MASTERS OF THE EPOCHS AND THEIR WORKS

Tomaso Albinoni, Johann Sebastian Bach
Luigi Boccherini, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier
William Corbett, Arcangelo Corelli
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Georg Friedrich Händel
Benedetto Marcello, Giovanni Benedetto Platti
Bartłomiej Pękiel, Henry Purcell
Domenico Scarlatti, Georg Philipp Telemann
Antonio Vivaldi, Mikołaj Zieleński

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Baroque Quiproquo

For all those music lovers for whom the history of music begins with Johann Sebastian Bach, we have two pieces of news: one – very good, the other – also good, although it may not be the best. The first piece of news confirms the absolutely key importance of Johann Sebastian's musical creativity not only for the Baroque era but also for the entire tradition of European classical music. While fully appreciating Bach's well-deserved place in our culture, it should be added that: first – not only Bach nor was he the first at all. To understand well what his contribution to the European heritage of music is, it is worth looking at the generations of composers older than him, without whom Bach's genius would not have been able to rise to those heights of art that we value so much today, sometimes forgetting about the rest.
This very reflection can also serve this album, the first in the series 'Masters of the Epochs and Their Works', containing a proposal of less and more obligatory musical readings created in the Baroque era. They include about 20 works that are in varying degrees representative and original for the musical styles of this era. Styles – because Baroque art was not at all a stylistic monolith and in all areas of art abounded in contrasts, oppositions, and even contradictions. It is precisely this difficult-to-describe diversity that the entire era owes its name, derived from the Portuguese language (barocco), which refers to a bizarre shell of irregular shape. This pejorative term stuck to the art of the 17th and 18th centuries during the Enlightenment and to this day is a testament to the helplessness of that generation in understanding the art of their ancestors.
To avoid getting tangled in such stereotypes, let’s say right away that the diversity of Baroque art stems directly from its genesis. This is closely related to its function: the possibly versatile transmission of the content of art to its recipients. Everything that is in this art consists of – originality and richness of means, the principle of contrast, dynamic emotionality, spiritual gravity, the play of light and darkness – serves to enhance the impact on the recipient. It is precisely for this reason that Baroque music is related not only to the domain of the metaphysical order of the universe but is also immanently connected with the arts of words. And even as strictly instrumental music (as in most examples included on this album), it is a rhetorical transmission of content – a true speech of the instruments, which is not so difficult to understand. And since it is yet another human language, we should not be surprised when listening to a concert by Johann Sebastian Bach, we have the impression that it is Vivaldi, or we may confuse Telemann with Händel. Such a quiproquo arises not only from the fact that the composers of the Baroque era freely used the compositions of their colleagues (if it is well written, then why not re-instrument it?), but primarily because they listened to each other more than ever and were able to assimilate various varieties of the Baroque language of instruments.
Despite its universality, in Baroque music we can distinguish a great wealth of genres, forms, techniques, and compositional means. Above all, however, it is a wealth of styles, sometimes associated with the most vibrant musical centers of contemporary Italy, France, Germany, England, and Poland. Everything, of course, began in Italy, which in the 16th century developed a model of artistic patronage that was perfectly conducive to musical culture. It allowed the gathering of the best singers, instrumentalists, and composers, who cultivated a new language of music, skillfully emphasizing primarily the spiritual, intellectual, and expressive transmission of it. One of the most important creators of Italian Baroque music was Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), who worked in Rome – the father of modern violin playing and the creator of Baroque forms of sonata and instrumental concerto. It was precisely the sonata and concerto that became the most representative genres of instrumental Baroque music. It is worth recalling here that these were forms related to the previously cultivated vocal-instrumental genres.
