1 LP - 91 115 - (p) 1964 1 CD - 50999 6025112 1 - (c) 2012

Wien - Am Hofe Leopolds I. Johann Josef Fux (1660-1741) Sinfonia II - Concentus musico-instrumentalis, 1701 16' 11" A1 - Allegro assai - Grave - Allegro - Adagio 4' 51" - Libertein 1' 46" - Entrée 2' 03" - Menuet 1' 43" - Passepied 1' 00" - Ciacona 5' 09" (4 violins, 3 oboes, tenor viola da gamba, bass viola da gamba, violone, bassoon, harpsichord) Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690) Sonata Quinta a quattro viole da gamba - La Cetra, 1673/1682 5' 35" A2 (pardessus de viole, tenor viola da gamba, 2 bass viole da gamba, violone) Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704) Pars III - Mensa sonora, 1680 7' 55" A3 - Gagliarda: Allegro 1' 15" - Aria 2' 36" - Ciacona 3' 21" - Sonatina 0' 54" (violin, viola, tenor viola da gamba, bass viola da gamba, violone, harpsichord) Johann Josef Fux (1660-1741) Sinfonia VII - Concentus musico-instrumentalis, 1701 12' 06" B1 - Adagio - Andante - Allegro 6' 20" - La joye des fidels suject: Allegro 1' 55" - Aria italiana - Aire françoise 2' 31" - Les enemis confus 1' 36" (recorder, oboe, viola da gamba, harpsichord) Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (c.1623-1680) Sonata III - Sacro-profanus concentus musicus, 1662 4' 46" B2 (2 violins, viola, tenor viola da gamba, 2 bass viole da gamba, violone, harpsichord) Leopold I (1640-1705) Regina coeli à 5, Mense Maio 1655 - Accompagnamento di viole del Antonio Bertali (edition by Guido Adler) * 7' 25" B3 (alto voice, 2 violins, tenor viola da gamba, 2 bass viole da gamba, violene, harpsichord) Johann Heinrich Schmelzer Sonata X - Sacro-profanus concentus musicus, 1662 3' 57" B4 (violin, viola, tenor viola da gamba, bass viola da gamba, violone, harpsichord)   Jeanne Deroubaix, mezzo-soprano * Concentus Musicus Wien, Ensemble für Alte Musik - Alice Harnoncourt, violin, pardessus de viole - Eduard Hruza, violone - Eva Braun, violin - Leopold Stastny, recorder - Josef de Sordi, violin - Jürg Scaheftlein, oboe - Kurt Theiner, violin, viola - Karl Gruber, oboe - Nikolaus Harnoncourt, tenor and bass viola da gamba - Bernhard Kiebel, oboe - Elli Kubizek, bass viola da gamba - Otto Fleischmann, bassoon - Hermann Höbarth, bass viola da gamba - Georg Fischer, harpsichord Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor   Luogo e data di registrazione Sinfonia-Studio, Vienna (Austria) - 16-21 giugno 1963 Registrazione live / studio studio Producer / Engineer Gerd Berg / Ernst Rothe Prima Edizione CD EMI Records Ltd / Virgin Classics - 50999 6025112 1 - (1 cd) - 59' 11" - (c) 2012 - ADD Prima Edizione LP EMI Electrola GmbH - 91 115 - (1 lp) - 59' 11" - (p) 1964 Notes on the program Anyone with an interest in music acknowledges Vienna to be one of the major centres of the art: after all, the concert repertoire is even today dominated by the three great masters of Viennese classical music. What is less well kown is that Vienna was already an important musical centre long before the classical era, even though it was only during the later period that it was universally recognised as a city of music. One of the most fascinating phenomena in music history is the way in which particular countries and regions give birth to specific forms and styles, developing their own creative strengths. For no apparent reason, different places achieve international renown, then after a few generations of intense creative energy fall back to a more normal level, as though they had burnt thenselves out. Pratically all European countries have at one time or another - and in many cases more than once - enjoyed "golden ages" as powerhouses of musical activity. These centres of music were by no means always simultaneously great centres of political power, though there is often a close correlation between the two. Franco-Flemish music, for exemple, enjoyed a great flowering round about 1500, at the same time as the courts of the French king Louis XII and of the German Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I were at the height of their political dominance and magnificence. Although Vienna, as one of the supreme cultural centres in the German-speaking world and as the place of residence both of the Babenbergs and of the Habsburgs, had always had a thriving musical tradition, lor many years this was dominated by foreign artists, and it was a while before the city found its own characteristic mode of expression. For three hundred years Vinna was a melting-pot in which the most diverse stylistic tendencies came together. Over the course of the centuries, representatives of different creative traditions to a certain extent met here on neutral ground; it was possible to hear Dutch, Italian. English and French musicians in the city. To these were added eastern influences as a result of Vienna’s close connections with Slavonic and Magyar culture. This exposure to the entire musical world enabled the Viennese (and Austrians in general), with their natural musical gifts, to develop their own distinctive style. The vigorous folk music traditions of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia played an