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“Expresso “(28/4/10) Lisbon 

In one of the busiest shows of Sunday afternoon (in the Grand Auditorium), the Scottish tenor James Gilchrist sang the praises of universal harmony in a dramatic interpretation full of nobility in the phrasing - a model of expressiveness - under the direction of British conductor Matthew Halls.

It was more a celebration of feasts dedicated to the jubilant music of Handel that Retrospect Ensemble offered in Lisbon with the 'Ode to St. Cecilia's Day', a work created on November 22, 1739, the day of the patron saint of musicians. Modest-sized in duration, this work enjoyed great popularity with the audience, with musical inspiration flowing continuously from a group that boasts a rare cohesion of orchestra and choir. The British team of musicians played an exceptional role in the fourth edition of the Dias Da Música Festival.

On Friday and Saturday they had dazzled with a concert featuring excerpts from Handel’s 'Messiah' as well as a performance of Handel’s oratorio “L' Allegro, il Penseroso e il Moderato “ (the inaugural concert of the Festival), revelling in the multiple images conjured up by the precious baroque language of the passions. Halls lovingly follows the slightest inflection of his singers and his authoritative presence generates an undeniable ‘rhythm’ from the orchestra.
It is in the realms of admirable how the proud musicians of the ‘Land of Albion’ continue to heap such honour upon the scores of Handel, the 'Divine Saxon'…

 

Gramophone Magazine

EDITOR'S CHOICE

David Vickers

 

The newly founded Retrospect Ensemble has been created by members and trustees of the King's Consort who wish to continue under the artistic direction of Matthew Halls (the King's Consort will continue separately under Robert King). Retrospect intends to apply historically informed principles and inquisitive musicianship to a wide variety of repertoire, from large-scale works to intimate trio sonatas. It is in the latter sphere that the rebranded group makes its debut on disc, with the first of a two-disc series exploring Purcell's sonatas in four parts.

Although not among Purcell's most familiar works, there have been some fine recordings of these sonatas by London Baroque and the Purcell Quartet. Retrospect's performances comfortably rank alongside such stylish company. Matthew Truscott and Sophie Gent take turns as first violinist in five of the sonatas each, and the quality of conversational playing between them is deeply eloquent. Halls and Jonathan Manson contribute polished and heartfelt continuo-playing. Slow music such as the central Grave movement in Sonata X is ideally melancholic, and there is ripe emotional tension in the ascending chromaticism of the short Adagio that concludes Sonata V. The quicker music is played with impeccable technique and taste (such as the playful yet unforced Canzona Allegro in Sonata IX). Moreover, Linn producer Philip Hobbs has captured all of these musical virtues in a beautiful audiophile recording. It seems as if record labels are taking less interest in Purcell than in this year's other big anniversary composers, but this goes some way towards making up for it.

 

 

The Sunday Times - Purcell Sonatas / Retrospect Trio 

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Classical CD of the Week

Retrospect is a newly formed period-instrument ensemble comprising former members of the King’s Consort under their erstwhile acting director, Matthew Halls. With Sophie Gent and Matthew Truscott (alternating as first violin in five sonatas each) and the bass violist Jonathan Manson, Halls shows his prowess, on both harpsichord and organ, as a chamber musician. Most of Purcell’s 10 Sonatas are latish works, posthumously published by his widow in 1697, but some may even predate a collection he released in 1683. Whatever their date, they are magnificent works, offering a fusion of Italian sonata, French suite and English viol consort music styles. Only No 1 in B minor emulates the slow-fast-slow-fast-slow movement structure of the typical Italian sonata da chiesa, while No 6 is an extended Adagio in G minor. Only the “Golden Sonata”, No 9 in F major, is widely known, but the entire set counts as one of the pinnacles of baroque chamber music — adagios and largos are tinged with a uniquely Purcellian melancholy, while the many vivace numbers show the composer revelling in the spirit of baroque dance. The playing is immaculate — expressive and alert to all the nuance and variety of this superb music. An absolute winner for the Purcell year.

Hugh Canning
 

BBC Music Magazine - Purcell Sonatas / Retrospect Trio

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Recording * * * * *
 

There’s something decidedly appropriate about Retrospect Trio choosing Purcell for its debut recording. During the build-up to Purcell’s tercentenary celebrations in 1997, the group’s previous incarnation, The King’s Consort, displayed tireless dedication to his works, expanding the catalogue. Now reinvented as Retrospect Ensemble (with Matthew Halls still artistic director), its chamber offshoot rides to the rescue again with repertoire ripe for revisiting. The fine accounts by the Purcell Quartet and London Baroque already date back nearly 20 years.

