APRIL 2009 DOWNLOAD ROUNDUP  

My Download of the Month is the new Coro recording of Handel’s Coronation Anthems – The Sixteen conducted by Harry Christophers on COR16066 and downloaded in excellent 320k sound from classicsonline.com: I seriously doubt if the CD sounds any better.  There have been many first-rate recordings of these anthems but I cannot imagine them being better performed; only a preference for boy trebles and/or a different coupling should lead you to choose otherwise.  I never expected to be bowled over by music so familiar, but I was.
 
At first I was disappointed with the couplings – an organ concerto (Op.4/4), the Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, the overture to Jephtha, and two excerpts from Messiah; I still think them rather unimaginative offerings and would much prefer, say, the beautiful Ode for Queen Anne, Eternal Source of Light Divine, as on the EMI King’s/Cleobury recording, but the sheer quality of the new Coro recording otherwise sweeps all before it.  You don’t get the booklet from classicsonline, just the cover shot and the track details, but the diction is so clear that you won’t need to have the words in front of you.  Otherwise, Chandos’s theclassicalshop.net will probably have this recording by the time that you read this review – and they usually offer the pdf. booklet, even to non-purchasers.
 
If you really must have the trebles and the Queen Anne Ode, that Cleobury recording is available from amazon.co.uk and iTunes as a 256k download for £7.99  Don’t confuse this with the older King’s recordings of the Coronation Anthems and Dixit Dominus on EMI Encore; amazon.co.uk offer this at £6.99, which is little, if any, cheaper than the parent CD.  It’s even poorer value at £7.99 from iTunes.
 
The older King’s/Willcocks Decca recording is now primarily of historical interest and, at £10.99 from iTunes, or even at £9.99 from classicsandjazz.co.uk, the 2-CD set on which it comes is not very good value, but another Universal recording, by The English Concert and Westminster Abbey Choir/Simon Preston, coupled with the Concerti a due cori on 447 280 2 is worth downloading from classicsandjazz.co.uk (wma and mp3 for £7.90) or purchasing in 256k mp3 sound from iTunes for £7.99.
 
The new recording is the latest in a series of excellent Handel recordings from The Sixteen and Harry Christophers.  I’ve already glanced at their earlier series of four CDs of Handel’s Chandos Anthems for Chandos and available as mp3 or lossless downloads from their site, theclassicalshop.net.  The best value is to be had by purchasing all four physical discs in the complete box set on CHAN0554(4) for £29.31, or as an mp3 download for £19.98, but this saving is not available to lossless downloaders, who have to pay £9.99 per CD.  (Why?)  Those who purchase the complete mp3 set may still prefer the separate booklets of notes – even if you economise and purchase the whole set, these booklets may be downloaded free of charge by all comers.  I had some problems with obtrusive crackles on two tracks (5 and 12) from Volume 4 (CHAN0509, Anthems Nos.10 and 11) in wma format but the same two tracks were fine in the optional wav format.
 
If you prefer the separate volumes, Anthems 1-3 are on Volume 1 (CHAN0503), Nos.4-6 on Volume 2 (CHAN0504), 7-9 on Volume 3 (CHAN0505 – a particularly well-filled disc at 75 minutes) and 10-11 on CHAN0509.
 
The same performers offer excellent versions of some of Handel’s music for the Roman liturgy, Dixit Dominus, Nisi Dominus and Silete Venti.  The first two works are well enough known but the motet Silete Venti is a minor masterpiece which deserves to be much better known, especially when sung as well as it is here by Lynne Dawson.  There are several other recommendable versions of Dixit but this is a very strong contender (CHAN0517).  As usual, there is a choice of very acceptable mp3 sound or, slightly more expensively, lossless (wma, wav and aiff).  Wav takes a little longer than wma to download but wav files can be transferred immediately to iTunes, which has to convert wma files before it can play or burn them.
 
More basic Handel fare comes on a recording of the Water Music and Royal Fireworks Music from Le Concert Spirituel/HervéNiquet on Glossa GCD921606, downloaded in very good 320k mp3 sound from classicsonline.  I hesitate to make this my top recommendation because it depends how prepared you are to take some rather ripe playing from the natural horns; I’m sure that the sound here is close to what Handel’s contemporaries would have heard – probably rather better – but other period-instrument ensembles manage something a little less taxing.  Otherwise I have nothing but praise for these performances – lively and beautiful by turns and really well recorded.  The percussion on the final track of the Water Music (18) is something else.
 
