Review

Author(s): Bernadette Nelson

Review by: Bernadette Nelson
Source: Early Music, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), pp. 143-147
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3128344
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under the direction of Paul Hillier. The
physical space in Schitz's conception of
these psalm settings is perceptively
realized by Hillier, and there is on the
whole greater variety in the handling of
the melodic lines.
We have been fortunate in recent
years to witness an increasing number of
recordings of Schtitz's music. We are
even more fortunate in view of the inter-
pretative freedom Schtitz granted--
indeed, expected-in the performance
of his works. However often his music is
recorded, we will always be able to look
forward to exciting and original
performances.
El 6rgano hist6rico espafiol
VOL 1, ANTONIO DE CABEZON
Kimberly Marshall
Auvidis Valois v 4645 (rec 1991)
VOL 2, FRANCISCO CORREA DE ARAUXO
Bernard Foccroulle
Auvidis Valois v 4646 (rec 1991)
VOL 4, LA ESCUELA DE ZARAGOZA, I
Lionel Rogg
Auvidis Valois v 4648 (rec 1991)
VOL 5, LA ESCUELA DE ZARAGOZA, II
Jose Luis Gonzailez Uriol
Auvidis Valois v 4649 (rec 1991)
VOL 6, SALAMANCA
Guy Bovet
Auvidis Valois v 4650 (rec 1991)
VOL 7, M'USICA CATALANA, I
Josep Ma Mas i Bonet
Auvidis Valois v 4651 (rec 1991)
VOL 9, EL ORGANO CASTELLANO
Francis Chapelet
Auvidis Valois v 4653 (rec 1991)
VOL 10, EL SIGLO XVIII
Elisa Freixo
Auvidis Valois v 4654 (rec 1991)
Bernadette Nelson
The 5ooth anniversary of Columbus's
famous voyage has resulted in an extra-
ordinary rush of recordings of Iberian
music. The main aim of the present
series is to demonstrate a large number
of fine and recently restored Spanish
organs by way of a varied repertory of
Iberian music from the 16th century
onwards, though the emphasis is on
music of the Baroque and Classical
period. The exploration of the idiosyn-
cratic sounds and endless tonal variety
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of these instruments is thus a valuable
Baroque bassoons
contribution to the history of music in
sound. after .C. Denner
(da'=440, 415 Hz)
Each of the ten discs is devoted to two and Rottenburgh (415)
or three instruments, and most concen- and
Renaissance flutes
trate on a single composer or 'school'.
by
With players coming not only from BARBARA STANLEY
Spain and Latin America but also from 21 Broad Street
North America and northern Europe, Clifton
Beds SG17 5RJ
performances and interpretations inevi-
England
tably vary both in style and in standard.
Sadly, it is clear that the team of advisers,
headed by Lionel Rogg and including the
Spanish specialist Jos6 Luis Gonzailez
Uriol, did not exercise any clear-cut edi-
torial policy. There has not been the
degree of collaboration needed to make
Baroque and Renaissance
the series an outright success. This curtals/dulcians
emerges when one looks at the overall (d = 440, 465 Hz)
balance: much space has been assigned and
to such well-known figures as Cabez6n, Mersenne Basson
Arauxo and Cabanilles (over and above by
G&M
the three individual discs devoted to
LYNDON-JONES
their music), yet other composers are 20 Queen Street
barely included: Jose Elias (fl.1715-51), St Albans
composer of a vast number of large-scale Herts AL3 4PJ
England
pieces as well as the Obras de Organo,
entre el antiquo y moderno stilo (1749), a
work indicative of new and conflicting
musical currents in Baroque Spain, is
represented merely by one item; Narcis David & Nina Shorey
Casanoves (1747-99), the composer of Fine Antique Flutes
several fine organ pieces, barely gets a
mention. Offer for sale original
The standard of the introductory instruments from the
material varies enormously. On the finest flute workshops of
whole the organology is very good: there the past.
