Standage

In this latest recording of works by Albinoni, Simon Standage directs Collegium Musicum 90 showcasing the rarely performed and recorded Op. 10 Concertos. As late as 1961, academics were unaware of Albinoni’s last set of concertos. All this changed when two small private collections were found to contain the print. Since then, the existence of Op.10 has been known to scholars, but awareness of it and curiosity about it has not really penetrated. Most of the Op.10 concertos have not been published in a modern edition, and the set has been recorded only twice before.

Collegium Musicum 90 was founded by Simon Standage and the late Richard Hickox in 1990, and is today a well-established ensemble for the performance of baroque and classical music, with a repertoire ranging from chamber music to large-scale works for choir and orchestra. As an exclusive Chandos artist, the ensemble has recorded more than fifty CDs for the label, which includes nine discs of instrumental music by Telemann. In recognition of the success of the Telemann series in promoting the reputation of the composer, Simon Standage was awarded the Georg-Philipp-Telemann-Preis in 2010.

The concerto, such a familiar feature of the modern concert landscape, seems a simple thing in its opposition of individual and group. But its early history is not so simple; composers had to find structures that would support contrasts between one or more soloists and an orchestra. The "classic" Baroque concertos of Corelli actually represented a simplification of experiments carried out by earlier composers, the Bolognese Giuseppe Torelli central among them. Torelli is usually associated in Baroque listeners' minds with a few trumpet concertos, two of which (labeled sinfonias) are heard here. The short concertos for one or two violins (mostly six or seven minutes long, for three movements) are rarer but very attractive. They don't have the clean symmetries of the Vivaldian concerto, instead exploiting various ways of breaking up a movement into solo and tutti. Although short and essentially compact, each movement has an aspect of free imagination that is nicely brought out by the veteran English early music conductor and violinist Simon Standage, who joins with several other well-known soloists from Britain's historical-performance movement.

As a specialist in historical violin techniques of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Simon Standage has performed with many of the world's leading period instrument orchestras. After a music degree from Cambridge University in 1963, a Harkness Fellowship to study with Ivan Galamian in New York City, and, after a 1972 Wigmore Hall debut, he became a founding member of Trevor Pinnock's ensemble the English Concert. Standage served as first (solo) violinist of this ensemble from 1973 to 1991; his recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons with the English Concert received a Grammy nomination. Standage also played extensively with the English Chamber Orchestra from 1974 to 1978, led the City of London Sinfonia from 1980 to 1989, and served as associate director of the Academy of Ancient Music from 1991 to 1995.

As a specialist in historical violin techniques of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Simon Standage has performed with many of the world's leading period instrument orchestras. After a music degree from Cambridge University in 1963, a Harkness Fellowship to study with Ivan Galamian in New York City, and, after a 1972 Wigmore Hall debut, he became a founding member of Trevor Pinnock's ensemble the English Concert. Standage served as first (solo) violinist of this ensemble from 1973 to 1991; his recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons with the English Concert received a Grammy nomination. Standage also played extensively with the English Chamber Orchestra from 1974 to 1978, led the City of London Sinfonia from 1980 to 1989, and served as associate director of the Academy of Ancient Music from 1991 to 1995. ~ Timothy Dickey, Rovi

During the 1990s, Collegium Musicum 90 and Simon Standage released several volumes of Albinoni concertos, which proved popular with critics and public alike. The concertos were released as discs of single oboe concertos, double oboe concertos, and string concertos. In this re-issue on the Chaconne label, the concertos are presented in opus number order, showing the contrasting colours and tonalities of the concertos as they originally appeared.

Recorded in 1990 at Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Hampstead (London), this beautifully produced CD contains six lesser-known works for violin(s) by Germany’s most prolific 18th century composer, Georg Philipp Telemann, who was, during his lifetime, considerably more famous (and more in demand) than any of the Bach dynasty. But as Nicholas Anderson points out in his rather brief introduction to this music, “Telemann did not altogether avoid in his own music those features which he criticised in others; sometimes his harmonies seem sparse, his passagework perfunctory.” Telemann was a great musician, but the violin “seems to have been that in which he was least fluent”. It is also well-known that Telemann’s facility in composing has gained him a reputation for producing quantity rather than quality – a reputation which, on the whole, is undeserved.

As a specialist in historical violin techniques of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Simon Standage has performed with many of the world's leading period instrument orchestras. After a music degree from Cambridge University in 1963, a Harkness Fellowship to study with Ivan Galamian in New York City, and, after a 1972 Wigmore Hall debut, he became a founding member of Trevor Pinnock's ensemble the English Concert.

Chandos Chaconne's J.C. Bach: Overture "Adriano in Siria" features the Academy of Ancient Music under Simon Standage in four symphonies (one is an overture; for Bach there was no difference between the structure and function of these two forms) and the Sinfonia Concertante in C major, T. 289/4. The last-named work is the best music here; a loving realization featuring soloists Rachel Brown (flute), Frank de Bruine (oboe), and conductor Standage (violin) combining in pleasing harmony while managing to shine individually. This is exactly what Bach had in mind when he wrote the music, and this performance is to be preferred over the only other recording of the work on Capriccio.

Chandos Chaconne's J.C. Bach: Overture "Adriano in Siria" features the Academy of Ancient Music under Simon Standage in four symphonies (one is an overture; for Bach there was no difference between the structure and function of these two forms) and the Sinfonia Concertante in C major, T. 289/4. The last-named work is the best music here; a loving realization featuring soloists Rachel Brown (flute), Frank de Bruine (oboe), and conductor Standage (violin) combining in pleasing harmony while managing to shine individually. This is exactly what Bach had in mind when he wrote the music, and this performance is to be preferred over the only other recording of the work on Capriccio.