"Countertenor Andrew
Radley is both swoonsome and
stately, depending on the material:
the somewhat melancholy progress of
Albinoni's Senza il core del mio
bene, for instance,
befitting a love plaint of such
wretched torment, while a more
playful involvement suits Handel's Vedendo
Amor, with its tortuous
tale of mythic enslavement by
Cupid."
- The
Independent, July 2011
"Andrew Radley's career has
developed fast since he left the
Royal Academy of Music in 2004.
There's a seductive tonal warmth
(sometimes too seductive) to his
voice. The countertenor does let
loose the cutting edge necessary to
project the dramatic angst of
Handel's Mi palpita il cor
('My heart throbs'). He also
interacts as a fully engaged chamber
musician with Sounds Baroque and its
impressive director and
harpsichordist Julian Perkins. It's
heartening to discover yet another
group of young musicians, fuelled by
intellectual curiosity and a
corporate commitment to excellence,
with enterprise and genuine flair.
Roll on Conversazioni II."
- Classic FM
Magazine,
September 2011
"... beautifully
illustrated..
"
"Handel's Vedendo
amor does have a clear
Italian-period provenance; Andrew
Radley demonstrates tender
story-telling skills during the soft
Camminando
lei
pian piano. The majority of
cantatas are accompanied elegantly
by only a basso continuo trio
but Caldara's Clori,
mia bella Clori also has
flute and oboe – an attractive
mixture of timbres, even if I
imagine that their parts may have
been envisaged for two violins. In
gentle arias Radley's singing has
affectionate intimacy and delicacy
(such as Caldara's lovely last aria,
Parto
mio
ben costante). I look
forward to Volume 2. "
-
The Gramophone, October
2011
"Andrew Radley's warm, nimble
countertenor invariably crafts a
shapely vocal line... With
delightfully expressive woodwind
'conversations' topping and tailing
the disc, classy continuo, and
deftly imaginative programming,
Sounds Baroque proves a stylish
ornament to the most discerning
Cardinal's Court. Roll on
Conversazioni Vol. 2!"
- BBC Music
Magazine, November
2011
"This
cleverly constructed programme is
based around the very grand
Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1667-1740),
whose Roman court was a centre for
music-making, poetry and all the
visual
arts. He was a practitioner as
well as a patron, writing
librettos for operas
and cantatas for composers such as
Alessandro Scarlatti. Ottoboni
collected
artworks and promising composers
with equal avarice and lived well
beyond his
very considerable means. His
tastes in other directions were
also far from
ascetic: the booklet notes for
this disc tell us that he was
reported to have
sired over 60 children and to have
decorated his bedroom with
paintings of his
mistresses posing as saints... The programme is
a refreshing mix of
chamber cantatas and solo keyboard
works. It is instructive to hear
harpsichord
pieces of Domenico Scarlatti and
Handel alongside each other in
light of their
mutual respect and even some
stylistic influence on each other.
I also find
Scarlatti sonatas easier to absorb
when heard in small doses rather
than en
bloc, as is usually the case.
Harpsichordist Julian Perkins is a
very congenial
performer who conveys an air of
effortless virtuosity to this
handfulof
well-chosen
works. He plays two rich but
contrasting instruments, which are
both modern copies of Italian
instruments: one from around 1600
and the other
after Grimaldic.1700. Handel's cantatas
owed a great deal to
Domenico's (hated) father
Alessandro, as do those of his
contemporaries
Albinoni and Caldara. So again, it
is clever programming to hear
similar works
on similar themes by each of these
composers. The Sounds Baroque
ensemble,
which Perkins directs, takes some
small liberties with the scoring
in one or
two works, to suit its make-up of
flute, oboe, cello, lute and
harpsichord.
These, admirably, are acknowledged
in the notes and are probably
consistent
with the liberty contemporary
performers would have allowed
themselves. All the
cantatas are fine examples of the
Arcadian style, in which the loves
and losses
of shepherds and shepherdesses are
depicted with graceful - sometimes
slightly
ironic - charm and ingratiating
melodies... Perkins again shows
great quality
here and he is very ably partnered
by lutenist Andrew Maginley and
cellist
Jonathan Byers (who soars in
Handel's continuo-onlyVedendo
Amor). The 'pastoral'
qualities of the Baroque
oboe and transverse flute are well
suited here and the various
composers often
give them delicious melodies and
harmonies. Oboist Joel Raymond
plays an
instrument he made himself
modelled on a Thomas Stanesby
instrument from around
1720. It has a wonderfully warm
tone and Raymond's sensitive
phrasing and gift
for apt ornamentation are very
impressive... The two woodwinds
blend
beautifully in Caldara's Clori,
mia bella Clori... Of course, a CD
consisting largely of
solo cantatas will stand or fall
by the quality of the soloist.
Happily,
English countertenor Andrew Radley
is a fine singer and vocal
dramatist. ...he
uses it [the voice] with great
intelligence and stylistic
awareness, including
some really delightful
embellishment... ...I was very
impressed with him and
indeed with the whole ensemble. I
look forward eagerly eagerly to
the promised
'Conversazioni II'.''
"This
is a very fine debut solo
recording from Perkins who has
been increasingly prominent as
a harpsichord player in recent
times. He displays great
panache in the opening bravura prelude
and keeps this high standard
throughout, helped by a very
secure technique and a real
sensibility for this music...
