Hansjörg Angerer and the Mozarteum Parforce Horns, Jagdmusik am Kaiserhof zu Wien auf historischen Parforcehörnern, UNIMOZ 55, and Jagd Capriccio: Werke von Paul Angerer für historische Paforcehörner, UNIMOZ 56, Universität Mozarteum.

The Mozarteum Parforce Horns, led by Hansjörg Angerer, have recently released two fine recordings. The first, a collection of Hunting Music from the Viennese Court of the late nineteenth century, is an impressive compendium of music that will be of interest to any hunting horn enthusiast or scholar interested in the history of horn playing in Vienna. The second recording, a collection of contemporary music written for the historical instrument, is on par with other recent recordings of modern compositions for natural horn, such as Jeffrey Snedeker’s fine CD, The Contemporary Natural Horn, from 2010.

The first set of CDs I listened to was the collection of historical pieces. The music and playing presented on this collection are both wonderful and numerous mental images abounded as I enjoyed listening to the music: hunting choruses, huntsmen on horseback, hounds barking and chasing prey, lively pastoral dance scenes, jovial rounds of ale drinking, ridiculously large horn choirs at conferences, etc. Most of the music presented in this collection was written by the renowned hornist and teacher Josef Schantl, with some other works by Siegmund Weill, Karl Stiegler, and Anton Wunderer. The name Siegmund Weill may not be remembered by many, but the names Stiegler and Wunderer will be recognizable to those familiar with the lineage of accomplished horn players in Vienna. Stiegler was appointed first horn to the Vienna Court Opera by the estimable Gustav Mahler. He also served as first horn in the Vienna Philharmonic for many years. Wunderer was a member of Schantl’s horn quartet and a prolific composer of horn quartets.

The order of the musical selections on this historical collection presents a delightful, imaginary journey. We hear on the first disc a musical journey through the periods of the hunters’ day, from a morning greeting, to the hunt itself, the death of the quarry, and even the horn calls for each beast. The journey continues with pieces representing various hunting regions, an homage to St. Hubert, some dancing music, and a trip to the tavern. The second disc is comprised of forty-eight fanfares composed in honor of princes, dukes, and various other aristocratic figures of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its allies, each introduced by a “master of ceremonies” who announces the title of the dedicatee.

The second set of CDs is an interesting collection of contemporary pieces for hunting horns. All compositions on the set are by Hansjörg Angerer and Paul Angerer (both gentlemen have the same surname, but there is no relation). The styles of the contemporary pieces range from solemn hymns to raucous fanfares. At times the music is reminiscent of traditional hunting calls and fanfares, at other times it is reverent, devotional (think Rheingold or St. Hubert Mass), and in other moments, these contemporary pieces can be strident or even playful. Interestingly, there were times during my listening that I was reminded of bluesy and jazzy harmonies and melodies (I could swear there was a brief quote from “Hello Ma Baby” in one of the pieces).

Hunting enthusiasts will be pleased to know that both of these CDs were produced with financial help from the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (www.cic-wildlife.org), an organization devoted to preserving wild animals for sustainable hunting. CIC works on many conservation fronts, including the promotion of “cultural inheritance.” These two excellent CD sets certainly fit that mission since they record both historical and contemporary works for the hunting horn.

The sound quality on both recordings is top notch and it must be stressed again that the playing is incredible. My one gripe about the recordings is an unfortunate error with the breaks between tracks on the collection of contemporary music. There are a couple of moments where I heard the sound of the horn players breathing, as if in preparation to play, but this occurred at the tail end of a track and not at the beginning of a new track. It was a little unsettling to hear a preparatory breath and be given the feeling of anticipation, only to be forced to wait through the break in tracks before hearing the opening notes of the next piece.

--Eric Brummitt

[Editor's note: at the time of publication the website link for the CD publisher was not working, so certain details such as cost and year of publication were unavailable.]

Venetian Art 1600: The new instrumental style by Fontana and Buonamente. Accent ACC 24253 Le Concert Brisé. William Dongois; conrnett and Director, Christine Moran; violin, Katharina Bäuml; dulcian, Matthias Spaeter; lute, Hadrien Jourdan; organ, Carsten Lohft, harpsichord and organ. Recorded July 14-19, 2011.

William Dongois formed Le Concert Brisé in the 1990s and the members of this fine ensemble share a musical approach that includes a dedication to the study and understanding of the historical sources as well as the use of improvisational techniques based on jazz and traditional music. The result is incredibly satisfying, particularly when applied to the beautiful early 17^th century music presented on this recording. The program includes 12 sonatas and 4 dance pieces by Giovanni Battista Buonamente and Giovanni Battista Fontana.

