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An entertaining and well-chosen programme of seventeenth-century instrumental music, mixing works by familiar and unfamiliar names. The programme ranges across much of Europe, including works from Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch masters. Mere nationality wasn’t, of course, necessarily of primary importance, given the ‘international’ careers led by so many composers of the period. So, for example, the Spanish composer and virtuoso player of the dulcian, Bartolommeo de Selma y Salaverde was employed at the court of Archduke Leopold at Innsbruck; Giovanni Martino Cesare, Italian player of cornetto and trombone, worked for the Margrave of Burgau and for other German and Austrian patrons; the Italian lutenist Marco Antonio Ferro worked at the Hofkapelle in Vienna. Others travelled for reasons not strictly musical – Johann Rosenmüller was forced to leave Leipzig after his imprisonment (along with a number of schoolboys) for homosexuality, and went on to work and teach in Venice. Other composers represented here seem, on the other hand, to have travelled little. Sweelinck appears to have spent all his life in Amsterdam; Böddekker seems always to have worked in his native Germany. But whether through travel or as a result of the widespread circulation of scores in both manuscript and printed forms, there is – while it is true that national ‘accents’ do exist – a decidedly transnational quality to what is to be heard here. Take the two pieces which begin the programme. The melody known both as Est-ce Mars and Courante Mars (though it isn’t actually a courante) circulated widely throughout Europe. Originally written by Pierre Guédron as part of a ballet first performed at the French court in November 1613, it was published soon afterwards. Nicholaes Vallet wrote four versions – two for solo lute (1615) and two for a quartet of lutes (1616); Jacob van Eyck’s Der Fluyten Lust-hof contains two sets of variations on the melody (published 1649, but written earlier); there are several English versions; there are also variations by Scheidt – which may have reflected the influence of his teacher Sweelinck, whose variations on the tune are represented here. The CD begins with a delightful instrumental setting by Selma y Salaverde which plays all kinds of games with the original and springs a few surprises on the listener. The Caecilia-Concert obviously enjoy playing it and they succeed in sharing their pleasure with the listener. Selma y Salaverde’s setting is followed by Sweelinck’s masterly set of seven variations on the melody; the performance on the harpsichord, by Kathryn Cok, works better than some I have heard on the organ. Cok plays a copy, by Titus Crijnen, of a 1638 instrument by I. Ruckers, absolutely perfect for this music. The other instruments employed by the Caecilia-Concert (full details are given in the booklet) are similarly well chosen and the result is an utterly convincing sound world. Amongst the many delights are Rosenmüller’s Sonata terza, in which the sound of Fiona Russell’s treble cornetto is particularly lovely; in Cima’s Quam pulcra es the cornetto muto is heard to great effect; Böddekker’s sonata is a set of variations on the folk-tune ‘La Monica’, played here on dulcian and portative organ, quite ravishingly. In truth there isn’t a track without interest, or without means to stimulate, amuse or charm the listener. The Caecilia-Concert vary the instrumentation from track to track, so that there is a range of colours and sounds; added to the enterprising choice of material this results in a fine CD which deserves to find plenty of listeners. Glyn Pursglove ****************************************************************************************** | ||
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