Monteverdi: L'Orfeo - concert - L'Arpeggiata

Budapest.

King Spa. 

It is old, 500 years old, dilapidating, clean but a bit crumbling all over, water is leaking all around the place with taps and fittings from before the War for sure. 

However, an amazing beauty pervades. Incomparable colours and shades. Dim lights, semi-darkness, and a hasp of sunshine through the orifice of the dome like a light sword just much longer. 

We are sitting in the hot water and I am trying to find out why I am so much fond of L’Arpeggiata?

The name, maybe, for it reminds me of my favourite composer, Kapsberger who composed Toccata Arpeggiata which touched even Christina just as much as she chose the name for the ensemble.

They released loads of records you cannot even enlist. All started with early dances, Tarantella and Chaconne, on the sensitive borderline of Renaissance-Baroque, then, in the following years, the horizon widened genre-wise too; Monteverdi was followed by Purcell and Handel, jazz and even several sorts of folk music from all over Europe, the Mediterranean and the Orient.

What matters, however, is the All’Improvviso record. I do not mean the music which became a legend later but I mean an invisible look. It is in the case, under the CD; it is hardly noticeable, almost impossible to take a picture of but the main point does come through.

A young skinny girl with a fringe and an elderly musician with a grey beard are in the pic; Christina is explaining something away intensely, Gianluigi Trovesi, the jazz-clarinettist is watching, smiling softly, he will just not scratch his head thinking what this is all about, how he is getting amid Early Music again, what this woman wants him to do. Clarinets come in the scene only 100 years later, Christina is gleaming with sparks in her eyes albeit you cannot see it in the pic. What you can see is that she conceived everything and no need to fear, it will be all right. Remember what a success Tarantella was.

Then these records gently shook the entire playing of classical music in Europe and brought Early Music in fashion nobody could ever think of. Monteverdi, Cavalieri and Caccini became genuine stars, the audience was crazy about them, the youth listened to long forgotten composers almost never heard before. New generations started to imitate the ensemble the best singers in the world joined if for one recording.

What the secret was is hard to tell. 

Perhaps the unbelievable sensitivity with which Christina took care of the instrumentation or the hidden content which she seduced out of these early melodies or perhaps the reconsideration of the music improvisation or the upfront turning against the apathetic, lethargic and audience-slaying performance of classical music, the squared sonatas, nerve-killing fugues and horrendous symphonies we receive loads of.

Then years passed, the thin chick with a fringe became a serious woman; L’Arpeggiata derailed off this special rail, there is some topsy-turvies in the repertoire but she left the legendary records with us; I paid for a second-hand Tarantella SACD so much I do dare to tell, the first track of the Landi album makes my heart throb even today … I am so much fond of this ensemble that Handel goes wild is bullshit, I do not recommend it to anyone, yet, I do not mind and do not offend them, let them go wherever they wish to, no one should interfere; as for me, they might as well play electric rock or Stockhausen, it will not alter my love of them.

Today, however, there is something grave going on.

Monteverdi and Orfeo - the very first milestone in Baroque music and the world of opera -the origin, the singularity.

The Palace of Arts, [Budapest], the building itself, the inner space give me mixed emotions. Outside the colour illumination is extremely crappy, the auditorium is far too big, albeit it is alright inside and we are sitting in a very good seat at the stalls, in the middle of the first quarter.

Start.

Well-known and familiar melodies which provide the frame of one of the most famous love stories of mankind. Some weirdly special feeling right from the first seconds. The instrumentation and expression make me feel that the upholstery has got ripped on the horizon and we can look out at some distant lands.

How Christina lured these wind instrument players to herself I know not but I have never heard the first fanfare part like this; I was shivering. 

Then Emőke Baráth walked in nicely, yes, our Emőke [she is Hungarian] in a fretted outfit as Musica and sang the introduction to what we are going to hear in an angel’s voice.