are illuminating accounts of the history Flutes purchased from us
and characteristics of the various instru- are currently being used in
ments along with details of restoration concert and on recordings;
work. Each organ is photographed and are on display in muse-
dispositions itemized, and there are ums; are being played in
schematic indications of registrations Irish pubs; and form the
used in the recitals. Oddly, the names of core of important private
the organs are given in French, and the collections.
stops for the two halves of the keyboard
are tabulated in columns headed main For a free catalog please
gauche and main droite (abbreviated 'g' call or write:
and 'd'); yet in a few instances we find David & Nina Shorey
instead 'i' and 'd'-abbreviations of the Antique Flutes
Spanish izquierda and derecha. Such P.O. Box 92
inconsistencies are not uncommon and Bowdoinham, Maine
even stretch to the spelling of an organ- 04008 U.S.A
ist's name in different ways. Moreover, (207) 666-3600
sources of individual works, with the
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY 1993 143
exception of those by Arauxo and Cabe-
z6n, are never provided-a regrettable
omission given the unfamiliarity of this
repertory. Worst of all are the transla-
tions. Not only are the notes para-
phrased and badly (or even
nonsensically) expressed, but the trans-
lator clearly has little knowledge of the
music of the period: the translation of
tiento as 'scale' and diferencias ('varia-
tions') as 'differences' are but a few of the
inaccuracies that will mislead the
non-specialist.
With the exception of the unique por-
tative organ now situated in the Old
Cathedral at Salamanca, an instrument
built in the mid-16th century and bear-
ing the name of the blind theorist and
organist Francisco de Salinas, most of
the organs recorded here date from the
Castilian instruments the manuals were
divided at c' c' #, and it was in Castille
that the so-called medio registro comp-
ositions evolved in the late 16th century.
Arauxo, one of the greatest masters of
this style, credited its 'invention' to
Francisco de Peraza from Seville, whose
sole surviving Medio Registro alto del
primer tono is included in vol.9. Tientos
of this type are indeed the most distinc-
tive contribution of the Spanish organ
school; these discs feature a large
number, in various styles, by organists
working in different regions between the
late 16th century and the early 19th. True,
the organs here are far more sophisti-
cated than those appropriate to the early
history of medio registro compositions
and the batalla. Many of the solo stops,
and particularly the horizontal reeds so
larly in Catalonia and the Balearic
islands) and eco were likewise more fully
exploited in the Baroque period, when
composers created pieces specifically
written as dialogues between the key-
boards: the two sonatas by Carlos
Baguer and Ramon Pedro 'para Clarines
y Cadireta' on vol.io are good examples.
That disc also demonstrates how rarely
the pedals were used for anything more
sophisticated than a drone. As for the
percussive and colourful devices such as
tambores/timbales and pdjaros ('birds')
available on the larger 18th-century
organs, it is never entirely clear from the
sources how and when these were
deployed. Some imaginative use has
been made of them here, particularly in
the (rather self-indulgent) extemporiza-
tions that feature on several discs.

18th century. Restoration has taken place
largely in the last decade under the
supervision of a number of distin-
guished organists and builders. As these
recordings reveal, the results have been
spectacular. Most of the organs have just
one manual with divided registers. In
characteristic of the Iberian organ, were
invented only in the later 17th and early
18th centuries. However, as Lionel Rogg
points out, it is not always practicable to
re-create history.
Two-manual instruments with their
secondary divisions of cadireta (particu-
Unlike the tientos, batallas, tocatas and
sonatas, it is questionable whether the
smaller-scale versets designed to be inte-
grated with plainchant in the Mass and
Offices should be included in recital pro-
grammes. It has become common prac-
tice for organists to include such pieces

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144 EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY 1993

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as if they were movements of a suite, to
be played in a continuous sequence. Yet
this is probably one instance when we
should attempt to 're-create history', or at
least a proper context: these pieces
would undoubtedly be enhanced by
being performed alternatim. Chapelet
(vol. 9) acknowledges the practice,
somewhat timidly, by intoning 'Salve'
before the two Salve versets by Miguel
L6pez. But the very fact that Guy Bovet
(vol. 6) alters Jose Lid6n's eighth-tone
versets by repeating the start of each at
its end, so as to avoid ending on a domi-
nant chord, proves the point.
