BENCINI
Ave Maria/ Missa de Oliveria
A sei Voci/Bernard
Fabre-Garrus
Astrée Naïve
E 8806 [66 mins] (PGW)
'We find ourselves at one of the sources of Western Baroque music', is the
proud claim of the researcher Jean-Charles Léon, who introduces the
unknown music of Pietro-Paolo Bencini (c. 1675-1755), maestro di
cappella at St Peter's, Rome. These first recordings were made from the
original parts preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Library. The music is in
four parts, treated polychorally, four solo voices doubled with a second
choir (singing the same music) for nuances and emphasis as determined by
the text.
I confirm the claim made that this is high quality music from the early 18th
Century, with fine fugues, not dissimilar to some of Bach's. The singers
are fresh voiced and unaffected, and supported by organ, theorbo and violone
to good effect. The acoustic of the Chapelle du Bob Pasteur in Angers is
resonant and appropriate and the recording (May 2000) entirely satisfactory.
The booklet is pleasing to the eye and good to handle, as is general in this
series, with essays and texts well translated; a careful and recommendable
production for explorers of baroque byways.
Peter Grahame Woolf
