1 CD - Teldec 8.41062 XH (c) 1989
1 LP - Telefunken SAWT 9445-B (p) 1963

NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT - 25 Years on TELDEC






Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) Quintet D-dur, Op. 11 Nr. 6 (aus: Six Quintettos for a Flute, Hautboy, Violin, Tenor and Bass, London. um 1776)

13' 51"

- Allegro
7' 35"
A1

- Andantino 3' 21"
A2

- Allegro assai 2' 55"
A3
Ignaz Jakob Holzbauer (1711-1783)
Quintetto per Cembalo, Flauto, Violino, Violetta e Violoncello B-dur
14' 24"

- Allegro 3' 54"
A4

- Adante 2' 32"
A5

- Menuetto · Trio · Variazioni Prima / Seconda / Terza / Quarta / Quinta · Menuetto 7' 56"
A6
Johann Stamitz (1717-1757) Trio A-dur, Op. 1 Nr. 2 (aus: Six Sonates a trois parties concertantes, Qui sont faites pour Executer ou a trois ou avec toutes l'orchestre. Paris, um 1761)
12' 48"

- Allegro assai 4' 56"
B1

- Andante poco Adagio 3' 15"
B2

- Menuet 2' 52"
B3

-Prestissimo 1' 45"
B4
Franz Haver Richter (1709-1789)
Streichquartett B-dur, Op. 5 Nr. 2 (aus: Six Quatuors pour deux Violons, Alto et Violoncelle, Paris, 1768)
12' 05"

- Poco Allegretto 4' 31"
B5

- Poco Andante 5' 01"
B6

- Fugato presto 2' 33"
B7





 
Concentus Musicus Wien (mit Originainstrumenten)
Nikolaus HARNONCOURT, Leitung
 






Luogo e data di registrazione
Opera Studio, Vienna (Austria) - maggio 1963

Registrazione: live / studio
studio

Producer

Wolf Erichson

Edizione CD
TELDEC - 8.41062 XH (244 697-2) - (1 CD - durata 53' 45") - (c) 1989 - ADD

Originale LP

TELEFUNKEN - SAWT 9445-B - (1 LP - durata 53' 45") - (p) 1963 - Analogico

Note
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Nowhere is the epoch-making transformation of musical taste around the middle of the 18th century more clearly shown than in the German-Austrian chamber music of the period between 1760 and 1750, and nowhere is the significance of the Mannheim School more evident in the development of the new musical idiom than in the chamber music of that time. The virtuosity of the world-fomous Mannheim Court Orchestra enabled the composers who played in it - most of whom had come from Bohemia - to experiment without restraint with forms, techniques of composition ond instrumentations; furthermore, the understanding and the open-mindedness of their courtly and professional musical audiences made consideration for musical conventions superfluous to such a degree that the new style was able to attain a full flowering within the very shortest time.
Thus there arose a repertoire of chamber music almost too large to survey and exceedingly rich in forms, which to a very great extent prepared the way to the chamber music of the Viennese classics. Indeed, in the best works Particularly of the three greatest "Mannheimers", Stamitz Richter and Holzbauer, the contemporary works of Haydn were at least equalled and, in originality of structure and intensity of expression, not infrequently even surpassed.
The writing of Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of the great Leipzig cantor, stood apart from this mainstream of development, although not uninfluenced by it. The six Harpsichord Quintets, the main chamber music work of the "English Bach", who worked in London as Music Master to the Queen from 1762 onward and enjoyed world fame mainly as an operatic composer and symphonist, is dedicated to the Elector Karl Theodor of the Palatinate in Mannheim. It is, however, far removed from the typical "Mannheim taste". Bach, the man of the world and the court, quite lacks the freshness and vitality and also the carefree joy in experimenting of the Bohemian Mannheimers; instead he arrives in these mature quintets in particular at a synthesis of delicate feeling and refined taste, the highest craftsmanlilse precision and effortless invention, aristocratic restraint and inspired expression, which is unique for its age and, not least, made a powerful and permanent impression on Mozart. The D major Quintet, with its “singing” Allegro, its tender, Siciliano-like Andantino and its gay, playful Rondeau is a perfect example of this exceedingly fine, occasionally overfine, art.
In spite of the very similar instrumental combination, Holzbauers Quintet, probably written between 1760 and 1770, is fundamentally different in style to J. C. Bach's. Just as his harpsichord style still preserves features of continuo practice, the extremely dense part writing, rich in imitation, also clearly displays elements of the baroque tradition. Entirely "Mannheim", however, are the wealth of musical contrasts within the smallest possible space, the chromatic 'sighing' melody - already almost a mannerism - and the powerful tone of the first movement and the tender elegiac character of the second, while the peculiarly broken tone to the Minuet with its skillful variations already sounds almost “Mozartian".
What Holzbauer's work lacks in vitality is displayed in the Trio by Stamitz - the true leader of the Mannheim School - in overwhelming abundance. Stamitz’s Op. 1 is an epoch-making worls such as is rarely found in the history of music. For the first time there appears in it three-part writing liberated from all the fetters of the continuo style. For the first time the living melody rules unchallenged in spite of all the well-worked part-writing. For the first time the new style, with its broad, symphonic forms, its heaping up of contrasts in the smallest possible space and its overwhelming vitality, is presented in its finished state to a public which - only too understandably - was almost bewitched by the new tone, by the "melodia germanica", which here broke forth like a great phenomenon of nature. The Trio in A major, with its impetuous and yet 'cantabile' first movement, is Andante full of feeling and its turbulent Finale, gives expression to this tone in its purest state.
Richter's Op. 5 adheres far more strongly to tradition, and is less direct in its impact, yet it is more elaborate, more differentiated and more profound. The four-part writing for strings, freed from the continuo, is given greater cohesion and profundity by rich contrapuntal work. Independently of Haydn's roughly simultaneous development, it attains an approximately equal sharing of the thematic material between all the instruments and also the solo style of writing of the genuine classical quartet movement, which can no longer be played alternatively by an orchestra. In this Quartet in B flat major, the serious, elegiac mood that basically pervades all Richter’s works can be heard clearly. Its extremely rich-textured and finely organized first movement, its wonderfully intense Andante full of harmonic movement and sorrowful melodiousness and its fugal Finale, that combines “learned” part-writing and “popular” motifs in an already quite Mozartian manner, make it one of the most outstanding chamber music works of the whole epoch.