German Baroque Music

[SonicMan46]

Interesting that I left the last post in this thread back in late March! 

Well, my FIRST Graupner discs arrived today - just left a post in the 'listening thread' (quoted below) - also found a fabulous site devoted to this extremely prolific but 'forgotten' Baroque composer - check out the link which includes a listing of his own catalog, i.e. GWV numbers!  My GOD, the guy wrote over 1400 'sacred cantatas' alone - have none!  Of course, the Soly recordings of the harpsichord works are another 'in depth' exploration of this composer - will there be a 'box set'?

But back to my first recordings below - both are w/ 'period' instruments and am enjoying these recordings tremendously - look forward to further recommendations & acquisitions!   

A number of new arrivals in the mail today, including a composer NEW to me:

Graupner, Christoph (1683-1760) - a Bach contemporary - actually offered the Leipzig job before JS Bach accepted; CDs below include a 'small' sampling of his prolific output - wind concertos, symphonies, and overtures; according to the liner notes of the first disc shown, he composed 115 symphonies, 80 overtures, 50 concertos, and over 1400 'sacred cantatas'!  And that's not ALL - if interested, checkout THIS SITE, and go to his GWV search to see 'how much' be did write - pretty amazing - he's likely up there w/ Bach & Telemann regarding 'prolificality' (may have just invented that word?) - 

 

[Bogey]

I just put this on my wish list.  It comes out at the end of July:



http://www.amazon.com/Virtuoso-Recorder-Concertos-German-Baroque/dp/B003MPHA1M/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1277744598&sr=8-11

[Coopmv]

I just put this on my wish list.  It comes out at the end of July:



http://www.amazon.com/Virtuoso-Recorder-Concertos-German-Baroque/dp/B003MPHA1M/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1277744598&sr=8-11

Bill,  This looks like an interesting CD ...

[Bogey]

I have been VERY happy with all the CPO cds I have purchased so far for baroque.  Add to this heavy wind element, and I would be shocked if this boy was not a winner, Stuart.

[Antoine Marchand]

First listen:



Johann Jakob Froberger - Suites 1649 & 1656
Christophe Rousset, harpsichord
Instrument: Harpsichord Johannes Couchet 1652, Antwerp, extended in 1701 to include a four-foot stop. Collection Musée de la Musique, Paris
Recorded in February 2007 at the Musée de la Musique, Cité de la Musique, Paris
Ambroisie

How is that?  He did a Froberger disc for L'Oiseau Lyre in his early days.
I'm amazed by Rousset's productivity - but now I want that WTC!
...

Q

Hi, Q. In the past my relationship with Rousset has not been easy, especially when he comes to Bach. However, after listening to this disc three times, I can say that it has seemed to me an exceptional recording. I have loved all of it so far: the interpretation, that wonderful Flemish/French harpsichord, the recorded sound, the artwork and those excellent notes written by Rousset himself.

About the performance: I especially liked  that he doesn't try to push the music forward; the music flows rather naturally in that introspective, melancholic way that I feel totally suitable for Froberger. 

Read, I suppose, in 2006 and forgotten for a long time:

"Previously unknown Froberger manuscript up for auction.

"A major 17th-century manuscript by Johann Jacob Froberger, the foremost German keyboard composer of his day, is to be auctioned at Sotheby's in London on November 30. The estimated price is £300,000-£500,000.

"The previously unrecorded autograph manuscript contains 35 pieces of keyboard music by Froberger (1616-67), none of which is known to exist in autograph anywhere else. Eighteen were previously entirely unknown, and of the other 17 there are differences between the autograph versions and the previously known copies.

"According to Dr Simon Maguire, Sotheby's music manuscript specialist: "We have no record of an autograph manuscript by an earlier major composer appearing at auction and the discovery of this extraordinary volume will open up all sorts of new questions about Froberger, as well as resolving points about the music already known. The 18 new pieces, which amount to over 180 pages of new music and increase the composer's canon of known works by about a fifth, are examples of his hitherto unknown 'final period' and will occupy musical scholarship for years to come. Its discovery will change the history of 17th-century music."

"Born in Stuttgart, Froberger moved to Vienna in the mid-1630s, becoming a court organist. An influence on JS Bach, his music was also known to Mozart.

"Autograph music by 17th-century composers is rare – there is, for instance, no autograph music by Monteverdi. Sotheby's believes that "no comparable 17th-century autograph music manuscript has appeared for sale at auction in living memory" with the single exception of the 22-page autograph of keyboard music by Henry Purcell, which it sold in 1994 for £276,500.

The manuscipt will be on view in New York until November 17, and in London from November 27 to 29".


Read last night in the liner notes written by Rousset for his last disc dedicated to Froberger's music:

"He (Froberger) left only keyboard pieces, with the exception of a few fairly conventional motets which are not very representative of his eminently personal style. There are only a few extant autograph manuscripts, preserved in Vienna and dedicated to his first patron; another autograph that was recently auctioned immediately disappeared into a private collection, thus depriving us of a significant source and of new pieces of fundamental importance for our knowledge of this rare genius".


