Ellen Hargis, Ensemble Ouabache - Bonporti: Motets (1996)

Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672 - 1749): Motets for Solo Voice with Violin Accompaniment (1702), op.3, Nos. 1-6. Performed by Ellen Hargis, soprano, and Ensemble Ouabache [Christopher Verrette and Ingrid Matthews, violins; Shelley Taylor, violoncello; Catherine Liddell, theorbo; Thomas Gerber, organ]. Recorded at the Church of the Nativity in Indianapolis, Indiana, on 22nd to 25th January 1996. Published in 1998 as Dorian Discovery DIS-80163. Total playing time: 60'14".

The Italian baroque seems to be an inexhaustible quarry for lovers of historical performance practice and beautifully balanced music. Francesco Antonio Bonporti was a composer-priest who, after studies in Innsbruck and Rome, spent most of his working life in his home town of Trento, once host to the Tridentinum, but in the early eighteenth century nothing more than a provincial nest. Of his twelve published works (of which only nine are still extant), eleven consisted of instrumental music, leaving only the set of six solo motets recorded here and a rumoured, but not extant, mass as his complete vocal works. These motets are written for a small group such as would have been delighted to perform them in the provincial surroundings of Trento and elsewhere, possibly for performing nuns, a phenomenon which was apparently not all that uncommon at the time. Each motet consists of four or five "movements", alternating arias and recitatives; the Latin texts are devotional (Roman Catholic, of course); and the simple but haunting melodies are of exceptional beauty.

The performance by Ellen Hargis and the Indianapolis-based Ensemble Ouabache (named for the Wabash river) reflects both the serenity and beauty of these works. Ellen Hargis's pure, high soprano is given pride of place, so to speak, but the lovely instrumental accompaniment, although placed decently in the background, supports her in every way, making this a disc that fans of high baroque music will love. Ellen Hargis's voice is, of course, an early-music voice, she is not an opera singer, at least, not in the modern sense. But that is only to her advantage in this context, and the beauty of her singing coupled with Dorian's excellent engineering led a critic in Germany's "Klassik heute" magazine to give this CD the highest rating - which, in turn, led to me buying the disc, albeit it many years later.

The production is lovingly made, with a beautifully-printed English-language booklet. Unfortunately, there is one drop of wormwood: The track-listing is out-of-sync with what you hear; it appears that one of the four-movement motets has been given five tracks, whereas the closing "Alleluia" of the last of the recorded motets is not listed at all. This can be a little disconcerting, but it certainly does not detract from the beauty and serenity of a very special disc which does honour to the early music scene in Indiana and to the efforts of Sono Luminus-Dorian.