(++++) OLD VOICES AND NEW

Nicola Porpora: Il trionfo della divina Giustizia ne' tormente e morte di Gesù Cristo; Leonardo Vinci: Oratorio Maria dolorata—Sinfonia; Oratorio a 4 voci; Pasquale Anfossi: Salve Regina; Pergolesi: Violin Concerto in B-flat; Vivaldi: Stabat Mater, RV 621. Andreas Scholl, countertenor; Accademia Bizantina conducted by Alessandro Tampieri. Naïve. $16.99.

James Weeks: Primo Libro; Zosha Di Castri: We live the opposite daring; Hannah Kendall: this is but an oration of loss; Shawn Jaeger: love is; Jeffrey Gavett: Waves; Erin Gee: Mouthpiece 36. Ekmeles (Charlotte Mundy, soprano; Elisa Sutherland, mezzo-soprano; Timothy Parsons, countertenor; Tomás Cruz, tenor; Jeffrey Gavett, baritone; Steven Hrycelak, bass). New Focus Recordings. $16.99.

Barbara Harbach: Choral Music I—Sacred Music; Advent and Christmas; Lent and Easter; Spirituals; Secular Music. Apollo Voices of London conducted by Genevieve Ellis; Timothy End, piano. MSR Classics. $14.95.

     A thoroughly winning mixture of well-known and nearly unknown works for countertenor, the new Naïve CD featuring Andreas Scholl clearly shows, and showcases, the attraction of the highest male voice – which is roughly equivalent in vocal range to that of a female contralto or mezzo-soprano. Only one composer featured on the disc, Vivaldi, is heard in a vocal work that audiences favoring Baroque music will know: the Stabat Mater, RV 621, in F minor, which Scholl sings with unerring pitch and considerable emotional heft. The sensitivity of presentation of the thoughts of the sorrowing Mary Magdalene comes through clearly throughout the performance, with Accademia Bizantina under Alessandro Tampieri unerringly supporting Scholl to just the right emotional as well as musical degree. Quis non posset contristari (“Who could not be saddened?”) is especially moving here, while the instrumental opening of Eia Mater, fons amoris (“Here is the Mother, the source of love”) is exceptional for its mood-setting. The work as a whole is thoroughly moving even in our much-more-secular age. Interestingly, the other well-known composer here, Pergolesi, is represented not by a vocal work but by a violin concerto (with fine solo playing by Tampieri). This is placed on the CD immediately before the Vivaldi, which concludes the disc, and the contrast between the brightness and enthusiasm of Pergolesi and the dark seriousness of Vivaldi is pronounced and highly effective. The earlier part of the CD offers well-played, well-sung material from three less-known composers. The overture and two arias from Il trionfo della divina Giustizia ne' tormente e morte di Gesù Cristo by Nicola Porpora (1686-1768) are just as strongly emotive as the music of Vivaldi, and Scholl’s presentation of Per pietà, turba feroce (“For pity’s sake, ferocious crowd”) is positively operatic in its effect. The two works by Leonardo Vinci (1690-1730) are also exceptionally well-made, the Sinfonia well-balanced and carefully structured and the Oratorio a 4 voci especially noteworthy for the contrast between its extensive instrumental passages and its finely developed vocal ones. And Salve Regina by Pasquale Anfossi (1727-1797) shows how much expressiveness can be packed into six short movements: there is an ethereality about the vocal settings here that Scholl brings out highly effectively, and the instrumental accompaniment not only supports the voice but also presents scene-setting and emotional context for the words. This is a first-rate disc both for the quality of the music offered and for the very high vocal and instrumental standards brought to bear in all the performances.

