musica Dei donum
CD reviews
The violin in the 17th century
[I] "L'Arte del Virtuoso - Solo Concertos, 1"
Caterva Musica
Dir: Elke & Wolfgang Fabri
rec: June 2 - 4, 2022, Marienmünster, Abtei
MDG 926 2277-6 
(© 2022) (76'58")
Liner-notes: E/D/F
Cover, track-list & booklet
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Nicolò FIORENZA (c1700-1764):
Concerto for cello, strings and bc in F;
Johann Gottlieb (?) GRAUN (1703-1771):
Concerto for viola, strings and bc in E flat (GraunWV Cv:VIII,116);
Johann Joachim QUANTZ (1697-1773):
Concerto for horn and orchestra in D sharp (QV 5);
Johann Melchior MOLTER (1696-1765):
Sinfonia in F;
Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741):
Concerto for recorder, strings and bc in c minor (RV 441)
Oliver Nicolai, horn;
Friedemann Immer, Pedro Henrique Souza Rosa, trumpet;
Susanne Hochscheid, recorder;
Constanze Kästner, Junko Miki, transverse flute;
Hans-Heinrich Kriegel, oboe;
Margit Baranyai, bassoon;
Elke Fabri, Katharina Fabri, violin;
Wolfgang Fabri, violin, viola;
Michael Glatz, viola;
Imola Gombos, cello;
Christian Zincke, violone;
Yuichi Sasaki, lute;
Gülen Ada Tanir, harpsichord;
Frithjof Koch, timpani
[II] "L'Arte de Virtuoso - Solo Concertos, 4"
Caterva Musica
Dir: Elke & Wolfgang Fabri
rec: June 6 & Oct 28, 2022; Feb 4 & 5, 2023
MDG - 926 2318-6 (© 2024) (70'18")
Liner-notes: E/D/F
Cover, track-list & booklet
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Johann Christian BACH (1735-1782):
Concerto for bassoon and orchestra in B flat (Warb C 83);
Joseph MECK (1690-1759):
Concerto for organ, strings and bc (after Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748), Concerto del Signr. Meck, appropriato all'Organo; ed J.F. Doppelbauer);
Giovanni Battista PERGOLESI (1710-1736):
L'Olimpiade (sinfonia);
Georg Philipp TELEMANN (1681-1767):
Ouverture à la Pastorelle in F (TWV 55,F7);
Sinfonia in G 'Grillensinfonie' (TWV 50,1);
Antonio VIVALDI:
Concerto for viola d'amore, strings and bc in D (RV 392)
Pedro H. de Souza Rosa, Sanae Kimata, trumpet;
Oliver Nicolai, Maria Vornhusen, horn;
Constanze Kästner, piccolo, transverse flute;
Junko Miki, transverse flute;
Hans-Heinrich Kriegel, Paul van der Linden, Wolfgang Dey, oboe;
Lisa Shklyaver, chalumeau;
Rainer Johannsen, Rebecca Mertens, bassoon;
Wolfgang Fabri, Katharina Fabri, violin;
Elke Fabri, violin, viola, viola d'amore;
Magnus Döhler, Michael Glatz, viola;
Imola Gombos, cello;
Jean-Michel Forest, Jörg Lühring, Christian Zincke, double bass;
Yuichi Sasaki, lute;
Lucius Rühl, Ada Tanir, harpsichord;
Michael Goede, organ;
Frithjof Koch, timpani
It is always nice to get to know an ensemble that one has not heard before. According to the information in the booklets of the two discs reviewed here, the ensemble Caterva Musica was founded in 1998, and has performed more than 120 different concert programmes during its existence. Surprisingly, I have never heard any concert, even though I frequently listen to live and recorded concerts on German classical channels. Anyway, better late than never. My first acquaintance with the ensemble was the fourth volume in a series of recordings of solo concertos for the MDG label. A little later I could lay my hands on the first volume. If the two volumes in between them somehow come my way, I am going to review them, as the two that I have heard show that this is an ensemble of excellent qualities.