Niquet divides the Water Music into three suites, a practice which the most recent research tends to dismiss, but so do most of his rivals.  If you are looking for horn playing which is rather easier on the ear, try the DG reissue of Trevor Pinnock’s recording, now coupled with Il Pastor Fido (471 723 2) or the Royal Fireworks Music (477 7562), both in wma or mp3 sound for £7.90 from Universal classicsandjazz (or, preferably, buy the equivalent CDs for about the same price).
 
There are several good recordings of Handel’s Recorder Sonatas, HWV360, 362, 365, 367a, 369 and 377 but none better, I think, than that by Pamela Thorby and Richard Egarr on Linn CKD223, a full CD (74 minutes) with the addition of Egarr’s equally fine account of the Harpsichord Suite in E, HWV430.  Download it from Linn in mp3 or excellent lossless sound.  I preferred these recordings to the versions which I reviewed from Il Vero Modo on Thorofon/Bella Musica CTH2540, though I liked that recording, too – see review.  We don’t seem to have reviewed the Linn on Musicweb but I’m very pleased to take this opportunity for a strong recommendation.  The parent recording comes in SACD form, which surround-sound enthusiasts will presumably prefer.
 
Handel never actually composed an oratorio entitled Tobit but he almost did.  After his death, with continuing demand for biblical oratorio, John Christopher Smith, who inherited Handel’s papers, commissioned Thomas Morrell to write a libretto for a three-part oratorio on the subject of Tobit and Tobias and he skilfully adapted Handel’s music from various sources for it.  The result may be something of a backwater when there is so much genuine Handel on offer, but Naxos’s recording with the Junge Kantorei and Frankfurt Baroque Orchestra/Joachim Martini is well worth hearing (8.570113-4).  Download it from classicsonline in good 320k mp3 sound – but be warned that CD2 runs to 80 minutes, too long for a CDR, so you’ll have to split the performance across three CDs if you want to burn a copy.  All Naxos downloads from this source come with the pdf booklet to print out and the libretto, though not in the booklet, is available from the Naxos website.  Mark Sealey thought this version of Tobit enjoyable and well-performed (see review) and Robert Hugill recommended ‘just put it on and enjoy some of Handel’s finest music in attractive performances’ (see review).
 
If you’ve ever wondered, having heard Acis and Galatea, what Handel’s early Aci, Galatea e Polifemo sounded like, look no further than the version by Sandrine Piau, Sara Mingardo, Laurent Naouri, Le Concert d’Astrée/Emanuelle Haïm on two Virgin Veritas CDs (5 45557-2) or download it in 256k mp3 format for £12.99 from amazon.co.uk.  They can also offer you the new Dunedin Consort version of Acis and Galatea for a mere £4.99, but you may prefer to purchase this for a little more from its parent company, Linn, in lossless sound.  See my very enthusiastic review in which I made this Recording of the Month.
 
My Bargain of the Month is The Pleasures of the Royal Courts, 1150-1600, recorded by The Early Music Consort and David Munrow, first released by World Record Club in 1971, reissued by Nonesuch four years later – and now available for a mere £2.99 from amazon.co.uk and iTunes. (Nonesuch 71326).  The Amazon version, in 256k mp3sounds more than adequate; the iTunes is in 256k aac format.  Early music interpretation has moved on considerably since 1971 – especially if one compares the earliest items here with more recent recordings by The Gothic Voices – but this recording is still very enjoyable, ranging from The Courtly Art of the Trouvères via the Burgundian Court of Philip the Good, the German Court of Emperor Maximilian I, Italian Music of the Medici Court to The Spanish Courts of the early 16^th Century.  Short value at 47 minutes, but who’s counting the minutes at this price?
 
A close contender for this title is the Tallis Scholars’ only recording of secular music, English Madrigals, one of their 25^th anniversary releases (Gimell GIMSE403).  The original, rather short, programme is augmented with seven tracks of Thomas Tomkins, including his well-known When David heard, to stretch the recording to a very respectable 73 minutes.  I understand that Orlando Gibbons’ The Silver Swan from this recording is one of Gimell’s most downloaded single tracks on iTunes, which is hardly surprising considering the quality of the music and the performance.  It’s available from Gimell in very respectable 320k mp3 sound for £5.99 and in lossless wma or flac for £6.99, which makes it a real bargain, alongside their Allegri-Mundy-Palestrina (GIMSE401 – see review) and Palestrina-Josquin recordings (GIMSE402 – see review and my review of the download) in the same inexpensive series.
 