Then the story got started. Also, a series of amazement. The two violinists, they are playing so much differently from the other violinists of the rest of the orchestras that here comes the part of the secret. Fine, punctual, nicely elaborated, dot dot dot, however, somewhere deep inside there is some ebullience, something disquietingly beautiful. It is striking in the record as well. The continuo line is very intense; two keyboard instruments, violas da gamba, a harp, a theorba, a guitar, all subordinated under the lyrics, bear in mind that it is the famous Nuove Musica where the lyrics is not pinned onto the notes like one part of the many but it is the Prima, and, indeed, it will turn out that it is extremely relevant.

The back row, Nymphs, Shepherds and others; unexpectedly brilliant solos were heard from here, of course, it is easy this way that singers as good as Vincenzo Capezzuto are standing waiting for their short part.

Orpheo, a Mexican-French tenor, Rolando Villazón was not to my liking at first for he pushed it very Italian, big opera-like, intensely, high-spiritedly; it is too early at this point, it should be this way 150 years later, I thought, he should be singing a bit more gently.

But then came the messenger telling us what had happened to de Euridice, and Orpheo set off to the Underworld; I made a full slew-round, albeit the voice remained nearly the same. 

Why? 

Because as he is standing in front of Charon doing his best to be let in, he is playing nicely, then whining and sawing the air and shouting that he does want to follow his beautiful Euridice and why he is not allowed to for he loves her so much and he will take her out for sure and it did not change even when Hope dropped his hand and waved good-bye, understand? To set off somewhere with no hope - who could do it today? It moved me so deeply.

The story that a man loves a woman so much that he follows her to the Underworld has amazed people for 2000 years and has made them shiver; yes, it amazes these 1700 spectators in the Palace of Art even today.

Then the begging gets a response. Metaphysical infiltration is gradually becoming more and more concentrated. Orpheo wants the Gods to feel sorry for him. If you pursue something very hard it has clear cross-modulations in invisible Higher Worlds. And yes, Pluto’s wife says: this Thracian man in love wants the woman so much that we should find out how he can get her back …

The music follows the more and more complex lyrics, the spirituality in full fidelity just like Camerata Bardi imagined the comeback to Antique traditions in Firenze.

Orpheo, the tenor Villazón is simply excellent. There are fine whiffles and nice melody arches in the music, and again, the tooters, I have never heard something like this. Charon, a weakling thin man, John Taylor Ward, he has such powerful voice that the audience is rumbling with appreciation. The soloists are coruscating, all of them are singing by heart, they are actually playing.

The continuo is so perfect that I am getting the hang of why this monody was such a big success in the old Venice and why a complete novelty was borne for which no name was conceived out of the blue and thus it remained to be called the opera. 

The Opera.

Then comes the climax, the well-known paradox of turning back or not, which has long shown the bitter example of how hard it is to go forward, not to look back trembling whether it is going to be fine this way, what people say about us, rather, do it, proceed straight ahead.

Thousands of books have been written about the unavoidable failure. It is far too serious. It is a bitter pill for us, men. That we will lose any way or another; that Amor’s command is stronger than Pluto’s prohibition and that Emőke, that is, Euridice, before she falls back to the darkness whispers beautifully: “You lost me with your excessive love”.

Then, in the end, after great sorrow, Apollo, Benoit Arnoult, whose voice took me aback, lifts Orpheo beside himself. 

Here Monteverdi attenuated the story as we know that Orpheo, wishing to forget about his sorrow, made love with all sorts of women - Nymphs, Maenads who, feeling that their glorious cavalier is still in love with that bi..h Eurydice even while making love with them, they hate her a lot, and ripped him apart and threw him into a deep crevasse. Then they cleared  their hands by the water of Helicon river, and legend says, Helicon was so ashamed of it that its water disappeared from the course…

But now he is sitting next to Apollo and drums and rattles are playing with the hailing choir and the ladies start dancing gently on the stage, the violins are crying and laughing at the same time, the orchestra is playing so nicely that the women in the audience are swallowing their tears, the men are heavily embarrassed and a few people almost jump onto the stage from the first rows at the very end of the performance.

