Johann Friedrich MEISTER (c1638-1697)
Il giardino del piacere
La Musica Terza in A [11:59]
La Musica Settima in F [10:18]
La Musica Ottava in B flat [10:07]
La Musica Nona in g minor [08:56]
La Musica Prima in G [12:52]
La Musica Duodecima in E flat [12:10]
Ensemble Diderot (Johannes Pramsohler, Roldán Bernabé (violin), Gulrim Choi (cello), Philippe Grisvard (harpsichord))
rec. 21-24 June 2015, Palmensaal of Orangerie Neuer Garten, Potsdam, Germany DDD
AUDAX RECORDS ADX13705 [66:45]
Johann Friedrich Meister is one of those German composers
who has become known through one recording of some of his music. In 2004 Reinhard
Goebel and his ensemble Musica antiqua Köln recorded six trio sonatas from
Meister's collection Il giardino del piacere for the German
radio channel WDR 3. When in 2006 the ensemble was disbanded Goebel took the
initiative to make those recordings available to a wider audience. It resulted
in the release of these six sonatas on Berlin Classics. The present disc includes
the remaining sonatas from the same collection. The Ensemble Diderot has close
ties to Reinhard Goebel: its leader, Johannes Pramsohler, plays one of Goebel's
violins. It is also Goebel who has written the liner-notes.
Not that much is known about Meister. It is assumed that he was born around
1638, but that cannot confirmed, and there is also a suggestion that he may
have been born in 1655. What is known is that Meister was recruited by the
Hanoverian Kapellmeister Nicolaus Adam Strungk in January 1677 as music director
of the court chapel of Duke Ferdinand Albrecht I of Brunswick-Lüneburg at
Schloss Bevern. Soon he was involved in a conflict between the Duke and his
musicians, and as a result was imprisoned. He escaped and entered the service
of Bishop August Friedrich of Lübeck, who had his residence in Eutin. In 1683
he became organist of the Marienkirche in Flensburg where he also was responsible
for the composition of sacred vocal music. All his compositions in this category
have been preserved in the Bokemeyer-Sammlung, one of the major sources
of German music from the decades around 1700 which is now in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek.
Il giardino del piacere comprises twelve pieces which are entitled
La Musica, followed by a number in Italian: prima, seconda, terza
and so on. It is only the first part of every piece which has the title of
sonata, and each sonata is divided into a number of sections of contrasting
tempo and character. The sonata is then followed by a various number
of movements, often with the names of dances in Italian: sarabanda, gavotta,
corrente; only menuet and gigue are in French. Because
of this division into two sections these pieces can be called sonata-suites,
just like the six pieces which are included in Hortus Musicus which
the Hamburg organist and composer Johann Adam Reincken published in 1688.
It seems likely, as Goebel suggests, that this collection was one of the sources
of inspiration for Meister and that he wanted to surpass his model. That could
explain that Meister included twelve sonata-suites in his set instead of Reincken's
six. The titles are also very much alike. Reincken's title page refers
to "Sonaten, Allemanden, Couranten, Sar[a]banden et Giguen" and
Meister's to "sonate, fughe, imitationi, ciaccone, passagaglie,
allemande, correnti &c". There is another thing that they have in
common. Various German composers had written instrumental pieces for two instruments
and bc but mostly with the scoring for violin and viola da gamba. Both Reincken
and Meister opted for the scoring which was commonplace in Italy: two violins.
Although the basic structure is the same, the various 'sonatas'
differ in the choice and order of the movements. Four of the six pieces recorded
here have a fugue as their second movement. La Musica Prima has a
canon in unisono instead, with the tempo indication allegro.
The second movement of La Musica XII is a passacaglia; two other
sonatas - II and X, both recorder by Goebel - also include a movement on a
basso ostinato, another passacaglia (X) and a ciaconna
(II). The slow movements are quite expressive, such as the adagio which opens
La Musica Prima. The sudden shift from allegro to adagio
lends the penultimate movement from La Musica IX a quite dramatic
character. La Musica Settima opens with a movement in two sections
(vivace - allegro) which includes chromatic ascending figures. This sonata's
fugue and the ensuing adagio are connected by what seems a harpsichord improvisation.
Every piece includes a menuet; these menuets are French in name but have little
in common with the rather elegant menuets as they would become so fashionable
in the next century. The addition allegro e forte to the menuets
in four of these six sonatas is telling.
These compelling pieces receive an ideal performance from the Ensemble Diderot.
Not only are there personal ties between the ensemble and its leader, Johannes
Pramsohler, and Reinhard Goebel, in its interpretation and its way of playing
it shows the spirit of the latter's former ensemble Musica antiqua
Köln. The performances are based on a thorough knowledge of rhetorics which
is especially important in German baroque music. This results in a clear articulation,
marked dynamic accents which emphasize the difference between good and bad
notes and make the dance rhythms clearly recognizable. These are truly gestural
and speech-like performances which make this music breathe.
If you have the Berlin Classics disc in your collection this recording offers
the opportunity to complete the set of twelve sonatas by Johann Friedrich
Meister. If you don't the present disc will certainly make you look
for the previous disc which should still be available. I hope that one day
we will also get to know his vocal music. If that part of his output is nearly
as good as these instrumental works we should be in for a treat.
Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
Previous review:
Stephen Greenbank
|
Support us financially by purchasing
this from
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|