WÖLFL Piano Concertos: No. 1 in G; No. 5 in C, “Grand Military”; No. 6 in D, “The Cuckoo”; No. 4 in G, “The Calm”: Andante • Yorck Kronenberg (pn); Johannes Moesus, cond; Southwest German RSO Kaiserslautern • cpo 777 374 (76:06)


Contrary to the claim of at least one misinformed writer, Joseph Wölfl (1773–1812) was not rediscovered and brought back to life only as recently as 2003 by pianist Jon Nakamatsu who recorded four of the composer’s sonatas for Harmonia Mundi (see review in 27:6). To seekers of dwarf planets rendered invisible by the blinding luminosity of the sun—i.e., Beethoven—Wölfl has been long known to orbit unobtrusively in the Mozart-Haydn-Beethoven solar system, perhaps one of the last remaining best-kept secrets of the late-Classical/early-Romantic Austro-German galaxy. A vinyl recording of Wölfl’s sonatas once graced my LP collection some 25 or more years ago. Unfortunately, I no longer have it, but perhaps some reader still does. The pianist and the label—Orion perhaps?—were relatively obscure, but I remember being quite taken with the music even then, which indeed did sound a lot like early Beethoven. In the hands of an artist as accomplished as Nakamatsu, and with the benefit of modern, state-of-the-art recording technology, it was clear that my initial impression of Wölfl was not misplaced. Though familiar with his works for solo piano, this was my first encounter with any of Wölfl’s concerted works; and to be quite frank, I was not as taken with them as I was with his sonatas.


In physical stature, Wölfl, at over six feet, and with a finger-span large enough to comfortably accommodate a 13th (an octave plus a fifth) must have towered over Beethoven; but in their famously recounted 1799 piano “duel” in which the two combatants pitted wits and technique in a contest of extemporizing, the David trounced the Goliath. Whereupon the defeated hulk lumbered off to Paris and thence to London, attempting but never quite succeeding in regaining his former reputation. Wölfl had studied under both Michael Haydn and Leopold Mozart, and may have given a few lessons to the budding Wolfgang Amadeus. He is known to have written at least one opera, Der Höllenberg , which was staged in Vienna in 1795. There are also at least two symphonies and seven piano concertos from Wölfl’s hand. Three of those concertos and the Andante movement from a fourth will be found on this disc.


The two earliest concertos—of which we have only the G-Major here—were published in Paris in 1802–03, after Wölfl had ceded Vienna to his victor. There is little, if anything, in this concerto to suggest that Wölfl had ever heard anything by Beethoven, let alone knew him personally. The musical spirit that hovers over its pages is Mozart, even to the point that its first movement flirts with an instantly recognizable paraphrase of the aria “Non più andrai” from Figaro.


The remaining concertos date from Wölfl’s London period, and were published between 1806 and 1812; but the influence of Beethoven is still distant. The “Grand Military” Concerto, with its trumpet flourishes and florid keyboard figuration is closer in style to Beethoven’s other great rival, Hummel. Again, in the D-Major Concerto, Mozart seems to be playing peek-a-boo from behind its triadic striding and scampering scales. The “Cuckoo” tag comes from the descending third that sets off the rondo theme in the last movement, a shopworn cliché if ever there was one.


Some confusion is introduced by Bert Hagels’s booklet note, or by translator Marie Praeder, with reference to the Andante movement subtitled, “The Calm.” The CD track listing tells us that it comes from the fourth of Wölfl’s concertos; yet in the English translation of the notes, it is stated that Wölfl wrote the Andante in question as a replacement for the slow movement of the Piano Concerto No. 1 for its London publication. Whatever the case may be, this is the one movement amongst these concertos that comes closest to Beethoven; and it stands out as the most memorable on the disc. Without quoting or paraphrasing any actual piece by Beethoven, Wölfl manages to capture a similar sense of suspended time and contemplative serenity to that which one finds in the slow movements of Beethoven’s “Emperor” and Violin Concerto, albeit on a far less expansive scale.


