RECORDINGS

Though orderly and sober at the fortepiano, Immerseel, a Flemish musician of reported versatility, brings nothing new to this mostly familiar keyboard music--including five of the most popular sonatas and the great fantasies in C minor and D minor. Indeed, his insights are extremely limited, and couched in a careful, literal, unimaginative personal style. The rondos and fantasies show occasional breathing room and some felicities of articulation, but fall below a level one could call inspired.

*** HILDEGARD OF BINGEN: “Ordo Virtutum” (The Play of Virtues). Sequentia (BMG)

Noting its own 20th anniversary in 1997 as well as the 900th birthday of Hildegard this year, Sequentia handsomely documents its long commitment to the composer’s masterpiece, a 90-minute confrontation between Soul, the Virtues and the Devil, won, after considerable battling, by the Virtues. Led by Barbara Thornton, the female vocal ensemble (Vox Feminae), from which are drawn the separate voices of the Virtues, performs with clarifying projection and purity of tone and text. The male vocal contingent (Sons of Thunder) contributes strongly; both are supported by the virtuosic instrumental ensemble, led by another Sequentia founder, Benjamin Bagby.