musica Dei donum
CD reviews
German baroque overtures & concertos
[I] "Thomascantors in dialogue"
Thomas Triesschijn, recorder
The Counterpoints XL
rec: August 9 - 12, 2021, Amsterdam, Waalse Kerk
Challenge Classics - CC72903 (© 2021) (68'34")
Liner-notes: E
Cover & track-list
Spotify
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750):
Concerto for recorder, strings and bc in E (after Concerto for oboe, strings and bc in D, BWV 1053R);
Johann Friedrich FASCH (1688-1758):
Concerto for recorder, strings and bc (FWV L,F6);
Christoph GRAUPNER (1683-1760):
Concerto for recorder, strings and bc in F (GWV 323);
Georg Philipp TELEMANN (1681-1767):
Overture for recorder, strings and bc in a minor (TWV 55,a2)
Matthea de Muynck, Elise Dupont, violin;
Yoshiko Morita, viola;
Petr Hamouz, cello;
Alon Portal, double bass;
Inga Maria Klaucke, bassoon;
Guilio Quirici, theorbo, guitar;
Aljosja Mietus, harpsichord;
Marianna Soroka, percussion
[II] Johann Sebastian BACH, Georg Philipp TELEMANN: Overtures
Roberto Gini, viola da gambaa
Ensemble Baroque du Léman
Dir: Roberto Gini
rec: Feb 3, 2013, Vevey (CH), Hôtel des Trois Couronnes (Salle Saint-Saëns)
Aulicus Classics - ALC 0062 (© 2021) (72'13")
Liner-notes: E
Cover, track-list & booklet
Spotify
Johann Sebastian BACH:
Overture No. 3 in D (BWV 1068);
Overture No. 4 in D (BWV 1069);
Georg Philipp TELEMANN:
Overture for viola da gamba, strings and bc in D (TWV 55,D6)a
[III] "Two orchestral suites, three arias"
Helena Ek, sopranoa
Karlsson Barock
Dir: Göran Karlsson
rec: June 21 - 24, 2021, Kville kyrka
Footprint - FRCD 127 (© 2022) (69'41")
Liner-notes: E; lyrics - translations: E
Cover, track-list & booklet
Spotify
Johann Sebastian BACH:
Overture No. 1 in C (BWV 1066);
George Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759):
Alcina (HWV 34) (Di, cor mio; Tornami a vagheggiar)a;
Georg Philipp TELEMANN:
Overture for three oboes, strings and bc in C (TWV 55,C6);
Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741):
Farnace (RV 711) (Gelido in ogni vena)a
Ulf Bjurenhed, Kyoko Nakazawa, oboe;
Sven Aarflot, oboe, bassoon;
Sara Uneback, Marie-Louise Marming, Julia Dagerfelt, Eva Lindal, Robert Marberg, Pernilla Berg, Rebecka Karlsson, Gabriel Bania, violin;
Elin Sydhagen, Elsbeth Bergh, viola;
Kristina Lindgård, Ingrid Andersson Kjellsdotter, cello;
Yngve Malcus, double bass
Göran Karlsson, harpsichord
When the music of Johann Sebastian Bach was rediscovered, he was nearly the only composer of the German high Baroque whose works were known and performed. Telemann was known, but he was unfavourably compared with Bach, and considered second best. In the early 20th century Hugo Riemann shed light on a third composer: Johann Friedrich Fasch. However, it took a long time before his music was given serious attention. It is only in the last thirty years or so that these three are joined by Christoph Graupner. To bring them together, as Thomas Triesschijn has done in his recording of overtures and concertos, makes much sense. They were contemporaries, their paths crossed and all four were taken into consideration to succeed Johann Kuhnau as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, after the latter's death in 1722.
