An interesting release from the Dacapo label
of five sonatas for flute and harpsichord featuring Scandinavian
based flautist Maria Bania and award winning harpsichordist Lars
Ulrik Mortensen. There are three flute sonatas by German born
composer and keyboard player Johann Scheibe and two flute sonatas
from the Danish composer Morten Raehs who was a professional flutist.
Both Scheibe and Raehs were influential composers in Danish music
circles in the mid-eighteenth century; particularly prominent
in Copenhagen and these five sonatas form part of the famous Giedde
Collection of 300 works, mainly for flute.
Scheibe’s three flute sonatas were composed sometime
between 1740-60 and utilise the harpsichord on an equal basis
to the flute not as a mere basso continuo. The works are
written in the four movement slow-fast-medium fast-fast format.
It is characteristic of Scheibe that each movement is monothematic
composed to represent a single emotion.
The two flute sonatas of Raehs composed around
1748 contrast with those of Scheibe in two main respects. Firstly
Raehs adopts the late-baroque model of using the harpsichord as
a basso continuo and secondly each sonata is composed in
a three movement form.
All five flute sonatas contained on this Decapo
release are appealing and exceedingly well crafted works yet lack
the melodic inventiveness of more famous contemporaries such as
Vivaldi, Handel, Telemann and Tartini et al. Flautist Maria
Bania is most technically secure perhaps at the expense of emotional
expression and both players are in a definite rush throughout
not allowing the music the space to breath. Clearly this is not
music of the Premier League status but the players have missed
the opportunity to reveal far more of the works’ qualities.
The sonics are crisp and clear yet the engineers
have focused predominantly on the flute soloist leaving the harpsichord
rather in its shadow.
Rather disappointing and workmanlike performances.
Michael Cookson