A German Bouquet / Trio Settecento

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A GERMAN BOUQUET Rachel Barton Pine (vn); John Mark Rozendaal (vdg, vc); David Schrader (hpd, org) ÇEDILLE 112 (78:30)



SCHOP Nobleman. SCHMELZER Sonata in d. MUFFAT Sonata in D. KRIEGER Sonata, op. 2/2. BUXTEHUDE Sonata in C. BACH Fugue in g, BWV 1026. Sonata in e, BWV 1023. ERLEBACH Third Sonata. PISENDEL Sonata in D


Çedille’s collection of German violin sonatas opens with Johann Schop’s brief Noblemen , a set of “divisions” influenced, according to the notes, by the English style. It offers Rachel Barton Pine an opportunity for engaging in the kind of brilliant rapid passagework that characterizes pieces of this kind. Johann Schmelzer’s Sonata represents a texture that William S. Newman classified as SB/bass, with the violin and gamba both playing solo roles. Drawn from Schmelzer’s Duodena selectarum sonatarum , consisting of pieces for various combinations of violins and viols, the work divides the solo responsibilities almost evenly between the violin and viol, a great deal of it in spirited thematic conversation. Georg Muffat’s Sonata, with its leisurely opening passage (tracked separately) leading to an alternation of exuberant, brisk passagework and dramatic pathos, explores territories both brighter and darker than those in the program’s preceding works. Pine and her Trio Settecento demonstrate an affinity with both contrasting moods, and though the music never calls for an especially high degree of virtuosity, they achieve a brightness that’s striking despite its lack of showy brilliance. Johann Philipp Krieger’s Sonata, written, like Schmelzer’s, for the combination of SB/bass, which Newman identifies as a “favored” one in the 17th century, opens with a movement that wanders chromatically over a walking bass. Newman pointed out the final movement of this Sonata, an “Aria d’inventione,” as one in which Krieger fully made use of the instrumentation in a set of variations in which the harpsichord part repeats 10 times. The Trio matches Dietrich Buxtehude’s Sonata in its adaptability to the composer’s kaleidoscopic transitions among stylistic manners. Bach’s Fugue in G Minor, with its pedal point and cadenza, on the other hand, represents perhaps a higher degree of seriousness, or, at least, of solemnity. Philipp Heinrich Erlebach’s six sonatas from 1694, come, according to Newman, in two versions, one for SB/bass and a second for SS/bass for those times when gamba might have been unavailable. This Third Sonata consists of a sort of suite with added opening and closing movements and an included Chaconne, perhaps more reminiscent of similarly lightly tripping movements in Biber’s earlier sonatas than of Bach’s more massive conception. In this work, the violin and gamba engage in many passages in quasi-homophonic quasi-parallel motion. Scordatura, with both of the violin’s lower strings tuned up a step, adds highlights to the sparkling timbral interplay. Johann Georg Pisendel’s Sonata provides ample scope for the kind of straightforward Italianate virtuosity that makes the notes’ suggested relationship with a concerto particularly plausible (Baroque composers, from Corelli on, often reworked sonatas as concertos). Pine demonstrates in this work a sort of flamboyance, as in the bracing bariolage, that manifests itself only in a more restrained manner in the other works. The opening movement, consisting of figuration over a pedal, of Bach’s Sonata may be known to violinists through its appearance in the Suzuki curriculum, but Pine hardly plays it with the metronomic regularity to which it might be subjected (even Arthur Grumiaux plays it this way, with Christiane Jacottet and Philippe Mermoud, on Philips 426 452), making of it, rather, a kind of fantasy that extends itself throughout the rest of the movement. Throughout the Sonata, the Trio draws upon a subtler scheme of emotional expression, enlivening the dances with extraordinary emotional energy.


