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Passacaglia della Vita - Homage to the Facets of Life
Cembaless
rec. Ev. Kirche St. Peter und Paul, Gönningen, 2019. DDD.
Texts not included: available online with German translation
Reviewed as lossless (wav) press preview.
NAXOS 8.551439 [62:11]

The zany cover, one of several such Heath-Robinson-like collages in the booklet, leads you to expect a fun collection of music, and, with some lively dance-like pieces from Italian, French and Spanish composers of the late renaissance and baroque periods, you won’t be disappointed. Murcia’s Fandango (track 2), to name but one piece, might well feature in an all-time collection of terpsichorean delight. I use the adjective deliberately, because my thoughts immediately turn to the two prime editions of the dance music of the period: Michael Prætorius’ Terpsichore (1612) and Orchésographie by ‘Thoinot Arbeau’ (1589, actually a thin disguise for the priest Jehan Tabourot).

If you already have the classic David Munrow recording of the Prætorius (Renaissance Dance, Erato Veritas 3500032, with music by Susato, Morley, etc.), which I must have recommended more times than any other music, or the more complete collections of music from Terpischore from Philip Pickett (Decca 4759101, mid-price), Peter Holman (Hyperion CDA67240, download only – December 2009), Ricercar Consort/La Fenice (Ricercar RIC136, download only, super-budget price), or Christopher Ball (Alto ALC1076, budget price, with Arbeau, etc. – June 2011/1), and are looking for more in the same vein, this new Naxos could be the place to head.

Another set of recordings which might lead you in the direction of the Naxos comes from Ex Cathedra and Jeffrey Skidmore on Hyperion: Brazilian Adventures (CDA68114 - DL News 2015/10), Fire burning in Snow (CDA67600 or SACDA67600 – see Hyperion: The Last Few SACDs), Moon, Sun and all Things (CDA67524) and New World Symphonies (CDA30030 - Hyperion Top 30). Whereas the Prætorius and Arbeau collections are purely instrumental, the Hyperions, like the new Naxos, intersperse vocal and instrumental items.

Those Hyperion recordings are of music which Spanish and Portuguese settlers took with them to the New World, in some cases modified by the music of the indigenous peoples. The predominant influence on the new recording, too, is Hispanic, even though most of the works were published in Venice – ever open to international trade and cultural influence – and Naples, which had been effectively a Spanish enclave since 1516.

You could, perhaps, find slightly livelier performances of some of the pieces on the Naxos recording, but you would have to look hard. The performance of Juan Arañés A la vida bona, for example, which opens a Jordi Savall collection of Hispanic music from the Old and New Worlds jumps out of the speakers with a degree of liveliness matched only by those Ex Cathedra Hyperion recordings. That’s certainly a recording to look out for, but Cembaless (track 9) are not far behind. (Alia Vox AV9834. Better value on an 11-CD collection, or earlier Savall recordings, Warner 9029569956, budget price).

Though there’s plenty of lively music on Naxos, like the opening piece about Rodrigo Martinez, who drives his geese as if they were cattle, there's more serious material, too.  At the heart of the Cembaless programme, and giving its name to the whole enterprise (track 7), lies Stefano Landi’s Passacaglia della Vita. You have to go online to check out the words, which are not included in the booklet, but the central message of this piece is included there, with translations: Oh come t’inganni se pensi che gl’anni non debban finire, bisogna morire... [Oh, how great is your mistake to believe that your years won’t come to an end – each of us must die!] It calls for the purest of solo voices, with no quasi-operatic effects, and that it receives from soprano Elisabeth von Stritzky.

Well as she sings elsewhere, this is the moment where von Stritzky especially shines. I don’t recall encountering her before, and I can’t find any other recordings on which she appears, but I shall be looking out for her in future. The other voices are not credited; presumably they are supplied by the instrumentalists. Christina Pluhar opens her recording of Landi’s music, directing L’Arpeggiata, with this piece (Alpha 020, or Alpha 818, Christine Pluhar complete recordings). Johanette Zomer, the soloist there, normally ranks high in my estimation, but she sings this with an almost flamenco-like tone. I very much prefer von Stritzky in this piece, though Zomer is more convincing in the rest of the valuable Alpha selection of Landi.