The overture is the common denominator in the recordings reviewed here. This was a popular genre, which had its origins in France. The name is derived from the opening movement, ouverture, which opened each opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully, the creator of French opera under Louis XIV. One of the features of his operas was the inclusion of dances, which were played at several moments during the performance, and which were danced, sometimes by the Sun King himself. German composers liked to create orchestral works, which opened with an ouverture, after which a series of dances were played. The basic scoring of such works was for two oboes, bassoon, strings and basso continuo. However, the scoring and form were not fixed, and composers could derive from them. Georg Philipp Telemann regularly did so, for instance by including a solo part for a particular instrument. The result was a hybrid form: a mixture of French overture and Italian solo concerto.
The best-known specimen of such a hybrid form is the Overture in a minor, in which the recorder has a solo part. The Italian influence is specified in the third movement, which is called air à l'italien, which is in ABA form: largo - allegro - largo. Telemann also liked to include character pieces; here it is the second, called Les Plaisirs, which is in fact a bourrée. As Telemann was also very much interested in traditional music, the last movement refers to Poland: polonoise. The popularity of this work explains why there are so many recordings in the catalogue. Does this performance has anything new to offer? Yes, but not in a good way: in the overture and many dances Triesschijn adds percussion; the polonoise even opens with a solo for the percussion. That was a bad decision: the music does not require it, and its does not add anything substantial. In fact, I find its sound obtrusive, and its participation rather annoying.
The three concertos are specimens of the Italian style. Telemann was rather sceptical about this style, which in his view was too much focused on brilliance and lacked elegance. Even so, he wrote quite a number of concertos for one or more solo instruments. Bach was different: he studied the music of Vivaldi, the best-known representative of the genre. It resulted in a number of concertos, some of which have been lost. Among them are concertos which Bach later reworked as harpsichord concertos, to be performed in Leipzig in Zimmermanns Kaffeehaus. Some of these concertos have been reconstructed to what they originally might have been. The Concerto in E (BWV 1035) may have been originally conceived as a concerto for oboe. It has been put together from instrumental movements from the cantatas BWV 169 and 49. For this performance on recorder, it has been transposed to D major.
The Concerto in F by Johann Friedrich Fasch was found in a manuscript in the New York Public Library. The fact that the recorder was not the first instrument of professional musicians in the 18th century explains that recorder parts are usually not technically very complicated, but this concerto by Fasch is an exception. This suggests it was written for a highly-skilled recorder player. It follows the Vivaldian pattern of three movements: fast - slow - fast. Notable is the fact that in the slow movement the strings play pizzicato chords from start to finish.
It is often noticed that Christoph Graupner was very much his own man, and that his music has little similarity with that of other composers of his time. This disc clearly attests to this observation: the Concerto in F is very different from the other two concertos, although here the recorder is also accompanied by strings playing pizzicato in the slow movement. There is even hardly any similarity with Telemann's style, although the two masters knew each other well, and most of Telemann's overtures have been preserved in copies made at Darmstadt, where Graupner was Kapellmeister for most of his life. The self-willed nature of Graupner is one of the things that explains the fairly recent fascination for his oeuvre.
Thomas Triesschijn is a very fine recorder player, and I have very much enjoyed his playing here. I like his ornamentation and his approach to the repertoire. One of the features of these performances is the dynamic shading, another one the slowing down at certain moments. They contribute to the dramatic nature of these performances. The strings are excellent. Although all the pieces here are available in several recordings, I would unequivocally welcome this disc, if Triesschijn had omitted that revolting percussion.
In the second of the discs which are the subject of this review, Roberto Gini confines himself to two of the four composers mentioned above, and the best-known of them. In the centre of the programme is another of Telemann's overtures with a solo part, in this case the viola da gamba. That was in many ways a symbol of the French style: in the 17th century it was, alongside the lute, the most revered instrument. And although after 1700 it was gradually overshadowed by the cello, as a result of the increasing influence of the Italian style, it was played until about the middle of the 18th century, and music was written for it. In the oeuvre of Telemann, a strong admirer of the French style, it plays a major role. He wrote twelve fantasias for viola da gamba without accompaniment, and in many chamber music works it has a concertante part. The fact that the viola da gamba has a solo part in the Overture in D attests again to the influence of the Italian style, but as the instrument did not play a role in Italian music, it is treated in a way that is different from that of the recorder in the Overture in a minor. The whole work focuses more on French elegance. It includes some typically French features, especially the addition of a double to the courante.