Like the companion Sonatas for Three Parts, Purcell nails his four-part colours to an ‘imitation of the most fam’d Italian masters’ – ‘music’s best master’ he insisted while admitting that a little ‘French air was good for gayety and fashion’, For all the advertising claims though, the music grafts continental inclinations onto the sturdy roostock of the English Fantazia to produce music rich in contrapuntal argument, ear-catching harmonies, melodic felicities and suave fluidity. Retrospect captures it all with an inexhaustible spirit of delight in the Purcellian moment – from the harmonic adventures which bring Sonata No. 5 to a psychedelic close, to the vibrant thrusting joie de vivre of the ‘Golden Sonata’. Violinists Sophie Gent and Matthew Truscott take it in turns to occupy the lead violin chair; a potent demonstration of the generous reciprocity which informs the playing throughout. Considered yet never corseted, Retrospect’s Purcell makes a release of the three-part sonatas a mouthwatering matter of urgency.

Paul Riley 
 

17 December 2009

International Record Review
 

Andrew O’Connor

 

Retrospect Ensemble is a new period-instrument group formed by the organist and harpsichordist Matthew Halls. According to its biography, Retrospect can configure itself all the way up to a full classical orchestra, but this outing sees it in small chamber mode, consisting of only two violins, a viola da gamba and Halls on harpsichord and organ. The harpsichord is a copy of the late seventeenth-century Grimaldi instrument in the Nürnberg Museum. Grimaldi instruments are famous for their elaborate decoration and it was interesting to see in the booklet photograph that even in the modern copy (by Malcolm Greenhalgh) the white keys are decorated with beautiful black inlays.

One of the two violinists is the excellent Sophie Gent (whom I had long imagined to be French or French-Canadian, but turns out to be my countrywoman, born and initially educated in Perth, Western Australia). Gent is very much of the ‘chin off' school of Baroque violin playing founded by Sigiswald Kuijken. On this recording, she plays a Januarius Gagliano violin from 1732. The second violinist, Matthew Truscott, was unfamiliar to me but has played with some of the leading English and European Baroque orchestras and is now one of the leaders of the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment. The viola da gamba is a 1712 Barak Norman lent for this recording by a most worthwhile charity: the Benslow Musical Instrument Load Scheme. It is played by Jonathan Manson, one of the founder members of the gamba consort Phantasm, who produced a revelatory Avie recording of the Bach Viola da gamba Sonatas with Trevor Pinnock a few years ago.

For their first recording, Retrospect's choice of Purcell's Ten Sonatas in Four Parts is inspired. They are works of the highest invention but are still too little known even to lovers of Baroque chamber music. Purcell self-consciously wrote the works in the Italian style, but the harmonic twists and ingenious counterpoint (including even triple inverted counterpoint in Sonata No. 9, the so-called ‘Golden Sonata') were all his own. In fact, as Halls points out in the booklet essay, the Italian models Purcell copied were not, in fact, the latest ones (for example by Legrenzi and Corelli) but those of the slightly earlier generation of Vitali and Colista. This is shown by the fact that they are true sonatas à tre, with the gamba part fully developed (the keyboard is the fourth part), not the more fashionable sonatas à due, where the gamba (or cello) is simply part of the continuo accompaniment to the two virtuoso treble instruments, usually violins. The denser texture suited Purcell well and every now and then shades of his magnificent Fantazias can be heard, particularly when Halls plays the organ rather than the harpsichord.

Retrospect play these richly rewarding works with precision, verve and perfect sensibility, aided by a startlingly crisp recorded sound from Linn. For many listeners, the highlight will be their gravely beautiful rendering of the chaconne-based Sonata No. 6, but there are delights and passages of utter sublimity throughout; for example, Retrospect's hushed yet sinewy performance of the opening Grave of Sonata No. 3.

Highly recommended.

"SA-CD.net"

John Broggio

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This is the first of a two volume account of Purcell's sonata's in Four Parts (the second volume is to be recorded in May 2010). On the evidence presented here, we are in for a treat in the not too distant future. It is also the Retrospect Trio's recorded debut on disc and also for Linn Records.