important role from the very beginning, and it was not until the time of Leopold I, in the second half of the seventeenth century, when home-grown masters such as Schmelzer and Fux were for the first time in charge ol musical activities at the imperial court, that the music composed there acquired an unmistakably Viennese and Austrian character. Opera, the great musico-dramatic novelty of the early seventeenth century, arrived in the Austrian capital as a consequence of its close political ties with Italy, and immediately enjoyed an enthusiastic reception. Vienna was a leading centre of Italian opera in the seventeenth century, and practically all the important Italian opera composers worked there. Their operas also offered an opportunity to hear a great deal of purely instrumental music. ln addition to dance numbers provided by ballet composers there were instrumental interludes, and instrumental concertos were also frequently inserted into operas. The dance numbers were based mainly on French models; many dances, however, drew on native melodic material, as can be seen from titles such as Sleyermärker Horn, Gavotta tedesca, Gavotta styryaca and Böhmischer Dudelsack. The instrumental interludes were the work of the Italian opera composers themselves. These interludes were often given the title "Sonata"; the earlier ones were generally written for five instruments and their form was taken directly fromthe old Italian Canzoni da sonar. These polyphonic "sonatas" should not be confused with the solo sonata of the classical era. Italian opera composers also wrote sacred music for the main churches in Vienna. It is not surprising that Austrian composers such as Schmelzer, Fux and Biber were closely acquainted with the Italian style in all areas of composition. France, on the other hand, resisted importing Italian opera, and the French created their own special dance form for inclusion in operatic works: the ballet de cour. From this, Lully developed the typical French opera in the second half of the seventeenth century, distinguished from Italian opera  in particular by its greater emphasis on the ceremonial aspect, its formal dance sequences and its respect for the metrical values of the text. There are no purely musical numbers in which the text plays a subordinate role (as it does in the arias of Italian opera), and the instrumental pieces are invariably dances. Lully’s reforms of French opera, especially those relating to the style and technique of the orchestral part, caused a sensation throughout Europe. The instmmental suites taken from his operas, with their new kind of overture and graceful French dances, were highly popular not only in Paris; they were soon also imitated throughout Germany and England. The short and precise bowing style of the violins in Lully's orchestra - absolutely essential for an authentic performance of French music - is worlds apart from the cantabile and legato playing style of the Italians. Many German courts engaged French musicians, though in some places Italian violinists refused to play French music. Vienna too became acquainted with the latest French music at an early date, from about 1665 onwards. During the reign of Leopold I, the French suite and the Italian sonata represented stylistic opposite poles in instrumental music. The French suite stnctly speaking arose as an imitation ot the extraordinarily popular dance suites derived from Lully‘s operas and was developed into an independent musical genre by other composers; Lully himself did not write any "suites'" The ltalian sonata was a formally free, single-movement instrumental piece evolved from the old Canzon da sonar. What was considered elsewhere to be the incompatibility of these two stylistic tendencies was in Austria blended into a new and fascinating unity by brilliant composers such as Muffat, Fux and Biber. Muffat was the only composer to set down his thoughts on these stylistic questions and I will say a few words about him here, though his music does not in fact leature on this recording. He studied with Lully in Paris, then went to the Viennese court where he enjoyed the protection of Leopold I, later becoming court composer to the Archbishop of Salzburg. He described himself as the first German "Lyllist". However, the Archbishop of Salzburg sent him to ltaly to complete his education. There he wrote concerti grossi in the style of Corelli, and the following eloquent passage appears in the foreword to these works: "I have sought to moderate Italian depth of feeling with French lightness and charm in such a way that the one might not be too dark and pompous, nor the other too free and unbridled. lt is an apt symbol of Your Esteemed Grace’s lofty virtue and disposition... I first had the idea of creating such an ingenious blend some time ago in Rome, where I was learning to play the keyboard in the ltalian style under the world-famous Bernardo Pasquini, when I heard with great delight and amazement some concertos by the masterly Arcangelo Corelli performed most beautifully and with the utmost accuracy by a great number of instrumentalists..." In the dedication