The series begins, appropriately, with
a disc ostensibly devoted to the best
known Spanish organist, Antonio de
Cabez6n. It looks promising, for it com-
prises a large proportion of the genres
explored by Cabez6n-tientos, cantus
firmus hymn settings, intabulations and
arrangements of Franco-Flemish poly-
phony, and variations. Moreover, the
disc is accompanied by a coherent his-
torical introduction and description of
the individual pieces. Closer examin-
ation reveals a number of anomalies,
among them the inclusion of a few
compositions not by Cabez6n himself
but by three contemporary vihuelistas
and even a contributor to the Johannes
of Lublin tablature (an arrangement of
Janequin's ubiquitous La guerre). This is
revealed only in the notes, which never-
theless do not name the composers of
the dos pavanas para vihuela (Pisador
and Mudarra). Kimberly Marshall, in
striving to present examples of most
types of composition, has not really
given us the best that Cabez6n has to
offer. By including as many as eight set-
tings of Ave maris stella, for instance, she
has missed the opportunity to explore
more masterpieces in the class of the
Tiento de 40 tono, one of only three tien-
tos in the programme.
Marshall's somewhat systematic
approach to programme planning is
reflected in a performance marred by
unvarying mechanical precision. At
times she decorates the music with adap-
tations of the ornaments (quiebros and
redobles) derived from the descriptions
in Santa Maria's Arte de tafer fantasia
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(1565). Laudable as they are, these are
cold in effect; the result is sadly soulless,
with only limited appreciation of the
shapes inherent in Cabez6n's music.
Even so, it is an enormous pleasure to
hear the three very fine instruments she
plays. The clarity of speech of the small
organ at Madrigal de las Altas Torres, the
quality of the 8' flautados of the organ at
Tordesillas and the unusual timbres of
the dulgainas on the Villal6n de Campos
organ are particularly memorable.
It is only fair that one disc should be
devoted to Francisco Correa de Arauxo,
whose Libro de Tientos (the Facultad
Orgdnica of 1626) contains some of the
finest idiomatic Spanish organ music
ever written, as well as throwing invalu-
able light on performance practice in
early 17th-century Spain. Even so, its
appearance in the same year as the out-
standing recording by Odile Bailleux
(see EM, xx/4 (Nov 1992), p.689) is
unfortunate: as many as four of the
items are the same as those on Bailleux's,
and one inevitably draws comparisons.
Although Bernard Foccroulle is technic-
ally extremely competent, his perform-
ance pales somewhat next to that of
Bailleux, since it lacks insight both into
the character of the music itself and into
the type of registration which would best
complement it. The Lidtor organ on
which more than half of his programme
is played unusually lacks an 8' principal
(flautado), and the contrast of timbre
required by Correa' de Arauxo in the
medio registro pieces is thus not always
easy to achieve. In the tiento de medio
registro de bax6n de d&cimo tono the 8'
trompeta real in the left hand almost
completely obliterates the rather gentle
8' viol6n and 4' flautado in the right.
This organ is seemingly too light-weight
to project the majestic character of many
of these pieces; it is, however, remark-
able for the smoothness of speech of the
reeds, in particular the trompeta real and
the corneta, both effectively deployed in
their solo capacities. Foccroulle seems to
respond better to the wider possibilities
of registration offered by the two-
manual organ in the church of El Sal-
vador in Seville where Arauxo spent 37
years as organist. Here he even experi-
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY 1993 145
ments with the combination of two
regals (the 8' orlos in the left hand and
the 16' viejas in the right) for an entire
tiento--an unusual effect which rather
palls after a while.
