Trevor

Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert take a refined look at Christmas Concertos from the baroque masters. So that's Vivaldi, Handel, Corelli and plenty more.

Trevor Pinnock meets with mixed success in this account of the Messiah with the English Concert & Choir and soloists Arleen Auger, Anne Sofie von Otter, Michael Chance, Howard Crook, and John Tomlinson, recorded and released in 1988. Its strengths are the strengths of the early-music movement in general. The size and distribution of the instrumental and vocal forces are optimal, which means that textures are clear and balances apt. Rhythms are nicely pointed, though often, in Pinnock's case, not quite well enough sprung. Tempos are well chosen; for example, "All we like sheep"–which turns out to be one of the set's best numbers–is a real bourré, and Pinnock animates it in just the right way. But the performance often seems workmanlike and unemotional, weighed down in too many instances by the humdrum work of the chorus.

'When we speak of Joseph Haydn,' wrote Ernst Ludwig Gerber in his Lexicon der Tonkunstler of 1790-92, 'we think of one of our greatest men: great in small things and even greater in large… Everything speaks when he sets his orchestra in motion.' Gerber was among the first to recognise 'new and surprising' traits in Haydn's output, particularly among his Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) works of the early 1770s. Espousing spontaneity and passion as sources of creativity, Sturm und Drang despised the new rationalism of the Enlightenment, offering darkness and pessimism to counterpoise its orderly logic.

'When we speak of Joseph Haydn,' wrote Ernst Ludwig Gerber in his Lexicon der Tonkunstler of 1790-92, 'we think of one of our greatest men: great in small things and even greater in large… Everything speaks when he sets his orchestra in motion.' Gerber was among the first to recognise 'new and surprising' traits in Haydn's output, particularly among his Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) works of the early 1770s. Espousing spontaneity and passion as sources of creativity, Sturm und Drang despised the new rationalism of the Enlightenment, offering darkness and pessimism to counterpoise its orderly logic.

'When we speak of Joseph Haydn,' wrote Ernst Ludwig Gerber in his Lexicon der Tonkunstler of 1790-92, 'we think of one of our greatest men: great in small things and even greater in large… Everything speaks when he sets his orchestra in motion.' Gerber was among the first to recognise 'new and surprising' traits in Haydn's output, particularly among his Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) works of the early 1770s. Espousing spontaneity and passion as sources of creativity, Sturm und Drang despised the new rationalism of the Enlightenment, offering darkness and pessimism to counterpoise its orderly logic.

'When we speak of Joseph Haydn,' wrote Ernst Ludwig Gerber in his Lexicon der Tonkunstler of 1790-92, 'we think of one of our greatest men: great in small things and even greater in large… Everything speaks when he sets his orchestra in motion.' Gerber was among the first to recognise 'new and surprising' traits in Haydn's output, particularly among his Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) works of the early 1770s. Espousing spontaneity and passion as sources of creativity, Sturm und Drang despised the new rationalism of the Enlightenment, offering darkness and pessimism to counterpoise its orderly logic.

'When we speak of Joseph Haydn,' wrote Ernst Ludwig Gerber in his Lexicon der Tonkunstler of 1790-92, 'we think of one of our greatest men: great in small things and even greater in large… Everything speaks when he sets his orchestra in motion.' Gerber was among the first to recognise 'new and surprising' traits in Haydn's output, particularly among his Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) works of the early 1770s. Espousing spontaneity and passion as sources of creativity, Sturm und Drang despised the new rationalism of the Enlightenment, offering darkness and pessimism to counterpoise its orderly logic.

In the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, Alison Balsom celebrates the heroic era of the Baroque trumpet in works by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and Henry Purcell (1658 or 1659-1695), whose anthems, odes, sinfonias and operas have provided the music for numerous royal celebrations from their own day to the present.

At last there is a Haydn Stabat mater within easy reach. The piece is seldom performed and even more rarely recorded, and this despite the fact that it contains some of the composer's most rich and deeply felt writing. One of the few works not written to order (Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy was less than keen on encouraging the sacred duties of his Kapellmeister) the Stabat mater is also one Haydn himself grew to respect highly, and Trevor Pinnock's performance makes it clear why.

Although later generations would judge otherwise, Georg Philipp Telemann was considered the most important German composer of the first half of the 18th century in the eyes of his contemporaries. After his appointment as musical director of the 5 most important churches in Hamburg, Telemann managed to establish his fame as a composer both nationally and internationally. An example of his influence is, for example, Telemann's so-called Musique de table from 1733, consisting of various orchestral and chamber music works. Handel was one of the subscribers for this series, and so it came about that a theme from the Suite in D by Telemann eventually ended up in the organ concert op. 7, No. 4 of Handel. This suite is played together with another suite and a concerto in a performance by The English Concert conducted by Trevor Pinnock.