Document

  1996
    January 1996
        Choral and song
                Virtue and Vice.

Virtue and Vice German Secular [Song] Songs and Instrumental music from the time of Luther. Convivium Musicum; Villanella Ensemble / Sven Berger.

Naxos (Super budget price) (CD) 8 553352 (70 minutes: DDD). Texts and translations included.

Isaac: Carmen. In meinem Sinn (three versions). Greiner, zancker, schnopffitzer. Mein Freud allein. Ich stund an einem Morgen. La mi la sol. Las rauschen. Obrecht: Tsat een meskin. Senfl: Will niemand singen. Ein Maidlein zue dem Brunnen ging. Dort oben auf dem Berge. Nun wollt ihr horen neue Mar. Ich soll und muess ein’n Buehlen haben. Oho, so geb’ der Mann. Es wollt’ ein Maidlein Wasser hol’n. Es wollt’ ein Frau zuem Weine gahn. Lamentatio. Ich stuend an einem Morgen. Albrecht mirs schwer. Ich weiss nit was er ihr verheiss (two versions). Hofhaimer: Erst weis ich was die Liebe ist. Greyner, Zanner. Mein eynigs A (two versions). Zucht eer und lob. Anonymous: Zenner greyner. Heinrich Finck: Greiner Zanner. Gloria laus. Ammerbach: Die Megdlein sind von Flandern. A. Bruck: So trinken wir alle. Es ging ein Landsknecht. Kuffer: Heth sold ein meisken garn om win. G. Meyer: Bicinium germanicum. Rhau: Ich stuend an einem Morgen.

It is difficult to praise this little recital enough. I use the qualifier advisedly: the programme is very generous, and there is nothing diminutive about its ambitions; yet it consists of works lasting no more than three minutes apiece. That it manages in spite of this to be both coherent and immediately appealing speaks volumes for its virtues.

Sven Berger’s selection of German secular music “from the time of Luther” can be heard as a counterpart to Sirinu’s Italian recital (see above). In that collection, the Franco-Flemish mainstream gets a brief look in; here, it is chiefly represented by Heinrich Isaac and his pupil Ludwig Senfl, though both are clearly writing in a Germanic vein. That vein appears not to share the Italian concern with instrumental virtuosity: most of the non-vocal pieces are obviously designed for dancing. Nor are there any of the lovelorn texts familiar from the neighbouring Latin cultures. It is all country bumpkins and buxom wenches, yet the coarser obscenities found in French chansons are scrupulously avoided. One song simply declaims a list of herbs whose specific properties are left to the listener’s sagacity.

A variety of instrumental approaches is on offer, including a solo clavichord, a mixed consort of flutes and fiddles, or quartets of high instruments drawn from shawms, crumhorns, sackbuts, dulcians and curtal (a primitive bassoon). Barring the odd fluff, these wind instruments are played with tremendous verve and careful intonation. The players of Convivium Musicum occasionally lend their voices to the proceedings, but the vocal palm goes to the singers of the Villanella Ensemble, Charlotte Edstrom and Helena Ek, of whose solid yet sensitive tones I should like to hear more. Purists may wish to query the use of a modern guitar on what is obviously a period instrument disc, but the combination of that instrument with two women’s voices and a recorder will come as a revelation. Does all this sound too good to pass up? Then Naxos’s super-bargain price should clinch the matter. If you’re looking for an inexpensive Christmas stocking-filler, this is it.

FF



		It is difficult to praise this little recital enough. I use the qualifier advisedly: the programme is very generous, and there is nothing diminutive about its ambitions; yet it consists of works lasting no more than three minutes apiece. That it manages in spite of this to be both coherent and immediately appealing speaks volumes for its virtues.



		Sven Berger’s selection of German secular music “from the time of Luther” can be heard as a counterpart to Sirinu’s Italian recital (see above). In that collection, the Franco-Flemish mainstream gets a brief look in; here, it is chiefly represented by Heinrich Isaac and his pupil Ludwig Senfl, though both are clearly writing in a Germanic vein. That vein appears not to share the Italian concern with instrumental virtuosity: most of the non-vocal pieces are obviously designed for dancing. Nor are there any of the lovelorn texts familiar from the neighbouring Latin cultures. It is all country bumpkins and buxom wenches, yet the coarser obscenities found in French chansons are scrupulously avoided. One song simply declaims a list of herbs whose specific properties are left to the listener’s sagacity.



		A variety of instrumental approaches is on offer, including a solo clavichord, a mixed consort of flutes and fiddles, or quartets of high instruments drawn from shawms, crumhorns, sackbuts, dulcians and curtal (a primitive bassoon). Barring the odd fluff, these wind instruments are played with tremendous verve and careful intonation. The players of Convivium Musicum occasionally lend their voices to the proceedings, but the vocal palm goes to the singers of the Villanella Ensemble, Charlotte Edstrom and Helena Ek, of whose solid yet sensitive tones I should like to hear more. Purists may wish to query the use of a modern guitar on what is obviously a period instrument disc, but the combination of that instrument with two women’s voices and a recorder will come as a revelation. Does all this sound too good to pass up? Then Naxos’s super-bargain price should clinch the matter. If you’re looking for an inexpensive Christmas stocking-filler, this is it.