I’m not sure to what extent the members of Cembaless have arranged the music, but there’s nothing here to set on end what little hair I still have. I’ve already said that Venice was open to world influence. Those who have read Lisa Jardine’s wonderful window on the renaissance, Wordly Goods (Macmillan, 1996), will know that there was a two-way trade between Venice and the Islamic world. Sultan Mehmed II had his portrait painted by Bellini, whom he also ‘borrowed’ to work on his palace, so it’s not inconceivable that the Daf, the Persian drum which Syavash Rastani uses, could have been employed in Venice or Naples. I normally draw the line at including a modern composition in such a programme, but the improvisation on the daf (track 8) doesn’t sound out of place. Rastani is also credited with playing other percussion instruments; the one which he is carrying in the photographs in the booklet looks very much like the Indian tabla.

I’ve already said that I hope to hear more of Elisabeth von Stritzky. That also applies to Cembaless as a whole, whose name indicates that they perform without a cembalo or harpsichord. Founded in 2014 they are described as an Emerging European Ensemble. Emerge more, please. David Munrow’s 2-CD set is permanently located in an accessible cubby hole in my study desk for when I feel like cheering up. The new Naxos joins a select group of recordings on a portable 2TB hard drive, the choice recordings from my main 8TB drive, for the same reason.

The booklet design is refreshingly different from the Naxos norm, largely unaltered since those days when the CDs sold for £3.99 in Woolworths. It was an adventure then to check out different branches to see what each had to offer, depending on the random selection left by the travelling rep. In its own way, the new recording is an adventure, too, and an enjoyable one. I originally thought that I would prefer another January 2021 Naxos release, of music by Lassus, sacred and secular, for a ducal wedding (Le Nozze in Baviera, 8.579063). In the event, both have proved highly attractive. At Naxos prices, especially if you choose lossless download, you could have both for little more than one other new recording.  (Be aware that the price of Naxos CDs and downloads varies by a huge amount; shop around.)  Only the absence of texts in the booklet detracts from a full recommendation, and the fact that the online version to which we are directed contains German translations only.

Brian Wilson

Contents
Anonymous
Rodrigo Martinez (Cancionero Musical de Palacio) [7:08]
Santiago de MURCIA (1673–1739)
Fandango (Códice Saldívar No.4, ca. 1732) [4:29]
Giovanni Felice SANCES (c.1600/24–1679)
Accenti queruli (Cantade de Gio: Felice Sances libro secondo, Venezia 1633) [4:24]
Tarquinio MERULA (1594/95–1665)
Ciaccona (Canzoni overo sonate concertate per chiesa e camera, Op.12, Venezia 1637) [3:45]
Claudio MONTEVERDI (1567–1643)
Si dolce e’l tormento (Quarto scherzo delle ariose vaghezze, Venezia 1624) [4:41]
Andrea FALCONIERI (c.1585–1656)
Ciaccona (Il primo libro di canzone, sinfonie, fantasie…, Napoli 1650) [2:42]
Stefano LANDI (1587–1639)
Passacaglia della Vita (Canzonette Spirituali e Morali, Milano 1657) [6:07]
Syavash RASTANI (b.1986)
Hiwdah Angosht (17 Fingers) (Daf [Persian drum] Improvisation) [3:07]
Juan ARAÑÉS (d.1649)
Chacona: A la vida bona (Libro Segundo de tonos y villancicos, Roma 1624) [3:52]
Diego ORTIZ (c.1510–1570)
Recercada Segunda – Quinta – Segunda (Trattado de glosar sobre clausulas y otros generos de puntos en la musica de violones, Roma 1553) [5:47]
Henri de BAILLY (1590–1637)
Passacalle: La Folie „Yo soy la locura” (Airs de différents autheurs mis en tabulature de luth la locura, par Gabriel Bataille. Cinquiesme livre, Paris 1614) [3:56]
Girolamo KAPSBERGER (c.1580–1651) / Alessandro PICCININI (1566–1638)
Preludio Terzo / Ciaccona in partite variate (Libro Quarto d’intavolatura di Chitarone, Roma 1640) / Intavolatura di liuto e di chitarrone, libro primo, Bologna 1623 [3:20]
Andrea FALCONIERI (c.1585–1656)
Passacaglia (Il primo libro di canzone, sinfonie, fantasie..., Napoli 1650) [3:43]
Marco UCCELINI (c.1585–1656)
Aria Quinta: Sopra la Bergamasca (Sonate, Arie et Correnti a 2 e 3, Venezia, 1642) [5:10]
Arrangements: Cembaless

Cembaless:
Elisabeth von Stritzky (soprano)
David Hanke, Annabell Opelt (recorder)
Shen-Ju Chang (viola da gamba)
Stefan Koim (baroque guitar, archlute)
Robbert Vermeulen (theorbo)
Syavash Rastani (Persian drums)