The programmes are interesting in that they are a mixture of familiar and - mainly - unfamiliar pieces. The titles of "Solo Concertos" don't entirely cover the programmes, as both discs include pieces which cannot be reckoned among this genre. Both discs are devoted to the baroque period, but also point in the direction of the style of the classical period.
The first volume opens with what can be called an 'evergreen': one of Antonio Vivaldi's recorder concertos. As the heydays of the recorder were more or less over when the genre of the solo concerto became fashionable, not that many recorder concertos are available to recorder players of our time. As the recorder in the 18th century was mostly played by amateurs, there is not that much music which is technically challenging. Vivaldi's concertos, probably written for the girls of the Ospedale della Pietà, are exceptions, as one may expect from Vivaldi. The Concerto in c minor is also a demonstration of the form of the concerto that was largely the invention of Vivaldi, known as the ritornello form, in which solo and tutti episodes alternate. The solo instrument is mostly primus inter pares. A notable feature of Vivaldi's concertos is the fact that in the slow movements the scoring is reduced to the solo instrument accompanied by the basso continuo.
Johann Sebastian Bach was one of those non-Italian masters who carefully studied Italian concertos, including those by Vivaldi. He used the ritornello form in his own instrumental compositions. Another token of his interest in the Italian style are his arrangements of concertos for harpsichord and organ. It was an aristocrat, Johann Ernst Prince of Saxe-Weimar, who was largely responsible for Bach's becoming acquainted with the Italian concerto. He was the second son of Johann Ernst IX of the Ernestine branch of the Saxon house of Wettin. He was educated at the violin and received keyboard lessons from Johann Gottfried Walther. In February 1711 Johann Ernst left for the Netherlands to further his education. In Amsterdam he heard Jan Jacob de Graaf, organist of the Nieuwe Kerk, who used to play Italian solo concertos in his own adaptations for organ. This made such an impression on the young prince that he started to collect Italian concertos. Many of such works were published by Roger in Amsterdam. After his return to Weimar, Johann Ernst started to compose concertos in that style and asked his teacher Walther and Bach - who from 1708 to 1717 was court organist - to arrange them for organ or harpsichord. One of Walther's arrangements, the Concerto del Signr. Meck, is included in the first volume, but not it Walther's version. Meck has left a small number of vocal and instrumental works. The concertos which he published as his Op. 1 found a wide dissemination, which indicates that they were appreciated. The concerto that Walther transcribed, is not part of it, and has been lost. Several attempts to reconstruct it have been made, and here we hear such a reconstruction from the pen of J.F. Doppelbauer from 1983. He turned it into a concerto for organ and strings; in New Grove, it is suggested that it was originally a violin concerto, and given that he at first worked as a violinist, this seems the most likely option. Even so, it is a nice piece as it comes here.
This piece is appropriately followed by another concerto by Vivaldi, from a part of his oeuvre that is probably not that well-known: concertos for the viola d'amore, an intrument that Vivaldi played himself. Someone who attended a performance of Antonio Vivaldi in Cento in 1717, wrote. "On this day, a remarkable opportunity presented itself: one of the foremost violinists of Venice, a certain Dr Antonio Vivaldi - a famous composer who in addition to the violin also plays a kind of viola with twelve strings, known as the viola d'amore - happened to be passing through here, and was intending to play the latter instrument at Vespers in the above-mentioned church, which was so packed that people were practically coming to blows in their efforts to gain entrance and the crowd spilled out halfway across the street. He played (...) in such an exquisite manner that I have never heard its like since". One may be surprised to learn that Vivaldi played the viola d'amore which was generally appreciated because of its sweet sound, and often associated with night - in short, an instrument most suitable to play music of a rather intimate and introspective kind. And that is not what one immediately associates with Vivaldi, in particular with the often very virtuoso violin concertos in mind. However, his oeuvre includes no fewer than eight concertos with a solo part for the viola d'amore.
