Thomas Roseingrave (1690/91-1766)
Eight Harpsichord Suites and other keyboard works
Bridget Cunningham (harpsichord)
Contents beneath review
rec. 2021, St Augustine’s Church, Kilburn Park, London, UK
Reviewed as a stereo 24/96 download with PDF booklet from Premier
Signum Classics SIGCD783 [2 CDs: 107]
Thomas Roseingrave is a well-known figure in music history; keyboard players in particular know him well. It is not that they play a note of what he has written – the twofer under review here comprises the first recording of the largest part of his keyboard oeuvre; his fame rests entirely on his role as promoter of the sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. In 1739, an edition of the latter’s sonatas by Roseingrave was published in London, and it is the second printed collection of Scarlatti’s keyboard works. The first was the famous set of Essercizi per gravicembalo, which was also published in London in 1738 or 1739. In the 1740s two further collections were to be published in Paris.
Roseingrave’s fascination for Scarlatti’s sonatas dated from his stay in Venice. He was born in Winchester, where his father Daniel was organist at the Cathedral. After some time in Salisbury, the family moved to Dublin, where Daniel acted as organist of two cathedrals; he was also Thomas’ teacher. The young Roseingrave entered Trinity College, Dublin, where his exceptional talent was recognized and he was given the opportunity to go to Italy to broaden his horizons. Charles Burney reports that in Venice he heard Scarlatti play. “[When] he began to play, Roseingrave said he thought ten hundred devils had been at the instrument; he never heard such passages of execution and effect before”. He was so impressed that he seems not to have played the harpsichord for a month, but instead followed Scarlatti to Rome and Naples. In 1713, he returned to Dublin, but then moved to England, where he played a major role in music life.
As a composer, he wrote some sacred music and secular vocal works, among them one opera. That part of his œuvre is completely forgotten and overlooked. Its largest part consists of keyboard music, which attests to his great skills as a keyboard player. He was known for his abilities in the department of improvisation, and his great knowledge of counterpoint, which was partly the result of his study of the music of Palestrina. In 1725, he was able to demonstrate his skills in the competition for the post of organist at the parish church of St George’s in Hanover Square. He made such an impression that the judges were unanimous in declaring him the winner.
In the 1720s and 1730s he was at the height of his musical career, publishing vocal music as well as the set of suites performed on the present discs. In 1738, he was one of the founders of the Fund for Decay’d Musicians. The next year, he edited and published the above-mentioned collection of sonatas by Scarlatti. In the next decades his career went downwards, due to personal problems, the result of permission being refused to marry a woman whose father thought that a musician was below her standing. This affected him psychologically, and his behaviour became erratic. He resigned from his post as organist and in 1750 moved to Dublin. Although he did not retire completely from musical activities, his role in the music scene became marginal.
The present production comprises a substantial part of Roseingrave’s keyboard œuvre. It includes the Eight Suits of Lessons for the HARPSICORD or SPINNET in most of the keys with Variety of Passages & Variations Throughout the work, published in 1728. Despite being entitled as suites, they differ from the suites as we know them from better-known composers. Bridget Cunningham states: “Newer and older elements coalesce to create a magnificent potpourri of courtly dances, vocal lyricism, French tendresse, fugal and contrapuntal writing and extravagantly arpeggiated preludes, where the learned and calculated mingle freely with the spontaneous and improvisatory.” The number and order of movements vary from one suite to the other. The Suites Nos 4 and 8 have only three movements, whereas the Nos 1, 5 and 6 have five. The first suite opens with an overture in typical French style, consisting of a section in dotted rhythms and a fugal section. The second suite starts with a prelude, which opens with a diminished-seventh chord. It is one of the most daring movements from a harmonic point of view; it reminds me a little of the movement Le cahos at the start of the suite Les Elémens by the French composer Jean Fery Rebel.
All the other suites begin with an allemande. The Suite No 1 closes with a chaconne, and in the Suite No 5 we find an air. Otherwise the dances are those that were common at the time: allemande, courante, sarabande, gavotte and gigue. Only once a minuet makes its appearance: it closes the Suite No 6. It is notable that Roseingrave’s great admiration for Scarlatti did not result in any imitation in these suites. Cunningham notes just one movement which shows his influence: the presto, which is the penultimate movement of the Suite No 1. It is useful to listen to these suites with the comment by Bridget Cunningham in the booklet at hand, which points out the differentiation within this set of suites.
The remaining part of the programme consists of some separate pieces. The Introduction is the piece Roseingrave included as a preface to his edition of Scarlatti’s sonatas; it has the traces of a French overture. Another connection to Scarlatti is the Celebrated Lesson for the Harpsichord, which is a piece by Scarlatti edited and arranged by Roseingrave. Both the Allemande and A Celebrated Concerto may date from his time in Dublin, in the last stage of his life. The former is again a piece in dotted rhythms, whereas the latter is the solo version of a concerto with instruments, published in 1770. The indications of forte and piano attest to the piece’s origin.
The importance of this production cannot be overrated. Roseingrave may have played a key role in the dissemination of Scarlatti’s sonatas, especially in England, but looking at him from that angle alone doesn’t do him any justice. These keyboard works, and especially the suites, deserve a complete recording – as we have here. They can easily compete with much that was written in his time. It is to be hoped that the remaining pieces in his œuvre, Voluntaries and Fugues as well as six Double Fugues, will appear on disc as well.
Bridget Cunningham plays a copy of Ruckers harpsichord with ravalement (the alteration and extension of the disposition and range of keyboard instruments). She states in the booklet that Roseingrave in the course of his life may have encountered many different instruments. The choice of this particular harpsichord seems justified. However, I would have liked an English harpsichord, and even in some pieces a spinet, both seldom used in commercial recordings; the spinet is underrated.
Overall I am happy with these stylish and energetic performances. They do justice to the different nature of the various movements and suites. That said, in some faster and more busy movements I would have liked a little more relaxation, some breathing spaces and a more pronounced differentiation between good and bad notes. That does not compromise my satisfaction with this production, which deserves a place in any collection of keyboard recordings.
Johan van Veen
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Contents:
Suite No 1 in E-flat
Suite No 2 in C minor
Suite No 3 in D minor
Suite No 4 in F
Suite No 5 in F minor
Suite No 6 in E minor
Suite No 7 in G
Suite No 8 in G minor
Introduction
Allemande in B-flat
A Celebrated Concerto
Celebrated Lesson for the Harpsichord