Throughout the program, Rachel Barton Pine plays with a sound that falls a bit on the nasal, pinched side of the spectrum, yet without the timbral (or technical) mannerisms in which earlier period instrumentalists with similar timbral predilections used to indulge. The repertoire provides for a kind of collegiality in which the Trio revels in this varied program, and the engineers have balanced the performers in an ambiance that’s just reverberant enough to enhance the sound of their ensemble. Strongly recommended for its exuberant, virtuosic music-making, elegant yet without a trace of slickness and serious without a trace of ponderousness.

FANFARE: Robert Maxham


Product Description:


  • Catalog Number: CDR 114


  • UPC: 735131911429


  • Label: Cedille


  • Composer: Dietrich Buxtehude, Georg Muffat, Johann Georg Pisendel, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Johann Philipp Krieger, Johann Schop, Johann Sebastian Bach, Philipp Heinrich Erlebach


  • Orchestra/Ensemble: Trio Settecento


  • Performer: David Schrader, John Mark Rozendaal, Rachel Barton Pine



Works:


  1. Nobelman

    Composer: Johann Schop

    Ensemble: Trio Settecento

    Performer: Rachel Barton Pine (Violin), John Mark Rozendaal (Cello/Viola Da Gamba), David Schrader (Harpsichord/Organ)


  2. Sonata in D minor

    Composer: Johann Heinrich Schmelzer

    Ensemble: Trio Settecento

    Performer: Rachel Barton Pine (Violin), John Mark Rozendaal (Cello/Viola Da Gamba), David Schrader (Harpsichord/Organ)


  3. Sonata for Violin and Basso Continuo

    Composer: Georg Muffat

    Ensemble: Trio Settecento

    Performer: Rachel Barton Pine (Violin), John Mark Rozendaal (Cello/Viola Da Gamba), David Schrader (Harpsichord/Organ)


  4. Sonatas (12) for Violin, Viola da Gamba and Basso Continuo, Op. 2: no 2 in D minor

    Composer: Johann Philipp Krieger

    Ensemble: Trio Settecento

    Performer: Rachel Barton Pine (Violin), John Mark Rozendaal (Cello/Viola Da Gamba), David Schrader (Harpsichord/Organ)


  5. Sonata for Violin, Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord in D minor, Op. 1 no 5/BuxWV 256

    Composer: Dietrich Buxtehude

    Ensemble: Trio Settecento

    Performer: Rachel Barton Pine (Violin), John Mark Rozendaal (Cello/Viola Da Gamba), David Schrader (Harpsichord/Organ)


  6. Fugue for Violin and Harpsichord in G minor, BWV 1026

    Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

    Ensemble: Trio Settecento

    Performer: Rachel Barton Pine (Violin), John Mark Rozendaal (Cello/Viola Da Gamba), David Schrader (Harpsichord/Organ)


  7. Sonatas (6) for Violin, Viola da Gamba/Violin and Basso Continuo: no 3 in A major

    Composer: Philipp Heinrich Erlebach

    Ensemble: Trio Settecento

    Performer: Rachel Barton Pine (Violin), John Mark Rozendaal (Cello/Viola Da Gamba), David Schrader (Harpsichord/Organ)


  8. Sonata for Violin and Basso Continuo in D major

    Composer: Johann Georg Pisendel

    Ensemble: Trio Settecento

    Performer: Rachel Barton Pine (Violin), John Mark Rozendaal (Cello/Viola Da Gamba), David Schrader (Harpsichord/Organ)


  9. Sonata for Violin and Basso Continuo in E minor, BWV 1023

    Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

    Ensemble: Trio Settecento

    Performer: Rachel Barton Pine (Violin), John Mark Rozendaal (Cello/Viola Da Gamba), David Schrader (Harpsichord/Organ)


  10. Sonata for Violin and Basso Continuo in E minor, BWV 1023

    Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

    Ensemble: Trio Settecento

    Performer: Rachel Barton Pine (Violin), John Mark Rozendaal (Cello/Viola Da Gamba), David Schrader (Harpsichord/Organ)