Even better value comes in the form of Benjamin Britten’s Turn of the Screw, the original English Opera Group mono recording from the 1950s with Peter Pears and Britten himself conducting.  The Past Classics version is offered on just two tracks by eMusic, which could cost as little as 40p if you’re on their best-value tariff.  I’m not a great fan of Peter Pears but his voice is just right for Britten’s operas – and in Dowland, accompanied by Julian Bream.  Nor would I rate Turn of the Screw my favourite Britten opera – that has to be Peter Grimes – but it’s irresistible at this price.  The only snag is that each act takes up one track, so, if you burn to CDR, each CD will have one track.  The sound is, of course, dated, but it’s more than tolerable.
 
If you’re looking for good recordings of Beethoven’s Middle-period Quartets, it’s very difficult to avoid duplication unless you stay exclusively with the same label and performers.  The recent issue of No.10, Op.74 (‘Harp’) and No.11, Op.95 (‘Serioso’) by the Tokyo String Quartet (Harmonia Mundi HMU80 7460, eight tracks from eMusic) prompted me to try to fit this fine new recording into a series of varied recommendations with the least duplication.
 
The Borodin Quartet offer fine versions of Nos. 7 and 9, Op.59/1 and 3 on Chandos CHAN10178 (mp3 or lossless from theclassicalshop.net) and the equally recommendable 2002 Lindsay Quartet version of Nos. 8 (Op.59/2) and the ‘Harp’, (Op.74) on ASV CDDCA1115 (£3.16 from iTunes – only 128k aac, but sounding very acceptable) involves the duplication of Op.74 only, allowing you to compare two very good versions of this quartet. 
 
Other permutations involving just the Borodins or the Lindsays are possible and would yield satisfactory results, as would pairing the new Tokyo recording with their earlier CD of all the Op.59 quartets on eMusic.  Or you could go for the award-winning Takács Quartet (£15.99 from iTunes or £6.99 from amazon.co.uk, both at 256k).
 
Next month I hope to look at available downloads of the late quartets.  Meanwhile, let me point out that you won’t go far wrong with the Borodin Quartet on Chandos (Op.127 and Op.130 on CHAN10292, Opp.95, 131 and 133 on CHAN10269 and Opp.132 and 135 on CHAN10304 from theclassicalshop in mp3 and lossless versions).  For all the volumes in the Borodin Quartet’s Beethoven series, see Paul Shoemaker’s very enthusiastic review: “For my money the best set of Beethoven quartets ever produced. No matter who else you like, you must have this one, too. I’m sorry if I am boring you with superlatives, but I call ’em as I see ’em. Buy this set; you’ll thank me.”
 
If you don’t mind duplicating Op.130, The Lindsays offer that with Op.133, its alternative finale and the logical coupling, on ASV CDDCA1172 - £7.99 in wma or mp3 from classicsandjazz.co.uk, 256k aac from iTunes (same price) or £4.37 in 256k mp3 format from amazon.co.uk.  Programme your player to play tracks 1-6 for the original version with Op.133, known as the Große Fuge, as the finale, or tracks 1-4, 7-8 for the revised, shorter version – none of the download sites will offer you this vital information and you may end up rather confused as to why the fifth movement of Op.130 is repeated. 
 
In recommending the budget-price EMI Encore reissue of the Belcea Quartet in Schubert’s String Quartets Nos.7 and 12-13 recently (D87, D703 ‘Quartetsatz’ and D804 ‘Rosamunde’, 2 35738 2) I mentioned other recordings of the late Schubert quartets which involved no duplication, including the Eloquence version of No.14, Death and the Maiden (D810), coupled with the classic Curzon/Vienna Octet Trout on 467 417-2.  I recommended the Naxos version of No.15 (D887) to complete the set; I hadn’t heard it then but was relying on Terry Barfoot’s very encouraging review.  I can now heartily recommend that recording by the Kodály Quartet, coupled with some attractive early Schubert German Dances on 8.557125 and available as a 320k download from classicsonline.com or 9 tracks from eMusic.  Incidentally, don’t think of downloading the Encore and Eloquence recordings – that will cost more than the budget-price CDs.  The Naxos version of D887 makes the music sound every bit as good as the mono DG Heliodor recording by the Amadeus Quartet on which I first heard it.

