COMPOSERS: Bassano,Cavalli,Cima,Farina,Mussi,Picchi,Piccinini,Pollarolo,Stradella,Strozzi & Terzi
LABELS: Signum
ALBUM TITLE: Harmonia Caelestis - Caprice & Conceit in Seicento Italy
WORKS: find works
PERFORMER: Charivari Agreable
CATALOGUE NO: SIGCD 049
Don’t be put off – behind the title
from a musicology Festschrift and
mail-order heritage catalogue cover
lurks an outstanding disc. It’s not
easy to concoct a 60-minute nonstop
listen from 17th-century Italian
chamber music – but I shouldn’t have
been surprised that Charivari Agréable
makes it such a breeze: ever since
signing to Signum some years back it
has been planning and playing some
peerless programmes.
The sub-subtitle, ‘A Ray of
Sunshine Piercing the Shadows’,
was contemporary French polymath
Mersenne’s verdict on Charivari’s
guest star, the cornett. As a diehard
fellow-fancier, I’ve rarely heard
mellifluous swing to match cornettist
Jamie Savan’s. In the accompanying
booklet keyboard player Kah-Ming
Ng makes a persuasive case for the
novel combos. Ng’s superbly strutting
style in a 1620s Polaccha by Picchi had
me dreaming of Hessian boots and a
pelisse. And his ingenious medleys on
popular grounds of the period give a
new slant to ‘fusion’ – though this is
no short-order snack but a feast, with
substantial servings from Stradella and
Cavalli proving they weren’t solely
vocal geniuses. Sound is a little distant
and coloured but this is a recital to
shaft any shadow. Nick Morgan