Customer Reviews

Ouvertüren: Music for the Hamburg Opera

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wasn't expecting this kind of reaction at all. I thought, here's another nice little release from ever adventurous Harmonia Mundi dedicated to little known music by even lesser known composers of the Hamburg musical establishment; lovely, but, ultimately, forgettable. Wrong, wrong, wrong. True that, with the exception of Handel and, to a lesser degree, Keiser, these composers won't ring any bells in the minds of even the more knowledgeable classical music lover, but that is of little importance here. On every level, this disc pleases. The music is wonderful in all respects, with catchy melodies, counterpoint, orchestration and abounding with fresh and clever ideas. Akademie fur Alte Musick Berlin's playing is wholly committed and they imbue these works with a sense of musical relevance and merriment that is both admirable and downright infectious and if that weren't enough, the vibrancy and warmth of the recording just bathes the music in splendid colors. Everything sparkles like multifaceted jewels caught in a flood of lights. This release is a MUST HAVE for any lover of baroque music and if what is featured on this disc is any indication of the level artistry common at the Hamburg Opera, I, for one, say bring on the other composers, because these are genuine treats.

Here is the perfect antidote to the ho-hum-not-another-unknown-Baroque-composer blues. If you like Baroque music but think you may have heard it all, then give a listen to this CD from Alte Musik Berlin. The music is elegant, attractive, colorful, and a host of other desirable adjectives. With the exception of the Sinfonia to Reinhard Keiser's "Le Ridicule Prince Jodelet," which, to match its subject matter, is wacky, with lots of unpredictable stops and starts and a couple of pretty but irrelevant appearances of the famous melody known as La Folia di Spagna. It's in the same vein as Haydn's equally wacky Symphony No. 60, "Il distratto."

However, the other adjectives apply in spades to the gallant Suite from "Ludovicus Pius" by Schurmann and the stately dances from "Almira," written by the well-known G. F. Handel as a twenty-year-old, while he was working briefly at the Hamburg Opera. This was just prior to departing for his important musical apprenticeship in Italy and long before he ever set foot in England.

In a slightly older style and influenced by French models, chiefly Lully, P. H. Erlebach's Ouverture no. 4 is more unbuttoned than much of Lully's music. Or maybe that is just thanks to the unbuttoned, indeed robust playing of Alte Musik Berlin, who throw themselves into this music as if it had been written for them. Though numbering only nineteen, these musicians make a big, rich sound at least as reproduced by the Harmonia Mundi engineers working in a Berlin studio. There is no studio dryness to the sound but a fine sense of space and stereo spread, as well as fine presence to the percussion played in show-stealing fashion by Micahel Metzler.

This recording has won much praise from the critics, and I can see why. It is a success on every score.

I had hear a review on this album on National Public Radio, with samples of the content, that was intriguing enough to make me buy it. Good decision. I got the album yesteday and played it on my car stereo on an hour-long trip. I was smiling all the way down to road.

Although these works, and all but one of the composers (a 20 year-old Handel) are obscure, the musicianship on this album is superb. If the work had been played as competently in their heyday, they may not have become so unknown.

Buy it and see.

So much energy and drama can be found in these works--most by baroque folks you never heard of. I gave it 4 stars because of the music... yes, it's good music, but these are not masterworks.

My favorite track is a short, but wild one where the violin goes out on a solo that's got drive and passion behind it, not to mention some sassy percussion.

These pave the way to later symphonies by the young Mozart, or Haydn.

This disc is quite acceptable and recommended if you like Musik of the German Baroque---in the French Style, that is. The franco-german title sort of gives that away.

The performance and recording of the Akademie fuer alte Musik Berlin is excellent. Except for G. F. Handel (a young man at the time), the other composers (Erlebach, Schurmann, Keiser, Schieferdecker) are not widely known. But that's part of the interest here. The 32 tracks for the five composers represented are generally short--6 min 37 sec (an Ouverture by Schurmann) to 31 sec (a bourree by Handel).

I had to wait what seemed forever for Amazon to ship me this CD but it was well worth the wait!

The sparkling sound of this CD has been the soundtrack behind this entire day.