Three Linn recordings of Baroque music guaranteed to lighten your mood, should you need to, or just to play for sheer enjoyment.  The Palladian Ensemble offer music by Rébel, Etienne leMoine, Marin Marais and François Couperin on a most enjoyable recording entitled The Sun King’s Paradise (Linn CKD100) and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Vivaldi Concerti on the same label are not far, if at all, behind: 73 minutes of excellent performances with a variety of single and multiple soloists and an eye-catching cover (CKD151).  Did the Sun King himself hear, or did Vivaldi’s orphans produce, performances as fine as these? 

Perhaps best of all these is a recording entitled Les Elémens, music by Rébel, whose remarkable ballet gives the recording its name, and Marais (CKD221).  All these are available as mp3 or as excellent lossless downloads from Linn’s own site.  Les Elémens comes as an SACD in physical form, which surround-sound enthusiasts will prefer.
 
 
The Contest of Apollo and Pan, performed by the group of that name, offers another 73 minutes of delight, with music by Dario Castello, Biagio Marini, etc., on Chandos CHAN0756. This is a recent addition to the Chandos catalogue, as is Volume 2 of Robert Wooley’s performances of the keyboard music of Sweelinck (Paduana Lachrymæ, CHAN0758).  If I marginally prefer the organ works on Volume 1 (CHAN0701), I still wholeheartedly recommend the new recording.  All these, of course, come as mp3 or lossless downloads from Chandos’s own theclassicalshop.net. 
 
Reviewing the new Deutsche Harmonia Mundi recording of Dowland’s music, In Darkness let me dwell (88697 22502 2) led me to Nigel North – not just his fine new series of Dowland on Naxos – see my review of Volume 2 (8.570449) – but his two earlier recordings of Dowland and his contemporaries for Linn, A Varietie of Lute Lessons (CKD097) and Go from my Window (CKD176).   Both are excellent and the lossless downloads are perfect – no surround sound on the latter, though; you need to buy it on SACD for that.
 
Rameau’s Grand Motets, In convertendo, Quam dilecta and Deus noster refugium come in benchmark recordings from Les Arts Florissants and William Christie on Erato 4509-96967-2 for a mere £2.79 from amazon.co.uk.  With very decent 256k mp3 sound, perhaps this should be the Bargain of the Month- it’s certainly runner-up.  There are a number of other recordings by Les Arts Florissants at the same price – more next month, perhaps.
 
Henry du Mont’s Grands motets pour la Chapelle de Louis XIV au Louvre, published after his death in 1684, are expertly performed by Ensemble Pierre Robert/Fredéric Desenclos on Alpha 069.  This is one of their series which marries pictures and music; in this case the cover offers Jacques Stella’s Sainte Cécile avec vue sur la Villa Médicis.  I recommend this recording, downloaded from eMusic (9 tracks) in very acceptable mp3 sound, even above the Rameau and the other Baroque recordings which I’ve mentioned this month. I’m very glad that one of my local librarians had the good sense to purchase the CD; hearing it led me to download the music.  No notes, but you can obtain these from the Alpha website.  The same performers offer du Mont’s Motets pour la Messe du Roy on another Alpha recording from eMusic, which I haven’t yet investigated.
 
Howard Shelley teams with the Orchestra of Opera North in that oft-visited pairing, the Grieg and Schumann Piano Concertos (Chandos CHAN10509), but there’s enough freshness and lyricism about the performances to justify the issue and the addition of Saint-Saëns Second Piano Concerto brings the CD up to a generous 79 minutes.  The performances are not revelatory in the way that Harry Christophers’ new Handel recording is – that’s like hearing the music for the first time – but they are certainly well worth hearing and the lossless download (wma, wav or aiff) is excellent.  These are generally fast performances, shaving about a minute off the usual times for the two main works, and occasionally I thought that the phrasing suffered from the chosen tempo, especially in the opening movements, but this is a recording to enjoy.  Now when will Decca or Eloquence reissue the wonderful Clifford Curzon account of the Grieg?  Or perhaps we could have it as a download?
 
Volume 1 of William Alwyn’s film music on Chandos Movies CHAN9243 (LSO/Richard Hickox, mp3 or lossless from theclassicalshop) encourages me to try the other two volumes in this series.  Follow the link to the Alwyn Society notes on the first volume.
 