For all of his alleged technical prowess, Wölfl seems to have eschewed virtuosic display for its own sake in these works. The solo instrument is well integrated with the orchestral writing, and the technical demands on the pianist, while not negligible, do not sound as taxing on the player or the instrument as do other concerted works for piano and orchestra written at exactly the same time, for example, Carl Maria von Weber’s two concertos of 1810 and 1811. Pianist Yorck Kronenberg, joined by Johannes Moesus and the Southwest German Radio Orchestra, are exemplary and, along with cpo, are to be commended for bringing these long dormant works to our attention. Recommended.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Organ Works of the North German Baroque featuring Flamme’s interpretation of Boehm’s complete organ oeuvre on the Creutzburg organ in the Church of St. Cyriacus in Duderstadt. Bohm, born in Thuringia, was 24 years older than Bach and the organist at St. John’s Church in Luneburg when the young Bach was residing there. Even if documents for a pupil-teacher relationship are lacking, the presence of the highly talented young musician in this town cannot have escaped Bohm’s notice.

Classical Music

Classical Music

BILSE Sturmmarsch Galopp. Baumgartenallee Polka. Marienwalzer. Nur mit Dir. Schlesische Lieder. Catharina Quadrille. Die Fürstensteiner. Mit Bomben und Granaten. Winterflocken Galopp. Victoria Walzer. Königspolonaise. Die Provinzialen. Concerthaus Polka. Schützenmarsch • Christian Simonis, cond; Cologne West German RSO • cpo 777 341 (72:10)


You’ve got to hand it to cpo. I don’t know where they come up with these obscure Romantic composers, but here’s another one. The long-lived, Silesian-born Benjamin Bilse (1816–1902) was known in his time interchangeably as the “Hungarian Strauss,” the “Bohemian Strauss,” and the “Danish Strauss.” A native of Liegnitz, Bilse became steeped in the folk music of Poland and Silesia, founding the Bilse Orchestra in 1842. As was not uncommon for small-town musicians of the time, Bilse was proficient on many instruments and pretty much taught himself composition by studying and conducting the works of contemporaries and peers.


If the foregoing paints Bilse as a provincial, backcountry bandleader, the impression is a false one. By the 1860s, we find him in Berlin, a highly popular composer and presenter of public concerts, an important impresario of musical events, and a hardworking organizer of music societies and organizations. He is even credited with having played a significant role in the establishment of the Berlin Philharmonic.


As a composer, Bilse’s ambitions seemed to be more modest. Like the Danish waltz king, Christian Lumbye, the Austrian Joseph Lanner, the French Waldteufel, and the Austrian Strauss clan, Bilse contented himself with writing waltzes, polkas, and marches for the entertainment of mass audiences. And while such works may have been aimed at satisfying popular tastes, they were superbly crafted—some of them miniature masterpieces—and the ensembles assembled to perform them were of the highest professional caliber.


This is feel-good music. If you love a good John Philip Sousa march, you will joyously feather-dust your furniture to Bilse’s Mit Bomben und Granaten (“With Bombs and Grenades”) and Swiffer your floors to the Sturmmarsch Galopp . My sense is that unlike the waltzes of Johann Strauss II, Bilse’s waltz and polka numbers, such as the Victoria Walzer and the Concert House Polka , were less intended to be actually danced to than they were intended to be listened to as stylized, self-sustaining concert pieces. Of their type, these are masterfully written works, highly polished, handsomely scored with an ear for instrumental color, and tremendously engaging.


Based on the milieu of composers to which Bilse belonged and the musical genre to which he contributed, you will know whether this sort of thing appeals to you or not. If so, I can tell you that the performances and the recording are top drawer, and I, personally, haven’t had so much plain old fun listening to a CD in quite some time. Strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Bohemian composer Josef Myslivecek knew both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his father Leopold. Myslivecek has been described as a pioneer in the writing of chamber music for winds and with this disc the L’Orfeo Wind Ensemble, made up of members from the L’Orfeo Baroque Orchestra under Carin van Heerden, turn to the charming, sonorous yet rarely heard wind octets and quintets of Myslivecek.

