Luogo e data di registrazione		Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna (Austria) - 12/3 aprile & 23 giugno 1965
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Hannes Wawra
	Edizione LP		Erato - STE 50 265 - (1 lp) - durata 48' 22" - (p) 196? - Analogico
	Note		Details from  Musical Heritage Society MHS 856

Au sud-ouest de Vienne (aujourd'hui au treizième arrondissement de cette ville) s'éleve le Chateau de Schoenbrunn, ancienne résidence d'un des empereurs qui fut érigè d'après du grand architecte du baroque autrichien Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, entre 1695 et 1713. A partir de 1737, differents changemments furent operant à l'esterieur et à l'interieur de l'édifice d'après  le project de Josef Emanuel Fischer von Erlach et Nikolaus Facassi. Le part en style français fut tracé par Jean Trechet en 1705/1706. The selection of works presented bere evokes a chapter of Viennese musical history whose importance has been perpetually ignored, as much by concert programming as by the recording industry. Perhaps the worldwide radiance of Viennese classicism which overshadowed the evidence of all which led up to it in the instrumentai field is the cause, or perhaps it is the present time which, despite its avid interest in records of all sorts, does not condescend to concern itself with this rather obscure period of preparation and growth. Whatever the reason, a gap in knowledge of the line of musical creativity between Johann Sebastian Bach and Joseph Haydn continues to exist. The importance of the school of Mannheim does in part fili this hiatus in musical history. But the orchestrai style of Mannheim, laden with the clichés in vogue during the period and of a rather superficial brilliance besides, can account for only a part of the evolution to Haydn. The other part is taken by the school of Vienna whose composers, working parallel to their colleagues at Mannheim, created a new style. This style is by no means exempt from the galant style then prized in all of Europe, but because of the geographic and cultural position of the Austrian capital, crossroads of the Italian and Germanie civilizations, it formed the bridge which would make possible the dawning of the great period of classical art. Freeing itself from the old symphonic forms of the Italian masters, the new mode of expression practiced at Mannheim and Vienna is characterized by the composition of the symphony in four movements (a piece in minuet form having been integrated into the scheme in second or third position), by a great finesse in the treatment of the wind instruments (a refìnement which Haydn would carry to its apogee), by a definite abandonment of the basso continuo, and, finally, by the orchestrai effects, celebrated in their time, of crescendo, variation in the dynamic values, such as pianissimi, fortissimi and the like. If the Mannheim school sacrificed true musical inspiration to form by stressing such external effeets as "sighs,” "tremolos” and others, the Viennese school introduced elements of popolar Austrian music well within the tradition of a people both sensitive to and enamoured of melody. In order to give this evolution an accurate survey, we begin with an instrumentai piece in style stili Baroque, a Suite by Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741), Kapellmeister at the imperiai court and author of a treatise called ‘'Gradus ad Parnassum” (1715) which was the basis of studies for several generations of musicians. In his Suite No. 5 (DTÖ, Voi. 47) Fux is clearly inspired by the French style of Lully whose orchestrai pieces in dance form, instrumentation and dignified rhythms gave rise to numerous imitations in Germany. The French influence is felt particularly in the overture. Building from a canon at the fifth below, this overture adopts, in pronounced rhythm, the tripartite form dear to Lully: Grave - Allegro - Grave. After an Aria with a mobile rhythm and a fully developed melody come two pieces of allegorica! title in the French manner: "Aria La Volage" with its rapid fìgures in sixteenth notes and the final movement entitled "Inégalité," a piece in imitation, characterized by perpetuai changes in time and measure. The Flute Concerto in D Major of Holzbauer contrasts strikingly with the work which precedes it. Viennese by birth, Ignaz Holzbauer, after spending some years at the Viennese Imperial Opera, traveled in Italy, then spent some time in Stuttgart before settling in Mannheim as concertmaster. His music, light, playful and admirably written for instruments, breaks completely with the modes of expression and symbols of thè Baroque style. The "Servizio di Tavola" is an occasionai work by the Viennese Karl Georg Reutter (1708-1772) who was Court Kapellmeister. Consisting of four movements (the minuet had to be omitted in this recording), this work is characteristic of the taste of his contemporaries for excessive lushness of sound and flashes of virtuosity. Stili, let us take note of the originai use of the solo trumpet which gives to the Larghetto in dynamic progression its intensity of expression. It is Georg Matthias Monn (1717-1750), whose Concerto for cello was brought to light by Arnold Schönberg in 1914, who seems the figure of greatest interest in this Viennese school and the direct predecessor of the great names of classical art. A native of lower Austria, he was organist at the Karlskirche in Vienna. It is by such works as his Symphony in E-Flat in four movements that the line of evolution which, bypassing Stamitz, leads to Haydn and Mozart is apparent. This work of unusual length shares certain traits with Gluck, giving, in astonishing manner, a foretaste of the spirit and style of Mozart (DTÖ, Vol. 31). Another predecessor of Viennese classicism is thr celebrated piano virtuoso Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) who was a pupil of Fux. Music director at thr Court of Maria Theresa, he is best known to posterity for his meeting with thr young Mozart, then six years of age, in the imperial salons rather than for his musical compositions. In his Symphony in D Major, originally conceived as overture for his opera La Clemenza di Tito, as in his other symphonies (the majority in three movements), the thematic scheme and alternation of motifs seem to give a decisive impetus to the great orchestral form to come. A. S. (Translated from the French version of Françoise Knaeps by Constance Jewett)