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1 LP -
6.42415 AW - (p) 1980
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| 1 CD -
8.42415 XH - (c) 1989 |
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| Jan Dismas
Zelenka (1679-1745) |
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| Hipocondrie à 7 concertanti
A-dur |
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8' 53" |
A1 |
| für 2 Violinen, 2 Oboen, Viola,
Fagott und B.c. |
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- (Grave)
- Allegro - Lentement - Adagio
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| Sonate
Nr. 2 g-moll |
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17' 48" |
A2 |
| für 2 Oboen, Viola, Fagott und
B.c. |
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| - Andante |
2' 56" |
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- Allegro
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6' 31"
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| - Andante |
3' 06" |
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- Allegro assai
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5' 15" |
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| Ouverture
à 7 concertanti F-dur |
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20' 01" |
B |
| für 2 Violinen, 2 Oboen, Viola,
Fagott und B.c. |
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- Grave - Allegro - Grave
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7' 18" |
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- Aria
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4' 31" |
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| - Menuett I - II |
2' 12" |
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| - (Siciliano) |
4' 19" |
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| - Folie |
1' 41" |
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CONCENTUS MUSICUS WIEN (mit
Originalinstrumenten)
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-
Alice Harnoncourt, Violine
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Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Violoncello
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| -
Walter Pfeiffer, Violine |
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Eduard Hruza, Violone |
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Peter Schoberwalter, Violine |
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Jürg Schaeftlein, Oboe |
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Anita Mitterer, Violine
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Paul Hailperin, Oboe |
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Wilhelm Mergl, Violine |
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Milan Turkovic, Fagott |
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Kurt Theiner, Viola
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Herbert Tachezi, Cembalo |
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Josef de Sordi, Viola |
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| Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Leitung |
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Luogo
e data di registrazione
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| Casino
Zögernitz, Vienna (Austria) - marzo
1977, marzo 1978 e maggio 1979 |
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Registrazione
live / studio
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| studio |
Producer
/ Engineer
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-
|
Prima Edizione CD
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| Teldec
"Harnoncourt Edition" - 8.42415 XH - (1
cd) - 47' 05" - (c) 1989 - AAD |
Prima
Edizione LP
|
Telefunken "Das
Alte Werk" - 6.42415 AW -
(1 lp) - 47'
08"
- (p) 1980
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Notes
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The name Jan Dismas
Zelenka conveys little to anyone other
than historians, or rather to a few
experts on Bohemian music during the
baroque period. Not even a picture of
him exists. Although his 300th
anniversary on 16th October, 1979 gave
rise to a slightly greater knowledge
of his name and some of his
instrumental works, he has remained
unknown, indeed an anachronism, for
all that his spiritual affinity with
Bach repeatedly been praised.
Jan Dismas Zelenka came
from Bohemia, from Lounoviĕe
near Blanik, southeast of Prague.
According to the researches of Milan
Pošto1kas
his received
his musical teaching first from
his father and later at the Jesuits’
College in Prague. This may well be
where his religious outlook was
formed, and it is also possible that
it was here that he
wrote his first religious
compositions, probably including a cantata
for the Collegium
Clementinuin. From 1710 onwards widcr
opportunities presented themselves to
Zelenka
in Dresden,
wherr he joined the
Court orchestra, originally merely as
a double bass player; in 1715 or 1716
he was considered
worthy of being allowed to continue
his studics in Vienna with Johann
Josef Fux. The story is that his
teacher soon prevailed upon the
Elector of Saxony to allow him further
study, and in 1716 Zelenka is said to
have undertaken an extended study tour
to Venice, where he may have met
Antonio Lotti. Whether in the end he
became a pupil of Alessandro Scarlatti
and Francesco Feo in Napels is not
established.
