Classical Music
Early music with undisguised political intent shines on Jordi Savall’s latest release.
From early music specialist Jordi Savall, pianist Michael Houstoun and violinist Noa Wildschut
Spanish early-music master Jordi Savall will be a big attraction at next month’s New Zealand Festival. Meanwhile, In Excelsis Deo, the latest addition to his huge discography, may whet the appetite. Savall will bring Hespèrion XXI and the Mexican Tembembe Ensamble Continuo to New Zealand, but here he directs two of his other ensembles, vocal group La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Baroque orchestra Le Concert des Nations.
They perform two remarkable 18th-century masses by Catalan composer Francesc Valls and his French contemporary Henri Desmarets, composed during the
War of the Spanish Succession.
This rarely heard music from a time of bitter conflict was recorded live under Savall’s direction in the marvellous Royal Chapel of Versailles.
Barcelona-based Valls was a musical rebel who spoke against theoretical musical rules. His Missa Scala Aretina is startlingly modern, opening with vigorous counterpoint in the vivid
Kyrie and keeping us guessing through to chromatic slithering in the Agnus Dei. Desmarets’s longer Mass is a splendid edifice, written for two choirs and orchestras and less idiosyncratic than Valls’s work.
The Masses are separated by contrasting music with undisguised political intent. Religious counterpoint gives way to ancient patriotic Catalan songs, ushered in by martial rhythms of an instrumental Batalla Imperial. Savall has chosen music that “evokes the lives and aspirations of men and women who … had the courage to defend their culture and their freedom”. Catalonia, in days gone by, a lament from the years following the fall of Barcelona, ends “weep, weep, Catalonia, for you rule yourself no more”. An ancient protest hymn for a contemporary political situation – it’s impossible to miss
Savall’s point. IN EXCELSIS DEO, Jordi Savall, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Le Concert des Nations (Alia Vox)
Trois, Michael Houstoun’s latest release, is a delicious collection of French piano music. Most are for three movements or groups of three pieces and all are by composers working in the late 19th and early 20th century, a period when French exploration of exquisite surfaces produced subtly elegant music. Works by Ravel, Debussy, Poulenc and Fauré are punctuated by three pairings from the Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes of Erik Satie, the radical of the group in his witty simplicity.
In Ravel’s gorgeous Sonatine, Houstoun offers his usual unadorned clarity, letting the music speak for itself. No heavy-footed pedalling and blurring of lines is needed, although occasionally the playing is almost too brilliant and stark, with melodies sharply accented when a smoother line may have better revealed the subtleties. The tempi of Satie’s miniatures are a little ponderous, in danger of losing the melodic flow.
A more-relaxed Houstoun conjures up a magical atmosphere in Debussy’s dreamy Images Oubliées. In the rapid third Image, his flair and facility sparkle, alongside a gentle humour that also illuminates Poulenc’s light and charming Novelettes.
Perhaps most at home in Fauré’s music, Houstoun revels in his warm Romanticism, stormy turbulence and showers of glittering notes. The final track, a Chopininspired Valse-Caprice, delivers brilliant pianism with a capricious twinkle. TROIS, pianist Michael Houstoun, Ravel,
Satie, Poulenc, Debussy and Fauré (Rattle)
There’s much to like in the first release by 16-year-old Dutch violinist Noa Wildschut playing Mozart, himself a prodigy who was 19 when he wrote this “Turkish” Violin Concerto.
Her playing is energetic and fresh, with expressive lines and an effortless singing tone. It’s a remarkably mature debut that shows she plays with a sophistication beyond her years. One to watch.