Beyond Bach – Forgotten treasures of the German Baroque
Astrid Knöchlein (recorder, oboe)
Thomas Goetschel (viola da gamba), Daniel Rosin (cello), Rosario Conte (theorbo), Attilio Cremonesi (harpsichord)
rec. 2023, Waldenburg, Switzerland
Reviewed as a download
Ars Produktion ARS38670 [79]

The title of the present disc makes the aim of the performers crystal clear. They want to show that the (German) Baroque has more to offer than Bach. One could argue that this is obvious: nobody in our time thinks that Bach was the only composer at the time whose music deserves to be performed and for a few decades now much attention has been given to some of his contemporaries, such as Telemann and Graupner. However, Astrid Knöchlein is certainly right when she states in her liner-notes that “[libraries] and archives still contain many treasures from composers who are not present in the mainstream of the early music movement.” The programme she has recorded attests to that, as it includes several names of composers only specialists may have heard of.

Ms Knöchlein plays both the recorder and the oboe, a combination common both in our time and in the baroque period. There were no professional recorder players, then; the recorder was mostly played by amateurs for whom nearly all the music written for it was intended. On the other hand, the oboe was first and foremost an instrument of professionals; making the reeds is not an easy task. Some pieces from the baroque period could be played on either instrument.

The programme opens with the Sonata in F by Johann David Heinichen. He has been known since the former Musica antiqua Köln recorded a number of his concertos in 1992. He started his career as a composer of German sacred cantatas, but while in Italy wrote secular music in the Italian style, and after his return was given the task of composing sacred music for the Catholic chapel at the court in Dresden. It is not entirely clear for which instrument the sonata was originally conceived. The Brussels Conservatoire preserves a version for violin, whereas the version for oboe performed here, is part of a collection at the Murberget Länsmuseet Västernorrland Härnösand (Sweden). The first two movements include some striking chromaticism. The first has the typical baroque pathos; in the second, short figures are immediately repeated.

The second piece is by a composer whose identity has not been established. The name of Andreas Heinrich Schulze – as ‘A.H. Schultzen’ – appears as the composer on a manuscript which includes six sonatas for recorder and basso continuo, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris. The collection is also included in the 1737 catalogue of the Amsterdam music printer Roger. It was mentioned in 1704 in a book by a French author which gives some indication of the time these sonatas were written. Research has suggested that this A.H. Schultzen maybe identical with Andreas Heinrich Schultze. A certain ‘A. Schultsen’ is mentioned in Zedlers Universallexikon (1732-1754) and Johann Gottfried Walthers Musikalisches Lexikon (1732) as an author of two collections of sonatas, among them the six sonatas for recorder from which the third is included here. In his dictionary Walther includes some information about Schultze: he was born in Braunschweig in 1681 and was organist in Hildesheim from 1706 onwards. In this town he had visited the Gymnasium Andreanum which Telemann also attended from 1697 to 1701. The second movement of the Sonata in D minor is a presto of a theatrical character which is followed by a grave with chromaticism. The sonata closes with a brilliant allegro. The six sonatas have been recorded complete by Barbara Heindlmeier (review).

Johann Sigismund Weiss was the younger brother of the lute virtuoso Silvius Leopold, who worked for most of his life at the court in Dresden. Johann Sigismund was a lute player as well, and must have been a good one. A contemporary hailed his “unrivalled quality of his lute playing”. Like many of his peers he played several instruments, such as the viola da gamba and the violin. He entered the service of the Elector Palatine in Düsseldorf, and when the court moved to Mannheim he became Instrumental-Musikdirektor of the court chapel, which was to become the birthplace of the famous Mannheim School. The Sonata in G minor is influenced by the French style: it opens with an adagio, which is followed by three movements with French titles. The second is a rondeau, a very popular form in France.

Johann Ulich is one of the least-known composers in the programme. He was born in 1677 in Wittenberg; his father worked there as organist and Kantor. He studied at Wittenberg University and acted as a substitute for his father for some time. In 1708 he moved to Zerbst, where he became organist at the St. Bartholomäi-Kirche and instrumentalist at the court. He remained here until his death. In 1722 Johann Friedrich Fasch was appointed Kapellmeister at the court and this way became Ulich’s colleague. The latter composed music for special occasions and in his capacity as organist he was also responsible for the musical education of the princely family and the boys in the chapel choir. Very little of Ulich’s musical output has been preserved and most of it is in the library of the Mariengymnasium in Jever. In 1667 this principality had come into the hands of the house of Anhalt-Zerbst. In 1720 Prince Johann August of Zerbst appointed his cousin Johann Ludwig II as reeve of Jever. Johann Ludwig’s music library, which he brought with him to Jever, contained a number of compositions by Ulich. His oeuvre includes nine keyboard pieces, three secular cantatas and a set of six sonatas for recorder and basso continuo, which was printed in 1716 in Cöthen. The Jever copy of the sonatas is incomplete; only the bass part has been preserved. A complete version has been found in a Russian archive and is now in the Berlin State Library. The Sonata in C consists of six movements following each other attacca. The complete set of sonatas has been recorded by the ensemble Lux Borea (Euridice, 2011).

