Reviews
GMCD 7255 The Seasons in Zurich
Amphion November 04
PPThe
Seasons in Zurich
The Purcell Singers
PPSacred
Vocal Music from 18th Century Switzerland
Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
Guild GMCD 7255 and GMCD 7248
The Guild label consistently tries
to bring out new, exciting and inventive recordings – and these fall into this
category. Both are recordings of Swiss composers who are relatively unknown,
such as Schmidlin, Bachoffen and Meyer. The always excellent choir of Gonville
and Caius, Cambridge produces a rather more refined sound than the Purcell
Singers, which suits the nature of the Baroque/early Classical style of music.
Both discs provide a welcome insight into an unfamiliar repertoire, and the
performance of the Cambridge choir is without fault.
Fanfare November/December 03
SCHMIDLIN
Hymnus auf die Allmacht "Weissheit und Güte Gottes." OTT Die
Jahreszeiten. BACHOFEN Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott - Mark
Ford, cond; Purcell Singers; Robert Howarth (org); Gareth Deats (ve); Fred
Jacobs (theorbo) - GUILD 7255 (73:56, no translation)
Composers have possessed a
fascination with nature, natural phenomena, and the changing of the seasons for
as tong as music has existed. With regard to nature, the countryside, and the
gentle and simple folk who once inhabited it, Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F
Major, op. 68, the "Pastoral," immediately comes to the mind of many. It also
holds vivid depictions of natural phenomena, including rain and thunder. As for
ringing the changes of the calendar, who could forget Le quattre stagioni
("The Four Seasons") from Vivaldi's Il cimento del Armonia e del Invenzione.
Further down the ladder of familiarity we find Gregor Wemer's New and
Curious Musical Instrument Calendar, Tchaikowsky's The Seasons (a
series of piano miniatures, each bearing the name of one of the months),
Alexander Glazunov's ballet of the same name, and another Le quattro stagioni,
this time a ballet that Giuseppe Verdi included in his opera I vespri
sicilianni. Of course, the crowning jewel is Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten,
a monumental oratorio in the Tradition of Handel.
The Seasons in Zurich
is an interesting and appealing but
far-from-profound collection of music with continuo accompaniment by three
18th-century Swiss composers: Johannes Schmidlin (1722-72), Hans-Jakob Ott
(1715-69), and Johann Caspar Bachofen (1695-1735). The text for two of the three
works on this compact disc came from the writings of Scotsman James Thomson via
a German translation of Bartold Heinrich Brockes; the author of the third, used
by Schmidlin, according to annotator Chris Walton "is anonymous, though a
comparison with the Brockes/Thomson text almost suggests the author was trying
to quote it from memory." Walton also notes, "The attraction of the seasons as
subject matter ... lies not in mere piety, but rather in the fascination of the
seasons as God's engine that drives the world."
The most substantial work -
actually the lengthiest - on this Guild release is Hans-Jakob Ott's Die
Jahreszeiten, a cantata for three soloists, SSB chorus, and continuo. Ott's
treatment of Brockes's poem takes the liturgical music of Benedetto Marcello as
a point of departure. The text is broken down into sections, each with a few
lines, and these are assigned to the three soloists and chorus. Much the same
treatment is accorded the text in the settings of Schmidlin and Bachofen, but
Ott includes an obbligato cello that adds a bit of variety to the texture.
Undoubtedly written for performance by talented amateurs, the overall quality of
the music is good, but it does rely to some degree upon repetition of sequences
and lacks effective tone painting as well as the ingenuity one might find in the
work of a more gifted composer. That said, though, there are attractive moments
in these three works that will certainly fall nicely on the ear.
The Purcell Singers turn in
performances that are acceptable but that are marred by an occasional lapse in
ensemble and ragged attack, leaving me to suspect that this material was
hurriedly prepared and we all know that haste makes
...
Michael Carter
Neue Zürcher Zeitung – 3.9.2003
Vergessene Söhne
Alte Ziircher Komponisten auf CD
Die Kirchenmusik in Zürich musste
infolge der Reformation bis ins frühe 19. Jahrhundert hinein ohne Instrumente
auskommen. Lange Zeit glaubte man deshalb, dass das Feld der
instrumentalbegleiteten geistlichen Musik in früheren Zeiten gänzlich
brachgelegen habe. Neuere Forschungen haben nun gezeigt, dass da, doch einige,
wenn auch bescheidene Pflänzlein gewachsen sind. Aufgeführt wurde diese Musik
nicht in den Kirchen sondern in den Häusern der vornehmen Bürger, was ihre
durchgehend kleine Besetzung erklärt. Einen wichtigen Anstoss zu diesen
Entdeckungen gab und gibt die Zentralbibliothek Zürich, welche die einschlägigen
Drucke und Manuskripte aufbewahrt.
Die beiden CD-Einspielungen, die neulich beim Label „Guild“ erschienen sind,
konzentrieren sich auf geistliche Vokalmusik aus dem 18. Jahrhundert. Die eine
von ihnen vereinigt geistliche Lieder von Johann Caspar Bachofen, Johannes
Schmidlin, Johann Jakob Walder, Johann Heinrich Egli und Franz Meyer von
Schauensee. Der Grossmünster-Kantor Bachofen (1695-1755) zählte damals zu den
tonangebenden Persönlichkeiten des musikalischen Lebens in Zürich. Sein Duett „Schäfelein,
wo bleibst du doch“ für Sopran, Bariton, Streicher und Basso continuo ist in
einem äusserst schlichten Stil geschrieben und vereinigt die beiden Stimmen erst
in der Schlussstrophe. In Schmidlins „Magnificat“ wechseln homophone
Ensembleteile mit etwas ausgeschmückteren Soloteilen ab. Die Sängerinnen und
Sänger des College-Chors aus Cambridge, die sowohl die chorischen wie die
solistischen Partien singen, entsprechen diesen schnörkellosen Musikstücken mit
ihren geraden und affektarmen Stimmen auf das Beste.