Bach also contributed to the genre of the orchestral suite. Four such works have come down to us, which were not meant as a cycle. This explains the difference in scoring. In the form known today they date from his time in Leipzig, but when exactly they were conceived is a matter of debate among scholars. It is often assumed that they go back to Bach's years in Cöthen, and were reworked in Leipzig for performances by the Collegium Musicum. Gini selected the third and fourth overtures, which show much similarity in style and scoring. However, there are reasons to believe that the Overture No. 3 was originally conceived as a work for strings and basso continuo, although that is impossible to prove. The fact that in the second movement, the famous air, the violin has a solo role, may support that assumption. The oboes mostly play colla parte with the violins, but sometimes are given more prominence; the trumpets and timpani have a largely decorative function. The Overture No. 4 may originally have been conceived without parts for trumpets and timpani. Here Bach extends the role of the oboes; there are three of them, and they constitute a second 'choir' to the first 'choir' of the strings. The trumpets and timpani may have been added later as a third 'choir'.
There are differences between performers with regard to the treatment of the repeats in the opening ouvertures. Some play the B part only once. Like Triesschijn in Telemann's Overture in a minor, Gini takes all the repeats in the ouvertures, resulting in ABABA. It is common practice these days to omit the repeats in the dacapos of pairs of dances. I don't know what is the reason for that. It is the practice in this recording as well. There are also strong differences in the choice of tempo of the air from Bach's Overture No. 3. Gini takes a relatively fast tempo, a kind of andante, which suits it rather well, not making it too romantic, which is the danger if it is played too slowly. Overall is his choice of tempi convincing; the fast movements are rather speedy. He himself plays the solo part in Telemann's Overture in D, and he does so admirably, with fine ornamentation.
The third disc includes Bach's Overture No. 1, which chronologically may be the third of the four. Here Bach sticks to the traditional scoring for two oboes, bassoon, strings and basso continuo. Again, the oboes mostly double the violins, but the work includes trios for the woodwinds in the French style. The second bourrée is scored for the winds alone.
Telemann is represented with the Overture in C (TWV 55,C6), in which he omits a part for a bassoon, but instead adds a third oboe part. Whereas often - as in Bach's Overtures - the oboes play with the strings, according to French tradition, here they get involved in a dialogue with the strings. They are given episodes to be on their own, and the ouverture even opens with a passage for the oboes, without participation of the strings. This Overture brings us in the theatre. The second movement is called Harlequinade, a reference to the commedia dell'arte. The fifth movement is a sommeil, which often was used in French operas. Imitation was popular in the baroque era, and such pieces regularly appear in Telemann's overtures. Here the fourth movement is called bourée en trompette.
The programme of this disc is rather odd. The two overtures are separated by three opera arias by Handel and Vivaldi respectively. The liner-notes don't explain why the programme was put together this way. Handel's Alcina is one of his most famous operas and many will immediately recognize the arias, especially 'Tornami a vagheggiar'. Vivaldi's operas are not known as well as Handel's, but in the last twenty years or so many of them have been performed in opera houses and on concert platforms, and they are well represented in the CD catalogue. Arias from his operas are often included in recitals. Helena Ek may have, according to the biography in the booklet, quite a busy schedule, I can't remember having heard her before in an extended solo role. I very much like her performances here, which are stylish and avoid the excesses many of her colleagues apply.
Actually, I am more pleased with her singing than with the playing of Karlsson Barock. It is undoubtedly a fine ensemble, and I liked the sound it produces. But the performance is marred by an almost consistent legato; the articulation is not clear enough. I am especially disappointed by the lack of differentiation between good and bad notes. There is little contrast between the two in dynamics. Too often all the notes get equal weight: the bad notes should be played considerably shorter. The instrumental performances are not very speechlike.
Johan van Veen (© 2024)
Relevant links:
Helena Ek
Thomas Triesschijn
Ensemble Baroque du Léman
Karlsson Barock
The Counterpoints