This finely produced,
researched and recorded CD from Orfeo
contains music by a composer the
excellently written liner-note refers
to as "one of the most comprehensively
forgotten composers ... from a period
widely regarded as the golden age of
the clarinet".
Dieter Klöcker
adds to his already impressive repertoire
list with this delightfully freewheeling
concerto and aria. The leaps between registers
and the alacrity he displays in
accomplishing them make this a
"must-have" for clarinet devotees. Some
of the passage work is dizzyingly deft
as well as downright demonic in its
complexity. The second movement "Adagio"
is nearly four minutes of pastoral perfection.
Not exactly what one would describe
as "pretty", its songlike qualities resemble
an opera aria in the use of the bass
instruments to support the soloist's
harmonics. The third movement is a set
of variations on a popular, dance-like
theme followed by a polacca where genuinely
virtuosic elements come into play.
The aria, featuring soprano
Isolde Siebert, is written in the style
of a scene from an Italian opera
seria. Apparently, von Winter
wrote a number of these during his long
career as Kapellmeister to the Bavarian
Royal Court. As far as anyone can tell,
this scene may have been written
for an opera that was never
completed. Regardless of its
provenance, it beautifully showcases
both soloists in over eight minutes
of dramatic vocalization and instrumental
virtuosity.
The two "sinfoniae"
show von Winter to be a genius of orchestral
color and economy. By the 1780s most
works with this title were in four movements,
but the composer expresses the full
musical identity of each work in only
three. The fugal finale of the
sinfonie No 3 is imbued with the
genuine spirit of a divertimento including
solo contributions from both oboe and
bassoon. The "Rondo Allegro" which concludes
the sinfonie No 2 is a whirlwind
of eclectic Italianate dynamics usually
associated with the Mannheim school,
of which the composer can truly be said
to be a leading exponent. Enthusiastically
recommended.
Gregory W. Stouffer
A whirlwind of eclectic
Italianate dynamics ... a leading
exponent of the Mannheim school. Enthusiastically
recommended. ... see Full Review
Southwest German Chamber Orchestra, Pforzheim/Johannes
Moesus 
