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Carl STAMITZ (1745 - 1801): Symphonies and Trios
[I] "Le Jour Variable - Four Symphonies"
Kölner Akademie
Dir: Michael Alexander Willens
rec: Dec 6 - 8, 2019, Cologne, Deutschlandfunk (Kammermusiksaal)
CPO - 555 344-2 (© 2021) (65'39")
Liner-notes: E/D
Cover, track-list & booklet
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La promenade royal - Symphonie figurée in G;
Symphony in d minor, op. 15,1;
Symphony in E flat, op. 6,2;
Symphony in G, op. 2,3
Annie Laflamme, Flavia Hirte, transverse flute;
Christopher Palameta, Ales Ambrosi, oboe;
Erwin Wieringa, Gijs Lacuelle, horn;
Hannah Schledorn, Elsa Scheidig, trumpet;
Jakob Lehmann, Angie Agudelo, Maya Enokida, Katarina Todorovic, Luna Oda, Katja Suglobina, Won Ki Kim, Liudmila Sevostyanova, Laura van der Goltz, Yuko Matsumoto, violin;
Bettina Ecken, Angel Munoz Vella, viola;
Olaf Reimers, Églantine Latil, cello;
Alon Portal, Clothilde Guyon, double bass;
Koen Plaetinck, timpani
[II] "Six Trios, Op. 14"
L'Apothéose
rec: March 28 - 31, 2022, York, National Centre for Early Music
Linn Records - CKD 684 (© 2023) (70'00")
Liner-notes: E
Cover, track-list & booklet
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Trio in G, op. 14,1;
Trio in C, op. 14,2;
Trio in F, op. 14,3;
Trio in g minor, op. 14,4;
Trio in F, op. 14,5;
Trio in A, op. 14,6
Laura Quesada, transverse flute;
Víctor Martínez, violin;
Carla Sanfélix, cello;
Asís Márquez, harpsichord
Scores
In 1772 the English music journalist Charles Burney visited Mannheim and wrote about the court orchestra: "There are more solo players and good composers in this, than perhaps in any other orchestra in Europe; it is an army of generals, equally fit to plan a battle, as to fight it." The orchestra was the breeding ground of what has become known as the 'Mannheim School'. One of the best-known features of the school's style is the orchestral crescendo.
The Mannheim School figures in every history of music, but the music itself is not part of the standard repertoire of today's orchestras, not even of those in the field of historical performance practice. There are plenty recordings of the symphonies and concertos of, for instance, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, but the number of recordings of music by composers of the Mannheim School is relatively limited. These two discs with music by Carl Stamitz prove that this is a part of 18th-century music that deserves to be thoroughly explored.
Carl Stamitz was the eldest son of Johann Stamitz, who is considered the founder of the Mannheim School. During the 1740s Carl Theodor, Elector of the Palatinate, attracted some of the best musicians of the time, like the composer Franz Xaver Richter, the flautist Johann Baptist Wendling and the oboist Alexander Lebrun. Johann Stamitz, a violinist, also entered his service, and he was responsible not only for the development of the court orchestra into one of the best of Europe, but also in the establishment of a particular style. Carl received his early musical education from his father and entered the orchestra himself in 1761. Nine years later he left Mannheim and travelled through Europe as a virtuoso on the violin, the viola and the viola d'amore. In many countries and cities he performed, and only in some he remained for a longer time. One of them was The Hague, another Paris, where he and his brother Anton regularly performed at the Concert Spirituel. The fact that for most of his life after his Mannheim period he was without a permanent position, made life not easy. Towards the end of the century he was tired of travelling and looked for some post, but to no avail. During the last five years he lived in Jena, where he acted as music teacher at the University. It did not prevent him from being poor and heavily indebted when he died in 1801.
As far as I know, the first disc to be reviewed here is only the second with symphonies played on period instruments. In 2010 CPO released a disc with four symphonies, performed by l'arte del mondo under the direction of Werner Ehrhardt. Fortunately only one piece appears on both discs, but considering that both were released by CPO, someone at the office should have suggested to omit the Symphony in d minor, as that work was also recorded by Ehrhardt. It is a remarkable work in that it is one of only two of Stamitz's 49 symphonies that is in minor. Moreover, the two fast movements - marked presto and prestissimo respectively - are through-composed and lack any repeat marks. Manfred Fechner, in his liner-notes, calls it an example of Sturm und Drang. Notable are the tremolos in the low strings in the fast movements, whereas the andante in the centre has a cantabile character. The symphony was published as the third of the Op. 15, but it is performed here in the manuscript version preserved as part of the library of the court of Thurn und Taxis, in which the scoring has been extended with two trumpets and timpani.
