Kritikers Notizbuch: Das Wiener Kammerorchester unter Jan Willem de Vriend Erfreut

J.C.Bach, The Symphonies A.Hoalstead, The Hanover Band CPO

W.A.Mozart, Piano Cto. No.15 K.450 V.Ashkenazy, Philharmonia Decca

F.Schubert, Symphony No.5 D.Barenboim, StaKap Berlin Teldec/Warner

Klassische Morgengabe

Das Wiener Kammerorchester überzeugt unter Jan Willem de Vriend auch zu früher Stunde im Mozart Saal

Halb-Elf Uhr morgens ist der natürliche Feind des Orchestermusikers; mehr noch, als der des Musikkritikers. Aber das Wiener Kammerorchester spielte im Konzerthaus das Zwillingskonzert zu dem so großartigen Konzert vom 23. September (siehe Rezension in der Presse): Die gleichen Komponisten, die gleichen Gattungen, andere Werke. Johann Christian Bach: Sinfonie g-Moll, op .6/6. Mozart: B-Dur Klavierkonzert K 450. Schubert: Sinfonie No. 5. Konnte dieses hohe Niveau unter dem neuen Chef Jan Willem de Vriend auch ante meridiem wiederholt werden? Kurz: Ja! Spannung von der allerersten Note und im Mozart Saal noch direkter erfahrbar als im Großen. Da knarzt das Blech gleich nochmal so sehr, das Fagott brummt herrlich und zwei engagierte Kontrabässe füllen den Raum locker mit peppigen, antreibenden Noten. Kaum Spannungsabfall im Andante mit aufheulenden Geigen und packend „furioso“ im Allegro molto finale.

Ohne Sperenzchen spielte Jasminka Stancul, mit sympathisch-nervöser Energie, das Mozart Konzert (mit bemerkenswerten Beiträgen von der Flöte und den Oboen) und wurde von freundlich-familiären Publikum wärmstens beklatscht. Ob es die zum Ritual sklerotisierte Zugabe gebraucht hätte, sei dahingestellt.

Dann Schuberts Fünfte. Über Vernachlässigung kann sich die Sinfonie nicht beschweren; alleine im Konzerthaus ist sie seit 1913 öfters aufgeführt worden, als ihr vermeintliches Vorbild, Mozarts „große“ g-Moll Sinfonie die erst am Vorabend vom Bremer Kammerorchester gegeben wurde. Auch diese zeitliche Nähe macht die Beziehung allerdings – außer im letzten Satz – kaum deutlicher, denn wer die Fünfte als „Schubert“ kennen und lieben gelernt hat und nicht als epigonalen Mozart-Light, der hört ein originelles, durchweg entzückendes, zu Recht populäres Werk: Die mit Abstand lebendigste seiner frühen Sinfonien. Aber auch eine schwierige, denn sie soll einerseits sonnig-lyrisch klingen, andererseits heiter-lebendig. Etwas kantig im Holz und mit kurzen Phrasen und wenig warmem Streicherklang ging es hier zuweilen hektisch voran, mit wenig Sonne, aber lieber lebendig und bewölkt als geschmeidig und langweilig. Wenn das Kritik sein soll, zeigt dass nur, wie hoch die Erwartungen nach eineinhalb superben Konzerten unter de Vriend schon sind, nach eineinhalb Jahrzehnten Enttäuschung. Nein, in dieser Verfassung kann man zum Kammerorchester schon nach der Frühmesse gehen und musikalisch Hocherfreuliches erwarten.


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Dip Your Ears No. 232 (Julian Steckel Galant Splendor)

Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach, Cello Concertos Julian Steckel (cello), Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Susanne von Gutzeit Hänssler Classic

Empty Noodle No More

Galant music – the musical period into which Bach’s sons fall – has a reputation of being empty frills and noodling excess: the tedious bridge between the blissful baroque and classical period. That’s partly because of our lack of familiarly with the style. Alas, the proposition to become familiar with the style, presumably consisting of spending endless hours over the course of years with that music, doesn’t seem a particularly appealing solution to the problem, either. Unless, of course, one gets to hear works like these CPE Bach Cello Concertos! ARD Music Competition Winner Julian Steckel presents them masterfully, in very lively and sensitive dialogue with the responsive, quick-fire Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. The A-minor concerto especially has a somber tone that even pre-shadows the romantic cello concertos to come. When it comes like this, Gallant music does, why then everyone should be happy to better get acquainted with the style.

