The name Johann Joachim Quantz often turns up in programme notes and
in books on music history. That's for two reasons. Firstly, he was a member
of the chapel of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, which was one of the
most important chapels in Europe in the mid-18th century. Secondly, he was
the author of a treatise on flute playing, an important source of
information about performance practice in his time. Unfortunately, he shares
the fate of other theorists in that for a long time his own oeuvre was
almost completely ignored. Some of his flute concertos and flute sonatas
have been played over the years, but it is only fairly recently that his
oeuvre has been seriously explored and has become part of the active
18th-century repertoire.
The flute was not part of his early musical education. Quantz
learned to play string instruments as well as oboe and trumpet. He later
studied with Jan Dismas Zelenka, and became acquainted with the concertos by
Vivaldi. These had a great influence on his development as a composer. His
first job was that of an oboist in the Polish chapel of Augustus II, Elector
of Saxony and King of Poland. However, he saw few opportunities for further
development in this department, and turned to the transverse flute. He
studied with Buffardin, the French-born star flautist in the Dresden court
chapel. Quantz himself named its concert master, Johann Georg Pisendel, as a
major source of influence on his writing.
Although the Quantz oeuvre includes music for various instruments
and a small number of vocal works, it is dominated by music for flute. The
main incentive to write so much for his own instrument was his employer for
many years and flute pupil, Frederick the Great. The Prussian king was an
avid player of the instrument, often performing flute sonatas and concertos
with his own chapel in his private rooms. Quantz composed at least 235
sonatas and more than 300 concertos, of which around 250 have been
preserved.
The present disc is an important addition to the catalogue as all
the concertos have been recorded here for the first time. That is not all.
The
Concerto in A minor was thought to be lost, as the manuscript
copies disappeared from Berlin during World War II. They were rediscovered
by Mary Oleskiewicz in the Russian National Library in St Petersburg. She
also found copies of the
Concerto in G, this time in the archive of
the Berlin Sing-Akademie. Interestingly this copy included two cadenzas for
the first and second movements. These have been inserted in this recording.
The
Concerto in c minor also deserves special notice. This is
Quantz's last composition, which he left unfinished. He only wrote the first
and second movements. It was then finished by Frederick, himself author of a
considerable number of compositions (including 121 flute sonatas), who added
a third movement.
The four concertos span the whole of Quantz's career. The
Concerto in D minor is the earliest; Ms Oleskiewicz suggests that it
was written during the composer's time in Dresden. That is also the case
with the
Concerto in A minor. The two other concertos are late works.
The different time of composition is reflected by the line-up of
instrumental forces involved in the performances. The earlier concertos are
played with four violins and one viola, with a harpsichord in the basso
continuo. The two later concertos are performed with one instrument per
part, which Frederick favoured in his later years - this according to Ms
Oleskiewicz in her liner-notes. The harpsichord is replaced here by the
fortepiano.
There can be little doubt that this disc is very interesting as it
greatly contributes to our knowledge of Quantz and his environment. It's
full of good intentions but I find the result rather disappointing. Concerto
Armonico is not one of the greatest baroque ensembles around. Its sound is
sometimes a bit unpolished and lacks subtlety. One reason that Quantz's
music wasn't taken that seriously is instrumental practice. Straightforward
performances on modern instruments in the 1960s and 1970s did little justice
to the true character of his compositions. That has changed with the
emergence of period instrument practice. However, the playing of Concerto
Armonico is often not that much different from what was common in those old
days. Dynamically the results are rather flat, and there is far too little
differentiation between stressed and unstressed notes. The tempi are
generally slowish. The
Concerto in D minor opens with an
allegro e
con spirito, but spirited the performance definitely is not. The closing
vivace lacks vividness and energy. Mary Oleskiewicz is a fine player
of the transverse flute and a good researcher, but as an interpreter of
these concertos she has not really convinced me.
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen
Previous reviews:
Brian
Reinhart and
Byzantion
