Johann Caspar KERLL (1627-1693)
Missa non sine quare
(München, 1689)
La Risonanza/Fabio Bonizzoni (organ)
rec. May 1999, Chiesa di San Lorenzo, Laino (Italy)
Texts and translations included
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview.
Previously released by Symphonia as SY99171 and by Pan Classics as PC10259.
GLOSSA GCDC80033
[54:01]
This recording seems to have been playing a game of musical chairs. When
first released by Symphonia in 2000, it received a hearty 5-star
recommendation from Peter Grahame Woolf, who thought it the ideal way to
set yourself up for the day –
review.
Since then, it has been reissued by Pan in 2012 – where it remains
available as a download – and now by Glossa. I presume that the migration
has been made because of La Risonanza’s distinguished association in recent
years with Glossa rather than from any perceived lack of merit; PGW was far
from alone in praising it back in 2000.
Bach spoke highly of the music of Kerll, and Handel ‘borrowed’ it. The name
Kerll is cognate with the English ‘churl’, a word which has gone down in
value since it referred to the close companions of the pre-Conquest Kings,
the house-carls, but there’s nothing churlish about this uplifting music.
It’s more appropriate to take the English equivalent of the name of the
group La Risonanza and describe both the music and performances as
resonant.
Whereas the North German Lutheran composers who were his contemporaries
have been faring quite well of late, from labels such as CPO and Carus, the
adopted South German Kerll’s music has had fewer advocates. I mentioned the
Ricercar recording of his Requiem, coupled with Fux’s Kaiserrequiem in another
review,
but that’s about all of his music that I could find on my hard drive,
apart from walk-on parts on other recordings.
On the basis of the Requiem and this Glossa reissue, I would
certainly like to hear more. The Missa non sine quare (literally
‘not without reason’) and the instrumental pieces interspersed in this
recording may not be the most original that you have heard, but it is all
very well wrought, and the performances do it full justice. I did wonder
about the authenticity of the insertion of the motets and of the
instrumental music at the gradual and post-communion, but this seems to
have been established practice at the time.
It also allows the performers to give us a cross-section of Kerll’s music,
which brings me to my one criticism of this recording. 54 minutes was short
measure in 2000; it’s even shorter measure now. Could Glossa not have
recorded La Risonanza in some extra music for this release? Perhaps Fabio
Bonizzoni could have given us some of Kerll’s keyboard works, though these
are covered by a 2-CD Tall Poppies pair (TP121, John O’Donnell) and a
recent 3-CD Brilliant Classics super-budget set (94452, Matteo Messori).
Kerll was renowned above all in his time as a superb organist, so that
Brilliant Classics set, currently on offer for as little as £7.87, or
download in CD-quality for as little as £6.49, with booklet, is well worth
choosing in addition. (Don’t pay the same price for mp3; certainly, don’t
pay over £10 for the second-hand CD being offered by one dealer.) I
obtained the Messori recording, too, from my B2B access; having dipped into
it, I predict that I shall be dipping into it regularly. The delightful
harpsichord Capricccio sopra il cucu may well have been Handel’s
inspiration for his ‘the Cuckoo and the Nightingale’ organ concerto; the
organ Canzona No 4 was certainly lifted for Israel in Egypt.
The Battaglia which follows the cuckoo is also highly picturesque, while
the 55-minute Modulatio organica on the Magnificat, which
fills CD3, is widely regarded as some of the finest extended organ music before
Bach, who was born just one year before its publication. It’s performed
here with the solo voice introducing each of the modulations.
Go for the Glossa first, on sale for mid-price, around £8.50 in the
UK, but also add the Brilliant Classics at its even more modest
price.
Two decades since its original release have not dimmed the quality of La
Risonanza’s performances or the quality of the recording. My press download
came without the booklet, but I was able to find the Pan version. I’m sure
that the Glossa will maintain the high standards of their label and come
with something at least as good. I note with approval that the commercial
download will include it. Third time lucky, I hope, for this attractive
recording; it deserves to sell well.
Brian Wilson
Contents
Introitus
1 Cibavit eos (Gregorian) [1:03]
2 Kyrie, Christe, Kyrie * [3:31]
3 Gloria * [4:49]
Graduale
4 Sonata in F for two violins & b.c. [6:32]
5 Credo * [7:15]
Offertorium
6 Plaudentes Virgini for soprano, alto, tenor, bass & b.c.
[3:45]
7 Sanctus et Benedictus * [4:17]
8 Agnus Dei * [2:18]
Communio
9 Ama cor meum for alto, tenor, two violins & b.c. [7:25]
10 Dignare me for soprano, alto, bass & b.c. [2:34]
Post Communio
11 Sonata in g minor for two violins, bass & b.c. [7:13]
Deo Gratias
12 Regina cæli laætare [2:31]
From Missa non sine quare *
b.c. = basso continuo
La Risonanza:
Elisa Franzetti (soprano)
Emanuele Bianchi (countertenor)
Mario Cecchetti (tenor)
Sergio Foresti (bass)
Carla Marotta, David Plantier (violins)
Peter Birner (cornett)
Olaf Reimers (violoncello)
Giorgio Sanvito (violone)
Ivan Pelà (theorbo)
Fabio Bonizzoni (organ/direction)