The two discs concentrating on the
music of composers associated with the
Aragonese school of organists from
Zaragoza highlight a relatively unusual
situation in Spain in which the post of
principal organist at the cathedral (La
Seo) was passed successively from mas-
ter to pupil or assistant organist.
(Normally, prestigious organ posts were
gained as a result of stiff examinations
open to competitors from all parts of the
country.) Chronologically and stylisti-
cally this school may be regarded as con-
stituting a link between the 16th century
of Cabez6n and the developments of
Cabanilles and his contemporaries in
Valencia and Barcelona. It is also associ-
ated with a solid contrapuntal idiom
with which composers explored the pos-
sibilities of divided registers.
These discs include a fine selection of
works by all the principal organists of
the school: Sebastiain Aguilera de Her-
edia, Jose Jimenez, Andres de Sola, Pablo
Bruna, Sebastian Dur6n, Diego Xarava y
Bruna and Pablo Nassarre. The balance
is a little too far in favour of Aguilera,
however, and Jimenez is represented by
one Batalla only. While Uriol's order of
programme is well thought out, with
composers in chronological order,
Rogg's is curiously mismanaged and
includes not only two pieces by Cabez6n
but also a Batalha (presumably to
demonstrate the potential of the Saidaba
organ) by the late 17th-century Portu-
guese composer Pedro de Arauijo, as well
as an improvisation of his own. Further-
more, whereas Uriol provides a short but
considered historical introduction to the
Zaragoza school, Rogg opts for surpris-
ingly unsophisticated personal appreci-
ations of individual items. This
unfamiliarity with Spanish organ tra-
ditions is evident in Rogg's perform-
ances: all too often he misrepresents
idiosyncracies of style by his choice of
tempo and mannered articulation. In
the Salve by Aguilera, for instance, his
leisurely tempo spoils the inherent ele-

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146 EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY 1993
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gance of the contrapuntal and rhythmic
writing, apparent in the quirky
3 + 3 + 2 rhythm which should animate
the texture at the end of the piece. By
contrast, Uriol's authoritative position
in the Iberian organ world results in an
altogether more convincing and pleas-
ing performance. Nevertheless, Uriol
seems determined to exploit practically
every possible sound on the 19th-century
organ at Ateca, culminating in an almost
raucous rendering of an anonymous
18th-century Gran batalla de Marengo--
surely the undoing of Janequin's
chanson.
Guy Bovet's background as specialist
of the Spanish organ and his immense
recording experience make him one of
the outstanding contributors to this
series. There is an enormous variety in
his interpretation of the repertory, which
he chooses to perform on three of the
most distinguished organs in Spain: the
famous 'Salinas' portative organ built in
c.154o and the Baroque organs gracing
either side of the choir in the New Cathe-
dral in Salamanca. It is appropriate that
he should play works by Cabezon on the
charming Salinas chamber organ with its
extraordinary bright 4' flautado tones--
strikingly used in the three chanson
arrangements-and the curious regals
(8' orlos and dulyainas) for the opening
pavana. Indeed, a whole CD devoted to
this little organ would not have gone
amiss.
Bovet's mastery of Renaissance
idioms is demonstrated further by his
recital on the 17th-century Epistle organ
in the New Cathedral. Here we have
Bovet at his most erudite, demonstrating
both his fluency in 16th-century style
with his rendering of a fantasia by Santa
Maria followed by four glosses of his
own, and his convincing and liberal
ornamentation of Bernardo Clavijo de
Castillo's famous falsas tiento. With Jose
Jimenez's Obra de primer tono de tiple
and Batalla, the full potential of this
organ is realized, distinguished in par-
ticular by the corneta for the right hand
and the fine battery of reeds. But Bovet
really comes into his own on the mag-
nificent organ built by Pedro Echevarria
in 1744. The works by the 18th-century
Royal Chapel organist Jose Lid6n
(1748-1827), which constitute the main
interest here, are played with great verve
and excitement, Bovet respecting the
registrations indicated by the composer.
