The Age of Extremes
Georg Anton Benda (1722-1795)
Harpsichord Concerto in F minor
Harpsichord Concerto in B minor
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Les Folies d’Espagne with 12 Variations, Wq 118/9
Andante in C minor, from Sonatina in C major, Wq 103
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784)
Sinfonia in D minor, Fk 65
Harpsichord Concerto in D major, Fk 41
Il Pomo d’Oro/Francesco Corti (harpsicord)
rec. 2024, Sala della Carità, Padua, Italy
Arcana A573 [77]
This new release from the France-based Arcana label titled ‘The Age of Extremes’ comprises of two works each by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Georg Anton Benda. All three were contemporaries, born within twelve years of each and other composing during the transitional period between the late Baroque and early Classical eras. The two Bach brothers were both born in the German city of Weimar and Georg Anton Benda in the Kingdom of Bohemia, now the Czech Republic.
Performing here is Il Pomo d’Oro (The Golden Apple) an historically informed performance ensemble. Founded in 2021, it specialises in early music but not exclusively so, as attested by its recent recording of Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder with soprano soloist Joyce DiDonato on Erato. A native of Arezzo, Italy, Francesco Corti is the ensemble’s principal guest conductor who directs from the harpsicord and plays as soloist. Although they are based in Italy, I notice that Il Pomo d’Oro recruits its roster of players Internationally.
In the booklet essay, musicologist and Bach scholar Professor Peter Wollny writes of the ‘age of the Empfindlichkeit’ (sensitivity, sensibility). From mid-eighteenth-century Germany, the term Empfindsamkeit or empfindsamer Stil concerns the short-lived approach of music and poetry aimed at expressing sincere and natural feelings, including abrupt changes of emotion. The approach is particularly related to the so-called Berlin School at the Prussian court of Frederick the Great. Leading protagonists of the group were members of the ‘Bach dynasty’ of musicians, notably J.S. Bach’s two eldest male children Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Compared to the Bach dynasty, the Benda family of musicians represented here by Georg Anton Benda is less well known today.
Born in 1710, the oldest composer here is Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, whose first job was in 1733 as organist at the Sophienkirche in Dresden. His most prestigious post was secured in 1746 as music director and organist at the Liebfrauenkirche, Halle, where he served for some eighteen years. On occasion, he is called the ‘Halle Bach’. In 1754 Wilhelm Friedemann departed Halle and struggled to make a living as a freelance musician. Evidently Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia (the sister of Frederick the Great) undertook to assist him, but the plan did not come to fruition.
Wilhelm Friedemann’s highly regarded Harpsichord Concerto in D major, C9, Fk 41 was written circa 1735-41 whilst working at the Lutheran Sophienkirche, Dresden. Under the direction of Francesco Corti, Il Pomo d’Oro clearly enjoy the challenge of playing Wilhelm Friedemann’s works. The character of the opening Allegro movement is by turns cheerful and mellow, the Andante feeling amiable and passive in character combined with an undertow of seriousness. In the compelling Finale marked Presto that replicates Italianate dance rhythms, the playing has a convincingly blustery and unyielding temperament.
The Sinfonia in D minor, C7, Fk 65 was also probably written in Dresden around 1740 or later. Quite short at eight and a half minutes and cast in two movements, it is thought to have been written for use at a church service. An earnest and unyieldingly written work, the opening Adagio is played with conspicuous grace and reverence. By contrast, the appealing closing movement marked Allegro e forte has great ebullience.
The fifth child and second surviving son of J.S. Bach, born in 1714, is Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, by far the best-known of the three composers here. A clavier player Emanuel worked for the Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia (the future Frederick II King of Prussia, known as Frederick the Great) in Berlin and nearby Potsdam. Emanuel is sometimes referred to as ‘The Berlin Bach’ and it was at the Prussian court where he met Georg Benda. Following the death of his godfather, the eminent composer Georg Philipp Telemann, Emanuel was appointed to the court of Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia (the sister of Frederick the Great) at Hamburg serving between 1768 and 1788.
Written in 1763 in Berlin, the Sonatina in C major, H 457, Wq 103 is scored for keyboard and orchestra. In two movements the first is an Arioso–Andante and the second movement an Allegro. Heard here the second part of the opening movement the Andante in C minor is scored for solo keyboard only. Harpsichordist Francesco Corty’s playing of this introspective work is elegant and most affecting. The writing is of a sorrowful disposition to the writing and he gives a performance of utmost sincerity.
Written in 1778, Emmanuel’s Les Folies d’Espagne with 12 Variations, H 263, Wq 118/9 is another piece for solo keyboard. This simple, yet enduring, chord progression with its modest melody of the well-known Spanish dance La Folia is the basis for the variations, in which Emmanuel provides remarkable contrasts, radiantly performed by Corty.
Composer, violinist and oboist Georg Anton Benda was born in Benátky, Bohemia in 1722. Acknowledged as the most talented of the Bender family, Georg spent most of his life with German court orchestras. From 1742, Georg was employed by the Prussian court at Potsdam, Berlin. In 1750 Georg moved employer when appointed Kapellmeister at the ducal court of Frederick III (Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg) where he served for almost thirty years. When the Duke and Duchess died, Georg resigned his post as Gotha Kapellmeister. Today Benda’s reputation rests chiefly on his German language stage works, such the melodrama Ariadne auf Naxos which premiered in 1775 at Gotha. Well regarded, too, are his melodramas Medea (1775) and Pygmalion (1779).
Benda’s Harpsichord Concerto in F minor is a rather capricious work, characterised by storm and wit. In three movements the first is an ebullient and determined Allegro followed by the relaxed calm of the Larghetto con sordini movement. It is marked Allegro di molto and the players relish the upbeat concluding movement, its cheerful antics and mischievous runs underpinned so well by the orchestra.
Thought to have been written around 1760, Georg’s Harpsichord Concerto in B minor in three movements has a level of strife about it. The outer Allegro movements are of proud and confident disposition, the concluding movement being especially cheerful and energetic. In the highly attractive central movement marked Arioso un poco Adagio Francesco Corti uses ‘a fully ornamented version of the slow movement’ comprising substantial embellishments.
There is a splendid alertness and rhythmic exuberance to the playing of Il Pomo d’Oro, fifteen strong here. Using period instruments or modern copies, the ensemble is well unified and displays impressive intonation. Francesco Corti plays a most attractive-sounding harpsichord, a 2001 copy by Keith Hill, Manchester, Michigan, USA after an anonymous German instrument, circa 1700.
This was recorded at Sala Della Carità in Padua and I find the sound quality very satisfying, although my preference is for a slightly more forward-placed harpsicord. There are two essays in the accompanying booklet the first by Peter Wollny titled, ‘The struggle for uniqueness’ and a second by Francesco Corty with the title ‘Sense and Sensibility’.
This six work collection has been well chosen and is given first class performances. I admire the music of the two Bachs, but it is Georg Benda’s pair of harpsichord concertos that I find the most captivating here. This album is a treat for lovers of music from the late Baroque and early Classical eras.
Michael Cookson
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