Tage Alter Musik – Almanach 2015

8 Notable features included singing the ‘echo’ sections of Audi coelum at equal volumes from the left and right of the choral group gathered either side of the organ. The instrumental ‘echoes’ in the Magnificat were similarly treated, with no change in volume. Commendably, Rifkin took all the sesquial- tera passages (when the pulse changes from duple to triple time) at what I consider the correct speed, far slower than is usually done, but exactly matching what the score and the tactus implies. Instrumentalists played the notes as written with few (if any) diminutions, elaborations or other dis- plays of virtuosity. Similarly the organ kept to simple chords to support the singers. All the singers impressed, particularly soprano Gerlinde Sämann and tenor Charles Daniels. This was a fascinating performance, the intimacy of the forces and the musical approach drawing the listener in. It is a far more valid interpretation than many, although I hope it never becomes the only interpretation – I am sure that Monteverdi, like Bach, can absorb many different readings. In between the first two Monteverdi concerts the Dresden based Batzdorfer Hofkapelle gave a programme called ‘ My favourite Instrument – Handel and the Oboe ’ (in the Basilika St. Emmeram) with Xenia Löffler, oboe, and Marie Friederike Schöder, soprano, (both, incidentally, repre- sented by very youthful photographs in the programme). As the concert title suggested, all the works featured the oboe, either in concerto or obligato context. As with many concerts in the Tage Alter Musik, this concert was promoting a CD of the same title – and with the same youthful photo on the cover. If you run your own orchestra, and play an instrument, I suppose it is tempting to feature yourself as soloist in every piece, but at least one piece without the oboe would have made a refreshing contrast in this concert. Before the final Monteverdi concert came ‘ Corellimania’ given by Harmonie Universelle from Germany (Dreieinigkeitskirche, 8pm). The ‘mania’ of the programme’s title indicated the enormous influence that Corelli had on musicians throughout Europe, in this case as represented by Locatelli, Geminiani, Mossi and Vivaldi, whose concertos we heard alongside three from Corelli’s famed Opus 6 collection. Led by violinists Florian Deuter and Mónica Waisman, Harmonie Universelle produced a vigorous (and occasionally strident) sound, aided on this occasion by the addition of 2 trum- pets and a trombone to the line-up, instruments not normally associated with Corelli, but apparently implied in the source. Of the offerings of the Corelli followers, the Concerto grosso in d (Op.3/3) by the little-known Giovanni Mossi was particularly interesting. Monday 25 May Monday’s series of concerts started in the Reichssaal with the programme “ 150 years of surprises in English counterpoint” given by the UK-based viol consort Phantasm , making their Regensburg debut. With music from the Elizabethan and Jacobean composers Tye, Gibbons, Byrd, Lawes and Jenkins we heard two contrasting routes to Purcell’s late 17 th century resurgence in viol consort music with his extraordinary Fantasias that closed each half of the concert. With the exception of Jenkins, all the other composers had died well before Purcell was born. Apart from one issue, this was a fine performance, notable for some beautifully wrought cadences and some very professionally organised tuning up. The only issue for me was the prominence of the upper treble viol voice of the consort. This is music of equal interweaving parts, rather than for a solo treble viol and accompani- ment, which was how it sounded for most of the time. This is something that does seem to happen when the leader of a group also plays what is, poten- tially, the most prominent musical line. Whether the top line should tone down, or whether fellow musicians should be encouraged to play with a sim- ilar degree of presence, depends on your view of consort music performance. Is this essentially domestic music-making one that needs to draw the audience into its rather intense and insular world – or does it need projecting to an audience that almost certainly would not have been there at the time? The Monday afternoon concert was O quam gloriosum: Sacred vocal music of the Renaissance given by New York Polyphony in the vast space of the Minoritenkirche (2.15), one of several enormous Gothic churches used for Tage Alter Musik events. The“delighted to be with you” introduc- Die Regensburger Domspatzen & L’Orfeo Barockorchester in der Dreieinigkeitskirche