After completing his studies, Zelenka
returned to Dresden via Vienna. There
he, who had “graduated” in the strict
style, had to contend
with Neapolitan opera because the
representative of that art form,
Johann Adolf Hasse,
dominated the musical scene at
Dresden. In comparison
with his status, Zelenlk’s
own position as Vice-Kapellmeister of
Church Music, wich he had assumed on
his return in 1721, was of only
secondary interest. True, he received
the prestigious commission to write
the (Jesuit) opera "Sub olea pacis”
for the coron ation celebrations in
Prague in 1723, but his music did not
appeal widely, not least, no doubt,
because of the influence of Fux
on his style. lncidentally, Zelenka
was appointed Director of Church Music
in 1729, and Court Church Composer in
1735. This explains his large literary
bequest of movements
for Masses, liturgical vocal music,
oratorios, cantatas, motets etc.,
which has still not been fully
explored. Although Zelenka’s own
career suffered on account of Hasse’s
meteoric rise as an opera composer,
yet he was sufficiently recept ive to
new artistic trends to employ the
Neapoiitan style in his works, for
example in his oratorio ”Gesù
al Calvario”. He managed to come to
terms with the Vivaldi cult as
encourag ed in Dresden by the composer
Johann Georg Pisendel, and also with
the influence of the
style galant as typified by the works
of his colleague Johann David
Heinichen.
Zelenka’s works, which are generally
guided by tradition, reflect these
varied influences; even so, his idiom
is quite different from that of his
contemporaries. While their orchestral
compositions were predominantly suites
based on well-tried forms, Zelenka
wrote, in addition to concertos and
symphonies (overtures), so-called
capricci and finally a concertante
work in three sections for seven
parts, to which he gave the mysterious
name of "Hipocondrie",
Although with its slow introduction,
fugato middle section and slow ending,
this composition is akin to the French
overture, it is only in the central
section that Zelenka allows all
instruments their share in the strict
but Well distributed imitatory
part-writing, without losing track of
the harmonies amid the welter of
modulations. Incidentally,
the description "a 7 concertanti” does
not refer to passages with special
emphasis on the soloists, but to the
totality of the obbligato parts, in
which Zelenka, in the manner of the
Concerto grosso, makes a distinction
between the small solo group of the
concertino and the whole ensemble,
which is used to achieve dense
harmonic (i.e. modulating) effects in
the slow final section. The name
”Hipocondrie” continues to elude
explanation. Is it possible that the
composer had in mind the
hypersensibility of the texture,
consisting as it does of oboes,
bassoon and strings? There is no
reliable information on this point.
Just as cryptic a title would also be
appropriate to the six "Sonate
a due Hautbois et Basson”, the last
three of which are
even ”a due bassi obligati”. According
to C. Schoenbaum, Zelenka attempted in
these works to explore the furthest
extent of the contrapuntal capacity of
the Sonata da chiesa, the church
sonata with four alternating slow and
fast movements. The title of the
collection makes it quite clear that
the upper parts of Sonata No. 2 in G
minor, which are written predominantly
in an imitatory and contrapuntal
style, are intended for oboes. The
bassoon is part of the "due bassi
obligati”, since the two bass parts
are virtually identical. However, in
the more transparent sections the
bassoon is accorded an enhanced
position as a solo instrument, from
which one may conclude that what
Zelenka had in mind with these six
sonatas for wind instruments, which
are as much of a joy to play as they
are skillfully constructed, was not
three but four soloists.
Like ”Hipocondrie", the
Overture in F in five movements, a
suite in disguise, dated ”a Praga
l723”, is written in seven parts.
Uniquely for Zelenka, the French
overture-suite pattern is followed
with virtually no modification at all.
Only the close thematic links between
the slow outer sections and the fugato
central part disturb the formal scheme
of the extensive first movement. The
second movement, an aria in 3/4 time
in A minor, contrasts with the first
in that it is only scored for strings,
but in the two movements which follow
Zelenka makes extensive use of the
opportunities provided by a wider
range of sonorities. A Siciliano in B
flat major, in 12/8 time, containing
unexpected harmonic modulations, is
followed by a concluding
Folia, the melody of which is
reminiscent of Czech folk dances.
Gerhard
Wienke
Translation:
Lindsay Craig
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Nikolaus
Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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