The subtle irony of the history:

"Shortly before his death, Froberger insisted that his protectress Sybilla of Württemberg should destroy his manuscripts, claiming that no one else would be capable of playing his compositions".

[Opus106]

"Shortly before his death, Froberger insisted that his protectress Sybilla of Württemberg should destroy his manuscripts, claiming that no one else would be capable of playing his compositions".

Oh, what a weirdo.

Thanks for sharing those snippets, Antoine.

[Antoine Marchand]

Thanks for sharing those snippets, Antoine.

You're welcome, Navneeth. Apparently, Froberger's manuscript was sold for £310,400 (about $606,832). 

[Que]

For me this set means a total revindication of Georg Böhm, who was Bach's senior by 24 years and is know for his development of the chorale partita. After my first acquaintance with Georg Böhm's music through Jeffrey Thomas' recording my response to the composer was lukewarm. The saving grace of that recording is that it is played on a lute-harpsichord.
But this is something else. Böhm is showcased as a versatile composer who appears in various guises: sometimes a French influence is prevalent, but one can also clearly hear the influence of Froberger, the more formal style of Buxtehude on other instances, and some fair measures of the Stylus Phantasticus to top things of. In the opening piece this latter style is prominent, the Prelude, Fugue & Postlude with a single repeating bass note under changing harmony. Böhm's music has a dreamy and elusive character with an eccentric quality about it - very, very interesting and enjoyable!
Mitzi Meyerson has a direct but very eloquent hands-on approach - swift and quite rhythmically orientated, ornamented style. I'm curious what her lineage in terms of teachers is, her playing reminds me of her Canadian colleague Geneviève Soly. She plays and appropriately bright and well defined and deep sounding harpsichord by Keith Hill, after Taskin. Strongly recommend to all the resident harpsichord lovers!

Review at Classical Net

http://www.youtube.com/v/ovTuFhZdwP4 http://www.youtube.com/v/uzzFwqMI7g0

Q

[Coopmv]

For me this set means a total revindication of Georg Böhm, who was Bach's senior by 24 years and is know for his development of the chorale partita. After my first acquaintance with Georg Böhm's music through Jeffrey Thomas' recording my response to the composer was lukewarm. The saving grace of that recording is that it is played on a lute-harpsichord.
But this is something else. Böhm is showcased as a versatile composer who appears in various guises: sometimes a French influence is prevalent, but one can also clearly hear the influence of Froberger, the more formal style of Buxtehude on other instances, and some fair measures of the Stylus Phantasticus to top things of. In the opening piece this latter style is prominent, the Prelude, Fugue & Postlude with a single repeating bass note under changing harmony. Böhm's music has a dreamy and elusive character with an eccentric quality about it - very, very interesting and enjoyable!
Mitzi Meyerson has a direct but very eloquent hands-on approach - swift and quite rhythmically orientated, ornamented style. I'm curious what her lineage in terms of teachers is, her playing reminds me of her Canadian colleague Geneviève Soly. She plays and appropriately bright and well defined and deep sounding harpsichord by Keith Hill, after Taskin. Strongly recommend to all the resident harpsichord lovers!


Q

This set arrived from MDT late last week.  I may have a chance to start listening to it later today ...

[SonicMan46]

For me this set means a total revindication of Georg Böhm, who was Bach's senior by 24 years and is know for his development of the chorale partita. After my first acquaintance with Georg Böhm's music through Jeffrey Thomas' recording my response to the composer was lukewarm. The saving grace of that recording is that it is played on a lute-harpsichord.
But this is something else. Böhm is showcased as a versatile composer who appears in various guises: sometimes a French influence is prevalent, but one can also clearly hear the influence of Froberger, the more formal style of Buxtehude on other instances, and some fair measures of the Stylus Phantasticus to top things of. In the opening piece this latter style is prominent, the Prelude, Fugue & Postlude with a single repeating bass note under changing harmony. Böhm's music has a dreamy and elusive character with an eccentric quality about it - very, very interesting and enjoyable!
Mitzi Meyerson has a direct but very eloquent hands-on approach - swift and quite rhythmically orientated, ornamented style. I'm curious what her lineage in terms of teachers is, her playing reminds me of her Canadian colleague Geneviève Soly. She plays and appropriately bright and well defined and deep sounding harpsichord by Keith Hill, after Taskin. Strongly recommend to all the resident harpsichord lovers!..................

Q - recently received this 2-CD set w/ DOUBLE liner notes!  Just have gone through one GOOD listening and am thoroughly enjoying - cannot add to your original elegant comments in the previous post; the harpsichord sound is just excellent - Dave

[Que]

A new issue:



Samples at jpc

After listening to the first track, I was sold! Went on the wish list.

Q

[RJR]

"Maybe the galant Rococo style is overly sophisticated for some tastes (and perceived as superficial ) but I've found no lack of inventiveness, it is rather virtuosic and it can be quite gutsy as well."
Love Rococo.

[FideLeo]

Very early Haydn is German baroque music, no? 