Standing ovation, the Palace of Art is close to collapsing, and, Christina finally turns back as she was directing back to us, she is glowing, I could see the same look in her eyes as in the inside of the record; 15 years have passed and nothing has changed and I think it is going to stay like this forever and ever.

*         *         *

Translated by Kenesei Andrea

_______________
Characters:
Orpheus
Rolando Villazón
Eurydice, Musica, muse of music
Emőke Baráth
Messenger of nymphs
Giuseppina Bridelli
Proserpina
Céline Scheen
Nymph, Hope
Benedetta Mazzucato
Shepherd
Vincenzo Capezzuto
Shepherd, Echo, Soul from the underworld
Aidan Coburn
Shepherd, Soul from the underworld
Jeffrey Thompson
Apollo, Soul from the underworld
Benoît Arnoult
Charon, Shepherd, Soul from the underworld
John Taylor Ward
Pluto, Soul from the underworld
Dingle Yandell
Participating:
Ensemble L'Arpeggiata (diir.: Christina Pluhar)

Budapest, Palace of Arts, 10 March, 2018

_______________
Thank you for the images
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-7a-7b-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16

Opera Ball in the House - Heed Nexus power amplifier

Heed Audio is somewhat known in Hungary; better known in foreign countries; it belongs to the few hi-fi manufactures where records are preferred to cables for example. Heed constructs systems, the components are designed to fit one another, ventures out of cast are not frequent, trade of organs are not fond of, High End Shows at home are not visited, however, there are clubs, community, live music, and they had even viola da gamba once…I hardly believe it myself, it was so fascinating.

The spectrum is diverse - from CD players through phono PSU to loudspeakers everything can be found; the Heed Enigma omnidirectional speaker has become speciality in the audiophile world. They have always had various series of devices, the aristocracy sits enthroned on top, obviously, just like in the old days. Some might remember the name Nexus - the origin of the bloodline vanishes in the early days of Hungarian history of hi-fi. The old Nexus of which three things were whispered - it has a fine sound, it is pretty scarce and very costly. Due to the latter two we have little experience in the sound, at least old memories are whirling with old equipment. At present a prototype novel Nexus mono-block pair has been designed. It is still being developed, do not look for it in the shop, it may be different eventually, it is not even certain to join the series of Heed. They why this test? 

Simply, the article is not about the technical details or topology but rather the music philosophy and approach of Heed, the relation - Nexus.

There are occasions at times when the nobility gathers together, have a chit-chat, treat themselves with delicious food, survey each other’s jewels and pompous outfit; a typical example is the ball where all this happens in highbrow circles, during the dubious estate transactions and stock market discussions there is loads of music around which, hopefully, our whole hi-fi existence winds.


Such an illustrious gathering was organised in my home the other day.

Arrival in curtained chariots in perfect professional wrapping, the dress code is black evening dress, really, the exterior is elegant, half rack size, not too thick, one single clip at the back, only captions in the front and a blue led light


A clear type - murmurs someone with a gold chain covered in cigar smoke, his face is not visible, he is a fat racist if you do not need to talk about the origin of races with him, he is a cool guy, he has rhodium mines and he finances processions against mp3 in secret 

The standard connectors are of extremly high quality.

Meeting with strange and genteel families for the first time, the cables, they arrived from the USA. Acoustic Zen Absolute speaker cable and Absolute XLR interconnect - rather than high quality cables peculiar to Heed - the hardcore American cable magician’s own signed pieces, the price is discreetly hushed up.

Nexus offers itself slightly ashamed, (to be plugged in from the back) the spades finely slip into their place, they can be heavily pressed together, it holds the 1.5 kg cable monster tight, this eve the banana plug would receive a half-smile only.

There are a few topics you must be able to talk about in continuum in circles like this before you go on to talk about illegal gun transport.
It is golf, tennis, sports cars and balanced signal path.

Heed and XLR???
Yes, blue blood Nexus can make it too, what is more, in real balanced operation mode rather than  usual transformer produced semi-XLR.

