A multi-cultural dance

Adapting a string quartet for string orchestra is analogous to "opening up" a play to make a film. When it's done well both the adapters and the actors can take a lot of credit. Think of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. The success of the film is due in equal measure to a great screenplay by Ernest Lehman, great direction by Mike Nichols, and amazing acting by an ensemble of movie stars. We have a similar situation in this fine new disc from Linn Records: one of the great String Quartets, by Debussy, is adapted by Jonathan Morton, and then Morton leads the fine string players of the Scottish Ensemble in a superb performance. Two things are key here: firstly Morton loses none of Debussy's instrumental colour by homogenizing the string lines, and secondly the players are beautifully in sync with each other while still giving that "opened up" feeling. This is a successful adaptation that rewards repeated listening with new insights into the beauty of Debussy's composition and the sound of violins, violas, cellos and basses playing together.

Speaking of film, one of my favourite works for string orchestra is Toru Takemitsu's 1987 work Nostalghia (In Memory of Andrei Tarkovsky). Though Takemitsu wrote a great deal of film score music (including two additional works on this disc), this piece is not from the great film, though it wouldn't be out of place there. Tarkovsky rather used music from works such as Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Verdi's Requiem. It's an amazing film, and Takemitsu's work is a heart-felt hommage.



As to the rest of this album, everything is at this very high level of passionate music making. The alternating Debussy and Takemitsu pieces are a kind of multi-cultural dance where each composer illuminates the other. A triumph from Scotland!

Great, but no bizarre

This new album from the Irish Baroque Orchestra is a lovely package of Baroque concertos, all but one of which are from north of the Alps. The music of the time is so full of melodic invention, instrumental colour and sophisticated musical effects, with so many opportunities to appeal to both sense and sensibility. Still, with thousands of albums of concertos quite like this out there, I'm sure it's hard to find a marketing hook for another one, even one with such appealing music.

The keynote of the album, I realized after my first listen, is instrumental colour. There are concertos here for these solo and group of solo instruments:

• Flute and Oboe
• 2 Violins and Bassoon
• Oboe
• 2 Cellos
• 2 Oboes da caccia, 2 Violas, 2 Bassoons
• Bassoon
• Flute d'amore, Oboe d'amore and Viola d'amore

That's quite an interesting mix, and one that ensures you won't get bored with this programme. I was especially anxious to hear what the last piece, Graupner's Concerto for Flute d'amore, Oboe d'amore and Viola d'amore, would sound like. I'd call it lovely, if only so I could make a multi-lingual pun, as weak as it is. The three instruments all have a rich, earthy sound, which Graupner emphasizes by providing sensual, though hardly orgiastic, music.

But "Concerti Bizarri"? Though there are interesting instrumental combinations here, I'd stop well short of calling this music bizarre, especially after listening to some of the truly odd music by Heinrich Biber on the last album I reviewed, Ars Antiqua Austria's Accordato. This is music well on the Enlightenment Civilization side of the spectrum. The only thing bizarre about this album is the fabulous gargoyle on the album cover.

None of this really matters, though, does it? This is amazing music, by some of my favourite composers. I loved the Fasch, and the Vivaldi, and the Telemann; what fine composers they are! I'm a big fan of Monica Huggett's approach to this repertoire, and the Irish Baroque Orchestra can deliver a slight edge without losing any freshness and melodic appeal. The IBO soloists and players are all superb, providing the best possible advocacy for this unfamiliar music. Just sit back, admire that handsome lug of a gargoyle, and listen to the music.

The power of context

When the parishioners of the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig went to the Vespers Service on Christmas Day 1723, commentaries on the Christmas stories were enhanced with a complete multi-media display, which I imagine was especially helpful for the many attending that day who could not read. The stories were reinforced visually by the paintings and sculptures throughout the church, while the new Cantor JS Bach provided music for choir and organ to go with traditional and modern music from Germany and Italy. The audience themselves were involved in the event, since they had a chance to sing the familiar Vom Himmel Hoch and Puer natus in Bethlehem as congregational chorales. They even had a chance to imagine themselves dancing, as Bach sets an invitation to the Reihen, a round-dance:

Call and cry to heaven,
come, Christians, to the round-dance,
you should rejoice over that which God has done today!

Story-telling is also important today, for educational and recreational reasons alike. Increasingly Historically-Informed Performance of 18th century music tells the story of a particular event that uses a particular historical context to bring alive old music and make it more relevant to modern audiences. John Butt and his Dunedin Consort recently did this with their reconstruction of the first performance of Mozart’s Requiem on January 2, 1793, one of the best CDs of 2014. Now they’ve put together a program of what might reasonably have been experienced in that beautiful East German church nearly three hundred years ago.

Attention is paid to the slightest details. John Butt himself plays the organ, which plays an important role in the service. The instrumental and choral forces are based on the latest research in the performance practice of the time, and following this research an especially low pitch (A=392) is used. As Butt states in his complete notes, this provides “an opportunity to explore the rich sonorities that the heavier string gauges and the slightly larger woodwind instruments afford.” Most importantly, though, the singing and playing shows both individual excellence and great musicality in the whole.

Nikolaikirche Leipzig, photo by Berthold Werner, from Wikipedia

Adding to the authentic feeling of the project is the site of the recording: Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh. Though much of the current church has been rebuilt since the original building opened on Christmas Day 1620, it’s nearly as ancient as the Nikolaikirche, which like its Scottish counterpart was significantly renovated in the 18th century. In any case the spacious acoustic of a large church is well-suited to this music, and the expert instrumentalists and especially the singers take full advantage of its long reverberation. The whole project is fascinating: I was engaged by the concept and moved by the beautiful and inspiring music.

Greyfriars Kirk, photo by Carlos Delgado, from Wikimedia Commons