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) skillfully utilized the stylistic synthesis of Arcangelo Corelli's epoch. Working as a violin teacher in one of the Venetian orphanages, he had the opportunity to write a large number of concertos, regularly performed by the ensemble of girls from Ospedale Della Pieta. His creativity quickly gained fame throughout Europe, increasing the already existing interest in the music of Italian composers in the countries beyond the Alps. Today, we primarily associate Vivaldi with instrumental music; however, his operatic creativity, intended for the Venetian theater Sant’Angelo, was also highly valued. Although it did not please one of his Venetian competitors, Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739), who ridiculed it in an anonymously published pamphlet titled Il teatro alla moda. History, however, has measured justice to both composers: while we know Marcello today primarily as the author of the aforementioned booklet (which, by the way, has significant importance for understanding the musical culture of that era), Vivaldi's operatic creativity enjoys an unflagging interest from music lovers all over the world.
Another Venetian composer would certainly not be as well-known today if it were not for... the Dresden bombed by Allied bombers, in the ruins of which an Italian musicologist, Remo Giazotto, found a fragment of the bass part of an unknown concerto by Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751). Using this melody, Giazotto wrote (practically from scratch) his Adagio in G minor, published after World War II and known to this day precisely under Albinoni's name. This successful mystification owes its popularity to the natural sentiment of a generation that was touched by the horrors of war. The neobaroque stylization is, however, equally accurate from the perspective of the emotions that this piece commonly evokes in well-known arrangements today.
Equally emotionally charged are the original harpsichord sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (1686-1757), widely regarded as masterpieces of Baroque instrumental miniature, expressing in a very suggestive way the world of human emotions conveyed through simple technical means. The great tradition of Baroque music was transferred to other countries in Europe also thanks to the composers themselves, who sought sources of sustenance at musical courts outside Italy. This process is excellently illustrated by Giovanni Benedetto Platti (1700-1762), who spent most of his life in German Würzburg, or the already opening classical era Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805), employed at the court of the Spanish infante Louis. However, this was already a time of crystallization of a completely new style, also associated with a new type of instrumental ensemble and a new way of reflecting musical content.
The European fashion for Italian music also influenced the face of musical Baroque in France, although the creators working there from the very beginning of the 17th century were aware of their own, completely different aesthetic tradition and at all costs emphasized the distinctiveness (and of course, superiority) of the gout français. The true war of Italian and French musical taste, lasting over 100 years, resulted in rich compositions but above all – extremely interesting musical compositions. Their authors tried to either enhance one of the options of this aesthetic style or – reconcile elements of both in some possibly harmonious form. One of the most outstanding composers who succeeded in this was Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704), born in Paris. He studied music in Rome, under the eye of Giacomo Carissimi himself. His excellent sense of the French style and the ability to assimilate the most modern elements of Italian music allowed him to make a truly epoch-making synthesis. The tradition of Italian and French music was skillfully combined by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689-1755), two generations younger – a composer from Lorraine, primarily of instrumental music. And although in the aesthetic dispute (the so-called Querelle du Bouffons) waged during his time, this composer sided – along with Jean-Philippe Rameau – with French music, in his music one can find many elements decidedly closer to the emotionality of Italian music of that time, celebrated by their aesthetic adversaries, with Jean-Jacques Rousseau at the forefront.
The musical creativity of German Baroque composers is situated between the poles of Italian and French aesthetics. However, we can find in it not only the influence of Italian and French traditions, which with varying intensity affected most German composers of that time, but also features identified with local determinants of musical style. Here, one must primarily express the awareness of musical form and also a strong bond with the melody of song: both those coming from the hymn repertoire and those deriving from folk tradition, increasingly explored by composers from German countries. Interesting examples of this kind of synthesis can be found in the rich legacy of Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), who worked, among others, in Leipzig and Hamburg. It was Telemann who wove elements of folk music into the melodies of his sonatas and concertos, coming from areas such as Silesia and Silesia. We also know that he was well acquainted with Polish music; he considered it one of the four most significant musical traditions in Europe. He is, after all, one of the most significant composers of German Baroque, also representing a new way of musical expression, referred to as the galant style.