     The countertenor voice has gone through something of a revival since the late 20^th century, with modern composers increasingly willing to explore it in new works – even as specialists in Baroque music have used it more frequently for historically informed performances. The vocal ensemble Ekmeles includes a countertenor among its six members, and the mixture and contrast between the high male voice and that of the group’s mezzo-soprano is one element of the performers’ carefully honed sound. A (+++) New Focus Recordings release featuring Ekmeles is of considerable interest for the quality of the a cappella performances, but the six contemporary works on the disc are more of a mixed bag and will be attractive only to a limited audience. The longest piece, the 18-minute Primo Libro by James Weeks, uses an old form – that of the madrigal – in modern guise, including 16 short pieces composed using 31-division equal temperament. As challenging to hear as it is to perform, the work is effectively scored – for one, two, three or four voices – but seems more of a sonic experiment than a piece designed to connect emotionally with an audience. Zosha Di Castri looks to the past from a modern perspective as well: We live the opposite daring harks back to Sappho for inspiration. Its four movements treat the singers both as vocalists and as percussion instruments – they steadily slap their thighs in parts of the work and make meaningless repetitive sounds elsewhere. The actual words sung are largely inaudible, treated as component parts of a sonic world rather than a method of communicating meaning. The other pieces on the CD make no attempt to reach into the distant past. Hannah Kendall’s this is but an oration of loss (one of those works titled without capital letters) is based on a work by Canadian poet M. NourbeSe Philip and uses massed harmonicas to introduce a series of fragmentary verbal passages, many spoken or whispered rather than sung. Shawn Jaeger’s love is (again, a title without capital letters) uses similar vocal delivery, here in service of a feminist text. Jeffrey Gavett’s Waves treats voices strictly as instruments – its three movements are all wordless – in what is clearly an intellectual exercise that explores singers’ ability to create an aural environment without expressing anything specific. Similarly, Erin Gee’s Mouthpiece 36, which is in four parts, focuses on vocal sound production, the performers voicing (or subvocalizing, as the case may be) whistles and clicks, breath sounds and vocal vibrations, individual letters and diphthongs, and other elements of which the human voice is capable when not being used to express any particular kind of meaning. The experimental nature of all the works on this disc will be of interest to those with a strong attraction to avant-garde music, while the skill of Ekmeles in rendering the pieces will be impressive to listeners interested in vocal skill – even if the material as presented neither connects with a wide audience nor attempts to do so.

     One modern composer who does want to reach out widely is Barbara Harbach (born 1946), whose works continue to appear in a very extended series of releases from MSR Classics. The 17^th volume in the series is the first featuring Harbach’s choral works – and all of those on the CD are world premiѐre recordings. There are 21 tracks in all, grouped somewhat arbitrarily under five headings, and all are given forthright and carefully considered performances by Apollo Voices of London under Genevieve Ellis – with solid piano support from Timothy End. Clarity of presentation, a hallmark of Harbach’s instrumental music, is clearly present in her choral works as well: there is nothing confusing, unclear or experimental in her use of voices, with the words of all these pieces being paramount. This does not mean that Harbach’s harmonies are old-fashioned: the dissonances that open Praise Him with the Trumpet, one of the four works brought together as Sacred Music, are one example among many of her knowledgeable handling of sound – while the very next work in the same group, Sing, Alleluia, shows just how sweetly Harbach can handle harmony when she so chooses. There are three works listed under Advent and Christmas, with This Night in Bethlehem – with its soaring soprano line – being especially affecting. Among the five Lent and Easter works, Of Christ’s Dark Cup is noteworthy for its moody piano, while Mary’s Joyful Shout has something of the revival about it. The four Spirituals offered here are the most straightforward settings on the CD, all being pleasant although none is particularly distinctive. The disc concludes with Secular Music, five pieces that provide a welcome contrast to the rest of the material here. Intoxicated by the Wine of Love has a pleasant lilt, while Sunset St. Louis has some of the character of the sacred pieces in its choral declamations. There is no overriding theme to this (+++) CD, and no particular sense of organization beyond the rather haphazard assignment of pieces to one designation or another. There is differentiation enough among the settings to make the disc a pleasant listening experience for listeners already familiar with Harbach’s music, although nothing here will likely lead an audience unfamiliar with her works to search eagerly for more of her vocal productions.