William Dongois outlines the historical developments of early 17^th century instrumental writing in his informative liner notes which are presented in English, French and German. He explains that the early 17^th century sonata form took much of its lead from the developments of vocal music and an independent instrumental approach was further developed by composers such as Castello, Scarani, Barini, Frescobaldi and the two composers represented on this recording. Fontana’s music is extremely florid; Dongois and the members of Le Concert Brisé do much with further embellishing the lines. He plays on a 465 Hz straight cornett constructed in 3 sections by Henri Gohin and he achieves the most glorious warm tone imaginable. Even on very virtuosic pieces such as Fontana’s Sonata prima and his Sonata quarta which occasionally ascends to the altissimo register, Dongois maintains a beautiful warmth of tone. The Buonamente sonatas and dance pieces are equally florid and have a majestic quality. His Sonata Prima seems to be influenced by Claudio Monteverdi. The members of Le Concert Brisé share a wonderful sense of ensemble and are all first rate performers who seem to have a complete understanding of this repertoire. The performance employs mean tone temperament at high pitch. It is a stunning performance.

 -- Jeffrey Nussbaum

Holger Eichhorn and Musicalische Compagney, Johann Sebastian Bach, Christmas Oratorio I-III (Querstand VKJK 1238, 2012).

The intention of this CD is to reproduce accurately the performing forces available to J. S. Bach in December 1734. This means, notably, that only four singers were employed for this recording, all of them male, for both the solo and choir parts: Leopold Lampelsdorfer (boy soprano with the Bad Tölz Boys’ Choir, admirably coached by Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden), Thomas Riede, Jan Hübner, and Georg Lutz. According to conductor Eichhorn, this grouping is a historic “first.”

Further participants include a pre-existing double-reed ensemble, “Les hautboïstes de prusse,” consisting of Georg Corall, Renate Hildebrand, Eva Grießhaber, and Nikolaus M. Broda (on various instruments including oboe, oboe d’amore, oboe da caccia, tenor oboe, and bassoon). The string group was headed by Irina Kisselova, the excellent first trumpeter was Helen Barsby, and the organ continuo player was Torsten Übelhör. Whereas each part was played by only one instrument, Eichhorn for reasons of his own made an exception with the violins, with two to a part for Violin I and II. The recording was made on three days in September 2012.

Holger Eichhorn’s booklet notes make clear that his intentions were based on precepts voiced by Baroque theorists such as Walther, Mattheson, and C. P. E. Bach. Briefly: (1) Instrumental declamation should follow textual declamation closely, so that it is possible for a listener to imagine the text even when the singer is silent. (2) Judicious decorative ornaments should not be eschewed, and recitatives should not be performed metronomically, but with a certain sense of rubato that allows the intended meaning to become still clearer. (3) The vocal choir should be comprised of soloists or “Concertisten”, one to a part, because the complex writing is often similar to that of the solo arias; it is a question not of quantity (of singers to a part), but of quality. In Bach’s day boys matured into men at a later age than today, so that the presence in this recording of a boy soprano whose voice is strong enough is rare indeed, a true advantage. In some of Bach’s works a second vocal choir of “Ripienisten” exists in certain situations such as turbae interjections, but these are not to be found in the present work. (4) Parts IV-VI are omitted from this recording. Parts I-III represent the report of the birth of Christ and in Eichhorn’s opinion are therefore justified as the “true Christmas Oratorio”. Their key framework (D-G-D) also reflects such homogeneity, while Part IV’s key of F shows the separation between the manger scene and subsequent developments beginning with the name-giving in the temple. Furthermore, the flutes seem to symbolize angels; they are present in Parts I-III but absent from Parts IV-VI. Finally, there are three chorales each in Parts I-III, but only one or two in each of the others. (5) A sound balance as in chamber music was striven for. Bach’s instrumentation calls for separate “choirs,” that is, separate groups of instruments and voices: singing choir, brass-timpani choir, woodwind choir, string choir (not a large orchestra with many players per part), and organ. The fact that Eichhorn doubled Violins I and II is probably in keeping with Bach’s own requirement that the first and second violin parts should be performed by two or three players each, as voiced in his famous Entwurff of August 23, 1730 to the Leipzig city council. We shall return to this document below. (6) A special case was made of the oboe ensemble’s reeds being prepared after the example of the few surviving historical examples. Whereas modern double reeds have a thicker “heart” in their middle to produce a dark and stable sound, baroque reeds are uniformly thin, producing a more flexible and brighter tone and thus clearer articulation of vowels and consonants.

With this recording, Eichhorn has brilliantly attained his wish for a chamber-music sound. All four vocal soloists are impeccable, with excellent diction and superior musical understanding. It is impossible to single one out ahead of the others. Furthermore, the recording quality is transparent, and the text can be clearly understood.