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Forbes Classical CD Of The Week: Alexei Lubimov And C.P.E. Bach Going Off On A Tangent

...The happy mix of smaller and substantial works contributes to displaying that musical universe of C.P.E. Bach’s, which ranges from Scarlatti-like fantasies to proto-Beethovenian sonatas, in all its kaleidoscopic wealth of color. Lubimov’s powerful, juicy playing brings to the instrument and the composer exactly what this music needs in order to take that step from “interesting” to “fascinating”. Without this individualistic, emotional and original treatment, the music might never be truly discovered. Why this album, recorded in 2008, is appearing only now, three years after the C.P.E. Bach anniversary in 2014, will remain ECM’s secret....

-> Classical CD Of The Week: Alexei Lubimov And C.P.E. Bach Going Off On A Tangent

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Forbes Classical CD Of The Week: Wake Up To Bach Beyond "J.S."

A very happy Sixth Day of Christmas to You!

…In the alphabet-soup of Bach family member composers, there are always discoveries to be made away from the familiar and relatively familiar paths of Johann Sebastian and then, I suppose, Carl Philipp Emanuel (C.P.E.), and arguably Johann Christian (J.C.). Take J.B. (Johann Bernhard; for once not a son of but a second cousin to J.S.B.), for example, whom I recently wrote about with great joy and newfound interest, after happening on the disc of his four overtures on the Ricercar label (see: Classical CD Of The Week: Who Is Johann Bernhard Bach?). Or, in this case, J.C.F. (Johann Christoph Friedrich), J.S.B.’s penultimate male issue with wife Magdalena…

-> Classical CD Of The Week: Wake Up To Bach Beyond "J.S."

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Forbes Classical CD Of The Week: Who Is Johann Bernhard Bach?

…Who In The World Is Johann Bernhard Bach? In Johann Nikolaus Forkel’s Bach biography, he is “No.18”, eldest son of Johann Ägidius (No.8, also spelled Egidius and Aegydius) who was the cousin of No.11, Johann Ambrosius Bach (1645-1695) of whom Johann Sebastian Bach was the youngest son. In other words, Johann Ägidius was JSB’s first cousin once removed which, if you are into genealogy, makes Johann Bernhard a second cousin of Johann Sebastian, sharing the same great-grandfather (Hans Bach, No.2). Like most in the Bach-clan, he was a musician. (And, as he – allegedly – liked to insist, he was not a number, he was a free man!”)…

-> Classical CD Of The Week: Who Is Johann Bernhard Bach?

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#morninglistening: Bad Willy F.B.

#morninglistening to @GrattonMaude in W.F.Bach on #Mirare. 💛🎶 #classical #classicalmusic #… https://t.co/oyPKa4klho pic.twitter.com/GU9ZIBlIVt

— Jens F. Laurson (@ClassicalCritic) November 27, 2015

💛🎶 Best Recordings of 2015 (#6)

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Dip Your Ears, No. 211 (Wilhelm Friedemann Done Right)

W.F.Bach, Harpsichord Concertos & Symphonies, M.Gratton / Il Convito Mirare

Seniormost Junior Bach

One of the choices for Best Recordings of 2015.

It’s a well-known fact that but for August the Strong and Johann Sebastian Bach, Saxons would have been extinct as a people hundreds of years ago. As they would say in these two households: Issue is no issue! Rough estimates of the time count up to 492 children of Bach’s, that master of the grand organ. Maybe a couple less, but at least 20. One of them, the eldest son and going by the family nickname of “Nummer Zwei”, was Wilhelm Friedemann. It’s little wonder that with whatever public attention there can be, divided by so many composer-kids, and with their father such a towering genius, there’s less historic room in the limelight for that letter-soup of Bach-sons (never mind other relatives!) who also composed: C.P.E., G.H., J.C., J.C.F., J.G.… and our W.F. at hand.

Of the four sons that composed seriously and lastingly, Wilhelm Friedemann probably ranks behind Carl Philipp Emanuel (the “Hamburg Bach”) and Johann Christian (the “London Bach”), but ahead of the “Bückenburg Bach”, Johann Christoph Friedrich. He ended up best known not for his own output but for his father’s keyboard instruction-manual, the “Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach”. Well, you’d never know him to be overshadowed, listening to this release!

