Early, Classical and Beyond

Julius Isserlis – Piano Music
Sam Haywood
Hyperion CDA68025

The Isserlis family name is familiar to most by virtue of cellist Steven whose career has its own impressive discography. The music of his grandfather Julius is, however, a recent discovery and makes its first recorded appearance on this disc by pianist Sam Haywood.

Haywood is a long time friend of the Isserlis family. It was Haywood who found the manuscripts and early published music of Julius Isserlis among the family papers, and it was Haywood who set about editing, correcting and recording these works for Hyperion.

Born in 1888 in Moldova (then a part of Russia) Julius was a child prodigy who earned his admission to conservatories in Kiev and Moscow and the attention of the great musicians of the day such as Taneyev. The rise of Bolshevism and Nazism in Europe severely restricted career options for the young pianist and composer. He was fortunate to escape the continent with his family and settle in England where he spent the rest of his life teaching and performing.

He seems to have been a master of the short form, writing brilliant little pieces of every kind, skillfully evoking a wide range of moods…very French and very Russian. The Ballade in A Minor for cello and piano, with a cameo by grandson Steven, is the longest work and offers some hint of what Isserlis might have achieved had he written more frequently on a larger scale.

This recording is something of an Isserlis family project, but offers a very fine example of hitherto unheard music.

Guardian Angel – Works by Biber, Bach, Tartini, Pisendel
Rachel Podger
Channel Classics CCA SA 35513

Lest you think this is a lightweight, “new-age” recording, the title of this brilliant new CD is shared with Biber’s Passacaglia for solo violin, the last of his Mystery Sonatas. Rachel Podger is well-known as a first-rate baroque violin soloist, teacher and leader of many of England’s top period instrument orchestras. On this recording from May, 2013 she appears alone, leading us on a tour of music from the Baroque era written or transcribed for unaccompanied violin. The program includes interesting music by the London virtuoso Nicola Matteis, the long-lived Italian violinist Giuseppe Tartini (two of his rather obscure solo sonatas) and the little-known Dresden composer Johann Georg Pisendel. The absolute highlights, though, are a suave performance of the title work by Biber and a transcription of J.S. Bach’s superb A Minor Flute Partita.

Podger’s playing is full of clarity, technical assuredness and power. What is most impressive and moving, though, is her attention to detail and understanding of the rhetoric of these pieces. To quibble, it might have been nice to hear a broader range of dynamics and colours, but her sound is so mesmerizingly beautiful and her musical ideas so clear and convincing that our interest is keenly held throughout.

I especially appreciated the recording quality. Solo violin can be tricky to record well. This recording places us in the hall with enough distance for good perspective, though we’re close enough to pick up every detail.

Royal Recorder Concertos – Music from the Court of King Frederik IV
Bolette Roed; Arte dei Suonatori
Dacapo 6.220630

With its focus on 18th-century Danish musical life during the reigns of Frederik IV and V and Christian VI, this disc shines a provocative light on uncommon repertoire and makes a refreshing addition to recorder music available on CD. On a more personal note, this delightful collaboration between the excellent Danish recorder player Bolette Roed and Polish ensemble Arte dei Suonatori had me smiling and humming along from its first note to its last.

The CD opens with Graupner’s Overture in F Major, reminiscent of Telemann’s Suite in A Minor for its similar instrumentation, style and length. Though less virtuosic than the Telemann, it presents interpretative challenges which these players meet with aplomb, finding for example a perfect, improvisatory tempo giusto for the movement “La Speranza.” Roed provides a lovely cadenza in the first movement of Scheibe’s Concerto a quattro, and a serene, easygoing yet beautifully expressive adagio. In vivid contrast, Graun’s Double Concerto in C bursts out of the gate with its virtuosic passagework and decidedly “yang” character. Graupner’s F Major Concerto and the suite from the music collection of Princess Charlotte Amalie, arranged by Maciej Prochaska, are two little gems.

The performances offer much variety of mood and colour, and thoughtful attention to details in the original scores provides a springboard to refined and imaginative interpretation. The instrumental balance is good, the booklet notes are excellent and the packaging is quite beautiful. Way to go, Denmark!

Handel – Serse
Stéphany; Joshua; Daniels; Summers; Harvey; Sherratt; Wolf; Early Opera Company; Christian Curnyn
Chaconne CHAN 0797(3)

Serse (aka Xerxes Great King of Persia) was first performed in 1738, at a time when Handel still believed he could win London audiences over to the Italian dramma per musica. For this he drew on Venetian poet Nicolò Minato’s libretto and Pier Francesco Cavalli’s music, originally performed back in 1655.

Xerxes attempted to invade Greece, but was defeated, not least when attempting to cross the Hellespont. After his first bridge was washed away, he beheaded the engineers and gave the Hellespont waters 300 lashes for good measure. Little wonder Minato and Handel were so focused on the volatility of Xerxes.

From the start one notices the carefree nature of this new performance; during Handel’s lifetime Serse was only performed five times and contemporaries commented on the lacklustre quality of the original singers.

This time, however, the interpretations are outstanding. Anna Stéphany, in the title role, is enchanting as a ruler subject to all manner of events, notably the unexpected over which he has no control, and the almost whimsical, which reflect his own character. This is not, on the face of it, a king setting out to conquer the known world.

Throughout Serse all the performers maintain this lighthearted quality. For example, Elviro, a servant of Xerxes’ brother Arsamene, is depicted as a panicky and nervous individual. Bass-baritone Andreas Wolf takes full advantage of this in his singing. There is definitely a liveliness to this version of Serse – over all 94 (!) of its tracks.

Handel – Belshazzar
Clayton; Joshua; Hulcup; Davies; Lemalu; Les Arts Florissants; William Christie
Les Arts Florissants Editions 001

When Handel came to London in 1710, he was primarily a composer of Italian operas. His first oratorio, Esther, dates from 1732 but it was from the late 1730s on, when Italian opera was losing its popularity in London, that English oratorio became central to his work. Belshazzar was composed in 1744. The libretto is largely based on the Book of Daniel and its central event is the writing on the wall which Belshazzar, the Babylonian King, does not understand and which only Daniel, the Jewish captive, can interpret.

In 1745 major changes had to be made because the contralto, Susannah Cibber, who was to sing Daniel, was not available. On these CDs William Christie gives us essentially the work as it stood before that emergency surgery, but he also includes some material that was cut before the first performance (cut no doubt because Handel was worried about the work’s length) as well as some numbers that Handel added or changed for the 1751 revival. The performance is magnificent: it is superbly paced and the soloists, the orchestra and the chorus are all very fine. I was especially taken with the soprano Rosemary Joshua as Nitocris, Belshazzar’s mother, and the countertenor Iestyn Davies as Daniel.

Over the years Christie and Les Arts Florissants have given us many fine recordings, but this is the first set of CDs issued by the orchestra itself. A great beginning!

Concert notes: While there are dozens of performances of Messiah in Toronto each year, chances to hear Handel’s other oratorios are infrequent. But we are in luck this year: Tafelmusik is presenting Saul (February 21 to 23) and the Canadian Opera Company is giving us a staged version of Hercules, directed by Peter Sellars (from March 5).