Tage Alter Musik – Almanach 2015

7 od in musical development, providing a musical link between the late Burgundian school of composers and the imitative style of Josquin. Time spent in Italy, France and the Low Countries expanded his musical horizons. The programme was based around three sets of instrumental pieces that were preceded by the vocal work upon which they were based, together with other separate instrumental pieces. The first group were five instrumental set- tings (four by Agricola) of Ghizeghem’s chanson De tous biens plaine, followed by Agricola’s versions of an anonymous Tandernaken and Frye’s Tout a par moy. The other instrumental pieces included a lively imitative duo for vielle and zinc and Agricola’s extraordinarily inventive Cecus non judi- cat de coloribus , with its compelling mixture of polyphony, homophony and imitative writing for three instruments that could pass for a much later instrumental Fantasia. The instruments used by Ensemble Leones included a Renaissance violin and vielle, three violas d’arco, the twang of the Gothic harp, zink (cornett), and the plucked quinterne and citra (gittern/cittern), the arrival of the zink coming, rather effectively, about halfway through the concert. This was music to exercise the brain, rather than to merely entertain, the rather serious demeanour of the performers supporting this mood. Not even the noisy flapping of a pigeon that had managed to trap itself between two window panes at the back of the church, managed to put them off. In complete contrast to the rather austere music of Agricola, the Saturday mid-evening concert focused on Mozart and some of his lesser-known con- temporaries, given by the Polish orchestra Musica Humana 430 with Stefania Neonato (Italy) playing fortepiano in Vanhal’s Concerto in C. (in the Classical Neuhaussaal, 8pm). It is not fair to judge a composer on a piece called Pantomine, written when he was about 15 for a carnival, but at least Joseph Martin Kraus’s opening piece was mercifully short. It started with dramatic intent in the Sturm und Drang mode, but that soon fizzled out. Unfortunately for Kraus, it was followed by Mozart’s Symphony 29 in A, the difference in composing skill being all too apparent. After the interval we heard the Vanhal piano concerto (with its attractive and expansive Adagio ) and the Symphony in B flat major by the prolific Moravian composer, Paul Wranitzky (born Pavel Vranický). The latter was an interesting work, with a rather rhapsodic and dark Adagio which included some obviously tricky horn passages. The concluding Allegro gave a light-hearted sense of relief. Although the music was interesting, I wasn’t overly impressed by the orchestra. Although the individual players were fine, the direction, by their concertmaster, didn’t really mould them into a coherent whole. Their anarchic and raucous tuning up was just one thing that could be improved. The fifth, and final, Saturday concert was given by the UK’s Marian Consort & Rose Consort of Viols and their programme ‘ An Emerald in a Work of Gold ’, given in the enormous Gothic Dominikanerkirche (10.45pm). The music was drawn from the Robert Dow partbooks, copied in the mid-1580s and now housed in the library of Christ Church, Oxford. As well as being a major source of music of the period, Dow’s manuscripts are remarkable examples of musical calligraphy. The music is indicated as being suitable for voices and viols, so the pairing of the Marian and Rose Consorts was apt and made for an extremely effective and, at times, very moving occasion – and one that attracted an astonishing 800 people. The concert opened with the magical sound of a solo soprano singing from the organ gallery at the back of the church with the alternatim verses of Robert White’s Christe, qui lux es et Dies – an appropriate text, given the hour. The clear and focussed voice of soprano Emma Walshe proved to be the con- tinuing highlight of the evening (in, for example, Tallis’s O salutaris hostia ). Unfortunately her fellow soprano used rather too much vibrato for my tastes – and, I suggest, for the style of the music that the Marian Consort specialise in. The vast acoustic of the Dominikanerkirche is not easy to sing into, and is very different from the sort of Oxbridge colleges that these young singers were probably weaned in. But they coped magnificently, giving clarity to the lower voices, reining in the higher soprano pitches, letting cadences fade into the acoustic, and not trying to force their voices into the space. It was also good that, with one exception, the audience responded to their lack of encouragement to applaud between pieces, the exception com- ing