Volume 26 Issue 1 - September 2020

containing enervating, multi-influenced
compositions. Produced by Adrian Peacock
and under the artistic direction of Barnaby
Smith, the recording utilized the stunning
natural acoustics of the Chapel of Trinity
College at Cambridge, St. George’s Church
in Chesterton and St. John the Evangelist
in Islington. The uber-gifted members of
VOCES8 include sopranos Andrea Haynes
and Eleonore Cockerham; altos Katie Jeffries-
Harris and Barnaby Smith; tenors Blake
Morgan and Euan Williamson and basses
Christopher Moore and Jonathan Pacey.
Remembrance begins with the sombre
beauty of Orlando Gibbons’ Drop, Drop,
Slow Tears, which initiates the emotional
four-song exploration of the depth and
nature of grief and loss. Through each track,
the ensemble exercises not only magical
dynamics, but a breathtaking relationship
to A440 and heavenly intonation. The
vocal blend and control of the respective
vocal instruments here is nothing short of
incomparable. Devotion examines filial,
venal, sacred and romantic love as illustrated
in Monteverdi’s heart-rending madrigal
Lagrime d’amante al sepolcro dell’amata.
Redemption and Elemental contain a
nearly unbearable amount of beauty, but
an exquisite track is Mahler’s Ich bin der
Welt abhanden gekommen. In short – After
Silence is perfection.
Lesley Mithchell-Clarke
CLASSICAL AND BEYOND
L’Unique – Harpsichord Music of François
Couperin
Jory Vinikour
Cedille CDR 90000 194
(cedillerecords.org)
! The harpsichord
is one of
those instruments
that simultaneously
fascinates
and confounds,
its plucked-string
effect and resulting
sound so unlike any
other keyboard instrument that it is without
parallel in the realm of modern instruments.
Its players, too, can be considered atypical,
collecting birds’ feathers to harvest and refine
the quills, thereby crafting the plectra that
pick at each individual string, and exploring
repertoire that has often been cast aside by
the more conventional pianoforte crowd.
Such is the case with the harpsichord
music of François Couperin, a master of
Baroque keyboard music whose works have
long remained in a niche category – the
Ordres performed by harpsichordists and the
Masses by organists – frequently recorded but
less often celebrated in wider musical circles.
Vinikour’s recording demonstrates once again
why this is so: Couperin’s harpsichord music
is inherently and essentially crafted for that
specific instrument, its unique percussiveness
and relative lack of resonance.
It is this exclusive reliance on the harpsichord
that makes these works so fascinating;
in addition to being expressive, articulate and
strikingly beautiful, Couperin’s conception of
these pieces is so specific, both in the written
score and resulting sound, that they simply
do not work as well on any other keyboard
instrument, a point reinforced by Vinikour’s
measured approach to the Sixième, Septiême
and Huitiême Ordres.
Couperin, as with much of the French
Baroque, can sound frenetic and indecipherable
if tempi are taken too briskly and ornamentation
loses its melodic intentions.
Fortunately for us, Vinikour never loses sight
of the melodiousness of Couperin’s music,
resulting in nearly 80 minutes of utterly
delightful early music.
Matthew Whitfield
Froberger: Complete Fantasias and
Canzonas
Terence R. Charlston
Divine Art DDA25204 (naxosdirect.com)
! So rarely
does it happen
that performer,
composer, instrument
and instrument
maker(!)
equitably join in
artistic synthesis.
This new record,
featuring period instrument specialist Terence
Charlston, is a fine specimen of expertise
and craftsmanship, with each of the above
components keenly harmonized.
Today, there remain aspects of Johann
Jacob Froberger’s art that are unknown to the
public at large. The Middle Baroque composer’s
contrapuntal works, in particular, are
relegated to small circles of listeners and
scholars – neglected, despite their ingenuity.
Charlston understands this all too well. He
looks not only to the impressive compendium,
the Libro Secondo (an autograph
manuscript dating from 1649), but to a fitting
choice of instrument: a copy of a South
German clavichord, the MIM 2160, as reconstructed
by contemporary keyboard maker,
Andreas Hermert.
Charlston has chosen this instrument for
its timbral possibilities and expressive range,
even citing a lute-like tonal profile. Infamous
for pianissimo playing, the clavichord in
general has long been commended for its
intimate, (even private) character, lyrical and
sensitive in its response to the player’s touch.
Bemusingly, it even boasts vibrato, of a kind.
But not a single note of this disc ever
sounds too private or too furtive. In the
hands of Charlston, his clavichord soars and
expands before our very ears. Through this
incantation of counterpoint, in turns both
exotic and familiar, Charlston reveals a depth
of humanity on par with the great polyphonic
achievements of J.S. Bach.
Adam Sherkin
Beethoven – The Piano Concertos
Stephen Hough; Finnish Radio Symphony
Orchestra; Hannu Lintu
Hyperion CDA68291/3
(hyperion-records.co.uk)
! Performing –
and recording –
the complete cycle
of Beethoven’s
piano concertos
is a remarkable
achievement for any
pianist, at any stage
in their creative life.
But a recent release from Hyperion Records
offers a singular synthesis of extraordinary
solo playing, exceptional conducting and
exquisite orchestral performance. Breathing
vibrant, surprising avidity into all of this is
Stephen Hough, with his customary elan.
Hough is a tireless artist, devoted to his craft
and to the betterment of our 21st-century
musical world. At this autumnal stage in
his career, he is beloved and with good
reason: his inheritance is of that rare and
reverent keyboard tradition dating back to
Beethoven’s time.
Presumably, the British pianist has been
performing these piano concertos since his
youth and yet, much of the disc’s material
suggests a re-envisioned approach, a wideeyed
zeal for such canonic works, always
tempered, deferential and selfless. Hough
brings his experience to bear: such thrilling
artistry glistens through every last note – and
silence – on the record. We the listeners are
gladdened beneficiaries.
Highlights include both final movements
of the Second Concerto in B-flat Major, Op.19
and the Fifth (“Emperor”) in E-flat Major,
Op.73, where Hough’s superb taste and jovial
character are on full display; he relishes such
jauntiness with embellishments and goodnatured
glee. (In fact, he composed his own
cadenza for the first movement of the second
concerto.) Also of remarkable note is the
Allegro moderato (first movement) of the
Concerto No.4 in G Major, Op.58. Hough’s
carefully synchronized reading of this music
is a departure from the norm and a welcome
one at that! His lyrical lines skip and soar,
caper and cajole with earnest delight. After
all, isn’t this music at once both so very
humane and cosmic?
Admirably, Stephen Hough is donating 100
percent of sales from this new album to the
charity Help Musicians. An active and noted
writer, he recently released an anthology of
essays, Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and
More (2019). It is published by Faber & Faber
in the UK and by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in
North America.
Adam Sherkin
thewholenote.com September 2020 | 45