Nord Versus Sud

Album review

Here is that rare bonanza -- a disc of almost completely unknown music, much of it newly unearthed in manuscripts, that turns out to be an absolute delight for the general listener. The Nord versus Sud or "North versus South" title is a bit confusing, for no musical competition is involved -- the disc simply contains one group of pieces from England and another from Catalonia, the latter found by the players in a trio of manuscripts in the Barcelona area, plus one slightly better-known composition by Corelli. All the music except for the Corelli is anonymous. Both the music and the performances are completely fresh and enthusiastic. The English works are taken from a 1703 London publication of recorder music called The Division Flute; they are essentially long sets of variations over a ground bass. The Catalan dances are very vivid short works, several of them with descriptive titles. Sach dels gemechs, track 11, evokes the sound of bagpipes. Several others are equally interesting: the Moxiganga, track 12, refers to an Easter procession that also involves actual dancing. The rather dry notes don't speculate on the oddly titled Contra Dança dels Caputxins (Contradance of the Capuchin Monks) or explain why a group of monks should be getting down in such a fashion. The final La Follia of Corelli is one of the ultimate elaborations on the variation principle. Sample it in full, if you can, and you won't be able to resist this album -- you may think it has fired its best shot with the virtuoso passages about four minutes in, but keep listening, for wondrous surprises await. The performances by the rather purple trio of people (look at the picture on the back of the booklet) who call themselves Rubato Appasionato have an immensely appealing combination of expertise and enthusiastic abandon. The grouping of recorder, Baroque bassoon, and Baroque cello is not as odd as it may appear at first; bassoonist Eyal Streett and cellist Sasha Agranov are simply realizing a continuo part (from scratch in the case of the Catalan pieces, where none was notated) without the use of a keyboard. Recorder player Antonia Tejeda is an extraordinary find, with steady intonation, total command of the difficult Corelli work and the English ground-bass pieces, and real dramatic presence. Streett keeps up with her in passages where the continuo answers the lead recorder line, and Agranov creates a spectacular variety of cello effects. From the outside, this may seem to be a disc with limited appeal, but in fact it is a sterling example of the work of younger European early music performers who are rewriting the music history books with their work.
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