About the event
CPE Bach (1714-1788), Christoph Schaffrath (1709-1763), Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch (1736-1800)
Johann Georg Lang (1724-1798), Trio de Giuseppe Giordani (1751-1798), Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773)
Avec Aline Zylberajch, Philippe Grisvard piano Silbermann 1749, copie Kerstin Schwarz,
Johannes Pramsholer violon, Aurélien Delage piano silberman et traverso
Etienne Mangot Gambetta inglese, Sebastijan Bereta traverso
Presentation
Resonances and SympathiesInstruments rares
The pianoforte of Frederick II...Le pianoforte présenté ce soir est une copie d’après un instrument de Gottfried Silbermann, Freiberg 1749, conservé au Germanisches Nationalmuseum de NurembergSon clavier est d’une étendue de presque cinq octaves (Fa0 – mi5)Sa caisse est en chêne, sa table d’harmonie en épicéa. Il a deux cordes par note.Il est basé sur la mécanique à marteaux inventée par Bartolomeo Cristofori, avec échappement et attrape-marteau.Il offre plusieurs possibilités de registres manuels : les étouffoirs peuvent être relevés, tous ensemble ou progressivement. Des barres d’ivoire peuvent être abaissées sur les cordes pour produire un son un peu métallique : c’est le jeu de Pantalon, par analogie à l’instrument développé par Pantalon HebenstreitLe registre d’una corda permet en faisant glisser le clavier de côté d’adoucir le jeu en ne laissant que l’une des deux cordes vibrer.Ces registres peuvent être combinés entre eux, au gré de l’imagination de l’interprète.
Program
Aurélien Delage, pianoforte, Sebastijan Bereta traverso*
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) : Largo (sonate Hob.XVI:2)
Johann Joaquim Quantz (1697-1773) : Sonata per il flauto traverso solo en sol 109 : Presto mà fiero*
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) :mouvement sans titre (sonate Hob.XVI:4) Finale (sonate Hob.XVII:D1)
Étienne Mangot, gambetta all’inglese, Aline Zylberajch, pianoforte
Johann Georg Lang (1724-1798) – Andante (Sonata gambetta solo con basso)
Christoph Schaffrath (1709-1763) Largo (Sonate en sol majeur pour viole & clavier obligé
Carl Philip Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) Andante (Sonata per il Cembalo è Viola en sol mineur Wq 88)
Pietro Pompeo Sales (1729-1797)Cantabile con moto (für gambetta & obligates cembalo)
Aurélien Delage, traversoÉtienne Mangot, gambetta all’ingleseAline Zylberajch, pianoforte
Tommaso Giordani (1733-1806)Sonata opus 30 n°3 en si bémol majeur pour pianoforte, flûte & viole de gambe
Allegro moderato – Allegretto
Johannes Pramsohler, violonPhilippe Grisvard, pianoforte
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)Sonate en si mineur pour clavecin et violon Wq 76
Allegro moderatoPoco andanteAllegretto siciliano
Présentation détaillée
Gambetta all’inglese…
"When one of the strings is touched with the bow or plucked, the brass or steel string underneath resonates per consensum, vibrates and shakes, so that the charm of the harmony is, as it were, increased and developed." Michael Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum II, De organographia, 1619
Built in Andenne in 2019 by François Bodart, after many years of experimentation on sympathetic stringed viols (baritone stringed, lyra viol), this viol belongs to the family of "love" instruments, used since the 17th century by European composers, in religious music up to the salon music of the late 18th century. Equipped with 15 strings, this instrument has two sets: a viol set (six gut strings rubbed by the bow) and a harp set (9 steel and brass strings plucked by the thumb of the left hand). Of an intermediate size between the "tenor" and the "bass", it is tuned "in G". The sympathetic strings resonate in sympathy with the harmonies produced by the vibration of the viol by the bow, and can be plucked, which increases the polyphonic possibilities of the instrument.
A few words about the program
Les violistes ont, à juste titre, une grande affection pour les sonates de Christoph Schaffrath et CPE Bach. Tous deux actifs à la cour de Frédéric de Prusse, ils ont offert à la viole des œuvres vibrant de la nouvelle sensibilité » qui figurent parmi les derniers chefs d’œuvres dédiés à cet instrument. Cependant des cercles italianisants ont aussi offerts à la viole, et fort tardivement, de belles pages galantes empreintes de la vocalité ultramontaine qui séduit toute l’Europe.
Thus, the archives of the prince-bishops of Augsburg contain compositions for Gambetta qui en exploitent tous les registres expressifs. Johann Georg Lang a produit quelques-unes de ces œuvres. Né en Bohême, il étudie à Naples sous la direction de Francesco Durante. Il s’établit plus tard à Augsburg comme Kammermusiker puis Konzertmeister – jusqu’à la fuite de ses maîtres devant les troupes françaises en 1794.
Il a probablement destiné ses sonates aux violistes de la chapelle, réputés pour leur virtuosité. Parmi ceux-ci, Pietro Pompeo Sales compositeur originaire de Brescia, très apprécié de ses contemporains tant pour ses opéras que sa musique sacrée. Le dernier prince, Clemens Wenzeslaus von Sachsen lui-même violiste, lui a donné toute liberté de produire ses œuvres en Europe, jusqu’à Londres où il a donné des concerts de viole en 1776.
