Tim Crawford
harshly.)
18th-century lutes
To judge by the number of recent recordings, the
lute music of Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1686-1750) is
at last beginning to impinge on the consciousness of CTH 2098, rec 1990), is rather less adventurous, al-
the music-loving public. And not before time. Several
commentators have pointed out its affinity with J. S. command of the instrument. It has the further virtue of
Bach's music, a similarity first hinted at while both
composers were still alive. That is not to say there is not the right Sarabande, unlike Smith's curiously mangled
a substantial difference of style between the two; rather, version. Diicker's attitude to the music is rather differ-
Weiss comes nearer than most of his contemporaries to
the richness of invention of the great Leipzig master.
Bach achieved immortality as a composer, although
in his own age he was perhaps better known and ad-
mired as a performer on the organ and harpsichord.
Weiss, too, was known as a virtuoso, but his music was
avidly collected in his lifetime and distributed in manu-
script long after his death. It goes almost without saying
that his lute pieces are among the most idiomatic ever
written for the instrument, and hundreds survive,
mostly arranged into substantial suites or 'Suonaten'.
Treasure indeed for players of the Baroque lute, and
aural riches for the listener, for among these move-
ments are some of the most accomplished of the age.
But unlike Bach's music, that of Weiss is inseparable
from the manner of its performance. Lute playing was
essentially an improvisatory art, and Weiss was espe-
cially renowned for his ability to extemporize fantasies
and even fugues on the instrument, being compared
with Bach in that capacity. Among his large output,
some of the most fascinating are in fact preludes and
fantasies, which seem to record something of Weiss's
improvising method. They abound in chromatic, even
enharmonic, surprises and a marvellous variety of
textural and figurative devices. Much of that 'fantasia
style', especially the unexpected harmonic twists and
turns, spills over into his formal dance-movements,
which makes them rather different from Bach's and
perhaps more demanding of the performer's imagina-
tion. A recent recording by Hopkinson Smith (Astr£e
Audivis E8718, see EM, xx/3 (Aug 1992), p.515) demon-
strated how successfully a player immersed in Weiss's
style and personality can re-create something of that
improvisatory spirit. (My review also expressed some
reservations about the degree of metric instability
in Smith's playing—in retrospect, perhaps a little
A recording by Michael Ducker of two substantial
sonatas in FS minor and G minor (lasting a few seconds
over and a few minutes under half an hour, respec-
tively), Silvius Leopold Weiss: Sonaten (Thorophon
though it demonstrates fine musicianship and a good
presenting the FS minor sonata in complete form, with
ent from that of Smith, and seems at first hearing more
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cautious. But the G minor sonata, a fine work of
Weiss's maturity, unfolds naturally in its sonorous
splendour. A touch more bravura in the fast move-
ments would not have gone amiss, but there is lively wit
where called for in the Bourr£e and an excellent
cantabile in the opening Allemande. In this sonata
Weiss substitutes a Polonoise for the customary sara-
bande, and it thus seems sad that Ducker chooses to ig-
nore the associations of pride, even arrogance, of the
Polish dance, preferring a rather mawkish and soft-
centred interpretation. In both sonatas he betrays a
somewhat cavalier attitude to the signs for Manieren in
the sources, which is unfortunate, given the importance
that 'ornamental' notes have in Weiss's compositions.
This may sound pedantic, but J. S. Bach laid great stress
on such matters, and any fortepiano player who arbi-
trarily omitted Mozart's 'grace notes' would receive
short shrift.
A new recording from Nigel North, Bach on the lute,
volume 1 (Linn Records, CKD013, rec 1993), comprises
North's own transcriptions of three of the Sonatas and
Partitas for violin (BWVIOOI, 1002, 1004). Presumably
the remainder will appear in volume 2, and the notes
hint that the six cello suites are to follow. This is not the
place for a complex discussion about the legitimacy of
such arrangements, or even about North's transcrip-
tion method. Suffice it to say that this pudding tri-
umphantly survives the proof of its eating. This is a
thoroughly worthwhile and satisfying—even uplift-
ing—musical experience. Not only is North effortlessly
equal to the technical challenges in this formidable
music, but he is playing a superb instrument (made by
Thomas Neitzert) whose evenness of tone is such that
Bach's part-writing is clearer than I have heard before.
EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 1994 527
 Credit is due to the recording as well: just the right
warmth of acoustic, and, above all, not too closely
miked.
Nigel North's quiet authority in the music of Bach
belies a depth of engagement that is unusual in the
'early music' field. Above all, his rhythmic and metrical
control provides a firm basis over which he can exercise
a remarkable degree of rubato at times; by the same
