From Venice to Berlin
Baroque trio sonatas for violin, oboe and continuo
Giovanni Benedetto Platti (1697-1763)
Trio sonata in D
Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello (1690-1758)
Trio sonata in C minor
anon
Trio sonata in A
Johann Pfeiffer (1697-1761)
Trio sonata in C minor
Christoph Schaffrath (1709-1763)
Trio sonata in G minor
Intarsio Armonico
rec. 2021, Oratorio di San Nicola, Vicenza, Italy
Reviewed as a 16-bit/44.1kHz download with PDF booklet from Da Vinci Classics
Da Vinci Classics C00929 [60]

The ensemble Intarsio Armonico have recorded a programme of music by two Italian composers who worked for most of their lives in Germany, and three German composers who – like many others – were strongly influenced by the Italian style. The title of this disc suggests it is a kind of ‘tale of two cities’. However, their names should not be taken too literally. The two Italians cannot be considered ‘Venetian’ per se, and only one of the German composers worked for a considerable time in Berlin. The names of Venice and Berlin are rather used as pars pro toto for the respective countries.

The programme opens with a piece by Giovanni Benedetto Platti, who was born in either Venice or Padua. It is documented that he was for some time active in Venice, where his father played the violetta in the orchestra of St Mark’s. In 1722, he went with a group of musicians to Würzburg, where he stayed for most of his life and became the principal oboist at the court of Prince-Archbishop Lothar Franz von Schönborn. He was held in high esteem by his new employer, who in a letter called him an “incomparable oboist”. He played not only the oboe, but also the violin, the cello, the flute and the harpsichord and was active as composer and as teacher. 

He had close contacts with his employer’s brother, Count Rudolf Franz Erwein von Schönborn, an avid collector of music and skilled amateur cellist. This explains why many of Platti’s compositions have been preserved in the library of the Count, which still exists, and a substantial part of his output is written for the cello or includes cello parts. In addition, he left a number of harpsichord works. The trio sonata for the then common combination of oboe and violin includes quite some harmonic tension, especially in the opening movement.

The music of Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello is receiving quite some interest lately; three discs of his music have been recorded by Adrian Chandler and his ensemble, La Serenissima. He was born around 1690, apparently in Bologna (but Florence has also been mentioned). Unfortunately, we know nothing about his musical education and his early years in Italy. The first documented evidence of his existence dates from 1714, when he was working in Venice as a valet for Therese Kunegunde Sobieska, the music-loving exiled electress of Bavaria. That year the War of the Spanish Succession came to an end, and the electress returned to Bavaria with Brescianello in her retinue. In Munich, he entered the service of her husband, Elector Maximilian II Emanuel, as a violinist. He was to stay only a year there, as in 1716 Johann Christoph Pez, Oberkapellmeister at the court of Württemberg, died. Brescianello applied for the post of director musices, undoubtedly with the aim of becoming Oberkapellmeister himself. In 1721, he was given the post he had been looking for, and he remained in the service of the Württemberg court until his pension, either in 1751 or 1755. Brescianello has written some orchestral suites in the French style, but most of his music is Italian, as is the trio sonata included here. It is in three rather than four movements, but the first movement consists of two sections: largo – allegro. In the first of these the violin and the oboe mostly move in parallels. The closing allegro is dominated by rising three-note figures, played either in parallel motion or alternately by the two instruments.

This sonata has been preserved in the library of the Dresden court orchestra, today known as Schrank II in the Saxon State and University Library, Dresden. There, the anonymous Trio sonata in A for violin and oboe d’amore is also stored. The handwriting shows that it was copied by Johann Georg Pisendel, for many years concertmaster of the court orchestra. He was a brilliant violinist, but also a keen collector of music, as the 1,750 instrumental works in Schrank II show. It may well be the earliest work in the programme, as it was copied somewhere between 1710 and 1725. In the first allegro, the two instruments alternate in playing busy figures. In the closing allegro, the violin is the most active; one wonders whether the composer was a violinist by profession. It may well have been the violin part that inspired Pisendel to copy it.

Johann Pfeiffer was from Nuremberg and was educated as a violinist. He started his career as Konzertmeister of the court chapel in Weimar. After a short stay in Berlin in 1732/33, he became Hofkapellmeister in Bayreuth, at the court of Margrave Frederick of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, who was married to Frederick the Great’s sister Wilhelmine. Like the anonymous sonata, his Trio sonata in C minor is dominated by the violin, which plays brilliant figurations in the first allegro to quiet movements of the oboe. In the remaining movements, it is again the most busy of the two instruments.

Christoph Schaffrath was one of a group of composers who played an important role in the musical life of Berlin, at and around the court of Frederick the Great. Not much is known about Schaffrath before the 1730s. 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 Berlin. But in 1741 he entered the service of Frederick’s sister, Anna Amalia. It seems this resulted in Schaffrath’s leaving the court, as his name does not appear in a list of musicians of the chapel from 1754. Anna Amalia was rather conservative in taste, and this may well explain why in Schaffrath’s music counterpoint plays a major role, as in the Trio sonata in G minor. Again, the violin plays a dominant role; the opening allegro begins with a long solo for the violin. The length of this sonata – more than sixteen minutes – is typical for many chamber music works from the mid-18th century. It is an indication that it may well be the latest work in the programme. 

Each of the sonatas performed here is a treasure, and fully deserves to be performed and recorded. I had never heard of the ensemble Intarsio Armonico, but I hope to hear more from it. I very much enjoyed the playing of Giuseppe Falciglia (oboe and oboe d’amore), Isobel Cordone (violin) and Jeanne Chicaud (harpsichord). They are outstanding players and show a thorough understanding of the style of this repertoire. Their playing is lively in the fast movements, and the expression of the slow movements is perfectly communicated.

Both for the repertoire and the performances, this disc deserves a special recommendation.

Johan van Veen

http://www.musica-dei-donum.org

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