For two decades, Cologne's TRIO 1790 has been dedicated to classical chamber music in general and the piano trios of Mozart's contemporary Leopold Kozeluch in particular. The result is a series of precious finds that do not lose any of their impact from the fine, slender tone of historically accurate instruments. On the contrary, they gain an unexpected wealth of subtle shadings and depth in the playful music of this inventive and versatile Bohemian. Again and again, the light-footed, distinctive sounds and lines are interspersed with dramatic flourishes that the attentive ear will recognise as the "modern music" of Ludwig van Beethoven, who came from Bonn on the Rhine to Vienna on the Danube to shake up the music world.

The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid were not always merely the nightmare of classical philology students. On the contrary: the great work on the transformations of figures of ancient mythology by scornful, amorous or grateful gods have been handed down to us in innumerable paintings, stories, theatre pieces and operas. The symphonies written by Joseph Haydn's colleague and friend Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf in the 1780s occupy a special place among the purely instrumental reflections of these events. Anything but programmatic in the Romantic sense, it plays with sophisticated associations that can only be discovered by those who listen attentively and can supplement the allusions with their own imagination - a rewarding endeavour, especially when sparks fly out of the classical symmetry of the gods as they do here.

Georg Philipp Telemann Inauguration Cantatas 1721 On 21 September 1721, Georg Philipp Telemann, the newly installed cantor of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, directed his first regular sacred music service. At the same time, he presented the faithful with a set program. A cantata was performed both before and after the sermon. At the conclusion of the service, an excerpt from a work to be performed later in it's entirety was presented - a "cliffhanger" whose continuation was undoubtedly highly anticipated by the congregation in light of the variety of music on offer. The Hamburger Ratsmusik revives this historic inaugural service here, and Simone Eckert breaks up the already extremely varied sequence of works by including four viola da gamba fantasias to complete the twelve works begun on earlier productions.

A full ten months older than Ludwig van Beethoven and a friend since their years together in Bonn, the Bohemian Antonín Reicha is to a certain extent a complementary addition to the revolutionary achievements of the "Titan". You can hear at every turn that he also had a pronounced tendency towards experimentation. This is seen mostly in his extremely "relaxed" treatment of established norms – a minuet where any dancer would immediately and hopelessly falter; variations with extremely contrasting means of expression; harmonic and melodic impudence; an often very subtle way of shifting phrases; and astonishing scoring – these are the characteristics of a man that shook the foundations of Paris and beyond.

In the course of her long life, Johanna Senfter has enriched almost all genres of classical music, from chamber music to large-scale symphonic works. Her creations are all characterized by one unique feature - a harsh, almost austere beauty that runs the entire gamut from deep intimacy to whimsical humour which even repeatedly surprised the composer's teacher, Max Reger. Reger, the heavyweight workhorse from Upper Palatinate, was extremely impressed by the creative abilities of his pupil, whose career he was unfortunately unable to follow for too long. No doubt one or two turns of phrase would have sounded familiar to him had he experienced them; but he certainly would not have denied that this woman from a well-to-do family had asserted her own vision.

Spohr: Complete Piano Trios

Although she only lived to be 25, Vitezslava Kapralova has taught a lesson to all those who think that one can only compose music with a licence. This incredibly talented Czech simply wrote music and was on the way to becoming one of the greats before she succumbed to a typhus infection in France in 1940. Two years earlier, she opened the festival of the International Society for New Music in London with her Military Sinfonietta, which was enthusiastically received by the press and the public; her piano concerto, her graduation piece in her home city of Brno, was a brilliant success; her Suite Rustica featuring famous Czech folk songs had all the makings of a "pop hit".... Sometimes it is difficult to comprehend the caprices of destiny.

