Capriccio

During the time of Johann Sebastian Bach, death was part of everyday life. The ensemble il capriccio and the countertenor Franz Vitzthum offer the Thomaskantor's musical perspective on life and death on their new GENUIN CD. The texts of the recorded arias and chorale arrangements by Bach deal with death, eternity and the promise of eternal life. The musicians juxtapose the works, some of which have been carefully arranged, with selected sections from the Art of Fugue. The result is an artistic and moving musical tapestry, interpreted by Franz Vitzthum and the ensemble il capriccio with intensity and sensitivity.

A graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford, Reverend Richard Mudge (1718­-1763) was appointed curate of both Great and Little Packington in 1741. He may have been private chaplain to Lord Guernsey, who would later become the Earl of Aylesford. The family had significant musical connections, the best known being Handel's friend and librettist, Charles Jennens. In 1750, Mudge obtained a position at St. Martin's, Birmingham, where he became a popular preacher. In 1756, we find him in the post of rector at Bedworth, where he lived until his death. Even though Mudge's liturgical career is well documented, there is almost nothing pertaining to his musical pursuits.

Jan Dismas Zelenka, court composer of August Elector of Saxony in Dresden, is steadily regaining his deserved reputation.In thi snew recording for Pan Classics, the accomplished young British countertenor Alex Potter succeeds in displaying a wide emotional range in selected works for alto solo: he dazzles with astounding virtuosity in the motet 'Barbara, dira effera' and soars in tender arcs of tension in his performance of the 'Christe eleison' from a late unfinished mass.

Even by the supremely high production standards of Alpha recordings, this issue is especially splendid. Entitled Versailles, L'ile enchantée, it fully lives up to its name. As directed by Skip Sempé, the widely varied program features music written for Louis XIV's pleasure palace, performed by the Capriccio Stravagante Orchestra with mezzo soprano Guillemette Laurens and bass violist Jay Bernfeld. Each work is superbly selected, and every performance is absolutely idiomatic and wonderfully alive. There is wit and tenderness and elegance and, yes, nobility to their performances, which taken together form as much a portrait of the Sun King as the palace of Versailles itself.

Bottesini, whose music is little played in international concert halls, was a colourful composer, about whom many an anecdote could be told. There can be little doubt that he was born with a string instrument in his hands. He studied violin and viola but chose for the double bass at age thirteen. He shone as a soloist, led the double bass section in opera orchestras, he conducted ánd he composed.

Christoph Graupner (1683-1760) - Fagott- und Violinkonzerte / Bassoon and Violin Concertos
Ensemble il capriccio - Sergio Azzolini - Friedemann Wezel - Christian Leitherer
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 330 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Carus # 83.443 | Country/Year: Germany 2011
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque

…This concerto is just one example of Graupner’s highly original and absolutely unique compositional style. As I have observed before in reviews of recordings with instrumental works, his music is a kind of patchwork, and built from different ideas which sometimes seem to be totally unconnected. You just never knows what is going to happen. …

“Setting Rostropovich, an impetuously Slavonic musician if ever there was one, in front of such an unmistakably French orchestra as this produces an intriguing and most attractive blend of Russian fire and colour with Gallic elegance and sentiment,” wrote Gramophone. The relationship between the great cellist-conductor and the Orchestre de Paris achieves glorious expression in this programme of Russian orchestral showpieces.