The other member of the company is Mark Levinson, No. 512. SACD player, is just saying that “No” is not abbreviation of 'Number' but the word to be answered to the question whether a better CD player is available, a faint smile to the lousy joke, but, indeed, a Rolls Royce among the CD players, big, black, with Esoteric industrial masterpiece mechanics inside, in its 12-cylinder engine with 4 pairs of DAC chips in dual-difference operation and a genuine digitally controlled analogue volume control.

The speaker is a mixture, it worked its way up to the club with its sound referring to big names; factory AN drivers, AN E cabinet which is a Snell really (Peter Snell invented it in the USA), he is remembered only by the oldest Mafioso in the room. - inside a Snell J crossover works.
A genuine big face, it boasts with its 27 Hz bass-frequency limit, keeps telling lies that it subjugated the room too, it uses it like a rag to produce sub bass. The outfit is amazing, veneer genuine, but the paper of the driver is like the one in my granny’s vacuum tube radio, plain and black, tweeters and modified Vifas costing $ 20 -  in the Xover 10-cent elcos well, but the topic is rather the 50k+ price of the full silver AN brother.

Nexus is located in a nice big place of a cubic metre because the missing power amplifier, DP 6C33C, with power tubes of a MIG25 fighter, 2×25 kg, 600W PSU power supply and 280 degree Celsius surface pipe temperature is like a carrier rocket ship.
I am keen on it.
Tube is another galaxy. It is a music generator. It is in dry dock in Budapest at the moment for Peter Dénes is fixing the security control of a nuclear reactor; it is fine as it is for there is no need for comparison and the craze of hasty re-plugging, it is all about the ball and the music we are listening to.

As little as an hour of chit-chat, familiarising, warm-up - I leave the room to allow them to vibrate together and have small talk.



You are not of a big size, max a 100W toroid inside, if it fits the place then what is enough for? 
a transistor tycoon art collector is being malicious.

Frida Kahlo was exactly 150.5cm, she replies, the other takes a deep gulp for everybody knows that yesterday he paid 3 million pounds for a Frida’s painting.


Two flat shoe boxes - a boot would not fit in, a media tycoon is buggering with a hardware empire behind him, he arrived in a copper Limousine, for he is wending in Al-Ni-Co magnet business.

In Reviczky Castle in Budapest [Heed Audio is located in Reviczky street at Budapest] I walked on marble or inlaid wood floor, I saw boots only when Dad went hunting or fashion shows in Paris…

What she said makes them laugh.

I wish you were not that cold...  (for in high operation Nexus will not even be lukewarm) a class A member - who made his first millions manufacturing waffle makers - is trying to console.

We have central steam heating in the palace, no need for more heat and I imbue music from inside.

They clink glasses, she is accepted.

Opening dance.

Nexus is swivelling nicely; its spikes do not get tangled, when it is the harpsichord’s turn there is no stumble. Rapid, detailing with fine lower octave; its general balance is good as it is for first hearing. No abrupt force for wiring.
My, how important it is, if only you knew…

Then some starters. Harp pieces, phantasies, a Folia run from SACD.
Musical - it is the first timid compliment she receives. The complicated synonyms of this word accompany the whole evening party.

There is a Bach piece whose prelude is very nice on viola da gamba. A few heedonists may remember Zsolt’s face [owner of Heed Audio] when we suggested playing this minute from a record then Nora will play the real one … it was a great fun.

Appreciative rumble filled the room. You can hear that an ultra-slight inaccuracy turns up in a continual track of sound at several places, a bit of shiver three times as if it was an intended ornamentation. I listened to it 7 times at one sitting - it happens when I am in the mood.

The main courses come. Vivaldi operas, then the new L’Arpeggiata record, Cavalli’s masterpiece. Concertos, complicated sopranos, gastronomical specialities, beautiful melodies. Nexus takes up the right register fast, these have been my favourite music, I am especially fond of accompanied monody; she is speaking with a finely descending tone as if she was saying that the weather is fine.

Doubt is gone from the faces, the pot-bellied director of the Opera starts ogling with her, indeed, she delivers the complexity of music well, the counter tenors are grandiose, it is known by few only. Fine pulsation in the continuo, the breathing of the choir members is nicely heard. After Tecum Principium she is embraced by some, the women are whining for so beautifully she is singing.

