Giulio CACCINI (1551-1618)
Le Nuove Musiche (1602)
Details after review
Riccardo Pisani (tenor)
Ricercare Antico [Paolo Perrone (violin), Flora Papadopoulos (harp),
Giovanni Bellini (archlute & theorbo), Matteo Coticoni (violone)] /
Francesco Tomasi (theorbo, baroque guitar)
rec. 15-18 February 2018, Chiesa di San Gregorio dei Muratori, Rome. DDD.
No texts – available online
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 95794
[66:39]
Caccini is best known as the composer of one of the two first operas: his Euridice, though composed later than Peri’s opera on the same
libretto, was published first, in 1602. Both recount the story of Orpheus
and Eurydice, with the usual renaissance happy ending and both are well
worth hearing, though neither rivals Monteverdi’s slightly later
masterpiece L’Orfeo.
Two recordings of Euridice are available; I liked the Naïve
recording –
DL News 2014/4
– but Johan van Veen slightly preferred the Ricercar version –
joint review
with Lucy Jeffery of the Naïve. For the Ricercar see also
DL Roundup February 2012/2.
As I listened to the Brilliant Classics recording of Le Nuove Musiche, dating from around the same time as Euridice, I found myself thinking how similar the music was to that
early opera. Even more to the point, I enjoyed the performances so much
that I would like to hear these performers in Euridice – or,
perhaps, the Peri or even the Monteverdi L’Orfeo. Granted that
Brilliant Classics have a first-rate L’Orfeo, directed by Sergio
Vartolo, at a give-away price, currently reduced even further by Presto to
£7.40, there is always room for another – indeed, though I rate the
Vartolo very highly, I know that some think his tempos too slow (Brilliant
Classics 94373 –
review).
Perhaps, too, Brilliant might record this team in the 1589 Florentine Intermedii, which were the immediate predecessors of opera and which
Caccini also had a compositional hand in. We lack a good recording of the Intermedii; the excellent Taverner Consort recording, with Emma
Kirkby and directed by Andrew Parrott, is download only (Erato 6026842, no
booklet) and a recording from Ensemble Pygmalion presents only bleeding
chunks, taken out of context (Harmonia Mundi HMM902286.87, 2 CDs + book –
review).
Riccardo Pisani has an ideal voice for this music and he’s very well
supported by the members of Ricercare Antico. He’s rather forwardly
balanced, which might have led to tedium were it not that the music is
varied, admittedly within a fairly narrow canvas, and there are
instrumental interspersions from Caccini’s contemporaries, three of them
receiving their first performances.
There’s not much competition in the catalogue for le Nuove Musiche.
An Avie recording entitled Songs of Orpheus includes
Dolcissimo sospiro,
together with Funeste piaggie from Euridice and music by
Monteverdi and others (AV2383). Karim Sulayman is the tenor soloist with
Apollo’s Fire and Jeanette Sorrell. I hadn’t heard that and we seem not to
have reviewed it but the difference is very striking – where Pisani offers
a forthright performance, which nevertheless brings out the singer’s
ambiguous feelings, Sulayman is much gentler, more beautiful, but less
expressive of the text by Rinuccini.
The singer is in love with his mistress’s beautiful sighs but aware that
they may soon fly away to another and Pisani is the more effective in
conveying this typical duality of the words. Those familiar with the
typical Petrarchan love sonnet will not be surprised to find such a mixture
of exultation, doubt and loss in many of the texts here.
There’s another account of
Dolcissimo sospiro
on a recording of music by Caccini, Peri and contemporaries on a very
enjoyable recording made by Marc and Angélique Mauillon (baritone and harp,
Arcana A393 –
DL News 2016/3: NB an Arcana recording, not Alpha as I stated). The Mauillons take this
piece considerably faster than Pisani and Ricercare Antico, but their
chosen tempo still leaves room for plenty of feeling and the vocal
ornamentation, more noticeable than from the Brilliant team, doesn’t
interfere with the delivery of the music or the feeling of the words, as
opposed to that on Alpha043 analysed below.