This volume contains the second set of sonatas published after Purcell's death and bare witness to the degree of experimentation that he undertook in adopting and adapting the various Italian composers of the day who were becoming increasingly influential in England at the time. Because of this, we find many Canzona's as well as multiple movement works. The one exception to this rule is the 6th sonata in G minor, an extended (for the time) Adagio of 7 minutes in duration. In the main, the works are in the minor keys. On this disc, they are presented in numerical order which prevents a more dramatic distribution of the different tone colours - we can obviously change this with the aid of a remote control however.

The two violinists Sophie Gent and Matthew Truscott divide the honours equally as to who takes the first and second violin parts in these works. They are both highly accomplished players and it would be difficult to pick a favourite from either one given how quicksilver their runs are and how singing they render a cantilena. These characteristics and more help to give thrilling accounts of these works with their rich polyphony and interplay of the two swirling violin lines. Ably supporting this duo are the violist Jonathan Manson and the Ensemble's Music Director, Matthew Halls (on organ or harpsichord) who provide a rich, deep but subtle accompaniment that never weighs the musical progress down.

The recording captured in East Woodhay, Berkshire is also very fine and compliments the playing in every way - resonant without ever tipping into a boomy excess. The seperation and positioning of each participant is tangible and adds greatly to the enjoyment.

Highly recommended on every account.

 

The Observer - Purcell Sonatas / Retrospect Trio

This first release is superb, with distinctive tuning and very sharp edges bringing excitement to some of the finest sonatas of the era. The influences on Purcell’s style from Europe are always evident, but there’s something utterly English about the result. The interplay of violinists Sophie Gent and Matthew Truscott captures Purcell’s intricacy, and the shorter movements pass as if in a single breath.

Nicholas Kenyon
 

Andrew McGregor on BBC Radio 3 CD Review:

"Delightfully expressive and sensitively ornamented playing and a rewarding recording as well. One of the best new contributions to Purcell's discography I've heard so far in this 350th anniversary year."

Audiophile Audition
 

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Laurence Vittes
 

The first release is a Purcell program celebrating the 350th anniversary of the composer's birth. "Ten Sonatas in Four Parts" is performed by Retrospect Trio, a group formed under the umbrella of the larger Retrospect brand (marketing is everything these days).

The CD, produced by Philip Hobbs, is being marketed using Linn's high resolution download technology for which the company is world-renowned. The intention is to produce two or three releases each year. Later this year, in fact, the group will undertake the large-scale recording of a major choral-orchestral work.

At first, the sound in the Purcell is so good in conventional stereo that you might miss the added value brought by the various benefits of SACD, multichannel Stereo, DSD and HDCD. You can hear the startling difference on the "Friday the Thirteenth" chromatic run just after the beginning of track 26. It will blow your ears and mind wide open!

In stereo, the sound, recorded in St. Martin's Church (built in 1823, i.e. late Georgian) in East Woodhay in Hampshire is detailed, gorgeous and, when required, surprisingly dramatic. On an SACD player, the fabric of Purcell's sound takes on a plastic, tactile, spatial quality in which phrasing nuances and dynamic gradations by one player are immediately and organically responded to by the other three. Wonderful low bass, too, a little growly and a little velvety, which is not always something you can say about early music recordings. At every step of the way, of course, Linn's technology serves Purcell's art--to the extent to which it is possible to separate the two.

The music is Purcell at his richest and most confident, poised on the brink of a future which was a tragically cut short at 33, and the four players of the Retrospect Trio (don't ask why, it's a Baroque thing) throw themselves into the music with enthusiastic expert glee that makes listening a delicious, almost indecent pleasure. In my days as a cellist a century ago, I occasionally wandered in and amongst the company of early musicians, many of them hippies and a pretty wild bunch. I found that playing Purcell was disorienting, lacking the safe but narrow interpretive conventions of music written after 1750 that I had become accustomed to. A century later, it seems that Purcell's has become an essential musical staple.

The new Retrospect Ensemble launched May 1 with a performance of Handel's "Jephtha" at the 2009 Norfolk and Norwich Festival. Led by Matthew Halls (former Artistic Director of The King's Consort), Retrospect intends to "explore the repertoire of four centuries and embracing the practices, styles and aesthetics of former ages with renewed vigor and a fresh approach." Sounds very bold and savvy, as does its statement, "The choice of name ensures that the group will not be identified with one particular area of music or historical period, an approach typical of the ensemble's inquisitive and energetic musicians." They must have a marketing type at work.

Retrospect's first London season will include Handel's "Apollo e Dafne," Bach cantatas, orchestral music by Mozart and Haydn and a performance of Purcell's "Fairy Queen." Retrospect will soon also tour Korea, Israel, Portugal and Switzerland. What a life! And imagine that prevailing opinion used to be: "Mothers, don't let your children grow up to be bass violists." 
 

