FRANS BRÜGGEN EDITION


1 CD - 4509-97468-2 - (c) 1995

1 LP - SAWT 9482-A - (p) 1966
1 LP - SAWT 9570-B - (p) 1970
1 LP - SAWT 9582-A - (p) 1972

FRANS BRÜGGEN EDITION - Volume 6




FRENCH RECORDER SUITES




Charles [?François] Dieupart (after 1667-1740)

Suite in G major - fourth flute and basso continuo 13' 39"
1. Ouverture 2' 59"
2. Allemande 3' 15"
3. Courante 1' 20"
4. Sarabande 2' 10"
5. Gavotte 1' 12"
6. Menuet en Rondeau
1' 39"
7. Gigue 1' 04"



Jacques-Martin Hotteterre le Romain (1674-1763)

Premiere Suitte de Pièces à deux dessus sans Basse Continue op. 4, Paris 1712 - two treble recorders 16' 01"
8. Gravement 2' 11"
9. Gay 1' 41"
10. Allemande 2' 15"
11. Rondeau, Tendre (Gracieusement)
1' 49"
12. Rondeau, Gay
1' 25"
13. Gigue 1' 34"
14. Passacaille 5' 06"



Charles [?François] Dieupart


Suite in A major - voice flute and basso continuo 17' 55"
15. Ouverture 5' 20"
16. Allemande 4' 24"
17. Courante 1' 37"
18. Sarabande 2' 22"
19. Gavotte 1' 04"
20. Menuett 1' 46"
21. Gigue 1' 22"



 
Frans Brüggen, recorder The instruments

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, viola da gamba (1-7) recorders:
Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord (1-7, 15-21) - P.I. Bressan, England early 18th century fourth flûte in b flat' - [1-7]
Kees Boeke, recorder (8-14) - Friedrich von Huene (after Denner), Boston treble [alto] in f" - [8-14]
Anner Bylsma, violoncello (15-21) - Hans Coolsma (after Bressan), Utrecht treble in f" - [8-14]

- P.I. Bressan, London c. 1720. Frans Brüggen Collection voice flute in d' - [15-21]

viola da gamba [viol]:

- Jacob Precheisn, Vienna 1670 bass - [1-7]

harpsichord:

- Martin Skowroneck - [1-7]
 






Luogo e data di registrazione
- Palais Schwarzenberg, Vienna (Austria) - novembre 1965 [1-7]
- Bennebroek (Olanda) - febbraio 1970 [8-14]
- Doopsgezinde Kerk, Amsterdam (Olanda) - gennaio & novembre 1971 [16-21]


Registrazione: live / studio
studio

Producer / Engineer
Wolf Erichson [8-14]

Prima Edizione LP
- Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" - SAWT 9482-A - (1 LP) - durata 48' 01" - (p) 1966 - Analogico [1-7]
- Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" - SAWT 9570-B - (1 LP) - durata 45' 46" - (p) 1970 - Analogico [8-14]

- Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" - SAWT 9582-A - (1 LP) - durata 52' 43" - (p) 1972 - Analogico [15-21]