With Nicolò Fiorenza we leave Venice and turn to Naples. From 1743 to 1762 Fiorenza taught the violin, cello and double bass at the conservatory of S. Maria del Loreto in Naples. In 1762 he was dismissed from his position, because he maltreated his students. He wasn't only volatile, he even used violence. It was at the same conservatory that he had received his training as a musician under Giancarlo Cailò and Francesco Barbella, who belonged to the most famous violinists of their time. Otherwise very little is known about his early years as a musician. A number of his concertos are dated between 1726 and 1728, and it is assumed his preserved compositions all date from the period 1727 to 1738. From that time on he seems to have composed nothing. Fiorenza composed seven concertos for the cello, a popular instrument in Naples. They show a certain similarity with the concertos of Leonardo Leo, in particular in the lyricism which is dominating in the slow movements. In the fast movements lyric passages are alternated with dramatic and often virtuosic episodes including double stopping and passage work. The opening movement of the Concerto in F is a good example: the ripieno starts in a fast tempo, and after a dramatic pause, the cello enters, playing an episode in a moderate tempo. In the second movement the cello opens the proceedings.
Staying in the baroque period, we come to Georg Philipp Telemann. Although he was rather sceptical about the Italian solo concerto, and generally preferred the French style, he did compose a large number of concertos for one or several instruments. However, in the first volume we get two pieces of different genres. The Sinfonia in G, nicknamed Grillensinfonie, is originally called Concert à neuf parties. It is scored for piccolo flute, transverse flute, oboe, chalumeau, two double basses, strings and basso continuo. The chalumeau was invented at the end of the 17th century and enjoyed a relatively short bloom, until it was overshadowed by the clarinet. That does not make it a precursor of the clarinet, as Joachim Gresch states in the liner-notes: for some time they co-existed. Like Graupner, Telemann was one of the main promoters of this instrument. It attests to Telemann's willingness to break fresh ground, and so is his inclusion of parts for two double basses. They have extended solo episodes in the opening movement. Equally unusual is the role of the piccolo. In the closing movement the influence of folk music from Poland and Moravia manifests itself.
The Ouverture à la Pastorelle in F is scored for strings and basso continuo. It gives food for different interpretations of what its meaning is. "Georg Philipp Telemann's Ouverture à la Pastorelle is the musical realization of a "Pastorelle", a type of medieval poem dealing with the courtship of a shepherdess by a knight, which developed into the pastoral plays of the Baroque and Rococo periods", Joachim Gresch writes. The piece is also part of a recording with Christmas cantatas, directed by Pál Németh (Hungaroton, 2008), where it is interpreted as a Christmas piece. It is pointed out that the opening ouverture has a ternary structure, as usual, but without the dotted rhythms that are typical of French overtures. Instead "we hear gentle Christmas music of a clearly pastoral character in Section A, where the accompaniment imitates the bagpipes (...). The dances that follow the overture all contain simple, mainly chordal music and are frequently rustic in character". Gresch rather sees these dances as expressions of Telemann's sense of humour. Who is right? That is impossible to say. It results in different interpretations. To my surprise, it seems not to have been recorded that frequently; only a few recordings are available.
Although Telemann is generally counted among the branch of 'baroque' composers, in his later works we find elements which point in the direction of the classical style. And that brings us to the remaining works on these two discs, some of which include a mixture of baroque elements and features of the styles that gradually overturned it. The most 'baroque' composer, if we look at the year of his death, is Johann Melchior Molter. However, the Sinfonia in F - unfortunately called "symphony" in the tracklist, which evoke wrong associations - has little in common with the traditional baroque style. It is a piece in five movements, none of which is really slow. The scoring is unusual: two transverse flutes, oboe, two trumpets, timpani, strings and basso continuo. However, it is especially the timpani that is remarkable: no fewer than five are required, and they play an obbligato role. There are episodes where they play such a role that one may call this a concerto for timpani and orchestra. Molter is one of those composers who has not been given the attention he deserves. The inclusion of this work is of great importance.
