Grand Tour
Freiburger Barockorchester/Gottfried von der Goltz
rec. 2025, Konzerthaus, Freiburg
Reviewed as a download
Aparté AP405 [82]

One of the phenomena of the 17th and 18th centuries was the ‘Grand Tour’. Young aristocrats travelled across Europe, visiting some of the main cultural centres of the continent, as part of their education. Among the cities they visited were Venice, Rome and Naples – but none of them figures in the disc which is the subject of this review; the programme that the Freiburger Barockorchester has recorded, focuses on music by German composers. This ‘Grand Tour’ is more personal, so to speak. As Martin Bail explains in the liner-notes: “For the past 15 years, the musicians of the Freiburger Barockorchester have been making regular journeys to Stuttgart and Berlin for their concert series. Now the FBO would like to focus more closely on the music that would have been encountered on this journey in the 18th century and it is making a few musical stopping points along this path from the furthest corner of the South West to the capital city.”

The stops are Rastatt (Fischer), Stuttgart (Pez), Ansbach (Kusser), Meiningen (JL Bach), Eisenach (Telemann) and Berlin (JS Bach). The music performed here dates from the last decade of the 17th century and the first two decades of the 18th century, when many courts in Germany were under the spell of the French style. Many aristocrats were so much impressed by the splendour of courtly life at Versailles that they asked their chapels to play music that way and their Kapellmeister to compose French music. Those who did so, sometimes even went to Paris to listen and learn. Composers who wrote French suites were called Lullistes, after Jean-Baptiste Lully, the main representative of that style. Telemann and Bach, who close the programme, were to become exponents of the mixed style, in which elements of the French and Italian styles fused with the German contrapuntal tradition. The heydays of that style had not yet arrived at the time the music on the present disc was written.

The programme opens with the Suite No. 4 in d minor by Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, from the collection Le Journal du Printemps, published as his Op. 1 in Augsburg in 1695. Fischer worked the largest part of his long life at the service of elector Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden in Rastatt. He was appointed Kapellmeister somewhere between 1691 and 1693. He composed instrumental works, sacred music and works for keyboard. The suites Op. 1 are written in purely French style, but there is no evidence Fischer has ever been in Paris himself. It is interesting, though, that – apart from Cavalli’s opera Serse – these suites are the only music by a non-French composer represented in the Collection Philidor, a collection of scores which were popular at the French court and regularly performed there. This suggests that either Fischer has been in Paris after all or that there was some kind of contact between the composer and the French court. It also is an indication that Fischer’s music was indeed considered ‘French’. Fischer even goes so far as to divide the score into five different voices in the French style: dessus, haute-contre, taille, quinte and basse. That is an important difference compared to the orchestral suites by Bach and Telemann, who wrote for an orchestra that was based on Italian models. The suites include many movements that refer to Lully’s operas, such as Entrée, Air des Combattans and Plainte. The Suite No. 4 has a rondeau, a very popular form in France, and closes with a passacaille, a piece that was a fixed part of each opera, mostly played towards the end.

The next piece in the programme is the Concerto Pastorale in F by Johann Christoph Pez. He was born in Munich, where he went to the Jesuit school; there he played a major role in the choir and the orchestra, his main instruments being the lute and the viola da gamba. In 1688 he entered the service of Elector Max Emanuel as a chamber musician; he sent him to Rome to broaden his horizon. This explains the mixture of Italian and French elements in his Concerto Pastorale; one could consider him an early exponent of the ‘mixed taste’. It is not known, when this piece was written; it may date from his time in Stuttgart, where he became Kapellmeister in 1706. As one may expect, it includes parts for two recorders. Three movements are called aria, with an additional indication of tempo, such as presto or grave. These are mostly ‘hidden’ dances. The penultimate movement is a long passacaglia.

Then we come to Johann Sigismund Kusser. He was of Hungarian parentage and was born in Pressburg (now Bratislava in Slovakia). He studied with Jean-Baptiste Lully in Paris for six years, and this had a lasting influence on his development as a composer. The largest part of his oeuvre consists of operas, which were performed in Brunswick, Stuttgart and Hamburg. Almost all of them are lost. In his music encyclopaedia Johann Gottfried Walther wrote that “because of his volatile and fiery temperament he was unable to remain long in one place”. He spent some time in Hamburg, where he was involved in the opera business, but that period was full of conflicts. He moved to Stuttgart, where he stayed from 1700 to 1704. He left his post after disagreements with Italian colleagues in the chapel. He then went to London in 1704 where he stayed until 1707. He then moved to Dublin where he remained for the rest of his life. Here he became chapel master of Trinity College in 1711 and in 1716 “Master of the Musick attending his Majesty’s State in Ireland”. In this capacity he had the task of composing the odes for the birthdays of the British monarch which were performed every year at Dublin castle.