In some of the pieces Pisani may seem a little too unvaried but then in a
piece like Udite amanti (track 9) he really surprises with the
variety of his approach.
Tu ch’hai le penne
and Dalla porta d’Oriente are included on an older recording of
music by Caccini and his contemporaries, in performances sung by light
baritone Marco Horvat (Alpha043, Il Giardino di Caccini). In the
former he’s considerably faster than Pisani, adding a greater sense of
dramatic involvement with the piece, but scrambling the words in the
process. Which you prefer will depend on your stance in the perpetual music
versus words debate. Horvat’s breathless approach reminds us that this is a
message sent by the lover via Cupid to his beloved; Pisani’s more measured
account gives us time to savour the poetic, if somewhat commonplace
language in which he addresses the winged god, such as Tra bei nodi d’oro / Del mio dolce Tesoro (among the golden locks of
my sweet treasure).
In Dalla porta d’Oriente, the tempi are very similar, but Horvat
again tends to scramble his words and I have a clear preference for Pisani
here, though the accompaniment on the Alpha recording is more elaborately,
foot-tappingly – or fussily, depending again on preference – realised.
Horvat also tends to ornament more – again, it’s your personal preference
here if you think it too much. This is a rare happy text – the beauty of
the beloved outshines that of the dawn – and it helps to hear the words
clearly from Pisani. (Incidentally, the online version of the texts from
Brilliant Classics – link above – badly needs tidying up, with Italian and
English jumbled together).
If you’re not yet au fait with Monteverdi, nothing here is
comparable with his madrigals or with L’Orfeo. Leaving aside the
masterpieces, the three operas and the 1610 Vespers, the best place to get
to know the madrigals is from the later books.
My favourite 3-CD sets of Book VIII, from Concerto Italiano with Rinaldo
Alessandrini and La Venexiana, are both now download only and come without
texts (Naïve OP30435 –
Recording of the Month; Glossa GCD920928 respectively) but there are good selections from Le
Concert d’Astrée and Emanuelle Haïm (Erato 3633502 – but see
review)
and Arcangelo with Jonathan Cohen (Hyperion CDA68019). At budget price
Red Byrd (Hyperion CDH55165) are preferable to Le Poème Harmonique (Alpha
306 –
review). Qobuz seem to have realised their error in offering the Alessandrini for
£7.99 – it’s now £23.99, which is still the least expensive lossless
download.
If you’re already a lover of Monteverdi and wish to investigate his
immediate predecessors, this new Brilliant Classics release will do very
well indeed. The performances and the presentation standards bely the very
reasonable price – around £7.50 for the CD and around £6.50 for the
lossless download. It’s a shame that the texts were not included – and see
my note above about the need to tidy up the online versions.
Brian Wilson
Contents
Giulio CACCINI
Amor io parto
[4:04]
Dalla porta d’Oriente
[4:21]
Filippo NICOLETTI (c.1554-1634)
Canzona
‘La Trictella’* [2:31]
Giulio CACCINI
Aur’amorosa
[2:53]
Dovrò dunque morire
[2:14]
Al fonte al prato
[2:32]
Girolamo FRESCOBALDI (1583-1643)
Toccata per spinettina e violino
[3:54]
Giulio CACCINI
A quei sospiri ardenti
[3:29]
Udite amanti
[2:46]
Amor ch’attendi
[2:50]
Stefano LANDI (c.1581-1649)
Canzona a 3 detta
‘L’Alessandrina’* [6:57]
Giulio CACCINI
Vedrò ‘l mio sol
[4:05]
Tu ch’hai le penne
[5:47]
Filippo NICOLETTI
Canzona
‘La Capricciosetta’* [3:15]
Giulio CACCINI
Dolcissimo sospiro
[2:40]
Amarilli
[3:01]
Amarilli
(dim.) [3:04]
Odi Euterpe
[2:38]
Non ha’l ciel cotanti lumi
[2:55]
* world premiere recordings
