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Christoph SCHAFFRATH (1709-1763) Trios and Sonatas
Trio for violin, oboe and bc in g minor [15:01]
Sonata for cello and harpsichord in C [15:35]
Sonata for oboe and bc in d minor [10:16]
Sonata for viola da gamba and harpsichord in G [17:24]
Trio for violin, bassoon and bc in B flat [11:13]
Epoca Barocca (Alessandro Piqué (oboe);
Sergio Azzolini (bassoon); Margarete Adorf (violin); Ilze Grudele (cello); Hartwig
Groth (viola da gamba); Christoph
Lehmann (harpsichord))
rec. October, November 2003, October 2005, Studio of Deutschlandfunk,
Cologne, Germany. DDD CPO 777
116-2 [69:49]
Christoph Schaffrath was one of a group of composers who played
an important role in the music life of Berlin, at and around
the court of Frederick the Great. Soon after his death he
practically sank into oblivion, where he has stayed until
our time. The renewed interest in German music between the
baroque era and classicism has led to a disc like that by
Epoca Barocca.
Not much is known about Schaffrath before the 1730s. He was born
in Hohenstein, but whether he came from a musical family or
who his first teacher was is not known. In 1733 he applied
for the position of organist at the Sophienkirche in Dresden,
but he was rejected – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach received the
post instead. The next year he entered the service of Frederick
the Great, who at the time was still the Crown-Prince, who
started his own chapel in Ruppin, which moved to Rheinsberg
in 1736. With Frederick's accession to the throne in 1740
Schaffrath became harpsichordist in his chapel. But in 1741
he entered the service of Frederick's sister Anna Amalia.
It seems this resulted in Schaffrath leaving the court, as
he isn't mentioned in a list of musicians of the chapel from
1754.
Schaffrath composed no less than 63 concertos for his own
instrument, the harpsichord. This disc concentrates on the
chamber music,
which shows he was a typical representative of the transition
between baroque and classicism. Whereas Carl Philipp Emanuel
Bach, one of his colleagues in Berlin, embraced the style
of the 'Empfindsamkeit', Schaffrath's music bears the stamp
of the galant style. He doesn't make much use of counterpoint,
not even in the trio sonatas. Themes are imitated, but they
are mostly very short, and the two instruments often play
in parallel thirds and sixths. At the end of the slow movement
of the Trio in g minor there seems to be a hint at a cadence,
but the players don't play one – perhaps they consider that
inappropriate in this particular sonata. In the Sonata for
oboe and bc in d minor, on the other hand, Alessandro Piqué takes
the opportunity to play a cadenza in the slow movement, although
rather short, which is certainly right. This slow movement
opens the sonata, whose order of movements, slow – fast – fast,
became fashionable in the middle of the 18th century. The
same pattern is followed in the last work on this disc, the
Trio in B flat, which contains a bassoon part which is very
virtuosic. As Schaffrath has written demanding bassoon parts
remarkably often one may conclude that at his time some players
with great skills must have been around.
Especially interesting are the two duets for keyboard and
melody instruments. This was a form which was developed from
the trio sonata
by Johann Sebastian Bach. His son Carl Philipp Emanuel also
made frequently use of it. Ironically the two melody instruments
here are the cello and the viola da gamba, which were competing
for the favour of the string players. At Schaffrath's time
the viola da gamba still had the upper hand, and it is very
likely this particular piece was written for Ludwig Christian
Hesse, the most famous gambist of Germany, for whom Johann
Gottlieb Graun – also one of Schaffrath's colleagues in Berlin – composed
a number of solo concertos. The two pieces are quite different,
and this may well reflect the difference in status between
the two instruments and perhaps also the original players.
The viola da gamba is more independent from the keyboard
than the cello, and it often introduces the thematic material
whereas in the sonata for cello and harpsichord it is mostly
the keyboard which takes the lead. The viola da gamba part
is also considerably more technically demanding than the
cello part.
The programme on this disc demonstrates that Schaffrath has been unjustly
neglected, and it is again CPO which pays attention to such
an ignored master. It makes this German label to one of the
most adventurous and most important labels on the early music
scene. And it is always able to attract ensembles and musicians
who know how to put an underrated composer on the map. Epoca
Barocca is one of them. The ensemble as a whole and all its
members individually give splendid performances, technically
assured, and with great flair and imagination. Cleverly they
have saved the most interesting and most remarkable pieces
for the end: the Sonata for viola da gamba and harpsichord
and the Trio in B flat. These alone make this disc recommendable.
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