Nevertheless, it must have been difficult to put this recording together. Despite its excellence, problems of balance do occasionally occur. Let me mention a few places that I noticed while listening. For example, in No.1, although its bar accents every two bars are excellent, the timpani sound pervades the entire church acoustics, and at the end of its long rolls (for example in bar 8) it covers up the bass notes. In the tutti sections of No. 1 (such as bar 124 ff.), the tenor part is often not very audible (although it can clearly be heard in similar passages of No. 22). In No. 4, the violin which is supposed to double the solo oboe d’amore is not audible. In No. 7, the fugal soprano entry in bars 12-14 is scarcely audible. In No. 10, the oboe da caccia I is often too soft. In No. 18, when the oboe group enters in bars 5 ff., its sound overpowers the important sixteenth-note triplets in the bass part. Finally, in No. 31, the solo violin sounds thin and the basso continuo is louder than necessary; furthermore, there is not much differentiation between piano and forte.

This writer, also a trumpeter, must give first Baroque trumpeter Helen Barsby a great compliment for her sensitive playing. If in No. 8, however, she were to look at the singer’s text in bars 17 and 21, which corresponds to her own part in bars 3 and 7, she would never have breathed on the first repeat before the final note of bar 7 in the middle of the word “star-ker.” She does some nice ornamentation the second time around (notably in bars 50 and 75-76). Her long trills in bar 60 of No. 24I/II are also first-rate.

Concerning the “heartless” oboe reeds I beg to differ. It must be said that this knowledge is not new and has been followed for a number of years at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis; furthermore, a bright sound can also be attained on Baroque reeds with a thicker heart.

I do not know why the organist sometimes leaves out some of the figured bass figures (such as in No. 2, on the first beat of bars 5, 10, and 15) or why he adds a non-existent figure 9 (in No. 4, on the first beat of bar 29).

In No. 16, Eichhorn copies Bach’s mistake and gives the text of this recitative to the evangelist (tenor). In actual fact, it is a continuation of the instructions given by the angel (soprano) that began in the earlier recitative No. 13, telling that the Christ child can be found in diapers, lying in a manger.

In my opinion it is too bad that the flute, which in No. 19 doubles the solo alto part of this aria at the upper octave, has been omitted.

The preceding list of caveats should in no way prejudice a listener’s appreciation and enjoyment of this highly interesting recording. We might facetiously remark that Eichhorn has perhaps not gone far enough in his attempt to reproduce Bach’s original situation. If he were really to duplicate the conditions which Bach was forced to accept in 1730, his performers would not have played so beautifully! As Bach wrote in the Entwurff (my translation), “modesty prevents me from truthfully mentioning the qualities and musical knowledge [of the performers]; nevertheless it should be taken into account that some are of retirement age, and others are not in such shape as they should be.” Eichhorn’s musicians are young, enthusiastic, and in great shape! The entire recording was performed with impeccable intonation, energy, and drive. Highly recommended.

-- Edward H. Tarr

At His Majesty’s Pleasure by Martyn Harry, His Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornetts (Sfz Music sfxm0412, 2012).

Cornetts: Jamie Savan, Jeremy West, Gawain Glenton, Sam Goble, Sackbuts: Adam Woolf, Abigail Newman, Miguel Tantos, Steve Saunders, chamber organ, harpsichord: Michael Bonaventure, harpsichord: Kathryn Cok, Conductor: Martyn Harry.

Those who attended the HBS Symposium in New York this past July 2012 had the chance to hear His Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornetts perform a substantial portion of this contemporary large-scale 19 movement suite. It is an imaginative program piece called an “instrumental opera” that depicts the enthronmement, brief reign, and ultimate abdication of an imagined Tudor child-King of 550 years ago.
Harry wrote a virtuoso piece that effectively captures the qualities of the cornett and sackbut ensemble but does so with many tonal contemporary techniques. Each movement depicts a department or member of the Royal Household and the child-King’s struggle with the political forces and intrigue set at play to maintain the status quo of the State.

The instrumentation in the movements varies and range from instrumental solos to scoring for the full ensemble accompanied by two keyboards. The writing, although contemporary in style, is largely tonal. Martyn Harry is able to capture the drama of the imaginary young monarch with great skill. This piece is a virtuoso work and the members of HMS&C perform with great precision and musicality even though the music certainly takes them out of the typical comfort zone of a cornett and sackbut group. Live performance adds an important dimension to this theatre piece but as it is an instrumental work with no theatrical dialogue this CD recording still captures the dramatic quality of the story. I hope other composers might follow Martyn Harry’s lead and add more literature of this type to the ever expanding contemporary repertoire for early brass instruments.
-- Jeffrey Nussbaum