Edizione CD
Teldec - 4509-97468-2 - (1 CD) - durata 47' 52" - (c) 1995 - ADD

Note
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The French composer Charles Dieupart travelled to London around 1700 and soon found himself in demand as a harpsichord teacher. In 1701 he published six harpsichord suites that left such a profound impression on Johann Sebastian Bach that he copied two of them out in order to study them in more detail. The Prelude of Bach’s First English Suite may be based on the theme of the Gigue from Dieupart’s Suite in A major.
Dieupart simultaneously published an edition of these suites in a version for recorder (or flute), violin and continuo, including precise instructions as to the particular type of recorder on which the suites should be played: for the first four a “voice Flute” (tenor recorder in d') was demanded, for the last two a “fourth Flute” (descant recorder in b flat').
Jacques-Martin Hotteterre was known as “Le Romain”, a sobriquet that may be attributable to a visit to Rome. He is generally regarded as one of the foremost members of the Hotteterre family, whose scions were famous not only as composers but also as instrument makers, in which capacity they were responsible for a whole series of important improvements to flutes, oboes and recorders.
Hotteterre's Premiere Suitte for two high melody instruments (“dessus”) is in B minor and is particularly suited to the flute, an instrument of which Hotteterre was especially fond. In order to perform it on two treble recorders, he recommended transposing it up a minor third.
Hotteterre's Suitte was written in the heyday of French mannerism, a stylistic trend characterised by its extreme ornamentation. The symbols for these ornaments or agréments were explained in detail in tables that the composers of the time prefaced to their works. The listener's attention is drawn in particular to the use of flattement (literally “flattering”), a type of vibrato for wind players produced by rocking two fingers and described by Hotteterre in his treatise Principes de la flûte traversière (Paris 1707).
Both Dieupart and Hotteterre cast their respective works in the form of a suite or series of dances. The Hamburg writer on music, Johann Mattheson, described such dances in 1759 in his typically graphic and humorous way; the allemande, he asserted, was “a serious and elaborately worked-out piece whose broken harmonies bear the imprint of a contented or satisfied mind that delights in order and calm”; the couraute, by contrast, expressed “sweet hope”, the Sarabande "Immoderate ambition" and the gavotte "triumphant joy".
Martin Nitz
·····
A brief history of the recorder
6. The recorder in the 18th century

National styles: Germany (I)
The most important centres of wind-instrument making in the 17th and 18th centuries were the areas around Frankfurt, Munich, Leipzig and Nuremberg, with the last of these towns of particular importance. There is a considerable body of evidence to suggest that there was a lively trade between Nuremberg and other towns both at home and abroad, in spite of the fact that, in terms of the manufacture of wind instruments, Nuremberg had to contend with stiff competition from Venice. Although the evidence from the 18th century is less extensive, there is no reason to suppose that trade in woodwind instruments was any less buoyant.
In this field, the Denner family appears to have been especially active, since it is they more than any other family who are mentioned in contemporary documents. Hieronimus Kynseker was still alive when Johann Christoph Denner (1655-1707) revolutionised German woodwind manufacture, taking over and perfecting the constructional principles developed by the Hotteterres, narrowing the bore of his instruments in order to brighten their tonal qualities and sharpening their scaling in order to increase the effectiveness and carrying-power of their upper register. Denner set new standards in terms of the purity of tone and intonation of the instruments that he made.
Denner was born in Leipzig in 1655 and was introduced to instrument making by his godfather, the organ builder Christoph Donat. He moved to Nuremberg in around 1666 and entered his father‘s workshop, where he learned to turn game whistles and hunting horns. In 1694 he provided the town council with two “frantzesische Fletten” (French flutes) or “Opera-Flöten" - instruments built according to French designs of a kind previously unknown in Nuremberg. Indeed, Denner himself made no secret of his intense interest in French instrument making, although it remains a mystery where he developed his links with Paris. In February 1697 he was granted recognition as a master craftsman. There seems little doubt that he was Nuremberg‘s most important manufacturer of woodwind instruments and that even in his own lifetime he was something of a celebrity. As late as 1784 Christian Daniel Friedrich Schubart was able to write that “Denner’s flutes are famous all over the world. They have reached Constantinople and Isfahan and even, through missionaries, China.”
An exceptionally varied number of instruments by Denner have survived. They include 48 recorders, of which no fewer than 33 are bass recorders. Of his four tenor recorders, two are in d’ and are either German “voice flutes” (a tenor recorder in d that was developed in England) or, more probably a higher-pitched tenor recorder in c’, using the abnormally high Chorton that was found at this time in Germany and elsewhere.
In the case of the treble recorders, there exists a curious example of collaboration between Denner and Hotteterre, inasmuch as a treble recorder preserved in Munich has a head by Denner, whereas its other two sections are by Louis Hotteterre. The ivory sopranino recorder in the Historisches Museum in Basle (cf Vol. 7) is signed only “D” but it, too, is almost certainly by Denner.
Other woodwind makers of the Denner family were Johann Christophs brother, Johann Carl (1660-1702) and his son Jakob (1681-1735). Jakob’s surviving instruments comprise 12 treble and 6 tenor recorders. All are very similar in construction to those produced by his father. Particularly well preserved is a boxwood treble recorder in the Musikhistorisk Museum in Copenhagen (cf Vol. 12) and a carved ivory treble recorder in the Royal College of Music in London
.
Peter Holtslag
Translation: Stewart Spencer