Austrian Harpsichord Music of the Late 17th Century
Agata Meissner, harpsichord
rec. 2024, recording studio of the Mozarteum University, Salzburg, Austria
Reviewed as a download
Dux 2159 [79]

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the imperial court in Vienna was a musical centre. It was under the spell of the Italian style, and most of the composers in its service, came from Italy. It is mostly the vocal and instrumental music written and performed at the court that is the subject of concerts and recordings. In comparison, the keyboard music written at the court, and – more generally – in Austria and southern Germany receives less interest and is less well-known. The main exceptions are Alessandro Poglietti and Johann Caspar Kerll, who are both represented on the disc under review. Yet even in their oeuvre little-known pieces can be found, and that also goes for Georg Muffat, of whom almost only his collection Apparatus musico-organisticus is known.

The programme opens with a piece by Kerll. He was born into a Protestant family in Bohemia. He became organist at the court of archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Vienna, which probably led to his conversion to Catholicism. He received lessons from the imperial Hofkapellmeister Giovanni Valentini. He was sent to Rome to study with Carissimi; there he composed his earliest works. In 1656, he became Hofkapellmeister at the court of the Bavarian elector Ferdinand Maria in Munich, where he stayed until 1673. His reputation became such that he received various gratuities and was even ennobled by emperor Leopold I in 1664. From 1677 on, he was organist at the imperial court in Vienna. He influenced the next generations of composers and musicians. His Toccata 5ta is a specimen of the stylus phantasticus, which had its roots in Italy. The addition “tutta de salti” indicates that in this piece he avoids scales, and focuses on jumps. Notable are also double trills in thirds in the middle of the piece. Quite different is the Canzona 2nda later in the programme, which is fugal.

One of the unknown quantities on this disc is Johann Pader, who has no entry in New Grove. He was from Tirol and worked in Bozen and Innsbruck. His Toccata ex d is another specimen of the stylus phantasticus, consisting of contrasting sections, following each other attacca.

Alessandro Poglietti is relatively well-known, and that is largely due to his programmatic pieces for keyboard. He was probably from Tuscany and may have received his musical education in Rome or Bologna. He was influenced by Frescobaldi. However, he was well aware of other traditions, especially the French keyboard idiom. In 1661 he entered the service of Emperor Leopold I in Vienna as chamber organist in his chapel. He was widely admired and had a wide circle of pupils. He also had close contacts with people from the highest echelons of society and even joined them, as the emperor raised him to the ranks of the aristocracy and the pope made him a Knight of the Golden Spur. His life came to a tragic end when he was killed by the Turks during the siege of Vienna in 1683.

One of his best-known works is Rossignolo, which he composed for empress Leonora I at the occasion of her marriage to emperor Leopold I in 1677. This work is also notable for its unusual length; in recordings it takes nearly an hour. Much more modest is the Toccata fatta sopra l’assedio di Filipsburgo, which refers to the imperial siege of Philippsburg in 1676, during the French-Dutch war. As the piece does not include any explanations, it is left to the imagination of the performer or the listener to make of the various sections whatever he/she likes.

This piece has been recorded before, unlike the other item by Poglietti, Alter Weiber-Krieg am Wiener Graben. The title literally means “old women’s war at the Graben in Vienna”. (The Graben is one of the main squares in the inner city.) Apparently the first sections of this piece are missing. Assuming these were a toccata and a canzona, Agata Meissner added two such pieces from Poglietti’s oeuvre. The title only returns in the last section, called “Alte Weiber geschmurgel auf den Wiener Graben”. The word “geschmurgel” is difficult to translate; it means something like “grumbling”. Here we find some motives known from pieces depicting an armed fight. The preceding movements are remarkable as the common dances of the time – allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue – are separated by sections called “parte”, which have an improvisatory character. The fifth track includes an episode with fast repeated notes in the right hand. Could that be a depiction of bickering women?

With the anonymous Wiener Lamentation, we stay with the genre of programmatic music. The title does not indicate what the lamentation is about, but that is revealed in the second movement “Türckischer Marsch”. This indicates that this piece refers to the Turkish siege of Vienna – which caused the death of Poglietti, as mentioned above. It was a dramatic and traumatic event which sent shivers across Europe. The march is followed by a piece called “Pauken” (drums).