The piezas sueltas, ostensibly versets in
the eighth tone, have been freely inter-
preted and demonstrate Bovet's prime
interest in musical performance per se,
rather than in this case with historical
accuracy. The recording reaches a climax
with his extraordinary improvisation on
the popular Salamancan tune 'La Clara':
this begins with a convincing imitation
of the tune played simply on pipe and
tabor and ends with a riveting flourish in
flamenco style, using all the colourful
effects available.
The title of vol.7, Mtisica Catalana (I),
is slightly misleading in that the disc
comprises music by organists who were
born in this region even though some
(for example Antonio Martin y Coll and
Antonio Soler) spent most of their
working careers elsewhere. In addition,
Cabez6n and Arauxo make their appear-
ance once more, albeit with one very fine
tiento each; the rest of the disc is devoted
to organists working in Barcelona,
Montserrat and Valencia from the early
16th century (Pere Albrech Vila) to the
late 18th. One might have hoped that
more attention would have been given to
the music of lesser known contemporar-
ies and followers of Cabanilles whose
works-with the exception of tientos by
Gabriel Menalt and Joan Baseya on this
disc and the tocata de contras by Jose
Elias on vol.lo-barely feature in the
series. The other composers represented
are Cabanilles and one of the most out-
standing musicians from Montserrat,
Narcis Casanoves (1747-99). A good
introduction both to the composers and
their music and to the salient features of
Catalan organ building and the organ of
Montblanch, on which the first six items
are played, is provided by Mas i Bonet
himself; this is complemented by an
equally informative account of the organ
at Sa Pobla (Mallorca) by the specialist
Gerhard Grenzing who was responsible
for restoring the 18th-century instru-
ment in 1986. Both instruments have two
manuals.
 There is enormous variety on this disc
not only with regard to compositional
style but also to manner of performance
and choice of registration. The pro-
gramme opens with a rather repetitive
Batalla by Martin y Coll (not at his best),
which Bonet attempts to redeem by fre-
quent changes of registration, and it'is
succeeded by the Vila tiento played on
the gentle 4' octava de cara on the cadi-
reta of the Montblanch organ. Despite
the inclusion of a number of fine pieces,
Bonet's somewhat mannered style of
playing palls after a while. Soler's versets
for the Te Deum, presented here like a
suite of 16 contrasting movements, were
written for the organ at El Escorial,
which had a wider range than the Mont-
blanch organ. Although Soler's original
registration has been respected, Mas i
Bonet has redesigned the passages where
the notes in the right hand exceed the
relatively limited range of this organ.
Francis Chapelet's disc presents a
selection of pieces ranging from the early
16th century (items from Venegas de
Henestrosa's Libro de cifra nueva pub-
lished in 1557) to the late 18th. The pro-
gramme has been devised purely to
demonstrate the potential of two Cas-
tilian organs-one in Abarca de
Campos, the other in Frechilla. As is evi-
dent from his performance, Chapelet is
an authority on the Spanish organ: not
only is he director of the International
Academy of the Iberian Organ of Castille
but he also had a part to play in the resto-
ration of these two instruments.
Besides the anonymous chanson
arrangements from the Libro and a set-
ting of Sacris solemniis, Chapelet
includes tientos by Francisco de Soto
(not Soto de Langa as he indicates),
Cabez6n and Francisco de Peraza from
the 16th century. The rest of the pro-
gramme comprises large-scale works by
Arauxo, Cabanilles, Antonio Mestres
and versets by Miguel L6pez. It effec-
tively demonstrates the diversity of styles
and registrations of Spanish organ
music. The two pieces by the 18th-cen-
tury Catalan composer Antonio Mestres
played on the Frechilla organ-a Tocata
and a Marcha por clarines-exemplify
tastes in this area of Spain for more
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transparent textures. The Marcha is
typical of a number of pieces from this
era which paid homage to the 'new' solo
clarin, a penetrating stop placed on the
fagade, which was only introduced in the
167os. The versets for the Salve and the
six medio registro versets for the psalms
by Miguel L6pez, a slightly younger con-
temporary of Cabanilles at Montserrat,
demonstrate the splendid solo reeds on
the Abarca organ, as well as giving a
sample of the music of one of the finest
organ composers of Baroque Spain. The
recitals on each of the two organs con-
clude with Chapelet's own improvisa-
tions on familiar themes.
