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Georg Christoph WAGENSEIL (1715 - 1777): Trios
[I] "Six Sonatas for Violin, Cello and Violone"
Musica Elegentia
rec: August 2020, Salle (PE), Chiesa del Santissimo Salvatore (Chiesa del Santissimo Salvatore)
Challenge Classics - CC72896 (© 2022) (56'48")
Liner-notes: E
Cover, track-list & booklet
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Sonata I in F;
Sonata II in G;
Sonata III in D;
Sonata IV in C;
Sonata V in d minor;
Sonata VI in B flat
Paola Nervi, violin;
Antonio Coloccia, cello;
Matteo Cicchitti, violone
[II] "Trio Sonatas"
Ensemble Klingekunst
rec: July 25 - 28, 2020, Vienna, Kollegium Kalksburg (chapel)
CPO - 555 406-2 (© 2022) (56'31")
Liner-notes: E/D
Cover, track-list & booklet
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Trio No. 1 in F;
Trio No. 4 in g minor;
Trio No. 6 in G;
Trio No. 7 in E flat;
Trio No. 9 in G;
Trio No. 20 in B flat;
Trio No. 17 in D
Sieglinde Größinger, transverse flute;
Dimitris Karakantas, violin;
Pavel Serbin, cello;
Maja Mijatović, harpsichord
There was a time that the music written between the late Baroque and the classical period was largely ignored, with the exception of the sons of Bach. That time has gone, but there are still composers who are given little attention. Georg Christoph Wagenseil is one of them. Over many years of reviewing, only a few discs with his music have crossed my path.
Wagenseil was born and stayed all his life in Vienna, although during the course of his career he travelled twice to Italy for performances of his operas. In 1739 he was appointed as composer to the imperial court at the recommendation of Johann Joseph Fux who had a high opinion of him. This was shared by many in his time; the number of his compositions which were printed bears witness to that. His operas were performed at Eisenstadt, when Haydn was at the helm of the court chapel, and Mozart played one of his organ concertos and several of his keyboard works in public concerts. Although he composed in most genres in vogue in his time he was first and foremost a keyboard virtuoso and a sought-after teacher. Among his pupils were Leopold Hofmann and Franz Xaver Dussek.
It does not surprise that the keyboard plays a key role in his oeuvre. The organ concertos are among his best-known works. In 1766 a Viennese publication stated: "Concerti played on the keyboard (Clavier) are usually so thin that one cannot endure it for long. The art of giving a kind of singing quality to the keyboard with the help of the strings is part of Wagenseil's excellence". However, Wagenseil's oeuvre also includes vocal music - operas, secular cantatas, oratorios, masses and other liturgical music - as well as instrumental music, from symphonies to duets.
Musica Elegentia focuses on a collection of music which is a specimen of an important genre in the second half of the 18th century: the divertimento. Although the six sonatas which are the subject of this recording bear the name of sonata, they are not any different. They date from around the 1750s, and are scored for violin, cello and double bass. They are all in major keys - but four of them have a slow movement in a minor key - and consist of three movements. The last is always the shortest, and often has the character of a Kehraus; three of them are minuets.
The role of the three instruments is different. Music of an entertaining character was usually a kind of conversation between the various instruments. Here the violin and the cello are involved in a musical dialogue, which is kept under control by the double bass, which keeps the rhythm. The cello often initiates the thematic material, to which the violin reacts. This kind of music was not intended for virtuosos, but rather for semi-professional or good amateurs players. This means that one won't hear any technically demanding episodes. If there are hints of virtuosity, they are in the violin part.
The title of the collection mentions contrabasso as the lowest instrument, but the bass part simply says basso. Giorgio Pagannone, in his liner-notes, suggests this may refer to the basso continuo practice of the baroque era. It would be interesting to know whether the bass parts are figured, but that is not mentioned in the liner-notes and I have no access to the scores. Music from the mid-18th century is often moving between old and new practices: some string quartets seem to allow for a performance of the bass part with a keyboard instrument. In this case the bass part is written an octave above how it really sounds, which is a typical feature of double bass parts. This can be taken as an indication that the double bass is the preferred instrument here.
Diverting music was intended for performance in private surroundings, the rooms of an aristocratic palace or the salons of the higher bourgeoisie, but also outside, for instance in a garden. The performers aimed at recreating such an environment. "[We] wanted to simulate a real live performance, as in an authentic eighteenth-century
'domestic academy', with a sound that is as natural as possible. The acoustics of the venue, which has an optimal level of reverberation, makes the three instruments involved perfectly distinguishable and preserves their individual qualities and specificities." That works rather well here. This disc is nearly an hour of musical entertainment by three distinguished players, who take the music seriously, but don't try to make more of it than it aims to offer.
The second disc also includes trios, but then of a different kind. The six trios that the Ensemble Klingekunst has recorded, are taken from a set of seventeen which have been preserved in manuscript in the Biblioteca Civica Angelo Mai in Bergamo. As there is no title page, it is not known how Wagenseil called them and when they were written. The three parts are indicated with flauto traverso, violino and basso respectively. The composer's name is spelled as Vagenseill, but there can't be any doubt about his identity.
Given the interpretation of the indication basso by the ensemble Musica Elegentia on the disc just reviewed, it is interesting that the Ensemble Klingekunst decided to perform that part in the form of a baroque basso continuo, with cello and harpsichord. As once again the scores are not available I can't check whether there is any reason to do so.
However, these trios are not comparable with the pieces on the previous disc. Those sonatas were of a diverting nature, but the trios the Ensemble Klingekunst recorded are of a more serious character, as the musicologist Dagmar Glüxam points out in her liner-notes. As she is a specialist in musical rhetorics and Affekte, it is this aspect that she gives much attention. She explains on the basis of the use of keys, metre and musical figures the character of the various movements. "[The] great variety of the tonalities used (each of which is tied to specific content), and the constantly changing combinations of tempo, metre, melodic lines, rhythmic structure, dynamics and articulation, already shows that these trio sonatas are extremely multifaceted. They are very much in the aesthetics of the so-called 'sensitive style' [empfindsamer Stil] used near the end of the 18th century. These not only strive towards the depiction of basic affects such as joy or grief, but also various affect nuances (longing, noble or reserved joy, etc.)."
Each trio comprises three movements in the traditional order: fast - slow/moderate - fast. Only one of the trios selected for this recording is in a minor key (No. 4 in g minor). However, in the other trios the slow movements are in minor, except No. 10 (in E flat major). They often constitute a contrast to the fast movements. Examples of musical figures which tell us something about the Affekt the composer wanted to express, are repeated notes in the trios No. 1 and No. 10, which refer to the stile concitato, and the exclamatio - a rising minor sixth - which opens the andante of the Trio No. 7. Other features are dissonances and non-diatonic tones. These elements indicate that these trios are more than mere entertainment.
It is very instructive and interesting to read these notes, and then listen to the performances, in order to try to experience the Affekte that the music aims to communicate. The performances should be instrumental to make this possible, and these performances certainly do just that. The Ensemble Klingekunst has made some recordings in recent years which I greatly appreciated, and its qualities are confirmed here. These are excellent and sensitive interpretations which do justice to the "musical expression of subjective and intimate affects" which, according to Dagmar Glüxam, are characteristic of this kind of music.
The two discs reviewed here document the qualities of Georg Christoph Wagenseil, and are convincing cases for a revival of his oeuvre.
Johan van Veen (© 2023)
Relevant links:
Ensemble Klingekunst
Musica Elegentia