The travels of Tommaso Giordani, prolific composer in all genres, have taken him from Naples to Dublin via Germany, the Netherlands, France and London, where he resides when Sales performs.
His sonatas opus 30, published in 1782, are indicated for flute or violin, bass viol or viola and harpsichord or piano - choosing "love" instruments allows to underline the quality and the originality of their writing. John Field is among his students...it's a whole new musical page that is being turned.
—————————————————————————-
Unlike C.P.E. Bach, we do not know if Joseph Haydn was interested in the Royal Harpsichord or instruments of the same type. On the other hand, his music was widely played in Europe, especially by amateurs in search of novelties. We can therefore imagine his music being played in Dresden on an instrument by Johann Gottlob Wagner.
De même, dans ses premières pièces pour claviers, Haydn est très imprégné de musique italienne, en particulier des oeuvres pour clavier du vénitien Baldassare Galuppi. L’Italie est bien sûr le berceau de la facture de piano-forte. Autour de 1700, Bartolomeo Cristofori invente le piano-forte à Florence. Or, il est intéressant de relever une anecdote vénitienne rapportée par Charles Burney lors de son passage en 1770 dans la Cité des Doges. Il y témoigne de sa rencontre avec le comte de Tour-et-Taxis qui « possède un très curieux instrument à clavier fait à Berlin sur les instructions de S. M. Le roi de Prusse, et qui ressemble par sa forme à un grand clavicorde ; cet instrument a plusieurs registres, qui imitent à volonté la harpe, le luth, le clavecin ou le piano-forte. (…) il préluda pendant assez longtemps et me prouva, par son art de la modulation, qu’il était l’un des meilleurs produits de l’école de Tartini. »
Is it an instrument close to the royal harpsichord? If so, the keyboardist will have another important repertoire to discover in this little-known instrument.
—————————————————————————-
Melancholicus & Sanguineus : C. F. C. FASCH & C. P. E. BACH
Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch was the son of the famous Zerbst choirmaster Johann Friedrich Fasch. He entered the service of Prussian King Frederick II in 1756, and shared the position of court harpsichordist with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach for more than ten years. In addition to a model, he found in him a friend. Unfortunately, the young musician's arrival in Potsdam coincided with the moment when Prussia became bogged down in the Seven Years' War: musical activity at court was immediately suspended, plunging the young musician into precariousness and depression. At the end of the war, court music had lost some of its lustre, and the king's interest in it diminished considerably. Like many of his colleagues, Fasch thought of finding a better position. The king refuses to lose one more harpsichordist: Emanuel Bach is (finally) granted leave of absence. Fasch stays in Berlin and resigns. The golden age of Frederick's chapel is over, and the musical taste of the aging king has become petrified. Berlin will no longer be the great rival of Vienna, London or Paris in the musical field. Apart from his increasingly symbolic duties at court, Fasch devotes himself essentially to teaching.
If his early works betray the ascendancy of his illustrious colleague - as the Larghetto in E minor, the evolution of his style shows that he was able to emancipate himself quite quickly and find a very personal style. Fasch, like all his Berlin colleagues of the 1760s, was particularly fond of the genre of character pieces, inspired by the world of Couperin and Rameau; they are miniatures of sensitivity and melancholy, true jewels of theempfindsamkeit, telle L’Antoinefor example, played this evening.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Sonata in B minor wq.76 (1763) for obbligato harpsichord and violin impresses by its size and character. The first movement, instead of a dialogue between the two instruments, pits them against each other in a sort of joust, where each seems to embody a character or temperament, in the manner of the Sanguineus & MelancholicusThis is one of his famous trio sonatas, itself inspired by a similar work by Johann Gottlieb Graun. This sonata demonstrates in many ways the extraordinary and eccentric quality of Emanuel Bach's language, which had earned him - among other reasons - the enmity of the king. Unhappy in a court where his music was not appreciated, CPE Bach was later able to flourish as a Director Musices in Hamburg. But Fasch was not so lucky, and composing turned out to be a painful experience for him: very self-critical, he burned much of his music. It is finally through choral music that he left his mark in the twilight of the 18th century, by founding the famous Sing-Akademie of Berlin, at the head of which he was one of the main architects of the rediscovery of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Kerstin Schwarz
Kerstin Schwarz trained as a musical instrument restorer at the Händel-Haus of Halle and the Technische Fachhochschule in Berlin, where she graduated in 1994. In the same year, she began an important work of organological research. She built her first instrument, a Cristofori piano, in 1997. She worked with the piano maker Tony Chinnery in Vicchio near Florence for 17 years, and then founded her own company, Animus Cristophori, in 2008: she continued her research, which led her to build, alongside clavichords, harpsichords and spinet instruments, very rare instruments: Silbermann fortepiano, royal harpsichord. She is regularly solicited for the restoration of various historical instruments. Since 2015, she has established her workshop in Zerbst (Germany). https://www.animus-cristofori.com