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CD reviews
Martinus RAEHS (1702 - 1766): "Flute Sonatas"
[I] "The Flute Sonatas"
Clara Guldberg Ravn, recorder;
Mats Olofsson, cello;
Jonas Nordberg, archlute, guitar;
Anna Paradiso, harpsichord, fortepiano
rec: Nov 2019, Danderyd (SE), Petruskyrkan
Acantus - arc 20015 (© 2020) (67'55")
Liner-notes: E/D/F
Cover & track-list
Spotify
Sonata in C (Giedde Coll., No. 6);
Sonata in c minor (Giedde Coll., No. 3);
Sonata in D (Giedde Coll., No. 2);
Sonata in G (Giedde Coll., No. 5);
Sonata in A (Giedde Coll., No. 1);
Sonata in A (Giedde Coll., No. 7)
[II] "The Flute Sonatas Vol. 2"
Clara Guldberg Ravn, recorder;
Mats Olofsson, cello;
Jonas Nordberg, archlute;
Anna Paradiso, harpsichord, clavichord
rec: August 23 - 27, 2021, Stockholm, Duvbo kyrka
Arcantus - arc 22031 (© 2022) (79'55")
Liner-notes: E/D/F
Cover & track-list
Sonata in C (Schwerin-ms, No. 1);
Sonata in c minor (Giedde-Coll., No. 11);
Sonata in D (Giedde-Coll., No. 10);
Sonata in D (Schwerin-ms, No. 6);
Sonata in d minor (Schwerin-ms, No. 4);
Sonata in A (Giedde-Coll., No. 8);
Sonata in a minor (Schwerin-ms, No. 5);
Sonata in b minor (Schwerin-ms, No. 3);
Sonata in B flat (Giedde-Coll., No. 9)
Music by Danish composers very seldom crosses my path, either in the concert hall or on disc. No wonder, then, that I had never heard of Martinus Raehs. He has no entry in my edition of New Grove. As the booklets to the two discs under review here mention that his name appears in different spellings, I checked all available possibilities, but to no avail. His music is also not available in the Petrucci Music Library and Wikipedia also does not know him. It is safe to say that these discs are the first time that any of his music appears on disc. From the liner-notes I get the impression that the fifteen sonatas recorded by Clara Guldberg Ravn and her colleagues are the only extant works from his pen.
Raehs was born in Horsens, a provincial town in Denmark in the region Mid-Jutland. He was the son of a town musician, and was educated at the transverse flute. As a young man he studied in England, where he may have met the main composers there at the time, such as Handel and Geminiani. He returned to Denmark in 1726 at the latest, and six years later he succeeded his father as town musician in Aarhus. Clara Guldberg Ravn mentions that he was active as a composer at the time, probably writing some of the sonatas performed here. At some time he left his position in Aarhus and started to travel. As six sonatas, dated 1748, are dedicated to Friedrich von Mecklenburg-Schwerin, he probably spent some time in Germany. His name appears again in Copenhagen in 1754. From this time onwards he regularly played the flute in the Hofviolinbanden, whose principal violinist was his brother Christian. In 1766 he died and was buried in the German church in Copenhagen.
The fifteen sonatas Raehs has left are preserved in two collections. The six sonatas dedicated to the above-mentioned Friedrich von Mecklenburg-Schwerin are preserved in the Mecklenburgische Landesbibliothek in Schwerin (called here the 'Schwerin manuscript'). The second sonata of this set has been omitted here, as it is practically identical to the Sonata No. 7 from the Giedde Collection. The latter contains 1,230 works for flute, 665 of which are printed, and is part of the Royal Library in Copenhagen.
The sonatas are a mixture of baroque elements and features which we know from the galant idiom and the Empfindsamkeit. The latter probably don't manifest themselves that clearly due to the use of a recorder instead of a transverse flute (more about that in a moment). The texture of the sonatas already suggests that they are moving between the different styles in vogue in Raehs's time. Some come in four movements, following the Corellian model: slow-fast-slow-fast. Others are in three movements, and these can be divided into two categories. One is in the order fast-slow-fast, the other in the order slow-fast-fast. The fast movements have sometimes the addition moderato.
Several movements are sets of variations: obviously the closing movement of the Sonata in D (Giedde Coll., No. 2), called menuetto con variat[ioni], but also the closing allegro of the Sonata in G (Giedde Coll., No. 5), and the moderato that closes the Sonata in D (Schwerin ms, No. 6). Some movements have written-out ornaments, which offers interesting information about the ornamentation practice at the time. A remarkable movement is the andante alternat[ivo] from the Sonata in a minor (Schwerin-ms, No. 5): each note, except a few upbeats and the final notes, has a trill notated above it.
These sonatas are remarkable works: very well-written, often technically challenging, and very nice and entertaining to listen to. I find it rather odd that it has taken so long before someone took care of them. Therefore we can only be happy they are now available on disc. Clara Guldberg Ravn, whom I had not heard of before, is an excellent recorder player. She produces a beautiful tone, and I like the way she interprets these sonatas, dynamically differentiated and with nice ornamentation. She creates some tension by now and then slowing down the tempo. With Mats Olofsson, Jonas Nordberg and Anna Paradiso she has congenial partners in the basso continuo. They give substantial impulses which make these performances all the more captivating.
However, there are some serious issues here, and these concern the choice of instruments. First, the recorder. Raehs was a player of the transverse flute. The choice of the voice flute for these sonatas has the advantage that it does not require a transposition. It is true that in Raehs's time the recorder was still quite popular among amateurs, and if these sonatas had been printed, they may have been played by them on the recorder. However, they were never published, and in her liner-notes, Clara Guldberg Ravn suggests that Raehs wrote these sonatas for himself to play. From that angle the choice of the recorder is hard to defend.
Second, the keyboard. In volume one, two sonatas are played with a fortepiano in the basso continuo. Ms Ravn writes: "The fortepiano was developed in the first part of the 18th century and though it did not gain popularity before the second part of that century, one can imagine Raehs experienced a fortepiano during his years in England". This seems complete nonsense. Raehs returned from England in 1726 at the latest. At that time the fortepiano had made its appearance in Italy, but was certainly not generally known. However, in England it made its appearance only in the second half of the 18th century. Only a very few people in England owned a fortepiano before that time, but not earlier than the 1730s/40s. If Raehs had become acquainted with such an instrument, it must have been in Denmark, towards the end of his life, and after he had written his sonatas. However, that certainly would have been another instrument than the Broadwood of 1802 that Anna Paradiso has chosen. Why she did so is a complete mystery to me. It has nothing to do with historical performance practice.
At the second disc, in two sonatas the recorder is accompanied by a clavichord. That is an interesting option, which is not applied very often. It seems likely that the clavichord was regularly used this way in the baroque period, and I wonder whether some research into this matter has been done. In this case, Anna Paradiso plays a clavichord by Pehr Lindholm of 1794. That may be another case of anachronism. A combination of such a clavichord with a transverse flute seems more obvious than with a recorder, which belongs to a different era. I tend to think that the clavichords of the 17th century - the heydays of the recorder - produced a somewhat different sound than an instrument of the late 18th century.
I stick to my positive assessment of these discs with regard to repertoire and performance, but at the same time I am hoping for a complete recording with a transverse flute and a more appropriate line-up of the basso continuo group.
Johan van Veen (© 2022)
Relevant links:
Jonas Nordberg
Anna Paradiso
Clara Guldberg Ravn