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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fine music, performances and recording,
By
This review is from: Boccherini · D'Astorga - Stabat Mater / Gritton · Fox · Bickley · Agnew · Harvey · The King's Consort · King (Audio CD)
The music on this disc is surprisingly lovely and varied. I say surprisingly because the only other performance of the Boccherini I am familiar with, on Erato, is fairly staid, safe and dull. However, I shouldn't really be surprised as Boccherini is always rewarding in safe hands, and there aren't many safer than Robert King. On this recording, partly due to its sparse instrumentation, the Boccherini emerges as a sacred chamber opera, quite theatrical in parts, carrying echoes of Pergolesi's famous predecessor. The final "Quando corpus morientur" is filled with pathos, sadness and longing.The singers are all good, though I must express a slight preference for Sarah Fox's more youthful-sounding soprano over the also beautiful Sarah Gritton and a clearer preference for Peter Harvey's bass over Paul Agnew's slightly thin tenor. Gritton is the sole soprano in the d'Astorga piece, which offers a slightly less extroverted but more dark and possibly even more intense piece. Susan Bickley adds a charming but reverential mezzo to the d'Astorga ensemble "Quic est homo" and to a dark and dramatic duo with Agnew. The piece opens with a wonderful chorus which is not only melodic but also genuinely tragic, with no false or superficial pathos If I have a caveat to offer about the performance it is only that I was too often too conscious of the "englishness" of it all. Voices and instruments lack a little fervour and are just a little too "polite" in a way in which some Italian and Spanish period ensembles wouldn't be. This approach has its virtues but it leaves you with respect and affection for both pieces but not necessarily with passionate identification. As a result, I've given four stars rather than five, but make no mistake, this is marvellous music (both pieces) given fine performances. Four stars too for the sound, rather than five. The dolorous opening chords of this lovely disc emerge from absolute silence and, throughout, the recording is unobtrusively at the service of the music. With the exception of the lovely soprano duet, "Eia Mater", in which there is a moment of congestion, voices are as well handled and as natural sounding as the King's Consort's instruments. If there is any slight criticism of the recording it is that the reverberation of the lower-pitched instruments detracts a little from the upper-pitch attack which the piece itself needs and, here, slightly lacks.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sublime Sacred Music From Two Centuries Past,
By
This review is from: Boccherini · D'Astorga - Stabat Mater / Gritton · Fox · Bickley · Agnew · Harvey · The King's Consort · King (Audio CD)
Boccherini's Stabat Mater exists in two versions. Here we have his revised thoughts, the second edition from about 1800. Boccherini was highly accomplished and very detail oriented in his composing. His style is more cerebral than broadly emotional and this may have kept him from greater fame. After all, it is usually the outlandish and overtly dramatic that is most likely to catch the public eye and this Boccherini clearly was not. As a consequence, don't expect to be wowed or bowled over, especially here in this reverent sacred music. What we hear will always being subject to personal taste, and to those who appreciate the more subtle creative muse, Boccherini's music should be enjoyable and rewarding. In this particular work, the word serenity comes to mind. If you are familiar with Pergolesi and his consoling religious music, that is simliar in style and pacing. If you enjoyed that, it would follow that you are very likely to enjoy this.
The companion piece on the disc is a more than worthly fill up. D'Astorga's Stabat Mater is a century earlier than Boccherini's. It may well be the more dramatic of the two works not only in temperment but also harmonically. There are more dynamic chromaticisms throughout. One might expect the opposite, with the usual perception that music becomes more daring and chromatic as we move forward in musical history. Reality tends to be a lot less linear in this regard and we certainly have a mild example of this here. I found these two works to make a fine counterbalance to each other. Often a CD will lack contrasts both in style and mood but here the choice seems inspired. In regard to performance and sound, I give an enthusiastic thumbs up. The singing is committed and reverential. The soloists don't attempt to bowl you over with inappropriate operatic showiness, rather they work to create a sonorous blend that is quite pleasing to the ear. The supporting instrumentation is very tastily balanced and the direction seems highly disciplined. Pitch is beautiful throughout and the final result leads to a highly satisfying musical experience. Very Highly recommended.
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