David Pohle was
born into a family of miners and town pipers in Marienberg in
the Erzgebirge, in that area just south of Leipzig and Dresden
near the present Czech border. Little is known about his life,
but we do know that he studied with Heinrich Schütz, who was
to become the godfather of his son. Throughout his career he
was an instrumental musician, Music Director and composer at
various princely courts in northern Germany. Despite producing
an extensive oeuvre none of his works were published during
his lifetime, and this is no doubt an important reason why Pohle’s
music is mainly known today by insiders and specialists. Work
such as the solo arias of the Geistliche Konzerte represented
here by Wie der Hirsch schreyet provides interesting
insights into the origins of the Protestant church cantata,
and collectors interested in the cantatas of J.S. Bach will
find a surprising amount of common ground between the two composers
in this field.
Pohle’s style is
notable for its personal individuality and the wide variety
of instrumental scoring and freedom of form. He also introduces
a fair amount of musical rhetoric – interpreting the text through
corresponding musical figures. An example of this can be found
in In te Domine speravi, where the word ‘inclina’ - the
bowing of the head - is expressed by a downward gesture of a
third interval, while the ‘accelerare’ is more than clear through
the use of sixteenth notes – semi-quavers to U.K. readers.
On this CD, the
movements from this Geistliche Konzerte are mixed with
a number of well chosen instrumental sonatas. These are characterised
by numerous fairly short sections of contrasting tempi and rhythm
and some remarkable harmonic progressions. Pohle also demonstrates
inclinations towards virtuoso display with written but improvisatory
sounding cadenzas. The colour of the ensemble is inevitably
string led, but nicely rounded organ and lute backing makes
for a rich, full sound.
Together with the
immaculately clean sounding baroque orchestra L’Arpa festante,
singers Monika Mauch, Hans Jörg Mammel and David Erler perform
with conviction and enthusiasm, and the idiom of this music
is brought to life in a most elegant and expressive way from
beginning to end. The music of this almost forgotten contemporary
of Tunder and Buxtehude is of remarkably high quality, and it
seems bizarre that these pieces have been neglected for so long.
Carus, in their ‘Musik aus Dresden’ series are to be complimented
on a well executed and gorgeous sounding programme.
Dominy
Clements
Monika Mauch (soprano)
