An earlier Genuin recording on which Mixtura also combined music ancient
and modern impressed Jake Barlow to the extent of making it a Recording
of the Year (GEN13284 –
review).
On that album the music of Guillaume de Machaut was combined with that
of three modern composers; this time it’s the turn of Orlando di Lasso’s
Prophetiae Sibyllarum to be interspersed with contemporary music.
I have to say that although I also liked the previous release, with
the exception of one track –
DL
News 2013/17 – I was much less impressed this time around. I liked
the instrumental arrangements of Machaut on the earlier release, but
it seems to me that Lasso responds less well to this treatment. Perhaps
it reminds me too much of the interpretations of Renaissance music by
Jan Garbarek (saxophone) and the Hilliard Ensemble on
Officium
(NMC 4453692) – very beautiful but it always leaves me feeling depressed.
I know others revere that recording and they will probably enjoy this
new Genuin album more than I did.
After just two minutes of the
Carmina cromatico which opens Lasso’s
settings of the music of the Sibyls we have Karin Haußmann’s
An der
Stimme gekannt (known by the voice) which we are told in the notes
refers to the Cumæan Sibyl who led Æneas to the Underworld, lamenting
her fate to fade away gradually until even her voice can no longer be
heard. T.S. Eliot prefaces
The Waste Land with a quotation from
Satyricon:
Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis
vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent: Sibylla ti theleis;
respondebat illa: apothanein thelo. (I saw with my own eyes the
Sibyl of Cumæ hanging in a jar and with her boys who said ‘Sibyl, what
is your wish?’ She replied ‘My wish is to die.’)
Granted that the Sibyl did a lot of lamenting, that lamentation is pretty
noisy, and the Sibyl’s was reportedly particularly noisy – Virgil writes
of ‘a huge cave, the secret place of the terrifying Sibyl … from which
a hundred wide tunnels, a hundred mouths lead, from which as many voices
rush, the Sibyl’s replies’ (
præsidet horrendæque procul secreta Sibyllæ,
antrum immane ... quo lati ducunt aditus centum, ostia centum, unde
ruunt totidem voces, responsa Sibyllæ .) – I’m sorry to say that
for too much of the time
An der Stimme gekannt is just that –
noise.
Annette Schlünz’s
Nine Songs also relate to the Sibylline books,
nine in number originally until the last King of Rome offered to buy
them but at a reduced price until the Sibyl burned first three then
three more and still demanded – and finally received – the same price
for the remaining three. I’m afraid that I found these even less tolerable
than the Haußmann. We are told that the texts are by contemporary poets
but, unfortunately, we are not given them in the booklet. I’m not sure
they would have helped but it would have been nice to have them.
There is one other recording each of Haußmann and Schlünz in the catalogue
but I haven’t summoned up the courage to try either. This seems to be
the only recording of music by Babette Koblenz. Here at the end of the
recording was the one contemporary work that I could relate to and enjoy.
I’m sorry not to be more positive about this recording. If you think
you may be more sympathetic, try it first from
Naxos Music Library if you can, or sample from
Qobuz.
Those seeking Lasso’s
Prophetiae Sibyllarum would be better advised
to turn to The Brabant Ensemble on Hyperion CDA67887 –
review
–
DL
News August 2011/2 – or The Hilliard Ensemble on ECM 4538412, on
both of which the music is coupled with other works by Lasso. I had
to turn to the Hyperion recording for solace after listening to the
Genuin.
Brian Wilson
Track-listing :
Orlando di LASSO (1532–1594) Carmina chromatico quæ audis
modulata tenore [2:21]
Karin HAUßMANN (b.1962) an der Stimme gekannt [11:16]
Orlando di LASSO Prophetiae Sibyllarum Nos. 1-3
[3:01
+ 2:24 + 2:10]
Annette SCHLÜNZ (b.1964) 9 Gesänge für Countertenor,
Schalmei und Akkordeon Nos. 1-3 [0:57 + 2:18 + 2:19]
Orlando di LASSO Prophetiae Sibyllarum Nos. 4-6
[1:52
+ 2:43 + 2:11]
Annette SCHLÜNZ 9 Gesänge für Countertenor, Schalmei
und Akkordeon Nos. 4-6 [2:12 + 1:48 + 1:08]
Orlando di LASSO Prophetiae Sibyllarum Nos. 7-9
[2:23
+ 1:33 + 1:44]
Annette SCHLÜNZ 9 Gesänge für Countertenor, Schalmei
und Akkordeon Nos. 7-9 [3:39 + 1:11 + 1:48]
Babette KOBLENZ (b.1956) Around [14:11]
Orlando di LASSO Prophetiae Sibyllarum Nos. 10-12
[1:49 + 1:41 + 2:23]
