Luogo e data di registrazione		(luogo e data di registrazione non indicati)
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer		-
	Prima Edizione LP		Telefunken "Meister der Musik" | SMT 1307 | 1 LP - durata 44' 44" | (p) 1973 | ANA
	Edizione CD		-
	Cover		"Frederich II der Große" by Johann Georg Ziesenis (1716-1776)
	Note		Pubblicazione che raccoglie registrazioni già pubblicate ad eccezione della Sonate d-moll di Frederich der Große (3). Più precisamente: - (1) = Telefunken SAWT 9490-A | (p) 1967 (Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach) - (2) = Telefunken SAWT 9565-B | (p) 1970 (Johann Sebastian Bach) - (4) = Telefunken SAWT 9464-B | (p) 1964 (Johann Joachim Quantz)

Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia was just as gifted musically as his sisters Anna Amalie and Wilhelmine. His marriage to a princess of Brunswick-Bevern improved his financial circumstances and enabled him to maintain a small chamber orchestra. In 1740 he took over government affairs as king Frederick II, later called "the Great", and appointed C. Ph. E. Bach as first harpsichordist. He later engaged, under excellent condotions, his flute teacher J. J. Quantz, as well as C. Nichelmann and F. Benda. The orchestra was run by Kapellmeister C. H. Graun. Practically daily he made music with the members of his orchestra, and often took up the flute four to five times a day. As everywhere in the State and in the army, he also paid particular attention in his orchestra to strict discipline and subordination. His influence extended even to the new compositions of those under his authority, who had to adapt themselves to the royal taste down to the very details. As regards instrumental music he was fond of the clear-cut movement, high baroque forms and flattering, hay melody, while dramatic emotional elements were repugnant to him. For this reason the music of the "Berlin School" was more strongly determined by tradition than at other princely courts. C. Ph. E. Bach's Double Concerto for Harpsichord, Hammerklavier and Orchestra in E-flat major was not composed until 1788 in Hamburg, but in form, especially in the last two movements, it follows on from the numerous concertos of the Potsdam period. In 1768 the composer "after repeated most obedient representations" had been given leave by the king and taken over, as successor to Telemann, the office of musical director at the five main churches in the Hanseatic city. The new and unique aspect of his creative work is, however, the concertante contrast between harpsichord and pianoforte, which permits of singular sound combinations, above all in the charming interplay with the individual orchestral groups. On 7th May, 1747 J. S. Bach improvised in Potsdam a six-voice fugue on the organ based on a theme provided by the monarch, and received the highest recognition. In Leipzig Bach arranged this "Ricercar" in manuscript, added a few canons and some pieces on the same subject, not forgetting a flute trio, and dedicated the entire work in print to Frederick the Great as a "Musical Sacrifice". Bach exhaust all the possibilities of "ars combinatoria" in the tightlywoven polyphony of the Ricercar. The king was active not only as a performing artist, but also composed enthusiastically for his own use, inter alia, no less than 121 Sonatas for flute and harpsichord. The D minor sonata shows the typical characteristics of his art: the emphatic homophonic style, the cantabile element in the slow movement, in which the tonal qualities of his instrument are developed to the full, finally also the vitality and elegance in the allegri. But most of all king Frederick liked playing the chamber music of his teacher J. J. Quantz, whose output includes some 300 concertos, 200 sonatas and countless trios. Carefully balanced in their invention, soundly arranged and predestined for performance on the flute, the style is predominantly retrospectively oriented, and accorded exactly with the musical ideas of the sovereign. Lothar Hoffmann-Erbrecht English translation by Frederick A. Bishop