BBC Online Review

It seems almost impossible now to imagine a time when the word “sonata” was a racy, new-fangled Italian invention, or when the idea of a violin playing solo rather than within an instrumental consort was close to indecent. Well, welcome to the London of Henry Purcell.

This recording marks the debut of the Retrospect Trio, an offshoot of the Retrospect Ensemble, the early music group known until recently as the Kings Consort. The aim of the trio – violinists Sophie Gent and Matthew Truscott, bass violist Jonathan Manson and harpsichordist Matthew Halls – is to explore the rich trio sonata repertoire of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The CD also marks the 350th anniversary of Purcell’s birth, and a fitting tribute it is. These sonatas provide a wonderfully performed, fascinating snapshot of late 17th century English cultural life, and how Purcell operated within it.

London musical life in the 1680s had a whiff of controversy around it. While at court, French-style instrumental ensembles reigned supreme, elsewhere the traditional English consort style was in vogue. Meanwhile, various Italian violinists were also arriving in London, introducing the idea of the solo virtuoso violinist.

Opinion was polarised; the composer Thomas Mace scathingly talked of “scoulding violins”, but others embraced the idea. Purcell, therefore, was stuck in the middle of a musical diplomatic conundrum; did he want to be a racy Italian, a courtly Frenchman, or a traditional Englishman? His decision was to plump for all three; the sonatas on this disc, published in 1697, two years after his death, show how he drew from all their sensibilities and styles whilst staying true to his own predilection for almost-shocking dissonance, intricate contrapuntal textures, and melodic invention.

Retrospect’s debut performance combines this French grace, Italian vivacity, and British grit. Technically, the faster virtuosic sections are nimbly and neatly executed, and musically their beautiful shaping of the slower, chordal passages has yielded maximum emotional punch. With a sound this satisfying and addictive, they’ve set the bar very high for future recordings. Bravo.

Charlotte Gardner
 

ClassicsToday.com

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David Vernier

Here is a very pleasant 70-plus minutes of listening, not only for Purcell fans but for anyone who enjoys the well-matched timbres, agreeable ambience, and eminently stylish playing of real baroque violins, bass viol, and harpsichord (or organ) performed in an ideally, intimately resonant setting. These 10 sonatas, published posthumously in 1697, are the second set of a total of 22 such works (the first 12 appeared in 1683), and they contain all of the hallmarks of Purcell's writing that are so immediately ingratiating to the ear and appealing to the emotions. These include tension-building dissonances and chromatic ascending/descending harmonies (the final Adagio of Sonata V; the opening of Sonata VIII); lovely, play-them-again heart-rending melodies (opening movement of Sonata II); lively rhythms (Canzona of Sonata VII); and the always-clever counterpoint combined with catchy tunes.

The performers here--Sophie Gent and Matthew Truscott (violin), Jonathan Manson (bass viol), Matthew Halls (harpsichord & organ)--are first-rate, expertly articulating both the ebullient counterpoint and weightier slow-movement harmonies with scintillating clarity and stylish regard for sometimes abrupt shifts of mood and color from movement to movement--the transitions through the five short movements of the F major Sonata IX are a good example. Needless to say, the sound, recorded in a Berkshire, UK church, is absolutely spot-on. Outstanding! 
 

 

The Times

'Standing room only at Wigmore Hall...Matthew Halls was directing from the harpsichord. His skill lies in drawing out the inner energies of each of his players. His music-making is strongly and clearly sculpted, but never frenetic; busy yet always ballasted. For Handel's Concerto Grosso in F from the great Op. 6 he made us aware of its operatic self-borrowings, teasing out the inner parts of the ensemble and meticulously grading the dynamics through Handel's long, ever-recharging melodies.'

The Telegraph

'Matthew Halls directs his expert orchestra and youthful sounding chorus with a sure feeling for rhythm and tempo, allowing plenty of space in the reflective numbers.'

Evening Standard

'a spellbinding concert...'

The Observer

'After three glorious Bach motets, in which each line was so carefully delineated by their director, Matthew Halls, the choir changed gear, first into works by Brahms and then into the radiant harmonic world of Mendelssohn. His meltingly lovely Kyrie and joyous Gloria gave way to his sombre yet ultimately triumphant setting of Psalm 22 ("My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"). This choir sings as one, organic whole with a delectably rich, deep texture that you can almost bite. A delicious experience.'