Candles are lit, sacred music is forthcoming. Masterpieces of Renaissance polyphony, then Monteverdi’s vespers, then Cabezón, harp music again. It is going to be a big temple, huge space, mild smell of myrrh and excellent intonation.

Meanwhile the director of the Opera is hooked on in the bathroom; he is washing his hands, he is ardently explaining to the Russian attaché - plutonium and the military tubes are the main profile there - Look, I utter the word: plunk, p at the beginning, p, p, p, it is perfect at Nexus in a way that there is no saliva on the mirror…at least 4 main roles are flashing in his head which he wants to have sung by Nexus in La Fenice; then he rushes back to the saloon where the cembalo rehearsal is just over, yes, the member card with a gold edge is placed in Nexus’s hand where the members are able to sound this semitone-sensitive instrument amusingly; not many are distributed unfortunately; perfect amplifiers costing many million have already bled to death on this battlefield.

Then thumping on the door, some men wearing other than a tail coat are pushing a portative organ in, run back to fetch the Baroque guitars and drums and rattles and some weird wind instruments, the candles are put out, torches with big flames are hung on the wall then they start the performance.

Frighteningly good atmosphere springs up, Nexus feels magnificently, everybody is dancing, men are wearing shirts only, the butler is massaging his forehead, it is unprecedented, he moans. Theatrical intermezzo music from the Sun King’s era, then the chansons of Le Poeme Harmonique, Venetian dances and coloratura arias, then off to Mexico, everything is shaking and rattling, the bass is simply genius, I have never heard such a rattle from a solid state, they danced until daybreak…

They sleep till next noon, then packing. Nexus off, disconnected, the blue eyes are still lighting, the puffers, elcos are big, I take them out to the chariot, I can see her watching ML standby, it is blinking red led faster and faster, seriously, it cannot come off the trestle with its 20 kilos, the blue light is not willing to turn off, the looks interweave, well, they have fallen into love all right, how romantic, I am laughing, I cannot stand it in music but it is nice here; I close the box, draw the curtain in the chariot down, ML is still blinking faster…

I wiped the dust off its top every day for a week and fed it with lukewarm SACD only when it finally calmed down.

In the evening at bedtime the two E boxes whisper something, Nexus’s musicality seems to have left an imprint; 

They are not contemplating why Peter Qvortrup and Peter Snell, have the same name and what internal cables they would be happy about or what placemats are needed and where - but they are stroking their tight membrane edges, what a beat it was on the Pandolfo record and how much the gamba vibrated them all through, no, it does not hurt, moreover, it was pretty fine,

..and then they had an argument whether Sandrine Piau or Jaroussky are better voices and how Leznieva can have such great singing, how small her mouth is and why there was no hi-fi record in the arena, yet, the Spanish guitar was fine in the end, then they started pulling the early tuning systems out of their ass, then made comparisons of double manual cembalos, there came the Renaissance theory of the Equity of Strings, … then I think I fell asleep.





I am returning the stuff, I think I will have a rest at the next halt and if there is an Allen key in the car, I should only have a look in it, try to find, perhaps there is a tube there, for it is impossible that a solid state toots so well.
I must tell Zsolt something if he asks what it was like, I will make up something in the traffic jam in Budapest, I am trying to gather my thoughts; it is not that simple to avoid offending him or making him over-confident, the situation will give itself.
It should be something like this:

Hi, Zsolt, Nexus is a good amplifier indeed, I liked it, thanks again.

Yes, I think it will be just fine.

*         *         *

Translated by Kenesei Andrea

___________________

This Nexus monoblock pair never returned to Heed Audio - they are still in my room.
After 3 years - no any amplifier could outperform it,
I love it.
____________________

300W toroid each.
____________________

Paired with BBC monitors - outstanding.
Complicated crossover is no problem.
Harbeth and Spendor speakers especially love it.

_____________________

You will find the Heed's website. 
Nexus was produced in a very limited seria only.

____________________
Thank you for the images.
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18