The booklet is beautifully
presented and the whole
project introducing Nares’
music is a very worthwhile
one."
- Early
Music Review, No. 125,
June 2008, pp. 39-40
“Julian Perkins deserves
nothing but praise for this
undertaking. There is much
complaining about the demise of the
classical recording industry. One of
the main reasons is the continuous
release of the same repertoire. With
enterprising musicians like Julian
Perkins one need not fear: it is
this kind of creativity which keeps
the recording industry alive. It
shows there is still a lot to be
(re)discovered, and it also shows
one shouldn't always believe those
musicologists who tell us that what
has been buried under the dust of
history should stay there because of
a lack of quality. In addition
Julian Perkins plays very well:
imaginative, with great rhythmic
precision and fine and well-chosen
ornaments. Perkins
has done us a great favour by
recording these fine Lessons by
James Nares, by playing them so
beautifully and by using these two
splendid harpsichords.”
- MusicWeb
International, July 2008
“Perkins uses a 1764
Kirckman harpsichord from the
Royal Academy of Music, and while
it can have a muscly tone, his
skilful command of texture (along
with Nares’s) ensures that it
never tires the ear, while his
sound stylistic sense makes the
best of the music’s robust
eloquence. A suite by Handel,
placed halfway through the
programme and played on the
lighter-toned “Royal” Shudi
harpsichord built for the Prince
of Wales in 1740, provides a
subtle gilding to this thoughtful
and well presented tribute.”
“That there is more
than enough quality and variety
of music here to make us
grateful for the chance to hear
it is beyond question… [Handel’s
suite, HWV 447] is an eminently
worthwhile inclusion on musical
grounds, and the performance is
excellent. …Julian Perkins fills
his performance with subtle
sources of interest that cannot
fail to keep the listener
sympathetically alert and
greatly contented – the
introduction, for example, of a
degree of inequality only as a
six-note motif progresses,
rather than applying it in a
simple blanket fashion; or the
integration of a decorative
gesture leading back into a
repeat. …The Sarabande is played
beautifully – and with a little
more extravagance: surely an
exemplary performance. …This
whole suite is an example of
very graceful and intelligent
playing: if Julian Perkins
should decide to make an
all-Handel CD, it could be
confidently recommended on the
strength of his playing here.
...there is much here to praise
…there is no question but that
this is a disc to recommend
warmly …the conclusion should be
obvious – it will be money well
spent.”
- British
Harpsichord Society,
August 2008
"Overshadowed
in
his day by the towering presence
of Handel, James Nares here
emerges as an exhilaratingly
inspired Baroque master in his own
right."
-
Classic FM, September
2008
"The recording also
includes a suite by Handel (HWV447),
neatly placed in the centre between
Lessons 1–4 and 5–8. Even though it
was written less than a decade
before Nares’s ‘setts’, Handel’s
suite sounds distinctly earlier in
style, partly because of its more
sophisticated textures such as are
typical of Handel’s keyboard music.
The inclusion of this work in the
programme was an excellent idea, for
it helps the listener to place
Nares’s lessons in context. The
‘setts’ stand up well against one of
the finest English harpsichord
compositions of the time, as well as
sounding more modern.
The
instruments used by Julian Perkins
are a single-manual Kirckman
harpsichord of 1764 and, even more
appropriately, the double-manual
royal harpsichord built by Burkat
Shudi for Frederick Prince of Wales
in 1740 (Handel’s suite had been
written for the prince’s sister the
previous year,
and may have been played on this
instrument). Perkins exploits the
latter’s various possibilities for
variation in registration with
considerable skill, and his
performances are thoroughly
convincing. He includes all the
repeats throughout the collection,
often adding tasteful ornamentation
in the repeat (and occasionally in
the first hearing). The speeds are
all well judged, with sparkling
allegros but sensitive and
expressive playing in movements such
as the G minor Largo of Lesson 3.
In the booklet the
trilingual text offers ample
information by Perkins about Nares
and his 1747 collection, along with
a lucid account of the instruments
by Christopher Nobbs and a brief
biography of Perkins. Finally, the
back cover appropriately shows
Philip Mercier’s famous painting
from 1733 of the Prince of Wales making music with
his sisters. This first complete
recording of these works would be a
worthy addition to any CD
collection."
James Nares (1715 – 1783)
is something quite other and this is
a release of highest importance from
several points of view. His Sets of
Harpsichord Lessons as given by
Julian Perkins yield nothing to the
harpsichord music of, say, Purcell
and Handel (who is represented by
one of his Suites); I dare not
mention composers of the period
beginning with B...
Avie has nurtured an
extraordinary project, aptly
compared by Perkins with the support
by subscription customary in the
eighteenth century. He lists three
columns of generous contributors,
plus many organisations and
notabilities who made the recording
possible... The music was recorded
in The Queen's Drawing Room at Kew
Palace, London and there is a large
array of beautiful illustrations and
artwork, with photos of the
contemporary Kirkman and Shudi
harpsichords played.
Forget downloading; this is a
delectable totality, having a 28
page booklet produced with such care
as to equal the pleasure and delight
brought by the music itself in the
idiomatic vivacity and sensibility
of these lovely performances. The
sponsors will feel their money was
well spent.
-
Musical
Pointers, March 2010
Click
here for reviews of Dialogues:
The Music of Stephen Dodgson, Volume
2
