Charles Avison - Violin Concertos opus 3 and 4 - The Avison Ensemble

 

Release Date: February 21, 2006 Label: Naxos Number of discs: 2 Composer: Charles Avison Performer: Avison Ensemble cd info/ buy

Review:

Affection, respect and, thankfully, no eccentricities for a Baroque Englishman. Opinions differ as to whether the Newcastle composer Charles Avison really was (as the booklet ­notes for this disc quote from New Grove) "the most important English concerto composer of the 18th century". What about the claims of John Stanley? Do we count Handel as English? Or for that matter Geminiani, who may well have been Avison's teacher? It does not really matter, of course. Avison was certainly an important and prolific concerto composer, and it has long been a shame that he is known mainly for his intriguing orchestral arrangements of Scarlatti sonatas, which, though irresistible in their way, are hardly representative of his art as a whole. That art was a solidly conservative one in the Corellian concerto grosso tradition. The Avison Ensemble have apparently picked his most adventurous works for this offering, but apart from some unusual movement layouts in Op 4, it seems unlikely that the casual listener will feel that there is anything hugely experimental going on. That is not to say that they are without interest or charm, however, and it is evident enough what the qualities are that kept at least one of these concertos in the repertoire until the early years of the 19th century, namely warm tunefulness, smooth orchestral string textures and a forward energy that never threatens decorum. These performances, sweetly recorded in a Newcastle church, present them with affection, respect and a refreshing absence of turbo-Baroque eccentricities designed to grab the attention. Music as settled and self-assured as this can speak perfectly well for itself.--Lindsay Kemp

 

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Handel - Concerti Grossi Opus 6 - Avison Ensemble 3 cd

Handel's unrivaled masterpieces of the concerto grosso form and style--his Twelve Grand Concertos, in seven parts, for four violins, a tenor, a violoncello, with a thorough-bass for the harpsichord--here receive their finest recording to date, with performances that leave all others--both period- and modern-instrument versions--in their wake. For obvious reasons these 12 concertos have remained popular since their publication in 1740: the irresistibly congenial tunes and engaging rhythms, the free-spirited fugues, endearing Largos and Adagios, and overall vivacious writing for all instruments elicits correspondingly high-spirited responses from anyone within earshot of these unrelentingly entertaining works.

 

Pavlo Beznosiuk and his Avison Ensemble have left not a single Handelian note unaccounted for nor a delightful phrase unturned, and the ensemble playing is simply electrifying, crackling and sparking with the kind of head-on accents and lilting rhythmic lift that this music requires but rarely enjoys. You don't have to already know this music to appreciate (my favorite) Concerto No. 4 in A minor HWV 322, with its scintillating allegros, or the thrillingly accented opening dialog of Concerto No. 5 HWV 323, or the many beautifully drawn slow-movement melodies and catchy, clever dance movements.

 

We can cite individual players for their impressive effort, but when virtually everyone is performing at such a high level it doesn't seem appropriate--this is definitely a triumph of ensemble performance, where everyone is a master of the medium and the material, all of which is beautifully realized by the stunningly realistic, resoundingly vibrant sound engineering. By now you've got the picture: Essential!—David Vernier

 

CD INFO

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Avison - Concerti Grossi op9&10 - The Avison Ensemble

Avison - Concerti Grossi op9&10 - The Avison Ensemble
Concerto | Eac, flac, cue | log, cover | 2 CD, 791 MB
September 19, 2008 | Divine Art | RapidShare

The Concerto grosso has a long and respectable reputation as a musical genre and Simon D. I. Fleming's booklet note very properly describes the nature of the music, pointing out the durability of this type of composition. I found his reminder that Concerti grossi were still being published as late as the nineteenth-century to be somewhat intriguing.

I suppose the first name to spring to mind when the term Concerto grosso is used would be Handel, but although Charles Avison (1709-1770) was barely a generation younger, there is little resemblance to the style of the great Anglo-German master – indeed even the earliest of the works in this set (the first half dozen of Opus 9) were not composed until six or seven years after Handel's death.

At this time music was changing, Haydn was writing his early symphonies and music was flourishing in European courts. At Mannheim for example the so-called 'classical' style flourished relatively early but, by contrast, Avison is sometimes said (both in Fleming’s notes and by other commentators) to have been influenced by Corelli – born half a century earlier. On first hearing these works I caught elements of Geminiani – a pupil of Corelli – and it has been surmised that Avison could also have been Geminiani's pupil.

None of this seems to have lead to any great advancement of style; it seems that the Baroque format sufficed for Avison. True the melodies are less Baroque than those of Handel but they do not seem to advance much further than those of, say, Avison's exact contemporary John Stanley (who was born in 1712). Another reason could be that Avison lived and died in Newcastle and perhaps because of the increasing importance of that (then) town he felt no great need to involve himself in the lively musical life of London where new musical styles were beginning to evolve.

Within the generous ration of concerti provided in these two sets of opus numbers it is difficult to detect any great difference in style between the earlier and the later compositions. Basically the normal slow-fast-slow-fast pattern of the Concerto grosso is held-to although there are three exceptions: the F major work from Opus 9 has a central Fugue and a final Aria; the Fourth of the Opus 10 set has five movements – the final rapid 'Gavot' sounding rather like a classical Allegro of a later period – in fact this movement is unlike any other in the whole set; and the following work has just three movements.

In terms of performance, the Avison Ensemble is superbly unified. Not surprisingly, several other of its recordings are mentioned in Divine Art's very well presented annotation. Pavlo Beznosiuk leads with confidence – he is not afraid to add occasional decorations but these are not intrusive and never interrupt the melodic line. In all, these are exceptionally stylish 'period' performances by musicians in-tune with Avison's philosophy and are ideal ambassadors for the promotion of this neglected composer. Divine Art must be commended for promoting rarely heard 18th-century composers, an admirable activity but it can involve commercial risk.

The nature of the recording influences the impression given by the music itself. The acoustic of the venue is very suitable, the string quality has attractive warmth and there is no undue highlighting of the leader. The eleven players sound full-bodied but after a while I became concerned about the narrow dynamic range, which seems to stay entirely between mezzo piano and mezzo forte; add to this the harpsichord being buried deeply within the texture and an element of sameness begins to develop. Harpsichord continuo should enrich bass harmonies but because the tone of this instrument is lacking in treble, apart from a very occasional improvisatory link, the ear picks up no more than a slight colouring of the main notes of the bass line.

I realise that nowadays engineers tend to play down the presence of the harpsichord (I look back nostalgically to the sparkling quality achieved by the Nonesuch engineers in the 1960s) and perhaps I am being ungrateful in view of the comfortable and beautiful recorded quality provided here, but I fear that in the context of Avison's attractive but perhaps modest talent, it puts the works in danger of seeming too similar to one another.--Antony Hodgson

Cd Content

Disc: 1
1. op. 9 no. 1 in G major
2. op. 9 no. 2 in D major
3. op. 9 no. 3 in A major
4. op. 9 no. 4 in G minor
5. op. 9 no. 5 in C major
6. op. 9 no. 6 in E minor
7. op. 9 no. 7 in E flat major
8. op. 9 no. 8 in B flat major
9. op. 9 no. 9 in C minor

Disc: 2
1. op. 9 no. 10 in F major
2. op. 9 no. 11 in A major
3. op. 9 no. 12 in D major
4. op. 10 no. 1 in D minor
5. op. 10 no. 2 in F major
6. op. 10 no. 3 in C minor
7. op. 10 no. 4 in C major
8. op. 10 no. 5 in E flat major
9. op. 10 no. 6 in D minor


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