Johann Scherer may well appear on disc here for the very first time. At least his Sonata in C minor is a first recording. He may have been a violinist and flautist at the court orchestra in Kassel. Many of his surviving works are preserved in Danish or Swedish libraries; the sonata performed here is from the same collection as the oboe version of Heinichen’s sonata mentioned above.

It is followed by the Sonata in C by the most prolific composer of his time: Georg Philipp Telemann. Today he is one of the most frequently-performed of the baroque era. He is a favourite of recorder players, as he has written so much good music for their instrument. The Sonata in C is part of the collection known as Der getreue Music-Meister, originally a series of magazines, in which Telemann offered music for amateurs to play. This sonata shows that such pieces are not just easy stuff; they are within the reach of the amateurs of those days (whose skills were often considerable), but are challenging enough to make them interesting. One of those challenges is the repetition of quick notes in the allegro.

The next piece is another first recording: the Sonata in E flat may also be the first piece by Johann Heinrich Freytag that appears on disc. He was a colleague of Johann Sebastian Bach in Cöthen, where he was flautist in the court orchestra. The sonata is in four movements, closing with a menuet. Notable is the abrupt end of the allegro.

Johann Christian Schickhardt is a rare example of a professional recorder player of the baroque era. As the recorder was one of the favourite instruments of amateurs in his time, his music was published by the renowned music printer Étienne Roger in Amsterdam, and later by his successor Michel-Charles Le Cène. The fact that they were published in pirated editions in London soon after they came onto the market further attests to the popularity of Schickhardt’s music. He was born in Brunswick, where he received his musical training at the court on recorder, transverse flute and oboe. He spent some time in the Netherlands, in the service of Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel, Princess Henriette Amalie of Nassau-Dietz and her son John William Friso. At least in 1732 he was in England, where he participated in a concert.  It is likely that he spent the rest of his life in the Netherlands, at least from 1745 until his death in 1762.

The last printed edition of his works, L’alphabet de la musique, a set of 24 sonatas in all keys for transverse flute or violin, is his Op. 30 and dates from 1735. That tells something about his production and the popularity of his music. The twelve sonatas Op. 17 of 1712 are specifically scored for recorder. They are virtuosic, although they are intended for amateurs. This again indicates that one should not underestimate the skills of amateurs of those days. The Sonata in A minor is of the sonata da camera type: the opening adagio is followed by three dances: allemanda, corrente, giga. The opening movement is a kind of dialogue between the recorder and the basso continuo; it includes several passages in which the latter is on its own.

The programme closes with what may be the latest work: the Sonata in A minor by Christoph Schaffrath. He was born in Hohenstein, but whether he came from a musical family or who his first teacher was is not known. In 1733 he applied for the position of organist at the Sophienkirche in Dresden, but he was rejected – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach secured the post instead. The next year he entered the service of Frederick the Great, who was still Crown-Prince at that time. Frederick started his own chapel in Ruppin, which moved to Rheinsberg in 1736. With his accession to the throne in 1740 Schaffrath became harpsichordist in his chapel. In 1741, he left the court and entered the service of Frederick’s sister Anna Amalia. Her taste in music was rather conservative. She preferred the traditional German contrapuntal style over the modern fashion of her days which gave prominence to melody. Schaffrath may have given her what she wanted; Ernst Ludwig Gerber, a writer of a lexicon on music, wrote that Schaffrath was “one of our most worthy contrapuntalists”. Even so, many of Schaffrath’s works are written in the modern galant idiom, and that also goes for the Sonata in A minor. It is in the form that was common in Berlin in the mid-18th century: an adagio is followed by two allegros.

It brings to a close a most interesting musical journey through the German musical landscape of the first half of the 18th century. Astrid Knöchlein is a knowledgeable guide, who knows where to find interesting things and how to make sure that their qualities are optimally exposed. I like her beautiful tone on both the recorder and the oboe. She adds tasteful ornamentation, without ever exaggerating and abusing the music to show off. There is some nice dynamic shading on long notes and a clear dynamic differentiation between good and bad notes, which is especially important in fast movements. The latter she often plays at high speed, but I never had the feeling that she is in overdrive. This way, the contrasts within each sonata come off to full extent and the pathos and expression in the slow movements are also convincingly realized. She has the support of an excellent basso continuo section.

Astrid Knöchlein has participated in quite some recordings, but this seems to be her first solo album. She could not have better presented herself than with this disc.

Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen

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Contents
Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729)
Sonata for oboe and bc in F (S 263)
Andreas Heinrich Schultze (1681-1742)
Sonata for recorder and bc No. 3 in D minor
Johann Sigismund Weiss (c1690-1737)
Sonata for oboe and bc in G minor
Johann Ulich (1677-1742)
Sonata for recorder and bc No. 1 in C
Johann Scherer (c1740-after 1768)
Sonata for oboe and bc in C minor
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Sonata for recorder and bc in C (TWV 41, C2)
Johann Heinrich Freytag (c1695-1720)
Sonata form oboe and bc in E flat
Johann Christian Schickhardt (1682-1762)
Sonata for recorder and bc in A minor, op. 17,12
Christoph Schaffrath (1709-1763)
Sonata for oboe and bc in D minor