EMA Recording & Book Reviews

Jean Rondeau’s 10-CD compilation of all the known works of Louis Couperin is a cornucopia of delights. His harpsichord playing is off-the-charts terrific, as are the performances of his instrumental collaborators and vocalists. This highly persuasive box set is a must-have for aficionados of French keyboard repertoire.

Despite Bach's overwhelming presence in our musical lives, a lot of influential scholarship remains inaccessible to a broader public because it is in German. A recent book (and searchable website) has bridged this gap with translations of over 50 lectures by prominent Bach expert Hans-Joachim Schulze. Loaded with the latest in-depth scholarship, the talks are nevertheless aimed toward the amateur listener.

Celebrating 35 years, Ensemble Galilei has seen, and perhaps anticipated, the coming together of the traditional music scene with early music. Their latest album mixes the great Irish composer Turlough O'Carolan with John Dowland and music from Elizabethan England with cracking Irish tunes, plus a few newly composed works.

In recent years, there's been so much new information on J.S. Bach's six cello suites that it can be hard to keep up. A new book is not only the newest (and therefore the most up-to-date) entry in the long catalog of Bach suite studies, it is also outstandingly comprehensive in scope. 

Two esteemed ensembles, two recordings, a new double-disc set. Almost a decade in the making, Ensemble Peregrina and Ensemble Gilles Binchois team up for 'Summa Leticia: A Survey of Nova Cantica in France, c. 1100' — music that was radical in its day and, for us, is loaded with such ambiguity that this repertoire is infrequently performed.

The early demise of American mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson left an unfillable hole in the hearts of many listeners. A newly remastered recording captures the burnished beauty of tone, commitment to character, and intensity that made her such an unforgettable artist.

Trésors Oubliés, the debut album from New York's period-instrument Quodlibet Winds, is devoted to music from early 19th-century Paris. The ensemble makes a stellar case for this repertoire. While strict in form, 'there's a sense of freedom and spontaneity that invites listeners inside the music.'

Concordian Dawn's 'Caroles by Candel-lēoht' service, a Christmastime tradition, is the inspiration for the Medieval ensemble's latest album. The music comes from English, Hebrew, Latin, and Sephardic traditions in an often fraught search for 'redemption and salvation.'

A valuable new book (and accompanying website) on protest songs gives insightful political context to music that can seem detached from its original meaning and culture. 'A protest song, like protest itself, is intent upon political change—of ideas, attitudes, or actions.'

Fortepianist Sezi Seskir and cellist Keiran Campbell's fine new recording of Beethoven's two cello sonatas captures the composer's many facets: nuanced, exciting, humorous, and often blazing with joy. Highly recommended.