ROSETTI Horn Concertos: in E, Murray C50; 1 in E?, Murray C48. 2 Concertos for 2 Horns: in F, Murray C61; 1,2 in E?, Murray C55Q: Andante 1,2 • Sarah Willis (hn); 1 Klaus Wallendorf (hn); 2 Johannes Moesus, cond; Kurpfälzisches CO • cpo 777 288 (53:25)


This is a follow-on to cpo 999 734, reviewed by Michael Carter in 27:5. If you liked that CD, this one is more of the same: another raft of Rosetti horn concertos with Wallendorf and Willis, once again the players, and Moesus, once again the conductor. The one difference is the band, this time the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester, instead of the Bavarian Chamber Philharmonic. A little research into cpo’s catalog revealed that this is not an anomaly. A number of different chamber and orchestral ensembles have in fact been employed in the label’s on-going Rosetti project, among them the Consortium Classicum, the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Slovak Chamber Orchestra, and the Mecklenburg Baroque Orchestra. The inconsistency is that some of the releases have featured period instruments, while others have not. This one, and its predecessor, are in the “not” category, which may disappoint those who feel strongly that this music ought to be performed on instruments of the time in which it was written. Long-suffering readers may be surprised to learn that in the case of Rosetti’s horn concertos, I would agree with them.


The Italianized Antonio Rosetti (1750–1792), whose given Bohemian birth name was Anton Rösler, was born in the year Bach died and lived only one year beyond Mozart. He did not live to see the innovations that would transform the French horn into the modern instrument we know today. Those advances began as early as 1815 with the introduction of piston valves, and culminated in the 1830s with the development of rotary valves by Viennese instrument maker Joseph Riedl. French maker François Perinet made further refinements to the earlier piston valve design, but in the end, the rotary valve model won out; universally adopted, it is still in use today by orchestral players, but for one notable exception. That exception is the Vienna Philharmonic, whose horn players, according to the VPO’s Web site, still prefer the “smoother legato playing” made possible by Perinet’s slightly later (1839) piston-valve modifications.


Conductor Moesus is obviously enamored of Rosetti’s horn concertos, for in addition to the current release and the aforementioned CD reviewed by Carter, he recorded another clutch of the concertos for Arte Nova with the same Bavarian Chamber Philharmonic as on the earlier cpo disc, but with a different horn player, Radek Baborák. That CD was reviewed more recently by Jens F. Laurson in 32:6. The good news here is that if you like Rosetti—and every Fanfare contributor so far has voiced enthusiasm—you can collect all three of these releases without acquiring a single duplication.


Rosetti’s music, I agree, is a delightful listen. The style is more or less an approximation of Mozart, though not specifically that of Mozart’s horn concertos, which are not among the wunderkind’s greatest works, or even particularly typical of his overall writing. Rosetti’s musical ideas are strong and characterful, and the composer knows how to extend, continue, and develop them. But another Mozart Rosetti is not. There are crucial elements missing, chief among which are the striking chromatic progressions and the melodies that come from nowhere and that pierce the heart and sear the soul. The absence of inspiration extraordinaire is most noted and missed in the slow movements, which are curiously short and seem to suffer from a deficit of melodic interest. It’s unfair, of course, to discount talent by comparing it to genius. That Rosetti was no Mozart should not distract us from acknowledging the genuine quality of the many fine works he did write.


My appreciation of Rosetti’s music, however, does not extend without critical comment to the performances. I’m afraid I cannot agree with Carter who wrote that Wallendorf and Willis “can be numbered among the finest current exponents of their instrument.” Clearly, Rosetti’s technical challenges push the horn to its limits. But fine musicians and solid professionals as Wallendorf and Willis surely are, there are notes that get away from them in fast and difficult passages, runs that aren’t as clean as they could be, and those nasty little burbles the horn is notorious for that make their unwelcome appearance in register shifts and tricky lip and tongue work. Nor is tone production as even and smooth as it is among the “finest current exponents of their instrument,” such as Hermann Baumann, Radovan Vlatkovic, David Jolley, and Jeffrey Bryant.


In any case, the shortcomings I’ve noted are not serious and might perhaps be overlooked, given the overwhelming technical hurdles Rosetti places before the players. Recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Classical Music