Peeckelharing

This CD delivers even more than the promised Music Around Frans Hals portraying Hals's paintings, especially his group subjects, with musical instruments in their hands; The veteran vocal-instrumental ensemble Camerata Trajectina does not just play music from Hals' time but actually tries, loosely, "to set the music given on a number of paintings to sound"; The vocal pieces are mostly humorous in mood; The overall product is a fun, zippy program for speakers of any language, with the vocalists of the Camerata Trajectina lustily digging into the comic texts; This disc from Holland's always delightful Globe label delivers even more than the promised Music Around Frans Hals, the Dutch seventeenth century portraitist whose joyous works were as dense with cultural and moral references as a contemporary situation comedy. Hals often painted his subjects, especially his group subjects, with musical instruments in their hands, meaning various things, and the veteran vocal-instrumental ensemble Camerata Trajectina does not just play music from Hals' time but actually tries, loosely, "to set the music given on a number of paintings to sound," mostly by finding contemporary works that fit the forces involved. The vocal pieces are mostly humorous in mood, with a peculiarly Dutch vein of wryly treated sexual frustration appearing in several of them; lamentations, more serious texts, and instrumental dances are sprinkled through the program for contrast. The texts are given only in Dutch, and even these require some footnotes to translate the popular language of 350 years ago into the modern language, but summaries are provided in German and English as well (and the extensive and informative booklet notes also appear in those languages). The overall product is a fun, zippy program for speakers of any language, with the vocalists of the Camerata Trajectina lustily digging into the comic texts, and those studying Dutch Golden Age portraiture or even contemplating a trip to see Holland's great collections of Hals paintings should be sure to stick a copy of this disc in their carry-on luggage.