EMA Recording & Book Reviews

A new, complete recording of Alessandro Stradella's 1673 biblical oratorio 'Ester' looks deeper than its Italian Counter-Reformation inspiration and goes back to the story's Jewish roots, centered on themes of resistance and survival owing to one woman's courage. Camerata Grimani and its strong Italian and American cast perform with rhetorical flair and, refreshingly, a Mediterranean sense of expression.

Italian composer and Franciscan friar Lodovico Viadana, born c. 1560 near Mantua, was a pioneer in the new expressive monody in church music. The Viadana Collective makes its stunning recording debut with music from their namesake's 'Centum sacri concentus ab una voce sola,' codifying the sound of solo voices with instrumental accompaniment.

Mahan Esfahani's J.S. Bach recordings, on harpsichord and clavichord, are rich in virtuosity and imagination. Although the music on this newest album, including preludes, inventions, and sinfonias, was composed for teaching purposes, Esfahani sees beyond the printed page and manages to coax a vocal character from his instrument.

Using the in-vogue terms of 'media' and 'materiality,' this collection finds insights in the objects of everyday music-making. Its chapters cover a range of topics, from conventional notation to the layout and decorations of illuminated manuscripts. In case after case, the visual, textual, and tactile effects of a manuscript impacted how the musicians engaged with its content.

This is a deeply satisfying new recording from the Indiana-based Alchymy Viols, joined by countertenor Michael Walker II. In his notes, Walker defines spirituals as preserving the history, sadness, joy, and hope of the enslaved Africans’ experience in the Americas. Their historically informed approach treats this repertoire in ways that feel both surprising and familiar.

For a time, countertenor Russell Oberlin was the star of the American early-music scene, from concert and recital halls to TV appearances and on best-selling records. But his career was short-lived, and performance styles evolved away from his dated, often mannered delivery. But what a sensationally beautiful voice. A new box set captures Oberlin in his prime, singing with some of the great pioneers of the early-music movement.

For a series devoted to 'neglected figures from Irish musical history,' Peter Whelan and the Irish Baroque Orchestra unearthed a 1767 program sung by Rachel Baptist, billed as a 'Black Syren.' On this lovely recording, soprano Rachel Redmond and the orchestra inhabit Baptist's world, making 'a connection through the centuries.'

Separated by 350 years and an ocean apart, Cuban and Chilean songwriters in the 20th century used some of the same compositional devices as Monteverdi and Purcell. Tenor Nicholas Mulroy's latest work connects the European Baroque with Latin America in a pleasing, ear-expanding album.

Last month, EMA published John Koster's review of Stewart Pollen's book A History of Stringed Keyboard Instruments. In the review, Koster wrote that the 'book is beset with numerous problems.' In reply, author Pollens sent EMA a Letter to the Editor.

Handel’s operas tell vivid stories in a complex, even idiosyncratic, manner that is not readily apparent even to a passionate Handelian. This brilliant book offers an eloquent account of the underlying processes at work, calling on broad examples — including classical literature, Shakespeare, novels, film — of the same narrative strategies.