A strong recommendation for the Ulster Orchestra and Vernon Handley in Bliss: A Colour Symphony and the Cello Concerto (CHAN10221X) with Linda Finnie in the little-known The Enchantress.  This 2004 reissue in the lower-mid-price Chandos Classics series weighs in at almost 76 minutes; the performances are idiomatic and the lossless recording sounds fine.  Doubtless the mp3 version is more than acceptable – Chandos mp3s usually are. 
 
The original coupling, the Checkmate Suite, is now on a 2-for-1 set, CHAN241-1 – good value but I marginally prefer the version of Checkmate with Constant Lambert’s Horoscope and Walton’s Façade on Hyperion Helios CDH55099.  The Chandos 2-for-1 also contains Bliss’s Pastoral: Lie strewn the White Flocks; again, I marginally prefer the recording with Britten’s Choral Dances from Gloriana and Holst’s Choral Hymns from the Rig-Veda on Hyperion Helios CDH55050.  These budget-price Helios CDs offer better-integrated programmes; don’t even think of downloading them from iTunes, where they cost more than ordering the CDs from Hyperion or from online dealers.

It’s hard to imagine better performances of Stravinsky’s Symphony in C and Symphony in Three Movements than those by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble/Robert Craft (Naxos 8.557507), coupled with equally fine versions of the Octet and Dumbarton Oaks.  The two symphonic works are difficult to bring off in my experience; these are more successful than Gibson’s versions (Chandos 2-for-1 CHAN241-8) and the performance of Dumbarton Oaks is as good as the EP recording by George Hurst which introduced me to the music and which I wore out in my enjoyment of it.  76 minutes of excellence from classicsonline in very decent 320k sound.
 
My last download ‘Dreams of Fancy, Tales of Loss’ (DG Concerts 477 8149) deserved a review to itself, since it isn’t available in any other format.  To quote the publicity material, the opening and closing works are “connected by the theme of women left behind by the men they love.” This download has been available in the USA since January 20 this year, but, as I write, it seems not to have been issued in the UK yet by any of the usual outlets which offer DG Concerts programmes.
 
I intended that it would be the last word, but I have some stop-press items which I don’t want to leave until next month.
 
First, I have four recordings of music for Holy Week to which I have been listening immediately prior to completing this roundup. 
 
Johan van Veen mostly enjoyed the Collegium Regale/Stephen Cleobury recording of Lassus’s Lamentations for Maundy Thursday and Requiem, this time last year, though he would have preferred rather more expressive singing (Signum SIGCD076 – see review).  I know what he means, but I was less troubled by these rather cool performances, whilst enjoying those aspects of the recording which received his approval just as much as he did.  I was, however, as puzzled as he was by the performance of the Tract Absolve, domine, out of order.  With a download, of course, you can choose your own track order and place this, correctly, after the Gradual.  The 320k sound of the download from classicsonline is very good; it comes with a pdf file of the booklet and texts, but here I very much preferred the logistics of the version of the booklet which accompanies the download of the same recording from theclassicalshop, also 320k.
 
Chandos have recordings, on three separate CDs, of Palestrina’s Music for Maundy Thursday (CHAN0617), Music for Good Friday (CHAN0652) and Music for Holy Saturday (CHAN0679), performed by Musica Contexta/Simon Ravens.  In each case the relevant settings of Lamentations and Matins Responsories from Palestrina’s Book III are coupled with other music for the relevant day: Benedictus for Holy Week and Miserere on CHAN0617, the Reproaches or Improperia on 0652 and Stabat mater on 0679.  These excellent performances are best downloaded as mp3 or lossless downloads in first-class sound from Chandos’s own theclassicalshop, where they come complete with the booklet and texts.
 
In a very different vein, Colin Clarke made Kara Karayev’s Third Symphony (1964), Leyla and Mejnun (1947) and Don Quixote (1960) Recording of the Month (Naxos 8.570720, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra/Dmitry Yablonsky – see review).  Without quite going that far, I very much enjoyed these first recordings of all three works.  Karayev was a pupil of Shostakovich and, while his music reveals the influence of his mentor, it also combines elements of the traditional music of his native Azerbaijan.  Just don’t expect anything quite as approachable as Ippolitov-Ivanov’s Caucasian Sketches, one track of which is offered as a bonus download to purchasers of the CD or of the download, in very acceptable 320k sound, from classicsonline.  You won’t get the bonus track if you purchase the download from one of the many other sites which offer Naxos downloads because you won’t get the booklet, offered as a pdf file to print out to purchasers from classicsonline.
 
Brian Wilson

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