Stravagante by Bach Babes

The nine musicians (two violins, viola, flute, oboe, cello, double bass, harpsichord and voice) comprising the ensemble's permanent core share a passion for blending historically faithful performance with contemporary flare and creativity that makes this music accessible to modern audiences. The Babes further broaden their appeal by featuring guest artists in many of their programs. As the works showcased on this recording attest, the Bach Babes present selections that are diverse in both instrumentation as well as expression.

Reviews of the ensemble's rare combination of humor and musical enchantment have been universally enthusiastic. Artist-in-Residence conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Nicholas McGegan has summed up the aura achieved by the ensemble with the statement "The Bach Babes are absolutely fabulous!" The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Elaine Schmidt states that the "Bach Babes are definitely an ensemble to be taken seriously." While giving a nod to the group's "varied, well-chosen programs and evident musicianship," Shepherd Express critic Charles Grosz affirms that "the Bach Babes are all accomplished musicians who clearly enjoy making music together. And they do it well."

W.L. Butler

From American Record Guide, May/June 2005

Stravagante

Bach Babes---BP 51304----63:19 (414-481-4129)

Having managed to survive the onslaught of the (we hope short-lived)

"Mediaeval Baebes", are we yet ready for "Bach Babes"? The opening moments

of this disc convinced me easily that we certainly are, and are the better

for it.

The centerpiece of the program is Bach's Cantata 202, Weichet nur, Betrubte

Schatten, the Wedding Cantata, and on that basis one might have been tempted

to place this under the composer's name---making life easy for Bach

trollers---rather than in the collections. Given the work's familiarity, it

is a bold choice for a novice ensemble to offer, given the formidable lineup

of sopranos who have recorded it---Ameling, Baird, Kirkby, Murphy, Nelson,

Elisabeth Schumann, Schwarzkopf, Seefried, Stader, and Zadori, to mention

just the more ear-catching. But this group's singer, Jenny Gettel, has a

mature, attractive, and carefully handled voice; and the performance has

intelligence and appeals on its own honest merits.

The program opener, the one that caught my ear from the start, is Telemann's

Concerto in E Minor, originally scored for recorder and flute with strings

and continuo. The soloists here are flute and oboe, but the contrasting

colors work well that way. The music is familiar from many recordings, but

this one is unusual in the darker intensity and pointed inflections these

players bring to it.

A stately pre-classical Sinfonia in B-flat by Frantisek Tuma (1704-74)is a

pleasant tidbit, if not unknown on records. But the culminating work---and

the longest---is the one that gives the program its title. This is an

example of the Capriccio Stravagante, a kind of virtuoso instrumental work

popular in the early Italian Baroque. This one is by Carlo Farina (1604-39),

a short-lived master who has yet to be recognized as a true forerunner to

Biber in playing with grotesque sound-effects for comic or descriptive

purposes. This example is a textbook of that kind of thing, full of clever

gags.

The performers consist here of eight instrumentalists---flute, oboe, two

violins (one a guest), viola, cello, bass and harpsichord, plus the soprano.

Their instruments are frankly "modern", which may commend them to listeners

who seek this literature but avoid "period" playing (though others may say

that a certain pungency is lost thereby). Above all, they play with

confident sonority and artistic refinement. Add to that startlingly vivid

recorded sound, and you have a striking hour's-worth of listening.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. May the Bach Babes flourish and endure!

BARKER

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