Adalbert Gyrowetz (1763-1850)
Sinfonia Concertante (1797)
Piano Concerto (1796)
Symphony in A major (1797-1798)
Michael Foyle (violin), Emily Sun (violin), Rosalind Ventris (viola), Julian Trevelyan (piano)
London Mozart Players/Howard Griffiths
rec. 2022, St. John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood, London
cpo 555364-2 [60]
Bohemian composer Adalbert Gyrowetz was once widely celebrated and widely travelled – and was a talented linguist. He went first to Vienna to study, and then Italy. Next he was in Paris, then London in 1789-1792, where he coincided with Haydn, his musical hero and mentor. (In Paris, he had found that several of his symphonies had been published as Haydn’s works.) He published his instrumental music under his own name in vast uantities: over forty symphonies and concertos, forty-three string quartets, much other orchestral and chamber music, forty piano sonatas, and later on choral works including nineteen masses.
For the stage, there were forty ballets (some involving compilations from other composers’ works). Once he moved from London to Vienna to accept composing and conducting appointments at the Court Theatre, he wrote thirty successful operas and singspiels in the later period of a long life. His Haydnesque style remained unchanged as he aged. He ignored post-classical developments in music, for which he had no sympathy. He even regretted he had lived so long as to seem old-fashioned, a relic of the 18th century.
The disc offers a selection of pieces from Gyrowetz’s early heyday of the late 1790s, compiled by conductor Howard Griffiths. The Sinfonia Concertante for two violins, viola, and orchestra in D major was printed in 1797 but is thought possibly to have come from his earlier time in London, where he had enjoyed aristocratic and royal patronage and received many commissions for new music. It is the strongest of the three works here, and makes an enticing opening to the programme.
The opening movement is fresh and inventive, even over its near twelve minutes. The more concertante moments are delightfully played by the three string soloists, and suggest there were some good players in London to write for, if indeed it was the English capital that heard its premiere. The second-movement Andantino is also ear-tickling in its folksy straightforwardness, and has a full cadenza for the three soloists. The Rondo finale does not exclude sonata elements. Gyrowetz seems very confident in his handling of contemporary formal manners in all the movements on this disc.
The three-movement Piano Concerto in F major has a long first movement too, 13:04 of the whole concerto’s 23:41. Yet it does not outstay its welcome, for the invention is again agreeable if not strikingly original in all three movements. The piano’s sound is also very attractive, and it might well be a period instrument; we are not told. Julian Trevelyan’s playing is keenly articulated, deft and responsive to the music’s elegant manners.
The thirteen-minute four-movement Symphony in A major appeared in print in Paris in 1797-1798. The work’s orchestration and form suggest an earlier date of composition, maybe even near the start of the composer’s career. If so, Gyrowetz was a precocious talent, and one can hear why he impressed so many contemporaries across various locations. Perhaps a later work would have been a welcome addition to this collection, since the disc plays for just one hour. Perhaps the music is not that easy to obtain in good editions, and I am still glad to have made the acquaintance of this charming A major symphony. As with everything else on the disc, the London Mozart Players are stylish, idiomatic and accurate, and Howard Griffiths is a sound and sensitive guide to each score.
The recorded sound is exemplary, with plenty of detail in a sympathetic acoustic. There is a particularly fine booklet note, full and detailed on both the career and the music, with the examples mentioned given with the disc timings where they can be heard. Most listeners will be glad of a booklet that really does illuminate this now obscure, but once widely celebrated, fine composer.
Roy Westbrook
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