Programmatic music was quite popular at the time; we know many examples from the oeuvre of, among others, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, violinist at the court in Vienna, and Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, who for many years worked in Salzburg. The latter composed vocal and instrumental music, but Agata Meissner included a harpsichord suite. However, it is impossible to establish its authenticity. The fact that no other keyboard works of his pen are known suggests that the attribution may be wrong. The suite comprises the then common dances, but some of these are different from what one may expect. The second movement is called a minuet, but is in fact an allemande. The suite opens with an intrada, which Agata Meissner sees as a reference to the ballet suites performed at the court.

In the catalogue, one can find several discs with music by Johann Georg Reutter (1708-1772), who worked at the court and at St Stephen’s Cathedral; Georg Reutter the Elder was his father. Like his son, he worked both at the court and the Cathedral. He was not only an organist but also a player of the theorbo. The Toccata ex e is in four sections, the first and last of which have an improvisatory character; the third is fugal.

Franz Matthias Techelmann was of Moravian birth and was active in Vienna by 1678; from 1685 until his death, he was organist of the Hofkirche. The Suite in E minor is from a collection of suites preserved at the library of the Benedictine monastery at Göttweig. The other suites are anonymous, and may also have been written by Techelmann. Lydia Maria Blank recorded eight of them (review). The movements bear no titles; here they are given the titles of the various dances, according to their character. Notable is that they are thematically and harmonically connected. This is also emphasized by the title of double given to two movements.

The programme closes with the Suite in E by Georg Muffat. As mentioned above, the only keyboard works by him that are performed and recorded are included in the collection Apparatus musico-organisticus. The work-list in New Grove only refers to “keyboard pieces” with the indication “doubtful”. This suite may not belong among that category, as at the time New Grove was published, the archive of the Berlin Singakademie, which since World War II was in Kyiv, may not have been known. In 2002 it was returned to Berlin, and this suite has been found in this archive. Muffat studied with Lully in Paris and then with Bernardo Pasquini in Rome, where he also became acquainted with the oeuvre of Arcangelo Corelli. He was probably the first exponent of the ‘mixed taste’, which mingled Italian and French influences. Both manifest themselves in this suite, but the French style prevails, for instance in the ornamentation and the use of the style brisé.

That was why Agata Meissner chose to play a copy of a Ruckers harpsichord. The other items are played on two different instruments. They have not only been chosen out of stylistic considerations, but also for technical reasons. The latter goes for an instrument with a so-called Viennese short octave and split accidentals. This is used in the Suite in D, attributed to Biber. Ms Meissner, in her liner-notes, states that “the writing for the left hand in the whole suite is particular – the composition uses notes that were available only on some of the instruments and require very wide positions of the hand, which suggest a use of (a) particular instrument with a short octave”. The instrument that she plays here has a short octave thanks to the omission of chromatic notes in the bass. The rest of the programme is played on an Italian instrument based on models from the Florentine school.

The conscientious choice of instruments is telling: Agata Meissner is not only a performer, but also a scholar. She edited the Suite attributed to Biber, and since 2020 she started a PhD project on keyboard music within the cultural sphere of the Viennese court in the 17th century. This has not resulted in academic performances; although they are based on thorough research, they are lively and differentiated. The programmatic pieces are played with flair and imagination, and the features the composers wanted to expose, come off perfectly. The contrasts within the pieces in the stylus phantasticus and the improvisatory episodes are also convincingly realised.

Agata Meissner deserves accolades, both for the choice of repertoire and her superb performances.

Johan van Veen

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Contents: 
Johann Caspar Kerll (1627-1693)
Toccata 5ta, tutta de salti
Alessandro Poglietti (?-1683)
Toccata 5ti toni
Conzan
Alter Weiber-Krieg am Wiener Graben
anon
Wiener Lamentation
Alessandro Poglietti
Toccata fatta sopra l’assedio di Filipsburgo
Johann Pader (?-1715)
Toccata ex d
Johann Caspar Kerll
Canzona 2nda
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704) (attr)
Suite in D
Georg Reutter the Elder (1656-1738)
Toccata ex e
Franz Matthias Techelmann (1649-1714)
Suite in E minor
Georg Muffat (1653-1704)
Suite in E