to his Florilegium Primum Muffat wrote: "However, just as the first attraction of gardens is the diversity of plants and flowers, and as the excellence and general felicity of great heroes seems to result from many intertwined virtues, I have concluded that in the obedient service which Your Esteemed Grace, as a prince of wisdom and virtue, deserves, it is fitting to employ not just one style, but a mixture of styles skilfully assembled from various countries. From Your Esteemed Grace, whose consummate understanding is derived from long experience with the court and business, I have no tear of the impudent attacks of those malicious or weak souls who condemn me. As I received my earliest training in France at the hands ot the most experienced masters of this art, I realise that the charge of inclining more towards that nation than is appropriate could be laid against me, and in this time of war with France I could be considered unworthy of receiving a favourable hearing from the Germans. Truly I have other thoughts than: Aere ciere viros, Martemque accendere cantu [To spur on the sound of arms, or to encourage the god Mars to join battle]. The weapons of war and the reasons for them are far from me; notes, strings and the delightful sounds of music dictate my course, and in combining the French manner with the German and the Italian, I do not instigate conflict, but perhaps rather look forward to the unity, the dear peace, desired by the peoples..." Muffat was thus the first composer to use the two opposing styles as a symbol of European reconciliation. This reconciliation should be understood in the light of the bitter political enmity between Louis XIV and Leopold I, which threatened to push the two very different peoples even further apart culturally. Muffat‘s close connections with the Viennese court as well as his relationship with Biber, his deputy Kapellmeister at Salzburg, eventually produced a peaceful fusion of Italian and French styles in Austrian music. Of course, Muffat was not the only one whose journey to the Viennese court was made via French music. There were many French performers who disseminated knowledge of the latest developments in their homeland during their Europe-wide tours, and musicians employed by the imperial court would have had regular opportunities to visit courts in southern Germany, where the French influence was more pronounced. Although Leopold himself had a profound antipathy towards a purely French compositional style, especially in dance music, his composers increasingly incorporated French elements into their music. ln many of the suites written by Muffat, Fux, Biber and other composers, the influence of the ltalian school is apparent from their introductory movements (sinfonias), but can also be heard occasionally within the context of formal French overtures. interspersed with the mainly French-inspired dance movements are free, often slow movements written in the ltalian style, in addition to these, many suites contain - as if to provide a touch of the exotic - lively dances unmistakably inspired by native folk music. But these typically Austrian suites are in no way a motley collection of heterogeneous styles - the great achievement of the composers lay in the fact that they succeeded in creating a new and valid whole out of these eclectic elements and influences. All the Austrian instrumental composers from the time of Leopold I wrote Sonatas and suites. Unlike their Italian and French colleagues, they thus cultivated both styles. The main aspect that they borrowed from these two spheres of influence was the form; as far as the melodic material was concerned, German, Hungarian and Bohemian elements often made an appearance. So for example, one of the sonatas in Schmelzer's Concentus musicus begins with a typical czardas motif that is still familiar today, and the (French) suites of all the Austrian composers are interspersed with totally un-Gallic dances and ideas. To sum up, one could say that in Vienna the Italian manner was officially in the ascendancy, but that a new and distinctive style arose out of the contact between Italian and French styles of composition and the Austrians' natural gift for music.         Nikolaus Harnoncourt, 1964 (translation: Paula Kennedy, 2012) Instrumentarium - Violine, Jacobus Stainer, Absam, 1658 - Violine, Jacobus Stainer, Absam, 1677 - Violine, Klotz, Mittenwald, 18. Jh. - Violine, Klotz, Mittenwald, 18. Jh. - Viola, Marcellus Hollmayr, Wien 17. Jh. - Pardessus de Viole, Ludovicus Guersan, Paris, 1742 - Tenor Viola da Gamba, Brescia, um 1580 - Bass Viola da Gamba, Jacob Prescheisn, Wien 1670 - Bass Viola da Gamba, deutsch, um 1760 - Violone, Antony Stefan Posch, Wien 1731 - Blockflöte, Kopie von H. C. Fehr, Zürich - Oboe, P. Paulhahn, Anfang des 18. Jh. - Oboe, J. Bauer, Wien, 18. Jh. - Oboe, Kopie von O. Steinkopf, Berlin - Fagott, Wien 18. Jh. - Cembalo, Kopie eines ital. Kielflügels um 1700 von M. Skowroneck Other Editions - EMI His Master Voice "Musik in Alten Städten und Residenzen" - 1C  037-45 574 - 1 LP - (c) 19?? Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016)