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Giuseppe FERLENDIS (1755-c.1810)
Oboe Concerto No.2 in C major [14:34]
Oboe Concerto [No.3] in C major [14:57]
Oboe Concerto No.1 in F major [12:53]
Trio for Oboe, Flute and Bassoon No. 1 in D major [4:34]
Trio for Oboe, Flute and Bassoon No. 2 in G major [4:18]
Trio for Oboe, Flute and Bassoon No. 3 in C major [5:24]
Trio for Oboe, Flute and Bassoon No. 4 in B flat major [4:52]
Trio for Oboe, Flute and Bassoon No. 5 in D major [4:04]
Trio for Oboe, Flute and Bassoon No. 6 in A major [4:48]
Diego Dini
Ciacci (oboe), Francesco Dainese (flute), Flavio Baruzzi (bassoon)
Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento/Diego Dini Cacci
rec. Auditorium ‘Haydn’, Bozen, Italy, 23-24 September 2005 CPO 7773682
[70:33]
If the name Giuseppe Ferlendis rings any bells in the mind, it
may well be because of the Mozart connection. Having been born
in Bergamo, Ferlendis’s success as a soloist in Italy led to his
appointment, in 1777, as court oboist in Salzburg. His standing
was such that his yearly salary was 540 florins to Mozart’s 500.
Mozart wrote a concerto for him - pretty certainly the work we
also know in its arrangement as a flute concerto, K314 - which
met with considerable success, being later played to some acclaim
by the oboist Friedrich Ramm. In a letter of 14 February 1778,
Mozart writes from Mannheim to his father, reporting that “Ramm
played my oboe Concerto for Ferlendis for the fifth time; it is
attracting much attention, and is now Ramm’s cheval de bataille”.
Indeed the connection between Ferlendis and Mozart led to what
was surely a rather flattering case of misattribution. The great
Mozart scholar Georges de Saint-Foix found, in the library of
the Milan conservatory, a manuscript oboe concerto attributed
to Ferlendis which he judged to be by Mozart, the attribution
to Ferlendis merely acknowledging that it was written for him
and played by him. Einstein argued convincingly on stylistic grounds
that it was a non-Mozartean work – suggesting that in form it
was reminiscent of Tartini and in invention was more like Spohr
than Mozart. He also found aspects of the scoring unlike Mozart,
while acknowledging some general resemblances. This is the concerto
which we now know as Ferlendis’s first concerto. He appears to
have written three others, preserved in whole or part in Milan
and Genoa. Of one only the orchestral parts survive. The other
two – both in C major – have here been reconstructed and are recorded
for the first time. In some ways they are actually more interesting
than the one mistakenly attributed to Mozart.
The concerto in
F major is apparently the earliest of the three, and there is
a certain slightly inhibited quality to it, compared to its
successors. Still, it is full of pleasant music, not least in
the rather melancholy adagio and the pleasantly dancing rhythms
of the closing rondo. In the two C major concertos there seems
to be a greater freedom, perhaps a greater self-confidence,
to the writing. In No.2, for example, the sonata form of the
opening allegro is handled with flexible assurance and individuality;
the brief - only a minute and a half - adagio is a little gem,
gorgeously lyrical (and beautifully played by Ciacci). The allegro
into which it leads is a delightful and musically witty set
of variations on Paisiello’s ‘Nel cor pił non mi sento’ - on
which both Beethoven and Paganini also wrote sets of variations.
In the third Concerto there are some beautiful unaccompanied
passages in the initial allegro and in the closing allegro it
is not hard to hear some of those echoes of late-baroque practice
which Einstein detected in the F major concerto. All in all
these are fine pieces which should surely find their way into
the repertoire of other oboists. The playing of Diego Dini Ciacci
is exemplary, his tone consistently apt and eloquent. He directs
the Haydn Orchestra – the orchestral parts are not perhaps especially
demanding, but they are handled with attractive competence.
The Six Sonatas
- no date of composition or publication is given - are relatively
slight, all in two movements and only one of them running over
five minutes in these performances. These have the air of pieces
written for domestic performance and make fewer technical demands
than the concertos. Flautist Francesco Dainese and bassoonist
Flavio Baruzzi make assured partners for Ciacci here, and the
use of bassoon makes for some interesting textures. This is
elegant, shapely music which makes no very great demands on
performers or listeners. Pleasant as it is, it is the concertos
which make this a desirable CD.
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