This is, now in all seriousness, a staggeringly terrific collection of W.F.Bach harpsichord concertos and sinfonias that sheds all nonsense prejudice I have about galant style works. The Il Convito ensemble and director-soloist Maude Gratton play with such panache, there’s not a second’s time to question if this music is anything but great. It doesn’t sound like it sits uncomfortably between styles with which we are familiar, it simply rocks. Bad Willy is depicted in accounts that one may have read second-hand descriptions of as a capricious, frittering man, unsuccessfully trying to escape his father’s shadow. It’s bound to be inaccurate to some degree, but there’ll be truth to it, too. Just compare his excellent portrait by Friedrich Georg Weitsch, which shows a flamboyantly rakish W.F., wearing a hat with such a coy attitude, you can see the feather in that cap, although it’s not even depicted. Now compare that to Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait of the youngest Bach son, Johann Christian, which is equally excellent and couldn’t be more different, with the serious, collected, confident young man shown. It makes the stories of W.F. as a socially maladroit, wildly talented virtuoso and reluctant pioneer of free-lance musicianship quite believable.

I have yet to develop more keener ears for his music to determine with any accuracy the stylistic changes from his earlier – 1730s – to his later – 1770s – works on this disc, but since I’ll plop this one into the player many, many more times, I am confident that I will eventually. The liner notes are very enjoyable and well translated from French into English and German. All in all one of the very happy surprises on my desk, this year.

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This review was also published on MusicWeb International.

Best Recordings of 2015 (#6)

Time for a review of classical CDs that were outstanding in 2014 . My lists for the previous years: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, (2011 – “Almost”), 2010, (2010 – “Almost”), 2009, (2009 – “Almost”), 2008, (2008 - "Almost") 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.

# 6 - New Release

W.F.Bach, Harpsichord Concertos & Sinfonias, Il Convito, Maude Gratton (harpsichord, director), Mirare

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Harpsichord Concertos & Sinfonias Il Convito / Maude Gratton (harpsichord, director) (Mirare)

This is a staggeringly terrific collection of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach harpsichord concertos and sinfonias that sheds all nonsense prejudice one might quite understandably have about galant style works. The Il Convito ensemble and director-soloist Maude Gratton play with such panache, there’s not a second’s time to question if this music is anything but great. It doesn’t sound like it sits uncomfortably between styles with which we are familiar, it simply rocks. The instrument, a Philippe Humeau copy of a 1770 Jean-Henry Silbermann harpsichord, adds to the stormy-silvery impression.

In accounts that one may have read, “Bad Willy F.B” is depicted as a capricious, frittering man, unsuccessfully trying to escape his father’s shadow. It’s bound to be inaccurate to some degree, but there’ll be truth to it, too. Just look at his excellent portrait by Friedrich Georg Weitsch (on Wikipedia), which shows a flamboyantly rakish W.F., wearing a hat with such a coy attitude, you can see the feather in that cap, although it’s not even depicted. Now compare that to Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait of the youngest Bach son, Johann Christian, which is equally excellent and couldn’t be more different, with the serious, collected, confident young man shown. It makes the stories of W.F. as a socially maladroit, wildly talented virtuoso and reluctant pioneer of free-lance musicianship quite believable. Well, the point is I’ll plop this one into the player many, many more times, because maladroit or not, the early and late compositions on this disc alike light my fire for Johann Sebastian’s boy. The liner notes are very enjoyable and well translated from French into English and German.

# 6 – Reissue

G.F.Handel, Saul, soloists, Concerto Köln, René Jacobs, Harmonia Mundi

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Dip Your Ears, No. 47 (Bach Family Matters)

Bach Family et al., Lamento, MAK, R.Goebel, M.Kožená Archiv

Lamento, Magdalena Kožená’s latest album on Archiv is really the third installment of Musica Antiqua Köln’s “Bachiana” series where they, under the leadership of Reinhard Goebel, explore seldom-heard music of Bach family members interspersed with J. S. Bach’s work and occasionally other contemporaries. But having Gramophone Artist of the Year winner (2004) Magdalena Kožená on hand proved too irresistible a marketing opportunity even to the hard-nosed lads at Archiv – so they went with her as the main draw. If that means that more people will be exposed to Johann Christoph (1642-1703) and Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732-1795) Bach’s work, all the better.

Between “Ach, dass ich Wasser’s g’nug hätte” by the former and “Die Amerikanerin” by the latter, you’ll hear Francesco Bartolomeo Conti’s “Languet anima mea,” a cantata for soprano, two oboes, strings, and basso continuo; J. S. Bach’s contralto cantata “Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust,” BWV 170; his contralto aria “Bekennen will ich seinen Namen,” BWV 200; and C. P. E. Bach’s soprano cantata Selma. The works are arranged chronologically (or at least in chronological order of the composers), and you can hear the development from the first Bach’s early Baroque style to the last Bach’s hints of the galant style. All works are charming, none are overwhelming, and the execution is up to the expected high standards. For followers of MAK or Kožená’s, it will be of special interest.

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