared in print shortly after his death, are the very first concertos for two solo violins. It is the sixth of these that contains the Christmas music.
A solemn ‘Grave' sets the scene for the Pastorale, marked ‘Vivace' and cast in 12/8 metre, the two solo violins carrying much of the melodic interest. A meditative Largo leads to another ‘Vivace' which is a Gavotte en Musette in all but name, its held bass notes strongly suggesting the drone of the shepherds' pipes.
Like Valentini and Torelli, Gaetano Maria Schiassi (1698–1754) was a violinist and concentrated upon that instrument in his relatively small output of instrumental music. Of his eleven operas and six oratorios, only one opera (Il Demofoonte, produced in Venice in 1735) survives. We are therefore left with a one-sided view of his work, particularly since the present Christmas Symphony is the only music by Schiassi to exist in a modern edition. Its quality suggests that his twelve violin concertos, twelve violin sonatas, and ten duets for violin, cello and continuo may well be worth the attention of scholars and publishers.
He was born in Bologna in the very year that Torelli wrote his first violin concerto, and worked there and in Darmstadt before moving to Lisbon in the mid-1730s, where he died in the service of he royal chapel. The date and place of composition of the Christmas Symphony are not known, but its style suggests that it was written before Schiassi left for Portugal.
The noble opening ‘Adagio' is a fully-fledged movement rather than a mere introduction. It features suspensions and echo-like repetitions of whole phrases. This latter device is carried through into the ensuing ‘Allegro', which opens with a tight four-part three-octave canon. The second idea once again introduces the musette imitation: a distinctly rustic ‘bagpipe' theme over a drone bass, again utilising echo affects. The whole device is repeated in the rudimentary development section of the second half, and a recapitulation of the canonic opening theme closes the movement. The ‘Largo' which follows suggests to us that Schiassi was familiar with Vivaldi's music. It is a themeless creation of slowly changing chords which gives the keyboard continuo player the opportunity to indulge his fancy by arpeggiating the harmonic outline. It was a device used by Vivaldi in The Four Seasons and elsewhere.
Schiassi's finale embodies the pure time-honoured Pastorale design in 12/8, complete with yet more echo effects and the obligatory drone bass. The remarkable ending, descending in dynamic from forte to piano and then to più piano, is a kind of written-out ritardando in which ever-lengthening note values rise higher and higher to a final ethereal D major chord. Could Schiassi perhaps have visualised the Angels of the Lord ascending again after imparting their joyful message?
Robert Dearling © 1999
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