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GRAMOPHONE (07/2014)
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Archiv
4792050
Code-barres / Barcode : 0028947920502 (ID424)
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Reviewer: David Vickers
In 1737 Farinelli travelled to Madrid. Once in the Spanish capital of the
melancholic Bourbon King Philip V, he was invited to quit his contract in London
and instead take up permanent residence at the Spanish court (one might quip he
left Chelsea for Real Madrid). The celebrated castrato often sang privately for
Philip V, and legend has it that Porpora’s ‘Alto Giove’ was one of the monarch’s
favourites; Bejun Mehta’s laboured performance tends to place emphasis on
episodic moments at the expense of prolonged melodic lines. Farinelli continued
serving the next king, Ferdinand VI, until retiring in 1760.
The much-missed
Archiv label is relaunched with this selection of mostly orchestral music
allegedly associated with Farinelli’s musical direction of lavish entertainments
and operas at Aranjuez and Buen Retiro. Scratch the surface of the concept and
it disentangles, not least for the inclusion of irrelevant overtures by Jommelli
and Traetta (both of them enjoyable). There’s infectious fun from a battery of
tinkling percussion and an extrovert wittiness of phrase in excerpts from Baile
de las máscaras by Francesco Corradini, who did actually work alongside
Farinelli in Madrid. So did Nicola Conforta, whose overture to La festa cinese
gets proceedings off with a colourful bang. Perhaps censure for conceptual
tenuousness is moderated because Concerto Köln’s zesty punchiness is a good fit
for the dynamism of conductor Pablo Heras-Casado – nowhere more compellingly
than in CPE Bach’s vibrant Fandango Sinfonia in E minor (no connection to
Farinelli but an entertaining piece well worth hearing).
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