At the time, the position of cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig was contested by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), who had previously worked at various courts and in significant centers of church music of his time. Upon achieving this position, Bach created a large number of vocal-instrumental works, rightly regarded as masterpieces. For the instrumental music found on this album, however, the most significant was the earlier period of the composer's activity at the courts of the princes: Wilhelm Ernst in Weimar and Leopold in Köthen. There he had the opportunity to practically verify the results of his musical education, which he acquired in his youth almost entirely independently, copying countless works of earlier composers. In the frenzy of these extremely laborious studies, there was, however, a method that allowed the German genius to make a truly epoch-making synthesis of Italian, German, and French music, bearing the hallmark of an extremely individual musical style, which to this day constitutes a quality of the highest measure.
Another giant of the musical scene of post-Baroque Germany is the contemporary of Bach, Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) – in his time even more valued than him, let’s add quietly, not entirely without reason. Undoubtedly, he surpassed Johann Sebastian in the versatility of his compositional interests (including operatic creativity); however, his musical language was completely different in terms of its expressiveness. While Bach's music represents a quality unprecedented as the pinnacle of technical and metaphysical craftsmanship, Händel's creativity is much more rooted in the paradigm of being communicative for the listener of Italian art. It was in Italy that Georg Friedrich emerged as a creator – one of the few newcomers from the North who managed to stage his operas at the theater in Naples! After returning from Italy, he worked at the court of George Louis in Hanover and subsequently in London, where he served as a royal composer (a British citizen since 1727) until his death.
Equally deserving for British Baroque music is Henry Purcell (1659-1695) – a composer at the royal court, organist of Westminster Abbey, and also of the royal cathedral. This prematurely deceased creator is the author of several English-language operas, still today captivating with their extremely moving emotionality and at the same time perfectly clear form of composition. Despite strong ties connecting his creativity with Italian and French music of his generation, it is music that is thoroughly original, revealing its author after just a few bars of composition. Among those who referred to Purcell's tradition was William Corbett (1680-1748), a violinist in the ensemble of the British king and director of several London theaters. However, while his operatic creativity continues in the vein of English opera, his instrumental music shows evident influences of the Italian style, both in terms of style and the classical Baroque texture of the trio.
Sketching the panorama of the most important phenomena of musical Baroque in Europe, we cannot forget about the Commonwealth, which at least in the first half of the 17th century was a very important place for cultivating musical tradition. Thanks to the kings of the Vasa dynasty – particularly Władysław IV – the chapel operating in Warsaw was rich in the best musicians and composers, brought at great expense especially from Italy. They educated entire generations of native creators and enabled the organization of the first regularly operating opera stage north of the Alps! Following the example of the royal chapel in Warsaw, musical ensembles were organized – in the Italian manner – both at magnate courts and in significant church centers. We really have no reason to nurture complexes, knowing at least that the offertories and communions of Mikołaj Zieleński (c. 1550-1616), published in the prestigious Vincentius publishing house in Venice, were performed in the churches of Płock and Słowicz.
Another composer selected for this album, the last master of the royal ensemble in Warsaw before the Deluge, Bartłomiej Pękiel (ca. 1620-1670), turns out to be a capable student of Giacomo Carissimi's school, also using with no less skill other musical styles of the Baroque era. If anyone among you is encouraged to get to know – even this recorded on the albums – the creativity of Bartłomiej Pękiel or Marcin Mielczewski, it will not be difficult to encounter another quiproquo: is it Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina? Or perhaps one of the first geniuses of musical Baroque – Claudio Monteverdi, who was sought to lead the Warsaw chapel of King Sigismund III? And although the efforts of impresarios recruiting musicians and composers to the court in Warsaw did not lead to the arrival of the divine Claudio on the Vistula in this case, the music of this composer and his contemporary masters resonated in the palaces, cathedrals, and monastic centers of the Commonwealth.