with a single clap after choir director Rory McCleery’s lovely singing of Byrd’s, touching Lulla, lullaby, My sweet little Baby. As well as provid- ing sensitive accompaniments to the vocal works, the Rose Consort’s intimate viol pieces sounded well in the space, the keen tone cutting through the acoustic with a clarity that a singer can only hope to attempt. Sunday 24 May Sunday featured no fewer than seven concerts, starting with a ‘ Concert at the Hapsburg court of the 17th century’ given by the young French group Ensemble Stravaganza (in the historic Reichssaal, 11am). It was an appropriate venue as, from 1663 to 1806, it was the seat of the Perpetual Diet of the Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire. Their programme focussed on the music of the Hapsburg Court in Vienna during the period after the accession of Ferdinand III in 1637. The concert included the harpsichord Lamentation faite sur la mort tres douloureuse de Sa Majeste Imperiale Ferdinand III by Froberger, one of many musical visitors to Regensburg. Other works focussed on the distinctive stylus phantasticus, with three violin sonatas by Biber and single sonatas by Schmelzer and Pandolfi Mealli (the La Castella sonata). This was an impressive performance by this young group, led by their violinist Domitille Gilon. As well as her excellent playing, I liked the fact that she remained a part of her group throughout, with no attempts at per- sonal display or promotion. Her continuo colleagues were sensitive in their accompaniments, notably in providing neat little links between the vari- ous sections of the pieces. It was clear from this performance that Ensemble Stravaganza were well-deserved winners of the van Wassenaer Early Music Competition and the HIF Biber Competition. However, it was a shame that this was one of several concerts where a disrespectful photographer working for the festival disrupted proceedings, on this occasion by taking several noisy shots during the quiet introduction of the first piece. This is often an issue in Regensburg, and in some other festivals, and is frankly unforgiveable given the availability of sound-proofing camera covers or per- fectly good cameras that do not make any noise. I had to leave last years’ Monteverdi-themed Laus Polyphoniae festival in Antwerp before the final day, and therefore missed the three concerts by Concerto Palatino , directed by Joshua Rifkin, performing the Monteverdi 1610 Missa In illo tempore , followed by the Vespers presented in two parts; the Sacred Concertos in one concert and the Vespers and Magnificat in another. So I was glad to see that had come to Regensburg for a repeat. The three concerts had the same format as at Antwerp, and took place in the Dominikanerkirche at 2pm, 5.30pm and 10.45pm – in effect a concert that started at 2pm and finished around midnight, quite a task for those appearing in all three concerts. The performance was based on director Joshua Rifkin’s understanding of Monterverdi’s score, and resulted in a minimalist reading shorn of the accretions that directors usually add, with varying degrees of authenticity and musical success. There is something about the Monteverdi Vespers that brings musical pedants out of their burrows, each insisting that their view is absolutely right, and everybody else is wrong. So it is always refreshing to be challenged by hearing alternative versions. I take the view that there is probably no single correct way of performing this work, but there are plenty of incorrect ones. Joshua Rifkin gets closer to what actually survives than do many directors, the latter under the reasonable argument that some aspects of performance seem to be omitted from the surviving evidence. Most of the music in all three concerts had the one-to-a-part voices accompanied by the organ alone (well-played by Marcin Szelest), generally mirroring the vocal lines. And an interesting organ it was. Made by Walter Chinaglia, it had a full-length 8’ Principale with open wood pipes (producing the classic rather vocal Italian sound), together with a 4’ wooden open stop and a Regal. Not quite the sound of an Italian church organ that Monteverdi clearly intended, but nonetheless very effective in the quieter moments. The Missa in illo tempore had 7 singers, with 8 for the Sacri Concentus and 10 for the Vespro della beata vergine . The instrumentalists for the Sacred Concertos were two vio- linists, two cornetto and three posaune players, supported by a single Basso di viola da brazzo and the organ. An additional cornett, two flutes/recorders, three violas and a Contrabasso da gamba were added for the rest of the Vespers and the Magnificat .