It won’t be long before all of Wilhelm Friedemann's keyboard
music will be available on disc. Julia Brown participates in the Naxos
project of recording his complete keyboard works. Léon Berben
does the same for the German label Carus. About time too as Friedemann
is one of the most intriguing composers of the mid-18th century and
his oeuvre is hardly comparable with that of any of his contemporaries.
He was a rather controversial figure in his lifetime. His skills as
a keyboard player were never in doubt but he was a difficult character
to deal with, as some of his employers experienced. His compositions
didn't appeal that much to the growing market of amateur keyboard
players. They probably found most of them too technically complicated.
They were also highly individualistic in character. Moreover, they
show a mixture of various stylistic elements: on the one hand they
reflected the fashionable features of his time, such as strong contrasts
within a single movement, on the other he made use of polyphony which
was considered something of the past.
The
Suite in g minor is a perfect example of this dichotomy.
The form of the suite itself was old-fashioned in Friedemann's time;
it has many reminiscences of the keyboard suites and partitas of Johann
Sebastian. At the same time they include strong contrasts as was common
in the modern keyboard music of his time. One finds regular metrical
shifts, wide leaps, frequent hand-crossing and chromaticism. The form
of the suite may be typically baroque but these specimens from Friedemann's
pen certainly are not.
The very first piece on the programme, the
Sonata in E flat,
starts with an
allegro ma non troppo which shows several elements
of Friedemann's style, especially chromaticism and frequent sudden
pauses. The closing
presto includes hand-crossing passages
and drum basses, another feature of the time. The second movement,
a
largo, is of an imitative character. The same contrasts appear
in the
Sonata in B flat. The second movement is a lyrical
grazioso,
whereas the closing
allegro di molto is built up from various
passages of contrasting character, in which the tempo consistently
shifts between
allegro and
andantino.
Bach senior turns up again in the first movement of the
Sonata
in C. The
Sonata in D which closes the programme, is one
of the less technically complicated pieces by Friedemann. The three
movements are largely in two parts. The lyrical middle movement is
followed by a sparkling
vivace.
We can't be sure for which instrument Bach intended his keyboard music,
apart from those which are obviously written for the organ. Most interpreters
seem to prefer the harpsichord. The many contrasts in his music would
make a good case for an instrument with a wider dynamic range than
the harpsichord, especially the clavichord. That said, Julia Brown
delivers a good interpretation and shows that it is certainly possible
to display the contrasts at the harpsichord, especially through the
opposition of the two manuals. I wasn't entirely happy with the
previous
disc by Julia Brown as I found some of her tempi a bit slowish.
I have no quarrel with this disc: technically Ms Brown's performances
are impressive, and the evocative character of Friedemann's keyboard
works is convincingly conveyed.
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen
see also review by Byzantion