In France Stamitz was highly respected. There he regularly played at the Concert Spirituel, and the Paris publisher Sieber printed the two collections of symphonies Op. 2 and Op. 6 respectively, from which two pieces on this disc have been taken. The three symphonies Op. 2 came from the press in 1768; the printed edition has been lost, but the first and third symphonies have been preserved in manuscript. It is notable that the Symphony No. 3 in G is one of the very few that comes in four movements; the third is a minuet and trio, which seldom appears in Stamitz's oeuvre. It is scored for two oboes, two horns and strings, but in the andante the winds are omitted. All four movements are in two parts.
In 1771 Sieber published the six symphonies Op. 6; again the manuscript version of the Symphony No. 2 in E flat from the Thurn und Taxix library has been used for this recording. We hear here the typical features of the Mannheim style. However, Fechner mentions that Stamitz also pays tribute to the Parisian style, "in the fact that throughout, a five-voice string section (with Viola I and II) is seen as the 'norm'". The same is the case with the Symphony in d minor as well as the La promenade royale/Symphonie figurée, which closes this disc. It was performed in 1772 in Versailles, and it is a piece of programmatic music of the kind that may never have been heard in France before. It is scored for a large orchestra of two transverse flutes (alternating with piccolo flutes), two oboes, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. It is in four movements, each of which depicts a stage of the day. Le Jour variable, used as the title of this disc, is the title of the manuscript of this work which has survived in the former Weimar State Library of Thuringia. It opens with a Pastorale, with the title 'Le beau Matin' (The beautiful morning), and then in the next movement the entire orchestra participates in 'La Tempête', the storm, which many listeners may remind of Beethoven's Pastoral symphony. The love of composers of the Mannheim School for large dynamic contrasts is fitting here. The third movement is then very different as it depicts the night ('La Nuit obscure'). It includes chromaticism, and the violins play with mute. The last movement is called 'La Chasse', and includes twelve different tempo indications in order to depict the hunt. Obviously the two horns play a major role here. I referred to Beethoven; in no way this piece is inferior to the latter's 6th Symphony, despite the difference in aesthetics.
The Kölner Akademie under the direction of Michael Alexander Willens has produced a magnificent disc, which makes Stamitz's music shine and shows that he was a very good and important composer. It is to be hoped that more of his orchestral music is going to be recorded. Willens and his team would be the ideal interpreters. In these performances not only the orchestral playing is of the highest order, but the members of the orchestra also shine in the episodes in which some instruments come forward. This is a disc that lovers of orchestral music may regularly return to.
Whereas orchestral music was written for professional orchestras and was probably also played by musical societies of amateurs of more than average skills, composers produced large amounts of chamber music for the growing number of amateurs. They looked for trios and quartets for the most common instruments of the time, which - apart of the violin - was especially the transverse flute. From the second quarter of the 18th century such music was mostly written in the galant idiom. That is also the case with the Six trios à une flute ou deux violons et violoncello obligé, which were published in London around 1780. They were advertised in a paper in 1777. At that time Stamitz, who performed across Europe, was in London, where he played with Johann Christian Bach. The liner-notes don't mention it, but it seems reasonable to assume that he may have participated in the famous Bach-Abel concerts. The advertisement mentions that Stamitz's compositions "have met with universal
approbation", which may well explain why a London publisher decided to print the trios.
They are typical specimens of the galant style. All but one of them are in major; the exception is the Trio No. 4, which has the traces of the Sturm und Drang. It is one of three which have only two movements, whereas the other three come in three. The last movement is either a rondo or a minuet. These trios reflect the ideal of the time: music as a galant conversation.
The title is not entirely clear as far as the scoring is concerned. The two upper parts can be played either on two violins or on transverse flute and violin. The cello is mostly used as a foudation, but sometimes takes a more substantial part. This explains the addition that the cello part is obbligatory. The performers make also use of a harpsichord, although it is not very clearly audible. This may raise questions, as the title of the trios does not refer to a keyboard or the basso continuo practice. However, a look at the cello part shows that it is figured, which indicates that Stamitz took account of the traditional 'baroque' way of performing a bass part. This was quite common at the time: the earliest string quartets sometimes also had a figured bass part, which allowed performers to use a keyboard.
This is not music to be listened to at a stretch. That does not mean that it is no good music. It certainly is, but it was not meant to be listened to in the first place, and because of its largely entertaining character, it should be treated as such. It is advisable to listen to a few trios in a sitting, and return to this disc later. Then one may enjoy it, thanks to the composer and also the members of L'Apothéose, who have perfectly grabbed the nature of these pieces. A few years ago they made their recording debut with a disc with chamber music by Handel, which I found not very adventurous as far as the repertoire is concerned, but liked very much with regard to the interpretation. This disc confirms their qualities. The fact that they decided to record some chamber music by Stamitz, who - as I stated earlier - has so far not received the interest he deserves, cannot be appreciated enough. This is an ensemble to keep an eye on. I am looking forward to their next projects.
Johan van Veen (© 2023)
Relevant links:
Kölner Akademie
L'Apothéose