One of the musicians
who formed part of the great diaspora
of Bohemian talent in the eighteenth
century Benda’s family moved to Prussia
where he pursued a distinguished career
as Kapellmeister. There he wrote widely
for the stage, church and more intimate
locations, producing music such as this
1757 set of Clavier Sonatas. Despite
some stylistic dissimilarity the geographical
and musical journey Benda took allied
him to such contemporaries or near contemporaries
as Graun, Hasse, Fasch and Schulz. Even
so his aesthetic here represents a personalised
and individual one and these Berlin-published
sonatas stand on the cusp between the
baroque and the classical.
All six sonatas adhere
to the expected three-movement sonata
principle and Antonio Piricone’s is
their first complete recording on the
piano (harpsichord recordings have,
of course, preceded him in the full
set of six). His articulation is frequently
princely, pianistic obviously but with
an appreciation of appropriate harpsichord
sonority, though one that stresses the
lyricism at the heart of these works
(his apologia in the booklet deals wittily
with the idea of playing Benda on the
piano). He catches precisely that stately
edge in the opening movement of the
G major and finds the right weight of
articulation in the right hand in the
affecting Andante assai. Alive to Benda’s
grace as well as his lyricism, to the
courtly phrase as much as to the more
interior one, he is especially fine
in the F major. Here in the opening
Allegretto tempo, phrasing, hand weight
and distribution are splendidly judged.
In a sonata as quirkily unbalanced as
the G minor – relatively long first
movement, concisely affecting Andante
and quick fire Menuetto finale – Piricone
characterises each movement with genuine
acumen. Sensing some probing uncertainties
in the Lento of the D major, the sixth
of the set, we encounter in this performance
intimations of stylistic and expressive
things to come – a really imaginatively
played and understatedly prescient little
movement, topped and tailed by the newly
asserted confident externality of the
surrounding Allegros.
Non-prescriptive ears
will welcome Benda on the piano especially
when it has been done as persuasively
as here. The warm acoustic blurs nothing
– those witty hand exchanges in the
Allegro finale of the D minor for example
are full of attractive clarity. The
notes are pertinent and straightforwardly
honest and in Piricone Benda has a most
worthy and sensitive champion.
Jonathan Woolf
Antonio Piricone (piano) 