Concerto in C major for organ and orchestra (w/ 2 oboes), Hob. XVIII/1 (1755)


1. Moderato (= tempo ordinario?)
http://www.youtube.com/v/wN5Qbn1WxSE

[Coopmv]

A new issue:



Samples at jpc

After listening to the first track, I was sold! Went on the wish list.

Q

An interesting CD ...

I have to put a moratorium on all CD orders from Europe until my last 6 orders arrived.  Most of my orders were placed over a month or close to a month ago and they ordinarily arrived in about 10 days max.  Those %&#$ idiots at the US homeland security ...   

[Lethevich]

Can anyone suggest some pieces similar to Biber's Rosary Sonatas and Bach's Sonatas & Partitas (especially solo, but also accompanied)?

Edit: Sorry, I forgot to elaborate - what I find in these two pieces is that they are used by the composers as a springboard into a very particular, rather "cosmic" style of composition, which produces music of such esoteric and emotional complexity that sounds timeless. I have heard a lot of violin sonatas by especially Italian and French composers, and none really come close to their "weird" aesthetic that Biber and Bach are able to create. Simultaneously archaic but also ultra modern.

[SonicMan46]

Can anyone suggest some pieces similar to Biber's Rosary Sonatas and Bach's Sonatas & Partitas (especially solo, but also accompanied)?

Edit: Sorry, I forgot to elaborate - what I find in these two pieces is that they are used by the composers as a springboard into a very particular, rather "cosmic" style of composition, which produces music of such esoteric and emotional complexity that sounds timeless. I have heard a lot of violin sonatas by especially Italian and French composers, and none really come close to their "weird" aesthetic that Biber and Bach are able to create. Simultaneously archaic but also ultra modern.

Hello Sara - well I'm not sure 'what' you are looking for in this request, but today I left a post in the 'listening thread' of a new acquisition of the woks of Johann Westhoff quoted below - I've not acquired the 'solo' works of this composer but these were likely the 'first' of this genre, and likely influenced JS Bach in his own solo violin works - later in that thread, Premont responded - some links are provided - so take a look and will be interested in your comments if you acquire any of Westhoff's works - Dave 

Westhoff, Johann (1656-1705) - Violin Sonatas w/ BC w/ David Plantier & Les plaisirs du Parnasse - new arrival and highly recommended in Fanfare Jan-Feb 2011 (review attached) - apparently these works and his solo Violin Partitas were the only compositions published in his lifetime (and apparently all that exists currently!); so, I'm curious about the latter solo works, which can be found on the disc below (right) - interested if anyone might be familiar w/ this CD?  Review from MusicWeb HERE; Westhoff & Bach knew each other from their Weimar days and Bach's own solo violin sonatas/partitas were likely influenced by the older composer's compositions? 


 

[Antoine Marchand]

Can anyone suggest some pieces similar to Biber's Rosary Sonatas and Bach's Sonatas & Partitas (especially solo, but also accompanied)?

Edit: Sorry, I forgot to elaborate - what I find in these two pieces is that they are used by the composers as a springboard into a very particular, rather "cosmic" style of composition, which produces music of such esoteric and emotional complexity that sounds timeless. I have heard a lot of violin sonatas by especially Italian and French composers, and none really come close to their "weird" aesthetic that Biber and Bach are able to create. Simultaneously archaic but also ultra modern.

This is a beautiful 2-CD set to explore the stylus fantasticus, some names and the features you mention:



http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Andrew-Manze-Fantastic-Style-Violinmusik-des-17-Jh/hnum/3930793

[Lethevich]

@SonicMan: that (first) Westhoff disc must be the most recommended on this forum - I can no longer ignore it, so I'll pick that one up.

@Antoine: woah, this is what I was hoping for but didn't think possible - that there was a wider school these works were associated with, rather than simply being anomolies. Looks like I have some shopping to do

[SonicMan46]

This is a beautiful 2-CD set to explore the stylus fantasticus, some names and the features you mention:

Antoine - I've owned that 2-disc set for a while but have not listened to it in a long time - must refresh my aural memory - Dave 

[Que]

Can anyone suggest some pieces similar to Biber's Rosary Sonatas and Bach's Sonatas & Partitas (especially solo, but also accompanied)?

Edit: Sorry, I forgot to elaborate - what I find in these two pieces is that they are used by the composers as a springboard into a very particular, rather "cosmic" style of composition, which produces music of such esoteric and emotional complexity that sounds timeless. I have heard a lot of violin sonatas by especially Italian and French composers, and none really come close to their "weird" aesthetic that Biber and Bach are able to create. Simultaneously archaic but also ultra modern.

Stylus Phantasticus!  I find your description of it as a "cosmic style" very well put BTW. 

Hope you didn't miss Manze's recording of Biber's 1681 Salzburg sonatas? And beyond that there is Steck's recording of additional sonatas ascribed/attributed to Biber. (see post HERE)



And than many moons ago erato introduced the Westhoff here, and with it came the recommendation of Johann Jakob Walther:



Q