Routes du café
Hana Blažíková (soprano)
Reinoud van Mechelen (tenor)
Lisandro Abadie (bass)
Adrien Espinouze (Ney); Evgenios Voulgaris (Yayli Tanbur); Pierre
Rigopoulos (percussions: zarb & daıre)
Ensemble Masques/Olivier Fortin
rec. 2017/18, Église Luthérienne du Bon-Secours,
Paris. DDD.
Texts and translations included
Reviewed as press preview.
ALPHA 543
[71:39]
There are some recordings that get things so exactly right that it seems
almost futile for anyone else to bother. That doesn’t mean that the mould
cannot be broken: way back when I started collecting records, Karl
Münchinger reigned supreme in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – his older
mono recording on Ace of Clubs, with two newer stereo recordings following.
Yet now we would hardly give Münchinger the time of day: Decca’s recent
Eloquence reissue of a two multi-CD Münchinger sets1 will be
worth investigating, but much of them will seem more like a historical
relic than the other Eloquence reissues of recordings with Thurston Dart who, at
much the same time, prefigured historical performance practice. His Handel Water Music and other works is a good example of a recording which
has stood the test of time. (4828531 – my review is pending as I write.)
The principal work on the new Alpha, Bach’s ‘Coffee’ Cantata, is available
in a performance as much a classic as the Münchinger recordings seemed in
their time. The new recording is up against formidable competition from
Emma Kirkby, Rogers Covey-Crump, David Thomas, the Academy of Ancient Music
and Christopher Hogwood (Decca Oiseau-Lyre E4176212, download only). Not
only is that a superb performance, it’s coupled with an equally first-rate
account of the ‘Peasant’ Cantata, BWV212. Unfortunately, it will be ruled
out for some by being available only in multi-CD sets or as a download
without texts, though these are easily available online.
Decca missed a huge opportunity by coupling not these but other recordings
of BWV211 and 212 with an otherwise first-rate recording of sacred cantatas
from Janet Baker and John Shirley-Quirk with the ASMF and Neville Marriner
(Eloquence 4829722 –
review
–
Spring 2019/3). But if they can lavish such care on Münchinger’s recordings, I remain
hopeful that they will oblige with a single-CD Eloquence reissue of
Kirkby and Hogwood’s ‘Coffee’ Cantata.
Meanwhile the new recording, if not quite the equal of its older rival, is
well worth obtaining even for the Bach alone. Hana Blažíková approaches Emma
Kirkby for purity of voice and she is well supported by Lisandro Abadie as
her grumpy old father, Herr Schlendrian (Mr Stick-in-the-mud) and Reinoud
van Mechelen as the narrator. Better still, all concerned throw themselves
into the fun of the piece. Both sides of the argument win when daughter
Lieschen agrees to marry, thus ridding her father of her coffee-drinking
addiction, but only if her husband lets her drink all the coffee that she
wants. All of this was first performed in high probability at a Friday
evening concert in Zimmermann’s coffee house, sadly destroyed by Allied
bombing during WW2.
But the rest of the programme also merits your attention.
Coffee drinking spread to Western Europe from Turkey. The romantic story of
how Franz George Kolschitzky, who had lived among the Turks, introduced to
Vienna the sacks of coffee which the invaders had left behind after the Siege of
Vienna (1683) is believed to such an extent that they erected a statue to
him in a street named after him, Kolschitzkygasse. It’s appropriate, then,
that the Alpha recording begins with two pieces of Turkish music, with more
exotic and entertaining music, on the flute, yayli tanbur, zarb and daire,
interspersed between the European items.
The other item of chief interest is Nicolas Bernier’s cantata Le Caffé. If the Viennese story is correct, coffee actually reached
Paris before Vienna, after the visit of Suleiman Aga in 1669. Alpha don’t
give us a date for Le Caffé but the first four books of his Cantates françoises were published in 1703, thus considerably
pre-dating the Bach (1735). Zimmermann’s Kaffeehaus in Leipzig had
opened in 1715.
The Bernier is an enjoyable piece, if hardly a match for the
Bach, and it receives an attractive performance. There are other (now
download only) recordings which I haven’t heard, on ABC, Sinetone and
MSR, but I can’t imagine that they outshine this performance. Johan van
Veen evinced limited enthusiasm for the MSR –
review
– but Jonathan Woolf liked the ABC –
review.
London, where the first coffee houses were established soon after the
Restoration of 1660, gets a short look-in in the form of Locke’s four-part
Fantasia. Like Marais’ even shorter Saillie du caffé, it receives a
fine performance – indeed, the instrumentalists of Ensemble Masques,
like the singers, are on
their toes throughout.
Apart from omitting the date of the Bernier cantata, the Alpha booklet of
notes is informative. My press preview was in mp3 only, but sounds fine.
Normally I reserve any recordings which I can’t obtain in lossless sound
for my Second Thoughts and Short Reviews round-ups, but I’ve made an
exception here for a recording which I very much enjoyed. I can imagine
playing this sometimes even in preference to the Kirkby and Hogwood BWV211, not just
for the sake of the Bernier and the exotic Turkish interludes. But I still
want Kirkby and Hogwood for the ‘Peasant’ Cantata, BWV212. Otherwise, the
new recording is very worthwhile. I’m not always a fan of concept albums,
but this one works
well.
1
The Baroque Legacy
includes all three recordings of The Four Seasons (4840160, 8 CDs,
around £34). The Classical Legacy, music by Haydn and Mozart is on
4840170 (8 CDs).
Brian Wilson
Contents
I. Paris
Nâyi Osman DEDE (1652?-1729)
Taksim ney
[2:37]
Rast Dilârâ Peşrev
[1:14]
Nicolas BERNIER (1664-1734)
Troisième Livre de Cantates: Le Caffé, pour voix, flûte, violon & basse continue1 [18:01]
Nâyi Osman DEDE
Taksim oud
[1:09]
Rast Dilârâ Saz Semâî
[4:12]
Taksim ney
[0:54]
Marin MARAIS (1656-1728)
Troisième Livre de Pièces de Viole: Saillie du caffé [2:28]
II. London
Kathleen KAJIOKA (b.1973)
Taksim kaman
[2:39]
Wahda Sarabande
[3:51]
Matthew LOCKE (1621-1677)
Consort of fower parts: Fantasia in d minor [4:49]
III. Constantinople
Tanburi Cemil BEY (1873-1916)
Taksim & Mahur Peşrev
[3:47]
IV. Leipzig
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Coffee Cantata; Schweigt stille, Plaudert nicht, BWV211 (c.1735) 2 [25:38]
Hana Blažíková (soprano)1,2
Reinoud van Mechelen (tenor)2
Lisandro Abadie (bass)2
Adrien Espinouze (Ney); Evgenios Voulgaris (Yayli Tanbur); Pierre
Rigopoulos (percussions: zarb & daıre)
Ensemble Masques/Olivier Fortin