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List of works:

1 Marc-Antoine Charpentier:
Te Deum – Prelude [2:43]
Michael Ohnimus – trumpet,
Łukasz Chorosiński – organ

2 Johann Sebastian Bach:
Partita in E major (BWV 1006) – Gigue [1:18]
Joanna Kawalla – violin,
Artur Jaroń – piano

3 Henry Purcell: Trumpet tune [2:49]
Roman Perucki – organ

4 Arcangelo Corelli: Sonata da chiesa in E major
op. 4 no. 6 – Prelude [2:50]
Pro Musica Antiqua:
Leszek Szarzyński – flute,
Jerzy Szafrański – oboe,
Wojciech Orawiec – bassoon,
Leszek Kędracki – harpsichord

5 Johann Sebastian Bach:
Bist du bei mir (BWV 508) [4:16]
Michael Ohnimus – trumpet,
Łukasz Chorosiński – organ

6 Antonio Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in G major (RV 310) – part I: Allegro [2:20]
Krzysztof Podejko – violin,
Elżbieta Jarszewska-Kordykiewicz – piano

7 Johann Sebastian Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565) [9:34]
Józef Serafin – organ

8 Joseph Bodin de Boismortier:
Sonata in G minor – part I: Allemande [1:41]
Wojciech Orawiec – bassoon
Małgorzata Skotnicka – harpsichord

9 Mikołaj Zieleński: Responsum accepit [2:18]
Emma Kirkby – soprano
Andrzej Białko – organ

10 Antonio Vivaldi:
Concerto in G minor – part III: Allegro [2:05]
Pro Musica Antiqua:
Leszek Szarzyński – flute,
Jerzy Szafrański – oboe,
Wojciech Orawiec – bassoon,
Leszek Kędracki – harpsichord

11 Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) – Var. 18. Canone alla sexta [1:30]
Piotr Słopecki – piano

12 Georg Philipp Telemann: Concerto for trumpet, strings, and bc in D major – part I: Adagio [1:52]
Igor Cecocho – trumpet
Wrocław Chamber Orchestra named after Witold Lutosławski
Jarosław Pietrzak – conductor

13 Bartłomiej Pękiel: Fantasia [2:42]
Urszula Bartkiewicz – harpsichord

14 William Corbett:
Sonata in C major – part II: Presto [0:51]
Pro Musica Antiqua:
Leszek Szarzyński – flute,
Jerzy Szafrański – oboe,
Wojciech Orawiec – bassoon,
Małgorzata Skotnicka – harpsichord

15 Luigi Boccherini:
Quintet in E major – Menuet [3:16]
Toruń Chamber Orchestra
Jerzy Salwarowski – conductor

16 Henry Purcell: Sonata for trumpet and string orchestra – part I: Pomposo [1:32]
Igor Cecocho – trumpet
Wrocław Chamber Orchestra named after Witold Lutosławski,
Jarosław Pietrzak – conductor

17 Johann Sebastian Bach:
Piano Concerto in G minor BWV 1058 – part I: Allegro [3:48]
Stanisław Drzewiecki – piano
Mała Filharmonia Chamber Orchestra,
Marcin Nałęcz-Niesiołowski – conductor

18 Benedetto Marcello:
Sonata in C major – part II: Allegro [1:55]
Wojciech Orawiec – bassoon
Małgorzata Skotnicka – harpsichord

19 Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata in D minor [3:43]
Stefan Wojtas – piano

20 Georg Friedrich Händel: Trio Sonata in G minor op. 2 no. 6a – part II: Allegro [3:00]
Pro Musica Antiqua:
Leszek Szarzyński – flute,
Jerzy Szafrański – oboe,
Wojciech Orawiec – bassoon,
Małgorzata Skotnicka – harpsichord

21 Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto for violin, oboe, and string orchestra in C minor BWV 1060 – part I: Allegro [4:59]
Tytus Wojnowicz – oboe,
Ludmiła Worobec-Witek – violin,
Capella Bydgostiensis
Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk – conductor

22 Giovanni Benedetto Platti:
Trio Sonata in G major – part II: Allegro [3:36]
Pro Musica Antiqua:
Leszek Szarzyński – flute,
Jerzy Szafrański – oboe,
Wojciech Orawiec – bassoon,
Leszek Kędracki – harpsichord

23 Tomaso Albinoni: Adagio in G minor [9:02]
Georgij Agratina – pan flute
Robert Grudzień – organ