musica Dei donum
CD reviews
"La Notte - Concertos and Pastorales for Christmas Night"
The Illyria Consort
rec: March 16 - 18, 2022, East Woodhay (Hampshire), St Martin's Church
Delphian Records - DCD34278 (© 2022) (65'52")
Liner-notes: E
Cover & track-list
anon:
Sonate 'Musikalisch Uhrwerk';
Sonate 'Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern';
Heinrich Ignaz Franz BIBER (1644-1704):
Sonata Pastorella;
Gottfried (Godfrey) FINGER (c1655-60-1730):
Pastoralle;
Johann Georg RAUCH (1658-1710):
Sonata X 'Pastorella';
Johann Heinrich SCHMELZER (c1620/23-1680):
Sonata a 3 'Pastorale';
Pavel Josef VEJVANOVSKY (c1630/40-1693):
Sonata Laetitiae;
Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741):
Concerto for violin solo, two violins, bassoon and bc in g minor 'La notte' (RV 104);
Concerto for violin, strings and bc in E 'Il riposo - Per il santissimo Natale' (RV 270a):
Bojan Cicic, Kinga Ujszászi, Henry Tong, violin;
Rachel Byrt, viola;
Peter McCarthy, Reiko Ichise, Henrik Persson, viola da gamba;
Joseph Crouch, cello;
Siobhan Armstrong, harp;
David Miller, theorbo;
Steven Devine, harpsichord, organ
More than almost any other feast in the Christian calender, Christmas has appealed to the imagination of the people. From early times, elements of traditional music made their appearance in the repertoire for Christmastide. Songs and instrumental music which had their roots in popular culture were performed during Christmas celebrations but were in the course of time also incorporated in the liturgy. The Christmas concertos by Italian composers are a good example, as these were performed during Mass on Christmas eve. They are easily recognizable because of their pastoral traces, for instance in the use of a siciliano rhythm. This pastoral element was obviously inspired by the role of the shepherds in the Christmas story, as told in the Gospels.
The disc under review here is entirely devoted to pastoral music. It opens and closes with two concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. The first item is the Concerto in g minor (RV 104), known as La Notte. It has no specific connection to Christmas, but it is a useful introduction to the programme, as it depicts the night - the time that the angels announced Jesus's birth to the shepherds. Robert Rawson, in his liner-notes, rightly mentions that "the contrast of night and light was a central image in Nativity paintings". The second piece by Vivaldi is the Concerto in E (RV 270a). This work raises several questions. Karl Aage Rasmussen, in the liner-notes to Concerto Copenhagen's recording of Italian Christmas concertos (Naxos, 2020), mentions that it is considered a relatively late work. In the composer's manuscript, it bears two titles: per il S.S. Natale and Il Riposo. The latter title means "rest" and it has given scholars the idea that originally it may have been conceived as part of a trilogy, the other concertos bearing the titles of Il Sospetto (suspicion) and L'inquietudine (unrest). Rasmussen suggests that these titles could be connected to Christmas as well. "If (...) the titles are considered to be one totality, the music of course depicts the infant Jesus sleeping peacefully in his manger." Whether he is right or not, it is a nice work, but not very 'Christmassy', in comparison to the Christmas concertos by the likes of Corelli and Torelli, to mention just a few.
The rest of the programme consists of pieces written in Central Europe, more specifically in Austria and Bohemia. However, it seems questionable whether the anonymous sonata on the chorale Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern has its origin in Austria. It is part of a collection which was originally kept at the Minoritenkonvent in Vienna. It seems unlikely that this hymn, which is firmly rooted in the world of Lutheranism, was known and appreciated in Catholic Austria. If it was written by a Lutheran composer, the conclusion has to be that the manuscript includes pieces from outside Austria. However, in this piece several features of Austrian (violin) music come together: the use of double stopping, variations on a melody, echo effects and the use of a basso ostinato in the first section. The latter is a passacaglia, here called a Baßigaylos. The same collection includes a curious piece, called Musikalisch Uhrwerk. It does not seem to be a piece connected to Christmas, but Rawson explains that there are good reasons for such an association. "[The] chiming of the bell twelve times followed by a rather humorous 'alarm' points to a Christmas association. The midnight hour was the blessed hour at Christmas; and otherwise the alarm makes little sense". The alarm is depicted by a tremolo in the violin.
With Biber's Sonata Pastorella we have the third piece in the programme taken from the above-mentioned manuscript. It is scored for violin and basso continuo, and, as one may expect in a piece by Biber, includes passages with double-stopping. A then popular Christmas lullaby, known as Parvule pupule, plays a key role in this piece. In Kromeriz, Biber was a colleague of the trumpet virtuoso Pavel Josef Vejvanovsky, who not only composed music for his own instrument, but also for strings, as the Sonata Laetitia. Again, this piece may not be specifically intended for Christmastide, but fits the programme perfectly.
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer was one of the founders of the Austrian violin school and was for most of his life connected to the imperial court in Vienna. His Sonata a 3 with the title Pastorale is scored for two violins, viola da gamba and basso continuo. Even without its title, one would easily recognize it as such. Johann Georg Rauch is a rather unknown quantity. He was born near Strasbourg, and there he also died; for most of his life he must have worked there, but as his Op. 1, a collection of motets, was published in 1687 in Augsburg, it seems possible that he has been working there as well. According to New Grove, all his printed editions include vocal music. The booklet to the present disc does not give the source from which the Sonata X is taken. Notable is the scoring for three violins and basso continuo, which is rather unusual. Rawson sees a symbolism here: three violins and the use of the key of A major (with three sharps) may symbolize the Trinity. Rauch includes a motif from a motet by Giacomo Carissimi, which also appears in the Pastoralle by Gottfried Finger.
He worked for some time in England and took part in a competition concerning the setting of a libretto by William Congreve, The Judgement of Paris. When he ended fourth and last, he left England. Like Biber and Vejvanovsky, he was from Bohemia. He was educated at the viola da gamba and the trumpet, but played several other instruments as well, including the violin. The Pastoralle is also scored for three violins and basso continuo, and has a narrative character, as explained by Rawson. This work has been preserved in two versions: here we hear the shorter of the two, copied by an amateur in England. It is technically less demanding than the original version. It is a bit of a shame that the original version was not selected. That said, it is a very interesting and nice piece, which confirms the good impression Finger has made in previous recordings of his oeuvre.
Every year quite a number of discs with music for Christmastide are released. Many are predictable and include familiar repertoire that has been recorded many times before. This disc is different: instrumental music for this period of the year is rare anyway, and if such music is performed, it is mostly the well-known Christmas concertos. This disc is an exception to the rule: only the two pieces by Vivaldi belong among the standard repertoire. The rest is far less familiar, and some pieces are hardly-known. Rauch's sonata is even a first recording. Add to that the fine quality of all the music performed here, and one may understand that this disc deserves the attention of any lover of early music.
Bojan Cicic and his colleagues deliver top-class performances. This is string playing as one would like to hear in this kind of repertoire, with clear dynamic contrasts and rhythmic precision. Baroque music has a rhetorical character: the performers have to tell a story, with or without words. Here it is the task of the strings to tell the story of Christmas in all its different aspects, and that is what we get here. The character of the music is such that one can also enjoy it outside the Christmas season.
Johan van Veen (© 2022)
Relevant links:
The Illyria Consort