This completes the Naxos recording of the twelve
Sinfonias or Grandes Symphonies which F X Richter
composed around 1740 and
published in Paris in 1744, the first six of which
appeared on 8.557818. Tim Perry welcomed that first volume: “If you have
any interest in “big C” Classical music, you will enjoy this disc”
– see review.
I came to this CD straight
after listening to some of the Haydn symphonies on Volume 4
of the Nimbus Austro-Hungarian Orchestra/Adam Fischer series
(NI5683-7), a pretty hard act to follow. How would the Richter
recording stand up against the competition? In fact, neither
the music nor the performance are put to shame by the comparison
and the recording is very good, too. Richter may not be quite
as endlessly inventive and varied as Haydn and the Helsinki
Baroque Orchestra not quite as light on its toes as the Austro-Hungarian
players, but the music is very enjoyable and the performances
are very good.
These symphonies predate
Richter’s arrival in Mannheim in 1746, so they don’t
provide examples of what came to be known as the Mannheim Rocket
or Steamroller, though there’s plenty of drive and energy in
the outer movements. There’s plenty of tenderness, too, in
the slow movements. The outer movements of Symphony No.27
(tracks 14-16) contain plenty of g-minor drama – somewhat reminiscent
of Vivaldi at his most impassioned.
For a composer who had
been raised on the theories of Fux in his Gradus ad Parnassum,
and whose own treatise Harmonische Belehrungen leans
heavily on the earlier composer, his music is surprisingly advanced
for the 1740s. Allan Badley’s notes, like the articles in the
Shorter Grove and the Oxford Companion to Music,
describe Richter’s music as conservative in style by comparison
with that of his Mannheim contemporaries and heavily reliant on counterpoint,
so his music is closer to J S or C P E Bach than to Haydn and
Mozart. In the event, however, if I’d turned on Radio 3 and
tried to guess, I’d have placed the music rather later than
1740, with its elements of the baroque, galant, and even
some elements of the classical styles.
Recent scholarly editions,
by Allan Badley, who has also written the notes, and published
by Naxos’s associate,
Artaria, are employed.
I can’t improve on TP’s
description of the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra under Aapo Häkkinen
as a bit of a find and a world-class period ensemble. I hadn’t
heard them before; I very much hope that more of their recordings
come my way. The ensemble is small – 4+4 violins, 2 violas,
2 cellos and double bass. It appears that two keyboard instruments
were employed for the recording; as well as the one from which
Häkkinen presumably directs, a second is listed.
The Naxos recording is
close but not too close. It even allowed me to hear the harpsichord
in places, the lack of which has been one of my recent complaints
about several recordings. I don’t want it in my lap – it isn’t
here – but I don’t want it to be so discrete that I can’t hear
it.
Allan Badley’s notes are
scholarly and readable and the presentation is up to Naxos’s usual high
standards, even if the cover picture of Mannheim is slightly
inappropriate for music composed before Richter got there.
I certainly intend to obtain
the earlier Naxos CD now. There’s another recording of Richter’s
music in the excellent Chandos Contemporaries of Mozart series
(CHAN10386), with which David Blomberg was impressed: “These pieces warrant more frequent performance
on stage and the case for these pieces is extremely well put across
by the London Mozart Players” – see review. Miraculously,
that recording, of Symphonies Nos.29, 43, 52, 53 and 56, does
not overlap at all with either of the Naxos CDs. I hope to include
a review of it – and of the earlier Naxos CD – in a forthcoming
Download Roundup.
Brian Wilson
Helsinki Baroque Orchestra/Aapo
Häkkinen 