Johann Joachim Quantz was a representative of the new style that manifested itself from the 1730s onwards, known as the 'galant' style. That was the style his employer Frederick the Great, who was his flute pupil, preferred. The largest part of Quantz's compositional oeuvre consists of sonatas and concertos for the flute, but he also wrote music for other instruments, such as the horn. His Concerto in D sharp is remarkable and a token of new times. In the baroque period the horn was seldom used in a concertante role. Johann Sebastian Bach's inclusion of horn parts in his first Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 was revolutionary, and later the court orchestra in Dresden was proud of its horn players. Quantz's concerto attests to the emancipation of the horn, which was to become an important and popular instrument in the classical period. In this concerto the oboe also plays an important role; especially in the first and second movements it is almost the counterpart of the horn, making the work a kind of double concerto.
Another instrument that was seldom used in a concertante role in the baroque era, was the bassoon. That is to say: it was seldom used as such in Germany. Vivaldi wrote a large number of bassoon concertos. In Germany it was Christoph Graupner who composed some bassoon concertos, inspired by the presence of the bassoon virtuoso Johann Christian Klotsch, who in 1735 became a member of the orchestra at the court in Darmstadt, where Graupner was Kapellmeister. He composed four solo concertos and allocated the instrument obbligato parts in some cantatas. On the first disc we find a solo concerto from the pen of Johann Christian Bach. He was an important figure in the London music scene in the second half of the 18th century. He organized the Bach-Abel concerts, where virtuosos from across Europe played the latest music. Johann Christian has written two bassoon concertos. The Concerto in B flat has survived in two different sources, one with and one without horn parts; the latter is the version played here. Edward Warburton, the JC Bach specialist, assumes that this concerto has been written in the mid-1770s, but for whom is unknown. Whereas the other bassoon concerto was originally conceived for another instrument, this concerto seems to be intended for the bassoon. It points in the direction of the classical style, and it is different from the 'light' galant idiom that is usually associated with Johann Christian. All three movements close with a cadenza.
The remaining piece to be discussed is the Concerto in E flat for viola, strings and basso continuo by Johann Gottlieb Graun. Like his brother Carl Heinrich, he was in the service of Frederick the Great. Performers who want to pay attention to their music have to deal with a problem which will probably never be solved. Their instrumental works are mostly signed with "di Graun" or "del Signor Graun". It is hardly possible to discern the compositions of the two brothers with any amount of certainty. If the authorship is uncertain, the number in the catalogue has the addition "v". That is also the case with this concerto. Given that Johann Gottlieb was a violinist by profession, and that violinists mostly also played the viola, it seems likely that he is indeed the composer. The viola was also an instrument that seldom played a concertante role. Again, Bach was a pioneer in that he gave it much prominence in the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6. Telemann was the first who composed a concerto for viola; he also wrote one for two violas. Graun composed his Concerto in E flat probably in the 1760, in a style that is typical of the mid-18th century in Berlin. The solo part is demanding and written for a virtuoso; did Graun it write for his own use? The work also includes elements of the 'galant' idiom.
As I wrote at the start of this review, the programmes of these two discs consist of a mixture of familiar and unfamiliar pieces. Graun's concerto is one of the latter category; I could not find any other recording. Quantz's horn concerto and Johann Christian Bach's bassoon concerto are available in other recordings, but are certainly not very well-known. Even Telemann's works are not among his best-known. From that perspective these discs deserve the attention of any music lover and are substantial additions to the discography. Add to that the fine performances by Caterva Musica, of which I hope to hear more. The ensemble is excellent, and the performances of the solo parts are outstanding.
Johan van Veen (© 2024)
Relevant links:
Caterva Musica