The contrast in musical style between
Elisa Freixo's disc of 18th-century organ
music and the other discs is quite
remarkable. Most of the programme is
devoted to composers working either in
the Royal Chapel in Madrid in the late
18th or even early 19th century (Juan
Sese, Felix Maximo L6pez and Jose
Lid6n) or in Catalonia-the Monastery
of Montserrat in particular. Freixo's aim
was to illustrate the style of keyboard
music produced at the same time as, or
after, the more prominent masters of
Iberian keyboard music in the 18th cen-
tury, Carlos Seixas, Domenico Scarlatti
and Antonio Soler. Thus we have a
number of sonatas by Anselm Viola,
Julian Prieto, Carlos Baguer and an
anonymous composer from the choir
school at Montserrat, all of which
demonstrate a taste for almost pianistic
Viennese idioms. Much of the music
from this time relies upon contrasts of
registration for effect, either within a
piece or between movements or versets.
Unfortunately, the dulzainas on the Vil-
labuena organ, on which an isolated ver-
set by L6pez marked 'Dulzainas' is
played, do not always speak quickly
enough, and some very strange over-
tones (even 7ths) are audible. The organ
at Labastida, originally constructed in
the mid-17th century, has an impressive
array of stops and a range of special
colour effects such as the birds stop,
which Freixo puts into almost comic use
in the Prieto sonata. The horizontal
reeds, particularly striking, are demon-
strated in the Lid6n Sonata de primer
EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY 1993 147
tono con trompeta real and Ramon Ped-
ro's Sonata para clarines y cadireta, the
latter piece featuring (just audibly) the
rather out-of-tune tambores. It cannot
be said that the works on this disc rank
in quality with those of the previous cen-
tury, though some of the music has a
charm of its own. Although some
moments are less than inspiring, Freixo
generally succeeds in communicating
the spirit of the music remarkably well.
Henry Purcell
KING ARTHUR
Nancy Argenta, Linda Perillo, Julia
Gooding (sopranos), Jamie
MacDougall, Mark Tucker (tenors),
Brian Bannatyne-Scott, Gerald Finley
(basses), Choir of the English Concert,
The English Concert, directed by
Trevor Pinnock
Archiv Produktion 435490-2 (two CDs,
rec 1991)
David Charlton
Perhaps a commercially produced video
is the only satisfactory way to market a
problem score like King Arthur for dom-
estic consumption. Channel 4 gave us its
spectacular 1589 Florentine Intermedi,
for example, and the imaginative use of
St Mark's, Venice, for the Monteverdi
Vespers production under John Eliot
Gardiner seemed to add apt dramatic
dimensions. With King Arthur there
would be different possibilities; but at
least we might get a vision of theatrical
wholeness.
In the necessary absence of a dramatic
context, save for the scrupulously
detailed synoptic links in its CD booklet,
this recording by Trevor Pinnock and his
musicians needs rather more of the
greasepaint feeling. The musically legit-
imate way to get this is through the
words. Purcell's and Dryden's relish in
the drama of consonants, the force of
verbs, in sheer poetry, must be commu-
nicated. What it can and should sound
like occurs here in the vivid determina-
tion of the naked sirens (Linda Perillo,
Julia Gooding), singing 'We'll beat the
waters till they bound' It is no good
shaping the singers' lines and letting the
end consonants look after themselves.
One must beat them, too, till they