• GOLDBERG Early Music Magazine

    • Recently we received Issue No. 7 of GOLDBERG Early Music Magazine [Revista de Musica Antiqua]. As before, it is nothing short of breathtaking.

    This is a major publication. Large, generous format, beautiful papers, luscious color printing, a roster of writers, some of whom will be familiar to you, with a whole lot of Spanish surnames giving us the idea of that old music is popular in Spain... this magazine continues to be more than I bargained for. Every page is bilingual; Spanish and English tests are distinguished by their typefaces, so clumsiness is averted completely.

    Glancing through the index, this issue starts off with The Best of 1997, listing picks by each of Goldberg's eight staff reviewers. Some fairly predictable picks include Ton Koopman's Bach Cantata series (Erato), Alessandrini's Monteverdi madrigals (Opus 111), and the Telemann Paris Quartets by the Kuijkens, with Leonhardt (Sony). More surprising are a Telemann Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus by the Rheinische Kantorei/Hermann Max (Capriccio), or the anonymous St Matthew Passion from the Uppsala Ms (1667) (Accord), by Martin Gester's Parlement de Musique. Anonymous 4 got the nod for their 11,000 Virgins (harmonia mundi).

    There's an article about Michel Bernstein's label Arcana (annoyingly, presently unavailable in the US!) and about Early Music (remember EM?) with a companion profile of its editor, Tess Knighton. There are articles on Jomelli, on the Stabat Mater, and a portrait of Edward Wickham. Finally there is Part III of Sophie Roughol's article on baroque women, featuring this time Emilia Bassano.

    The artwork and graphics continue to be outstanding, placing the magazine in a class with the most luxurious periodicals there are.

    GOLDBERG has a website and an email address:
    www.goldbergmagazine.com
    Click here to send a message to GOLDBERG Early Music Magazine

    Check it out. Subscribe. Take out an ad.

    Joseph
  • How Many Classical Indies???

    • In conversation with Jim at SKR Records in Ann Arbor the other day, he mentioned that he thought our two stores are the only independent all-classical record stores in the US today. Can this be true? Let me know of others that you're aware of. That's independent and ALL classical.

    February 27, 1999 -UPDATE
    I received a message from Jim at SKR that The Musical Offering is as of now the only independent all-classical store in the USA. SKR have added other lines to bolster sales. Scary.

  • HILLIARD ENSEMBLE LAUNCH THEIR OWN LABEL

    • The venerable Hilliard Ensemble, with dozens of CDs to their credit, have launched their own in-house label, Hilliard Live, intended primarily for lobby sales on their concert tours. Two titles have been released so far, and another is forthcoming soon.

    Perotin and the Ars Antiqua is their first offering, incorporating various pieces of the thirteenth century along with the more famous organa of Magister Perotin. The recording features four singers only, in a drier acoustic than one hears on most recordings of this repertoire. The tenor is carried by a single voice; at first one is aware of the interruption of the drone when that singer needs a breath, but very soon that drops away and the drone is entirely satisfactory.

    Ockeghem is the title of Hilliard Live 2, and features pieces by Busnois and others as well as Ockeghem. Their third release, due out soon, features Antoine Brumel.

    A listing of the contents of each CD may be viewed on our "Recordings of Particular Interest" file. Each of their CDs comes in an enlarged book form, with the CD in a plastic carrier within. Each carries an essay on the music, and all so far have an ongoing discussion of tuning and intonation by Rogers Covey-Crump.

    Hilliard Live recordings are priced at $24.98, and are available exclusively at The Musical Offering.

  • BILLBOARD MAGAZINE writes up THE MUSICAL OFFERING

    • The August 9 issue of Billboard Magazine contains a two-page article on The Musical Offering, and the challenges of the independent classical record store owner today. The article begins on page 43, and includes photos of the shop, inside and out, Ellen Rose, and Joseph. Here are some excerpts:

    Musical Offering Serves as Key Early Music Outpost.


    by Bradley Bambarger

    BERKELEY, Calif. -- As the classical music business struggles through a particularly dark age, profiting from the art seems as elusive as alchemy. But one of the few remaining strictly classical indie retailers in the country, Joseph Spencer- manager/co-owner of the Musical Offering classical music shop and cafe here- sees his gold not in crossover but esoterica.