Financial Times

'French baroque music is sometimes characterised as being all florid mannerisms and surface decoration. Composers are seen as basking in the reflected glory of the Sun King and his successor with compositions that ooze idealism and sycophancy.

'But there’s much more to it than that – and this imaginative programme alerted listeners to a whiff of anarchy amid the courtly refinement. Key composers from the Versailles milieu were represented with dance numbers and suites isolated from larger works and selected pieces were alive with folkish percussion, daring rhythms and moments of jarring dissonance.

'Perhaps the most striking example of the latter comes from Jean-Féry Rebel’s Les Élémens, his highly descriptive account of the creation of the universe, which begins with an alarming chord composed of every note in the D minor scale, illustrating “Le Cahos” of the earth’s beginning...but once cosmic order was established the elemental airs, in particular the delicate “Le Feu” chaconne, were delivered with style.

'Michel Richard Delalande’s Deuxième Fantaisie offered a welcome reprieve. Written as background entertainment for ceremonial meals, this moody orchestration suited the intimate playing of the group. More Rebel followed in the form of Les Caractères de la Danse, an almost encyclopaedic guide to 18th-century dances, from the “Courante” to the “Sonate”, that was produced for public consumption. Some of these movements last only a matter of seconds before segueing seamlessly into the next, and they brimmed with an almost rustic joie de vivre.

'The second half presented a clash of the operatic titans, with excerpts from Lully’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Cadmus et Hermione pitched against the suite from Rameau’s act de ballet Pigmalion. Rameau had the edge. Inspired by the tale from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Pigmalion starts almost prosaically before erupting into staccato patterns that imitate the eponymous sculptor as he carves his fantasy Galatea. The overture and suite were played with great verve and its mischievous originality epitomised the programme as a whole.'

Royal Gazette, Bermuda

'A superb evening of music...harpsichordist Matthew Halls, whose extraordinary ability as a director of this ensemble and as an accompanist makes him the foundation of the group.'

Eastern Daily Press

'The festival's contribution to the Handel commemoration is a magnificent interpretation by Matthew Halls's Retrospect Ensemble of Jephtha. This was the composer's last major work, but, though he was ill and his sight was failing, he still had creative energy.

'Called to defend Israel, Jephtha swears that, if he returns victorious, he will sacrifice the first creature he meets. He is distraught when it is his only daughter who rushes forward to greet him. From this Old Testament story Handel made an oratorio full of human interest, with grand choruses linking the action with divine providence.

'The tenor, James Gilchrist, takes the role of the hero, a mighty warrior who is also a father. Open Thy Marble Jaws, O Tomb, is a frightening expression of his agony. In a powerful development, it is followed by the serene acceptance of the lovely Waft Her Angels Through the Sky.

'In contrast to the manliness of Jephtha, Katherine Manley brings out the fresh girlishness of his daughter, Iphis.

'Tune Thy Soft Melodious Lute gives her a wonderful chance to display her character. The part of Hamor, her betrothed, is given to the nimble Iestyn Davies, a counter-tenor as in the original productions.

'The bass, Peter Harvey, is in turn grave and triumphant, for, with some tweaking of Scripture, a happy ending is contrived to satisfy 18th century preferences. The change gives the expert chorus yet more opportunities to show its strength and versatility.'

Norwich Evening News:

'A large and appreciative audience was treated to an excellent performance of Handel's Jephtha, which was directed with tight precision by the group's former associate director, Matthew Halls, while paying tribute to this well-loved composer on the 250th anniversary of his death.

Following a vibrant overture played heavenly by an orchestra on top form Peter Harvey (bass) as Zebul - brother of Jephtha, sung with great attention to detail by tenor James Gilchrist - took centre stage and filled the hall with a rather nice rounded voice that was a joy to listen to. His diction was perfect but that could be said of all the soloists and, indeed, to the fine chorus of 18 as well.

The mezzo-soprano Frances Bourne (Storge) and the soprano Katherine Manley (Iphis) - Jephtha's wife and daughter respectively - were simply fantastic in their parts adding bags of colour and ornamentation to Handel's great score!

And if that wasn't enough the amazing counter-tenor Iestyn Davies as Hamor (in love with Iphis) was vocally powerful throughout and in their duet at the end of Act I, scene III, you felt privileged to be in the audience.

Handel knew how to knock out a good tune and in Jephtha he did more than that.

Here's to a good festival!'

Links to recent press articles:

Daily Telegraph: "Retrospect Ensemble: The born-again Consort"

BBC Website