Performer’s Perspective

The countertenor Andrew Radley reminisces about the making of Sounds Baroque’s debut disc, Conversazioni I :




When Julian and I discussed the prospect of recording this disc I was naturally very excited. Rome in the late 17th and early 18th centuries must have been the most incredible place to be a musician; a magnet for all those at the top of their artistic fields whether it was music, art, sculpture, theatre design or architecture. Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni was just one of several influential patrons of the time, and reading through a list of composers and musicians who worked for him is to find a Who's Who of the musical world at the time.
 
It is always a pleasure to trawl through the catalogues of libraries looking for interesting music, and Julian and I have spent many a happy hour in the British Library doing just that. It may be conjecture that many of the pieces we've chosen were performed at an Ottoboni conversazione, but they are certainly representative of the many shifting stylistic trends in the composition of cantatas at this time. Some of the works chosen are better known than others (both Handel cantatas have been recorded several times), but all are testament to the incredible musical goings-on of those composers who worked in or passed through Rome.

Why make a recording? Useful as it is in terms of projecting one's work and one's name a little further afield while making a musical contribution to posterity, the joy of making this disc was primarily in getting to spend time with the music and my fellow musicians. As an opera singer, the "band" is so often on the other side of the footlights; met once or twice at a Sitzprobe before disappearing into the pit for stage rehearsals. To be able to see and hear my friends clearly and for us to respond to each other without distance or distraction from wandering wigs, creaky costumes and cumbersome sets, was a rare treat. In short we were able to concentrate entirely on the music.

Exploring, rehearsing and performing this programme has been a pleasure from beginning to end. Listening to the disc now and hearing the excellent job our sound engineer, Adrian Hunter, has done in capturing the special acoustics of our recording venue, I'm instantly taken back to the surroundings of Lutyens's church of St Jude's, Hampstead. I can clearly see the muted half-light and feel the somewhat subdued temperature of those December afternoons and evenings, and remember the joy of recording some great music with some great friends.