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GRAMOPHONE (07/2025)
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Ricercar RIC474  

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Reviewer : David Vickers

Lambert Colson and his ensemble InAlto have produced captivating albums that explored Schein (Ramée, 2015), Schütz and his pupils (Passacaille, 2017), Roman music for the Chiesa Nuova (Ricercar, 2019), the careers of imperial court cornettists Zenobi and Sansoni ("Cavalieri imperiali', Ricercar, 2020), German ritual music by Buxtehude, Bach and Beethoven (Ricercar, 2022) and a survey of repertoire for the mute cornett ranging from Lassus and Gabrieli to Praetorius and Sances ('Still und lieblich', Ricercar, 2024). Several of these projects were close partnerships with soprano Alice Foccroulle, and now they turn their scrupulous attention to Tarquinio Merula (1595-1665). The organistcomposer worked most of his career in Cremona (particularly the cathedral), apart from intervening brief stints in Lodi, the Polish royal chapel in Warsaw, Padua and Bergamo's Santa Maria Maggiore, where he succeeded Grandi as maestro di cappella but was fired for misconduct.

'Merula's manifold creativity, imaginative expressivity and  harmonic ingenuity are realised by intimate forces with textural sophistication in a cross-section of solo-voice motets and instrumental canzonas taken from six different publications issued in Venice between 1615 and 1651. Recording sessions took place in Leuven, Flemish Brabant. However, an extra-special ingredient is the interspersal of plenty of organ pieces played enthrallingly by Bernard Foccroulle (Alice's father) on the historic Graziadio Antegnati instrument (1565) in Mantua's Basilica of Santa Barbara; its keyboard has split sharp keys useful for exploiting the sonorous chromatic piquancy in the aptly named Intonazione cromatica that begins the album and the twisting clashes of the Capriccio cromatico positioned about midway through proceedings. The famous Mantuan organ's other magnificent colours are revealed in a demonstrative Toccata del secondo tono and cheerful Canzon La Marca.

The hypnotic and dissonanceladen lullaby Hor ch'è tempo di dormire Mary's cradle song for the sleeping infant Jesus laced with her prophetic forebodings of his torturous passion is taken from Merula's Curtio precipitato et altri capricii, Op 13 (1638). Easily his best-known piece, it has notched up 40-odd recordings including interpretations by eminent singers Sara Mingardo, Magdalena Ko?ená, Nuria Rial, Marianne Beate Kielland, Silvia Frigato, Montserrat Figueras, Jill Feldman, María Cristina Kiehr, Emily Van Evera, Suzie LeBlanc and Carolyn Sampson, among many others. Its incongruity of hushed tenderness and disquieted ominousness is achieved spellbindingly by Alice Foccroulle, supported intelligently by the continuo duo of her father

Bernard (organ) and Christoph Sommer (theorbo). Even among such a crowded discography, this outstanding performance balances gentleness and plangent emotion immaculately. Taken from the same 1638 publication, the moralising canzonetta Chi vuol ch'io m'innamori is a strophic contemplation on vanitas vanitorum; it reaps benefits from Alice Foccroulle's direct simplicity and Sommer's sympathetic theorbo accompaniment (Monteverdi also set this poem to music published three years later in Selva morale e spirituale). The concise Gaudeamus omnes in Domino, printed in Merula's Pegaso, Op 11 (1640), culminates joyfully in a florid 'Alleluia' navigated sweetly by Foccroulle and violinist Marie Rouquié. The soprano, cornettist Colson, trombonists Guy Hanssen and Bart Vroomen and continuo duo impart enraptured seductiveness in Favus distillans, a setting of seductive words from the Song of Solomon in Merula's Il primo libro de motetti e sonate concertati (1624).InAlto's instrumental moments in the spotlight strike a perfect balance between conversational naturality and dazzling technical facility. A quartet of cornett, violin and two trombones mingle intimacy and splendour perfectly in the canzona La Merula. Fluent exchanges between violin, cornett and trombone shine brightly in the three-part La Cavagliera and the dancing Ballo detto Pollicio. Two-part sonatas from Merula's Primo libro are an animated pairing of cornett and trombone (Sonata prima) and an exquisitely shaded dialogue between violin and trombone (Sonata seconda). Colson's rapid yet elegant repeated notes and Rouquié's felicitously cantabile phrasing combine delightfully in the canzona La Treccha.

It is relatively seldom that entire albums are devoted to Merula's talents, and even these cover only a small fraction of his output. Best of the crop among sometimes patchy prior endeavours are Ensemble Fitzwilliam's assortment of canzonas, motets and sonatas (Auvidis Valois, 1989), the complete Pegaso by La Galania (Anima e Corpo, 2014), Francesco Cera's admirable stab at the complete organ works (Tactus, 1999) and a recital of solo voice pieces performed by the all-star quintet of Montserrat Figueras, Jordi Savall, Ton Koopman, Rolf Lislevand and Andrew Lawrence-King (Alia Vox, 1/94). Far more often we get just one or two of Merula's pieces smattered within mixed programmes of early 17th-century Italian fare. Viewed in this context, InAlto, Colson and the Foccroulles serve up a landmark achievement of sophisticated artistic planning and peerless musicianship.

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