token, he uses vibrato to an extent unusual on the lute,
but to marvellous effect. And not necessarily just in
slow music; here is a string player (North was formerly
a gifted violinist) who is aware of the importance of
'keeping the sound alive', to use the traditional string-
teacher's phrase, at all times—one of those essential
truths many a dogmatically 'authentic' musician might
strive to deny. And North's sound is indeed always
alive: not a note goes to waste; each has its place and its
cumulative effect in the unfolding of the structure. By
devices such as the subtle use of dynamic contrast and
articulation, and by his mastery of pacing a move-
ment—the fruit, no doubt, of his great experience as
performer and accompanist—North shows 'how the
music should go' in a manner that should be as fasci-
nating for a violinist as it is inspiring for the lutenist.
Criticisms? Well, it would have been nice if Linn
Records had banded separately the doubles of the
dances in BWVIOO2. And maybe the basic pulse in the
Chaconne from BWV1004 is still just a shade slow for
my taste; but North's reverential performance is no less
magisterial than the one I reviewed in these pages last
year (EM, xxi/2 (May 1993), p.312), although I would
not go so far as to say it is 'better'.
From the sublime to ... Vivaldi. That may be a cruel
jest, but few would claim that the music on II Giardino
Armonico's Antonio Vivaldi: Concerti per liuto e
mandolino (Teldec 4509-91182-1, rec 1990-92) is sub-
lime. But it is far from ridiculous, with an astonishing
variety of colour, technical device and sheer invention
that in these ebullient performances makes this one of
the most enjoyable records I have heard in a long time.
Starting literally with a bang—or at least the most exu-
berantly played anacrusis I have ever encountered—
in the C major Concerto per molti strumenti, RV558
through to the last twinkle of the two mandolins in
RV532, this is a record of high spirits and, above all, of
conviction. For some of us it has been an article of faith
that the world of Baroque music would only really
528 EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 1994
come alive when Italian musicians became heartily en-
gaged. While this is by no means the first Italian group
to work with historical instruments, Giovanni An-
tonini's II Giardino Armonico, based in Milan, is cer-
tainly among the best. Among their virtues are a readi-
ness to exploit dynamics, not just in contrasting loud
and soft but in moulding melodic phrases; their variety
of articulation contributes much to the same end.
As well as the multi-instrument concerto RV558
(pairs of mandolins, theorbos, chalumeaux, recorders,
violins 'in tromba marina', and a solo cello — a study
in tonal contrasts indeed!), the two trios for lute with
violin and continuo, RV85 and 82 (performed most suc-
cessfully with archlute), the two mandolin concertos
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(RV425, a solo concerto played by Dulio Galfetti, per-
haps my favourite thing on the disc, and RV532), there
are the two concertos for the lute, RV540 with viola
d'amore (whose last movement shares thematic mater-
ial with RV558, perhaps intentionally, since both were
composed and performed in Venice in 1740 for the de-
light of the Crown Prince of Saxony, the son of Weiss's
employer in Dresden), and the D major solo concerto,
RV93. The lutenist, and one of the theorbists in RV558, is
the highly accomplished Luca Pianca, while the violin
and viola d'amore solos are taken by the equally fine
Enrico Onofri. Clearly a group to watch and to hear at
every possible opportunity.
On the negative side, the liner notes stray off the
point in discussing Agazzari's description of continuo
practice in 1607 and the etymology of the word
'baroque' (a red herring if ever there was one: the term
was borrowed by musicologists from art-historians
earlier in this century). In the old days of Das Alte
Werk, in which series this disc belongs, we became ac-
customed to a context-setting essay on cultural events
contemporary with the music; now this has been con-
densed after the modern fashion into a table of 'fact-
bites' in which English-speaking readers are solemnly
informed that in 1732 'Stephen Gray invents the insu-
lated footstool'. Something, presumably, is lost in the
translation.
 musik in der zeit des umbruchs
Eruemble Arcadia

DI
Cantiu Colin
Chanticleer
Circa 1500
Ensemble Clement Janequin

imi
The Coiuort of Miuicke
EtueinbU Fretwork

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Ge<Htaldo Contort
c ^™ ^™ ^™ ^
! • • •;'
24. 9. - 5. 12. 1994 duisburg
Hilliard Ensemble
I Soluti del Madrigale
Kings Singers
Ein Musikfestival der Stadt Duisburg Ensemble Kithara
in Zusammenarbeit mit dem La Fenice
Westdeutschen Rundfunk Koln
Marais Consort
• Informationen und Programm:
Miuica Alta Ripa
Theater der Stadt Duisburg
Musica Antigua Koln
NeckarstraBe 1 • D-47051 Duisburg
Telefon (0049) (0)203-3009-124 oder-149 Sagittarius
Fax (0049) (0)203-3009-200 The Tallis Scholars

Das Festival wird gefordert durch die

The Tai'erner Consort^*
Stiftung Kunst und Kultur Choir and Flayers
des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen Tragicomedia

!
^ stadt m Duisburg Q^Q
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EARLY M U S I C AUGUST 1 9 9 4 529