Rare baroque delights
Stephen Midgley | Tarbrax, West Calder, UK | 07/18/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The Italian Agostino Steffani (1654-1728) was a leading composer of mainly vocal music, including operas, sacred pieces, cantatas and the truly wonderful chamber duets - all of which are well worth investigating for lovers of the baroque. So it is a rare thing to find a CD, let alone a 2-disc set, consisting entirely of instrumental music by this inspired melodist. These "Sonate da camera" are actually the composer's own selections and arrangements from six of the operas he wrote for the Hanover court, fashioned into overture-suites of the pattern later used by Bach, Telemann and others. They consist of numerous, mainly short, sharply characterised movements, with each suite working well as a unified whole; and they contain many melodic delights, with a few more extended pieces such as the graceful Chaconne from "Henrico Leone".
All this fine music is performed in exemplary period style by the Quartetto Erasmus with Isidoro Taccagni at the keyboard. Their playing is both sprightly and lyrical as appropriate, with only the distinctly odd sound of the recording raising a few question marks. While the booklet clearly shows that this is a genuine quartet of musicians (plus harpsichord) we are listening to, the rather resonant recording manages to convey the impression of a larger baroque ensemble, albeit with a somewhat metallic quality. Nevertheless, once one gets attuned it is a pleasant enough sound, and at least its sharp edge suits the instrumental music of the period reasonably well.
The 2-disc set is attractively presented, with a delicious picture on the cover anticipating the delights within; and the booklet notes, although in places somewhat tendentiously written, give adequate information on Steffani and his music. Altogether, this is an enterprising addition to the discography and to what I hope is turning out - together with some other recent CD issues and opera productions - to be a long overdue revival of the music of this rarely heard genius of the baroque.
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Surprisingly disappointing
David I. Cahill | Beijing, China | 06/29/2009
(1 out of 5 stars)
"Naxos is to be commended for launching the new Concerto series of obscure or newly discovered baroque music. Unfortunately this 2 cd-set of chamber sonatas by Steffani has the worst recording quality of any cd (or previously, LP) of classical music I have ever bought. The strings are shrill and wiry and the overall sound very "plastic"-like. I don't know how the engineers succeeded in producing such poor sound quality. As for the performance, it's difficult to judge the Quartetto Erasmus's interpretation without any comparative reference points - it's my first acquaintance with this composer - but it too seems wanting, with a listless, plodding, almost amateurish quality. Perhaps the poor sound quality is contributing to this impression. In any case, I quickly stored the cd away in my cd library, to await a future second hearing, perhaps a year or two down the line. I have a very large collection of early-to-late baroque music, and the Steffani cd looks handsome on the shelf, but that's as much as I can positively say about it at this point."
