# recordings on period instruments (baroque to romantic)



## NovAntiqua (7 mo ago)

We would like to open a thread, asking you to post every recording on period instruments you really like.
The philological way to play instruments is not a single truth, there are a lot of way to play on period instruments.
It's interesting to compare them!

Thanks in advance!


----------



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

My all time favorite period instrument recordings, and I have several, are these:


----------



## NovAntiqua (7 mo ago)

NoCoPilot said:


> My all time favorite period instrument recordings, and I have several, are these


wow! Hogwood! sooo beautiful

Here a quite new vision to play Bach on period instruments, with Anna Fusek and Ensemble Alraune.
Bach: Ricercar a 6 from Musikalisches Opfer BWV 1079


----------



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Not sure if this example fits in with your original question, but I really like it so I'll take the opportunity. I discovered the harmonium music of Sigfried Karg-Elert this year and can't get enough of it!


----------



## Xenophiliu (Jan 2, 2022)

A favorite of mine, even though I am not a huge fan of the music from Hubert Parry or Charles Villiers Stanford, nor period instruments. This one converted me to the possibilities of both.






*I Was Glad: Sacred Music of Stanford and Parry*
The King's Consort and Choir
Robert King

The actual recording is kind enough to include what era instrument each member of the orchestra is playing on (included below). Carolyn Sampson and Catrin Finch are standouts, and it is great to hear Stanford's perennial services with an actual orchestra and mixed adult singers.

I have two misgivings that I can generally turn a blind eye to when listening to this gorgeous recording:
1. The pipe organ is a Hereford Cathedral digital Hauptwerk sampling, although played live with the performers.
2. Robert King has made some inexcusable life choices.


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)




----------



## NovAntiqua (7 mo ago)

What about Dario Castello?


----------



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Wow, that violinist (Manca Filak?) has gorgeous tone & technique!


----------



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I coukd give lots of ones I like but the new Dudok Brahms SQ cycle on period instruments (on loan from the Dutch Musical Instrument Foundation), gut strings and using earlier bows (and technique) is lovely. Saw them earlier thos year and they discussed some of these topics briefly in between pieces. Very interesting.


----------



## NovAntiqua (7 mo ago)

Adam Falckenghagen with German lute


----------



## NovAntiqua (7 mo ago)

ichael Haydn, the "half unknown" brother of Haydn, wrote such funny music!
Here a movement from Divertimento MH 179 for oboe, viola and double bass!





The complete recording of the Divertimento on period instruments is available here.


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

NovAntiqua said:


> We would like to open a thread, asking you to post every recording on period instruments you really like.
> 
> Thanks in advance!


That would take me all day! For Baroque music I have mostly HIP recordings (often multiple but very different ones of the same work). For Classical and Romantic works I generally have at least one HIP recording but being HIP is not an important criterion in my choice.


----------



## NovAntiqua (7 mo ago)

Enthusiast said:


> That would take me all day! For Baroque music I have mostly HIP recordings (often multiple but very different ones of the same work).


Well, you can share a pair of them!


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

^ Let's go back some decades, then: Harnoncourt's recordings of the Brandenburgs (with the Vienna Consentus Musicus) and of Handel's Op. 6 concerti grossi. These have been favourites for me for a very long time. In more recent times Jordi Savall has given us an excellent Brandenburg set and his recording of Mozart's last three symphonies is also great. His Beethoven symphonies may also be the best HIP Beethoven set there has been (I don't much care for many of the other contenders for these works).


----------



## NovAntiqua (7 mo ago)

J. S. Bach: Sinfonia from Cantata BWV 18 (Weimar version)


----------



## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

My favorite recording of Beethoven's *Triple Concerto* uses period instruments with Paul Badura-Skoda at the keyboard. I also enjoy the period performances by Die Instrumentislen of Beethoven's *Septet *and an old album never released on CD called *Chamber Music By the Young Beethoven* by Frans Vester, Ad Mater, Hermann Baumann, Anner Bylsma and others. These recordings all came from the early days of period recordings though not as early as Harnoncourt's *Brandenburg Concertos*. For that recording some of his players had to borrow instruments from museums. Another wonderful period performance of the Brandenburg's from the same period is by Collegium Aureum.


----------



## NovAntiqua (7 mo ago)

*Pergolesi: La Conversione di San Guglielmo* (Orathorium)

Pergolesi | San Guglielmo

In 1731 Pergolesi composed this masterpiece on a wonderful libretto by Mancini full of theatrical characters. The “Conversione di San Guglielmo” is the last example of the Neapolitan tradition of the “dramma sacro”, a local form of sacred opera including funny roles in a sacred plot, enlarging the range from tragedy to comedy and moralism. The genius of Pergolesi creates a perfect score full of theatrical recitativos and expressive arias. The 3CDs are completed by an exhaustive essay by the musicologist Paolo V. Montanari, an interpretation guide by Mario Sollazzo and the critical edition of the libretto, both in Italian and English.

San Guglielmo | Monica Piccinini
Angelo | Caterina Di Tonno 
Demonio | Mauro Borgioni
San Bernardo | Carla Nahadi Bebelegoto
Arsenio | Federica Carnevale
Cuosemo | Mario Sollazzo
Alberto | Arianna Manganello
Conductor | Mario Sollazzo | Ensemble Alraune


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Once we get to 19th century composers such as Brahms, Wagner, Dvorak, Bruckner and others, the law of diminishing returns applies . There isn't nearly as much difference between the instruments of that time as say with ones used in the baroque period . 
HIP performances from the 19th century seem to me throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater . Musicians who have attempted. HIP performances from the 19th century seem to me to be applying anachronistic. performance practices from. before the 19th century . They are so determined to. be different from. the performances of Brahms et al we have been accustomed to and are arrogantly claiming to be performing the music as " the composers wanted ". We don't know this at all , and we don't even know this from HIP performances of baroque and classical works . 
I would say Roger Norrington is the worst offender here . His banishing of all string vibrato from 19th and even early 20th century works makes for positively grotesque sounding performances . 
HIP Mahler with zero string vibrato ? Give me a break ! In 1960, the Mahler centennial year , an elderly retired violinist who had played under Mahler in the New York Philharmonic was interviewed , and he said this : When Mahler was rehearsing his music with the early 20th century New York Philharmonic , he was always asking for MORE vibrato from the strings ! Oh the irony !


----------



## NovAntiqua (7 mo ago)

superhorn said:


> HIP performances from the 19th century seem to me throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater


Let's try this! Beethoven's cello sonatas on HIP (from CD Beethoven: Cello Sonatas)


----------



## Yabetz (Sep 6, 2021)

NoCoPilot said:


> My all time favorite period instrument recordings, and I have several, are these:


Is there some musicological reason that HIP playing is always so fast? It's as if tempi in the Baroque era were two: fast and faster.


----------



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Yabetz said:


> Is there some musicological reason that HIP playing is always so fast? It's as if tempi in the Baroque era were two: fast and faster.


Probably. Period instruments generally lack any semblance of sustain.


----------



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

I've recently discovered Andrew Lawrence-King, who specializes in baroque harps. This video about the "triple harp" is particularly fascinating.


----------



## NovAntiqua (7 mo ago)

Yabetz said:


> Is there some musicological reason that HIP playing is always so fast? It's as if tempi in the Baroque era were two: fast and faster.


Ah ah ah! Very funny! It is often true!

But... here a slow "Adagio Sostenuto" by Beethoven on HIP


----------