His employer in Stuttgart was a great admirer of the French style, which explains two collections of overtures. It was not the first time he composed in the French style; in 1682 he published Composition de musique suivant la méthode françoise; at that time, he worked at Ansbach. It is a bit odd that it was decided to perform an overture from a collection he published in 1700, well after his time in Ansbach, which is mentioned in the booklet as one of the stages in the ‘Grand Tour’. The titles of many movements refer to French opera (Les Bergers, Les Furies, Les Indiens), but also to the commedia dell’arte (Arlequins et Polichinelles) and classical mythology (Les Muses, Les Baccantes). Like Fischer, Kusser’s scorings are for a French-type orchestra.

Johann Ludwig Bach was born in Thal near Eisenach, as son of Jacob Bach (1655 – 1718), who was a schoolmaster and choirmaster. Little is known about his earliest musical education; most of what is known about him dates from the time he worked in Meiningen, where he had several positions until he was appointed as Hofkapellmeister. He held this position until his death in 1731. Johann Ludwig has left almost only sacred vocal works. The Ouverture in G is another early example of the mixed style: the string parts reflect Italian influences, but the scoring is French, and the oboes play colla parte with the violins, as was customary in France.

Eisenach is the penultimate stage in the ‘Grand Tour’. Here Georg Philipp Telemann worked from 1708 to 1712 as Konzertmeister. Whether the Concerto in e minor was written there, is apparently not known; I have not been able to find the year of composition. It seems to be an early work, as its structure is different from that of Italian concertos, which Telemann used to follow in concertos later in his career. It consists of five movements. It is notable – but not mentioned in the liner-notes – that the work’s authenticity is not established. It has been preserved in a copy by Christoph Graupner (who copied many of Telemann’s works), but is also attributed to Johann David Heinichen.

The ‘Grand Tour’ ends in Berlin, where Johann Sebastian Bach was in 1719 to purchase harpsichords for the court in Cöthen, where he was employed from 1717 to 1723. In Berlin he met Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, to whom he dedicated his Brandenburg Concertos. The second of these is performed here. The four solo instruments – trumpet, recorder, oboe, violin – represent the various families of instruments which were played by the Stadtpfeifer of that time. Notable is especially the virtuosic trumpet part; copies by Christian Friedrich Penzel, one of Bach’s last pupils in Leipzig, mention the corno da caccia as an alternative, probably because only a few could handle the technical requirements. The trumpet keeps silent in the andante, as was common practice in the baroque era.

With Telemann and Bach we have arrived at the time that the Italian style established itself in Germany. From that perspective this recording is not only a geographical, but also a stylistic journey. It shows the evolution of the style of composition and the musical aesthetics in Germany from the late 17th century to the second quarter of the 18th century.

One can hardly find a better guide on that ‘Grand Tour’ than the Freiburger Barockorchester. It has taken some liberties, such as the participation of recorders in the Ouverture in g minor by Kusser, which is not required in the score. It is a shame that the original French scoring was not practised: the orchestra’s line-up is Italian, with violins, violas, cellos and double bass. It does not compromise the qualities of these performances, though. The playing is impressive, especially given that this is a live recording. The venue, the Konzerthaus in Freiburg, is this orchestra’s home, which means that the players know exactly what to do to make sure the music comes off to best effect. Acoustically it is pretty much the ideal place for this repertoire. The trumpet in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto is a bit too dominant, which may be due to the recording. The solo contributions are of the highest calibre.

This is a very enjoyable, entertaining and at the same time instructive recording of music of superb quality.

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

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Contents
Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (1656-1746)
Suite No. 4 in D minor
Johann Christoph Pez (1664-1716)
Concerto Pastorale in F
Johann Sigismund Kusser (1660-1727)
Overture in G minor
Johann Ludwig Bach (1667-1731)
Overture in G
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Concerto for transverse flute, violin, strings and bc in E minor (TWV 52,e3)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F (BWV 1047)