Cima

Mottetti e Canzoni Virtuose

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Mottetti e Canzoni Virtuose
La Guilde des Mercenaires, Adrien Mabire
L’encelade  ECL1703. 66’36

The principal interest in this 2018 recording of virtuoso Venetian music is in the choice of organ as accompanying instrument. Most of the programme notes are about the use of the organ in the 16th and 17th century, and its prominence in the repertoire of the time. The important thing, and the factor that sets this recording way above most others of a similar repertoire, is that they use a full-sized ‘church’ organ, rather than those weedy little box ‘continuo’ organ that are nearly always used by early music groups. Continue reading →

klingzeug – Secret Destinations

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson ~ Leave a comment

klingzeug – Secret Destinations
Austrian Cultural Forum, 19 Nov 2014

I first reviewed the three members of the young Austrian group klingzeug in the curious surroundings of an open-sided pavilion in Innsbruck’s Hofgarten, so it was good to be able to hear them playing indoors. The title of their programme, ‘Secret Destinations’ could have applied to the London venue, the intimate setting of the Austrian Cultural Forum, hidden away in the backstreets near the Albert Hall.  But, in reality, it referred to the Europe-wide range of pieces, from one of the first violin sonatas, by Cima (1610), to a lute concerto by the Austrian Johann Georg Weichenberger (c1700).  This was almost inaudible in Innsbruck, but here the delicacy of David Bergmüller’s playing was evident.

The highlight of the evening was the musically sensitive violin playing of Claudia Norz, notably in Pandolfi’s Sonata la Biancuccia (a musical reflection of a singer in the Innsbruck court) which also demonstrated the virtuosity of her technique.

klingzeug_crop