EMA Recording & Book Reviews

A catchy title for this release might be “Wotan Sings Bach.” Matthias Goerne, who has made an excellent impression as the Wanderer and Wotan in productions of Wagner’s Ring cycle, takes on two of the cantatas Bach wrote for the bass voice, “Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen,” BWV 56, and “Ich habe genug,” BWV 82.

This album vividly captures two of Quantz’s 281 concertos and three of Telemann’s approximately 125 in vibrant performances by the 13-member Montreal-based ensemble.

The old saying “all good things must come to an end” applies to everything, in its own time. Unfortunately, that time is now for the Flanders Recorder Quartet. After 30 years of performances, recordings, and early-music ambassadorship, the group has decided that this will be their last album together.

The Cleveland-based ensemble Les Délices focuses on an enticing selection of pieces: core Baroque genres, familiar French style, but repertoire far outside the typical offerings. As the liner notes point out, the composers here were among the last of their kind; this recording encapsulates the end of the Baroque era, and this moment in French history, in a series of rich, intricate works.

Colleen Reardon’s engaging and meticulously researched study turns to Siena in the later 17th and early 18th centuries, and the complex social networks that nurtured the performance of some 30 operas presented there between 1669 and 1704 by composers such as Cesti, Scarlatti, Bononcini, and Melani.

Kleine Kammermusik’s CD, Fanfare and Filigree: Chamber Music from Paris and Dresden, is an evocative collection of attractive pieces for oboes, recorders, bassoon, and continuo by six composers active in those cities between 1692 and the 1740s.

The Spanish ensemble Tasto Solo plays with wonderful sensitivity, whether in the somewhat straightforward arrangements or in their charming improvisational approach to the grounds. One could easily imagine that if someone in Henry VIII’s court had played these instruments as well as these musicians, they might not have disappeared so quickly.

The memoirs reveal Ralph Kirkpatrick’s keen and often scathing observations about the harpsichord world, delivered in that unique style all his students remember well.

The members of Ensemble Correspondances seem to get everything right in Charpentier's La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers: easily swinging inégales, perfectly weighted appogiature, crisp articulation of text, and overall dramatic impersonation.

The Choir of St. Luke in the Fields has taken the rather refreshing approach of presenting the Mass in toto, instead of interspersing the other motets in between its movements.