Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
Suite en la & Suite en Sol
Jean Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Hommage A Rameau
Alexandre Tharaud (Piano)
(Harmonia Mundi HMC 901754)

After initial reservations of the appropriateness of playing Rameau’s two great sets of harpsichord suites on the piano ( and a modern Steinway at that! ), I found myself repeatedly playing this disc and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with an interest for fine music.

Rameau’s suite en La ( Suites in A ) and Suite en Sol ( Suites in G ) are part of a collection for harpsichord published in 1728.Nouvelles Suites de pieces de clavecin contained 23 items, of all which are included here with the exception of the final piece,
La Dauphine.

By the time this collection was published, Rameau was already well known as an organist and theorist, as well as the composer of two previous collections of harpsichord music. Ironically, the music that Rameau is better known for ,his operas, first appeared only on 1733( when he was 50).Hippolyte et Aricie was the first in a line of operatic masterpieces that virtually overshadowed all of his other works.
Fortunately,interest in Rameau’s non-operatic music has increased, led by performers like William Christie and Christophe Rousset, who have done much fine work over the past few years.

To these achievements we can now add Alexandre Tharaud’s. His readings of the suites are agile and finely proportionate, doing justice to Rameau’s inventiveness and intrinsic sense of beauty. Tharaud’s tempi are keenly judged and his characterization of each suite is precise and polished. He neither lingers unnecessarily nor forces the music to serve his purpose,allowing the music-and the listener- a chance to breath.

Tharaud’s playing is crisp yet gentle. He is clear and articulate, sharing many of the qualities that made Rousset’s 1989 recording for L’Oiseau-Lyre so memorable- a strong sense for rhythm, full of vitality and irresistible virtuosity.

Fans of Rameau are likely to find Tharaud’s disc just as rewarding as Rousset’s; for the rest , this is music of great beauty and subtle intricacy, served up in perfect conditions by a very gifted pianist-certainly worth a try. – Christy Yoong

Andrew Manze has, variously been labeled “ Grapelli of the baroque”( BBC Music Magazine ) and “ the first modern superstar of the baroque violin” ( San Francisco Examiner ).

A specialist in the repertoire of 1610 to 1830, the Englishman has attracted much acclaim as a soloist, ensemble player and conductor. An associate director of The Academy of Ancient Music since 1996,Manze has, this year, been appointed successor to Trevor Pinnock as artistic director of the English Concert.

The current disc is a sort of “best of” compilation of Manze’s recordings for harmonia mundi.The range is wide, opening with Tartini and ending with Geminiani.
Along the way, Manze samples Pandolfi, Vivaldi,Uccellini, Handel, Rebel, Bach, Telemann and Biagio Marini. This is, literally, a journey around the world of baroque music in less than 75 minutes.

Also included on this disc is a thought-fully lucid essay by Manze, reflecting on baroque music. In all, this is an sight into a violinist who is not afraid to be cerebral and the richness of baroque music.

Roland De Lassus (c1532-94)
Lagrime di San Pietro
Ensemble Vocal European
Philippe Herreweghe
(Harmonia Mundi HMX 2981483)

Oddly enough, the first time I encountered Roland De Lassus was in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Advanture of the Bruce Partington Plans, where Sherlock Holmes was writing a monograph on the composer’s polyphonic motets, which “ is said by experts to be the last word upon the subject.”

I was impressed enough by the great detective’s interest to do my own “investigations”
I discovered that Lassus did truly write wonderful motets; more importantly, this Flemish composer also left behind a huge number of other works that would delight even the most demanding fan of the madrigal.

Born around 1532, Lassus started out as a choirboy in his birthplace, Mons, and later became choirmaster at the church of St John Lateran in Rome. He worked for a time in Antwerp before joining the Bavarian court in Munich as Kapellmeister ( German for chapel master ), where he spent the rest of his life. In fact, Lassus died on June 14,1594,at the very moment when the decision to discharge ( sack,in modern parlance ) him was decreed in writing.
Today, Lassus is justly celebrated for his church music.In his lifetime, however Lassus was also famed for his secular works, some of which were described as “ shocking to the sensitive ear!”

Lassus was, nonetheless, the most celebrated composer in western Europe, and by the time of his death, had written more than 2,000 works,all for two or more voices. His opus included spiritual and secular madrigals as well as religious music.

Lagrime di San Pietro (Tears of St Peter) was Lassus’ final work,completed just three weeks before his death.It was dedicated to the Pope, Clement VIII, and was published in 1595.

In the context of his oeuvre, Lagrime di San Pietro was remarkable achievement for Lassus.Here, finally, was an astonishing marriage of the sacred and the secular, a unique contemplation of life and suffering in the music, Herreweghe’s ensemble actually succeeds in emphasizing the human drama that Lassus has created.

Those looking for music that will set the heart racing need to look elsewhere, but those who seek a quiet meditation on life and its vagaries would find this very eloquent CD an excellent companion. This recording was made in 1994 and is now reissued as part of Harmonia Mundi’s Edition Herreweghe. The 16-disc series as no longer available as a box set, but the titles are available individually at mid-price, which makes this highly recommended disc a double bargain. – Christy Yoong

It is as hard to tackle the works the used to be performed by what is possibly the most famous18th century castrato - a male singer who is castrated in order to maintain the high range and purity of his voice-as it is takingon the momentous statureof his musical reputation.Carlo Broschi ditto Farinelli is a figure of fascination, a symbol of mystery, excitement and imagination.
In his day, Farinelli was as famous(or notorious) as the Marquis de Sade or Giacomo Casanova- yet Farinelli himself noted the irony of that fame given his shortcomings. While castratos are a thing of the past today, the American mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux has takenon the task of reproducing someof Farinelli’s most famous operatic Works.
Farinelli was known not only for his vocal ability and agility-the strong and brilliant tone was celebrated along with the strong pathos that he projected whenever he played a character on stage.For Genaux, the reproduction ( or re- interpretation ) of those arias becomes a doubly difficult task- one she carries out marvelously as well.
Genaux temas up with period instrument outfit the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin and its director Rene Jacobs and plunges headlong into the repertoire. The Akademie is in fighting form and approaches the music with energy and crispness that lends a refreshing air to the performance. The arias may be a few hundred years old, but they sound new and the music has a curiously brittle yet rich quality to it. The mezzo-soprano tackles the arias with an agility that is stunning:she skips and trills and flies over the intricate , running passages without taking a short breath or skipping over the details.
The best pieces mix melodic richness with technical expertise, and though this may apply to the majority of the arias here, the best include Nicola Antonio Porpora’s Dall’amor Piu Senturato from Orfeo and the entire excerpt from Riccardo Borshi’s( Farinelli own composer brother) Idaspe. This is clearly a tour de force and an ambitious project that fully lives up to expectations. It is a pity that there are not that many other Vivica Genaux albums out there. – GEK