Trevor

Trevor Pinnock is a true pioneer of the early music movement. As founder and former leader of The English Concert he enjoys a longstanding relationship with Archiv Produktion and Deutsche Grammophon. Among his celebrated recordings are Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Handel’s Messiah and Concerti Grossi, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons The Harmonious Blacksmith, Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Partitas. Throughout his interpretations Pinnock remains true to his core principles favouring musicality and inspiration above musical orthodoxy. Achieving an exceptional reputation as a conductor, chamber musician and harpsichordist he has received enthusiastic critical acclaim.

You may not realize it, but at some point, during any day, week, or month, you’ve listened to the music of Trevor Rabin. It might have been on the radio when one of the biggest rock hits of all time, Yes’ “Owner of a Lonely Heart “, was played, or on one of his more than 100 movie or TV soundtracks, or even the theme for NBA basketball on TNT. Now he returns with ’Rio’, his first vocal-led solo album since 1989’s ‘Can’t Look Away’. It is a masterclass of idea exploration combined with unbound musical ability and Rabin’s skills as a storyteller through music are present throughout. It is a record full of surprises, gorgeous melodies, dramatic changes, and incredible musicianship.

This DG Archiv compilation, subtitled “Christmas in Rome” was recorded by English forces directed by Trevor Pinnock a quarter of a century ago in the resonant acoustic of the magnificent church of Santa Maria Maggiore and has worn very well. It comprises three festive works from contemporaneous, Italian baroque composers, although the Scarlatti item is certainly less familiar or celebrated than the other two. Nonetheless, it is worthy to stand alongside them, sweetly and elegantly sung by Nancy Argenta’s silvery (sic) soprano. The forces employed throughout are not large but the performers are robust and energetic, without being frantic, and the astringent original instruments are well tuned.

'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.

This package, released on Archiv Laserdisc and VHS in December 1993, was recorded a year earlier at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in cooperation with a consortium of European television broadcasters. It consists of two distinct but complementary programs, the first under McCreesh followed by another under Pinnock. As the notes point out, the basilica is the perfect site for such a program, since it has claimed to possess the very crib in which the infant lay on the first Christmas. For centuries the papal celebration of the Midnight Mass of Christmas was held “ad praesepe,” at the altar where the crib was venerated. Typically for such concert videos, we see appropriate scenes in the basilica alternating with views of the singers and players.

The re-release of The English Concert’s award-winning recording of Corelli’s Op 6 concertos offers a welcome opportunity to reflect on some of the changes in taste that have emerged since 1989. Two competing recordings, by groups led by Italians – that of Ensemble 415 and Europa Galante – oblige with two quite different approaches to this most quintessential of Baroque music.

Bennett and Pinnock get it right. The period orchestra has the right balance and sonority; there is much more space in the texture so that all of the voices sound distinctly. Bennett, on a keyed trumpet, plays the solo part with flair and in balanced dialog with the orchestral counterpoint, and he uses the most engaging cadenzas, fills, and ornaments I've ever heard. Pinnock brings to the reading as a whole the sense of protortion, the earthiness, the rhythmic vitality that animate the Classical style, bring it to life. I can't imagine it being done any better.

The authority on Rameau in the Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians spent a lot of words on these pieces. All YOU have to know is that the usual "continuo" situation of the bass instrument playing the same notes as those found under the harpsichordist's left hand is not present here. This is not a suite with violin on top and bass viol for continuo - but "concerted" harpsichord pieces with the help of a violin and a bass viol. The first and last suites are my favorites, but if you think you like French baroque music, you will thoroughly enjoy the whole disc.

In order to bear witness one must believe what one sees and belief, of course, is subjective. Knowledge is essentially faith. And the flexibility of human memory, our blind spots (whether empathetic or optic) and our great imaginations don’t make truth any easier to contain. This becomes more evident over time as the pages of history weather and the cataracts of progress cloud our collective “knowledge”. Humans love to forget and to repeat. We fall subject to confirmation bias, sway to suggestion, take the easy way out and allow ourselves to be governed while adamantly broadcasting our independence. Naturally it takes followers for a leader to exist, but like anomalons or quantum particles that change when being observed, the psychological battle within each of us changes depending on who is bearing witness. We are the worst portrayers of truth as we have no idea what it is. Everyone is a hypocrite. Everyone is wrong.

Although at least one of the three oboe concertos on this recording is almost undoubtedly spurious, this is still one of the loveliest Handel recordings ever made - gorgeous melodies, elegant but energetic playing and sound engineering that can hardly get any better.