    "Our specialty is early music, and, let's face it, that's a pretty rarified interest, even around here," Spencer says. "So success for us stems from being unique. I keep a select stock and make sure we have excellent service and do everything I can to get the word out to people who are looking for what we have and those who are just searching for something different."

    The Musical Offering carries classical music from every period, but its specialty in the Baroque and earlier has earned it national renown. For an early music enthusiast, the shop is more than just a unique boutique- it's an oasis of sound. The store boasts a cornucopia of medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music discs as well as an uncommonly adept staff, who can commune with connoisseurs and shepherd novices with equal aplomb.

    Moreover, the Musical Offering is a key element in one of the most vibrant early music scenes in the country, with Spencer serving as president of the Berkeley-based San Francisco Early Music Society. He also runs the small early music label Wildboar from the shop and hosts the long-running weekly program "Chapel, Court & Countryside" on San Francisco's KDFC.[NOTE:

    Even before there was a Musical Offering or Berkeley Festival & Exhibition (a de facto early music event that rivals the Boston Early Music Festival), there was an enthusiasm for archaic sounds in the area, Spencer says. "If you go back 50-75 years here, people were running around the woods playing recorders and viols."

    ...Fairly typical among the part-time clerks at the Musical Offering is new Berkeley resident Ellen Rose, a violist who has a bachelor's degree in English and American history/literature from Harvard, a master's degree in music from Julliard, and a couple of music degrees from French and German schools. Rose says that in all her travels she's yet to see a mom-and-pop classical shop with the "special attention" of the Musical Offering. "Sometimes working here can be a lot like being a bartender," she says. "You hear all these personal stories, like, 'My father just died, and there was this fugue he used to play...'"

    ... Spencer spotlights the cream of his shop's early music stock on "Chapel Court & Countryside," which debuted in 1969 on KPFK Los Angeles. His program has been on KDFC for the past three years, airing an enlightened mix of instrumental and vocal works at 6-7[:30]p.m. on Sundays... Every so often you'll hear a work from the Wildboar label on Spencer's show. He launched the label in 1980 to produce quality LPs of solo harpsichord music. ... Wildboar has about a dozen discs in print, in cluding the great "In Stil Moderno"...featuring violinist Ingrid Matthews and harpsichordist Byron Schenkman, [which] impresses aficionado and apprentice alike, ...and such fine albums as "17th Century French Harpsichord Music" by Edward Parmentier. Spencer predicts the best-selling Wildboar album by far will be a disc of Handel cantatas and instrumental music by Seattle Baroque Orchestra with soprano soloist Ellen Hargis, due in November.

  • EM CRITIC LAUDS LA LUNA & BYRON SCHENKMAN AT BOSTON FESTIVAL

    • In the UK's Early Music Review(July 1997), Brian Clark wrote the following enthused encomium to Ensemble La Luna, and to harpsichordist Byron Schenkman, Wildboar recording artists all:

    "I attended [a concert] given by La Luna: violinists Ingrid Matthews and Scott Metcalfe, gambist/cellist Emily Walhout, and harpsichordist Byron Schenkman (on whom more below). To say the least, this was an hour of sheer delight. From the very opening piece (Schmelzer's Lanterley sonata), they enchanted their audience with stunning reoulades, impeccable ensemble (the violinists, in particular, have a common sixth sense) and, put quite simply, the sheer wonder of their combined musicality. Here was a bass player who could make her presence felt without becoming a blustering buffoon, and a harpsichordist who does everything right. It is utterly amazing that no major record company has discovered La Luna; as we were told..., they are absolutely faultless and deserve to be more widely known.

    I've kept my other favorite concert of the week for last...Byron Schenkman gave a stunning solo recital [in which] he played Handel, D'Anglebert and Rameau, each sounding as if he were making it up as he went along, and each sounding totally different from the others. The entire hour was played from memory, and every phrase, every note almost, had something to say. Even Handel's seemingly inevitable keyboard music sounded utterly original and spontaneous. If he and his colleagues gave the performances of the week, he was my performer of the festival. BC

    Both La Luna and Byron Schenkman have new CDs on Wildboar: Byron's sensational new Bauyn Manuscript CD (17th century French music), and La Luna's CD of Sonatas and dances of Andrea Falconieri. See the Wildboar catalog listings in this website. Joseph Spencer