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Reviewer:
Fabrice Fitch
Francesc Valls
(c1671-1747) was an adoptive Catalan who spent most of his career as the
chapel-master of Barcelona Cathedral. Today he is best known for theoretical
works and his Missa Scala Aretina (1702), one of the last pieces to make overt
reference to Guido of Arezzo’s famous hexachord. An exceptionally informative
booklet details the controversy surrounding it, ostensibly a matter of music
theory but actually one of political allegiances. It’s a beguiling mixture of
old and new, full of incidence, with choir, soloists and parts for strings and
trumpet (the latter perhaps added for a subsequent performances a few years
later). It would be worth hearing on its own but one’s appreciation is enhanced
by Valls’s other works on the disc, which are extremely varied. There’s a
wonderful concertato Lauda Jerusalem with daredevil clarino parts; a couple of
chromatic pieces, entertaining if a touch overdone; a pair of penitential motets
and an Ave Maria, all genuinely affecting; and a brace of villancicos, one of
which prefigures the Mass’s subject in its opening bars and is programmed just
before it.
The surface of the music is
immediately engaging but it grows in interest with repeated listening. The
performances are on a level with the programming and the music (and,
incidentally, the handsome presentation): as in their fine Piazza Navona disc a
few years back, the sense of occasion is palpable. La Grande Chapelle’s
championing of Iberian polyphony has been winning them many admirers, and
they’ve hit another bull’s-eye here.
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