Die zweite CD vereinigt drei Zürcher Kompositionen, die textlich auf der
Versdichtung „The Seasons“ des schottischen Autors James Thomson beziehungsweise
auf der deutschen Übersetzung von Barthold Heinrich Brockes fussen. Das Wirken
Gottes zeigt sich hier, ganz im Geist der Aufklärung, als ein den Naturgesetzen
gehorchender Ablauf der Jahreszeiten. Die interessanteste der drei Kompositionen
stammt von Hans Jakob Ott (1715-1769), der Mitglied des Zürcher Grossen Rats und
der Gesellschaft für Physik und Wirtschaft war. Das Werk ist in kleine
Abschnitte eingeteilt, in denen der Chor und die beiden Solosopranistinnen in
wechselnden Kombinationen zum Zug kommen. Die instrumentale Begleitung
konzentriert sich auf Orgel, Cello und Theorbe. Im Unterschied zu Bachofen lehnt
sich Ott an den ornamentalen italienischen Stil an. Dem entspricht auf der
Interpretationsebene der im Vergleich zum College-Chor Cambridge etwas saftigere
und vibratoreichere Klang der von Mark Ford geleiteten Purcell Singers.
Thomas Schacher
Sacred Vocal Music from 18th Century Switzerland.
Kornpositionen von Johann Caspar Bachofen, Johannes Schmidlin, Johann Jakob
Walder, Johann Heinrich Egli und Franz Josef Leonti Meyer von Schauensee. The
Choir of Gonville & Caius College Cambridge, The Cambridge Baroque Camerata,
Leitung: Geoffrey Webber. Guild GMCD 7248 (1 CD).
The Seasons in Zurich. Choral Music from the 18th Century.
Kompositionen von Hans Jakob Ott, Johannes Schmidlin und Johann Caspar Bachofen.
The Purcell Singers, Leitung: Mark Ford. Guild GMCD 7255 (1 CD).
BBC Music Magazine – August 2003
SCHMIDLIN
Hymnus auf die Allmacht,
Weissheit und Güte Gottes
OTT
Die Jahreszeiten
BACHOFEN
Irdisches Vergnügen in
Gott (excerpts)
Purcell Singers/Mark Ford; Robert Howarth (organ), Gareth Deats (cello), Fred
Jacobs (theorbo)
Guild GMCD 7255 73:56
mins
To make any extravagant claims for
the quality of the music on this disc would be rash - it's frankly not the sort
of material that will ever elicit epoch-making performances - but it represents
a fascinating byway of the late Baroque/early Classical repertoire. Three Zürich-based
composers are represented: Johann Caspar Bachofen, Hans-Jakob Ott and Johannes
Schmidlin. The pieces are recorded in reverse chronological order, ending with
11 of the 300-or-so tiny settings that Bachofen made around 1740 of texts from
Barthold Brockes's collection Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott. Charming,
well-crafted miniatures, no more. By contrast, Ott's DieJahreszeiten
published in 1747, is a cantata of some ambition and substance, and it contains
some impressively vivid ideas. It sets Brockes's translation of Scottish writer
James Thompson's 'Hymn to the Seasons'- the same work, and translation, that
inspired Haydn's last, great oratorio. And Schmidlin's Hymnus auf die
Allmacht, Weissbeit und Güte Gottes, published in 1761 and setting an
anonymous text based on Brockes's work, shows a beguiling melodic gift.
All this the sopranos and basses -
no tenors or altos are demanded - of the young London-based Purcell Singers,
together with a first-rate continuo team, perform with excellent discipline and
well-blended ensemble under the guiding spirit of conductor Mark Ford.
Stephen
Pettitt
Choir and Organ July 03
THE SEASONS IN ZÜRICH:
CHORAL MUSIC FROM THE 18TH CENTURY
The
Purcell Singers / Mark Ford (dir)
Guild
GMCD 7255
***
SACRED VOCAL MUSIC FROM 18TH CENTURY SWITZERLAND
The Choir of
Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (Geoffrey Webber, dir) / The Cambridge
Baroque Camerata (Jonathan Hellyer Jones, dir)
Guild
GMCD 7248
***
Two Guild CDs give an airing to neglected music by 18th-century Swiss composers
working, often in private, around the constraints on music imposed by the Swiss
Reformation. Names common to both CDs are Johannes Schmidlin, a pastor and music
teacher, and Johan Casper Bachofen, sometime cantor of the Zürich Grossmünster.
The Purcell Singers under Mark Ford are assigned these gentlemen's settings (and
a third by Hans-Jakob Ott) of a popular contemporary poem eulogising God in
creation. The disc is a cascade of solos, duets, trios and choruses, with
vigorous continuo work from Clareth Deats (cello) and Fred Jacobs (theorbo).
A disc from
the Choir of Gonville and Caius College and the Cambridge Baroque Camerata
vividly exposes Bachofen’s compositional inferiority to Schmidlin in the tedious
repetitiveness of a sheep-seeking pastorale and a 'desperately seeking Christ'
duet. Some of conductor Geoffrey Webber's solo voices echo the artlessness of
the music, the woman generally carrying it off better than the men. Canticles by
Schmidlin and a Haydnesque Te Deum by Francisco Meyer provide meatier fare, and
are attractively performed. In both CDs the German pronunciation needs more
work.
Graeme Kay
Page revised 09.02.05
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