Battalia Ensemble CDs of 17th & 18th Century
Chamber Music
ALBA RECORDS ABCD 107, 112, 113, 125, 139 and NCD 10
Alba Records
Finland
This Early Music Ensemble was enjoyed in Porvoo, Finland and noted in
S&H's review of the
Avanti
Summer Sounds Festival, June 2000.
This is a composite review of recordings by the Battalia Ensemble and associated
musicians, all from a small, prestigious Finnish firm based in Tampere. Alba
CDs are produced with thought and care, and presented with engaging art work
and thorough documentation (the translations into English are impeccable
and each essay rewarding to read in its own right). Recording quality is
superb throughout and the studio performances have reinforced my good impression
of their live music-making. It is salutary to be reminded that, specialists
though they be, most of the players are obliged to earn their livings in
Finland playing a variety of music, and some participated in the Avanti Orchestra
at Porvoo.
Battalia/ A Battle & No Battle/ Vertigo/ Etranger & Mimesis
are some of the fanciful titles given by the producers of these recommendable
collections.
Battalia ABCD 112 [64.35]
is the name both of the core ensemble and of its programme of Italian Early
Baroque music, recorded in Porvoo Cathedral, where I saw and heard them.
It revels in the virtuosity of Italian composer/players 'during the early
golden age of the art of constructing violins'. They oscillated between
'technical virtuosity and compositional ingenuity'. This is heady stuff,
many of the pieces with a strong dance basis. There are fourteen tracks and
fourteen composers, only a few of them likely to be well known to the general
collector. The line up is baroque violins (Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen, Susanne
Helasvuo & Kreeta-Maria Kentala), viol (gamba), lute, baroque guitar,
harpsichord (organ). Anssi Mattila gives a general supporting essay, without
venturing into discussing specific items. A very exhilarating, showy programme,
splendidly put together and executed.
Crotchet
A Battle & No Battle ABCD
139 [69.40] surveys English Restoration
music of the 17.C. by Bull, Lawes, Simpson, Lock, Wilson, Baltzar and Purcell.
Annamari Pölhö and Anssi Mattila play various harpsichords and
a portative organ, with viol, baroque violins and lutes. The programme rings
the changes amongst the instruments with carefully balanced variety. This
is the greatest period in English music before its quite recent revival.
Marvellous music, to be enjoyed again and again.
Crotchet
Le Vertigo ABCD 113 [68.28]
is Annamari Pölhö's solo harpsichord recital, on a delectable
copy of Flemish 'grand ravalement' instrument made by Hendrick van Schevikhoven
(illustrated). Her programme of personal favourites is chosen from Rameau's
Nouvelles Suites and Pieces de Clavecin (1746) by the lesser-known
Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer (1700-1755). His music is 'bursting with
temperament, wild demonstrations of virtuosity and textures testing the
instrument's sound to the limits', especially in La Marche des Scythes,
which conjures up a terrifying image of warring Scythians. . The CD is named
after Royer's Le Vertigo, an ambitious harpsichord drama; his name
is one to remember. The performances throughout are captivating, with rubato
as subtle as Chopin's and ornamentation which sounds as if it is being conceived
at the moment of playing. One of the most enjoyable harpsichord recital CDs
I have heard for a long time.
Etranger ABCD 107
[71.23] is peculiarly titled, deriving from the Suite d'un Gout Etranger
from Marin Marais' Pieces de Violes IV (Paris, 1717). Marais
was the great viola da gamba of his time, court viol player to Louis XIV,
an unsurpassed virtuoso whose has been called the 'Chopin of the viol' his
compositions the cornerstone of every viol player's repertoire.
The music is predominantly dark, with lower registers predominating, and
it benefits from listening on good quality hi-fi equipment to bring out the
rich sonorities and separate the strands (q.v. the harpsichord solo CD, which
sounds fine even on a portable or car CD player). The pieces selected here
come from his suite for advanced players 'to suit strange tastes', with fantastic
titles and in unusual and difficult keys. The bizarre 10½ minute Le
Labyrinthe, for example, 'fires the imagination with a cheerful little
theme which gets hopelessly lost in a maze of D# major after five modulations
in the first page, eventually finding its way to a triumphant A major chaconne'.
As is the way of these players, the selection is of personal preferences,
quite the opposite of the prevalent 'integrale' aproach to recording.
Markku Luolanjan-Mikkola is supported by the Continuo Group of Battalia.
This collection will be a revelation to any who still believe that the Bach
cello suites are the be-all of early music for lower strings.
Mimesis ABCD 125 [57.48]
with Jari S Puhakka (flauto traverso) and Ollu Porthan (organ)is a programme
of 18 C. music by C.P.E.Bach (Sonatas in C & G), Krebs (two Fantasias),
Telemann (Trio sonata in E minor) and Hertel (Partita in D minor). Mostly
they are for flute and continuo, the Telemann one of the trio-sonatas for
flute & violin. The Hertel is one of only few existing original works
for traverso and organ. Played by on modern copies of baroque instruments,
this is pleasant, easy-going music, of perhaps more specialised appeal than
those discussed above. I found the playing a little stiff, certainly so when
compared with the Battalia Ensemble CDs reviewed above.
Tenebrae NCD 10 [53.32]
is a recording of the sixteen Tenebrae Responsories (1585) of Victoria,
sung by Lumen Valo, a Helsinki group of eight young singers. The
Responsories for Maundy Thursday & Good Friday conform to a strict,
economical form, within which narrow confines Victoria writes expressive
music which follows the natural rhythms of the texts and responds to its
changes of mood. Mostly it is in non-imitative polyphony, with homophony
reserved for important points in the texts, which are given in Latin with
English & Finnish translations. The palate is restrained. The second
Responsory in each of the three Nocturns is limited to high voices SSAT,
but two of them are transposed an octave lower for TTBB, an
18th-Century Roman tradition. Compelling listening and, no doubt,
good to sing
