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Olde Focus Recordings

Pezel: The Alphabet Sonatas

$18.99

Details

Composer
PEZEL, JOHANN
Artist
Acronym
Format
CD
Label
Olde Focus Recordings
Released
Feb 25, 2014
Catalog #
FCR903
UPC
707541690096

About



PEZEL Alphabet Sonatas • Acronym • OLDE FOCUS 903 (75: 15)


Pezel’s Opus Musicum Sonatarum Praestantissimarum Senis Instrumentis Instructum , or “Musical Publication of the Finest Sonatas for Old/Revered Instruments,” was published in Frankfurt in 1686. It may well have been a joint commission from all of the members of the ancient Six Cities’ Alliance, for a handsome sum was paid for it by each: Bautzen, Görlitz, Lauban, Kamenz, Löbau, and Zittau. (Pezel himself was then employed as Stadtmusikant , or director of instrumental music, in Bautzen, a prestigious post in what was at the time a decent-sized metropolis.) The work consists of 24 sonatas given alphabetical names, such as Sonata Abella in G Major, and Sonata Bacca in D Minor. In addition, there is a final Sonata Ciacona that features an eight-chord bass ostinato in its ripieno sections, which is doubled and extended again by a further four chords for concertato statements. It’s a fairly massive single movement of its variational type for its time and place, though such things were more common in Elizabethan keyboard music.


The Alphabet Sonatas themselves are actually proto-sonatas, meaning that they’re a grab bag of movements strung together, often in the same key. They descend from the first wave of violinist-composers who emerged from the late 16th century courts of the Sforza who ruled Milan, and the Este who ruled Ferrara. But where those Italian sonatas mixed dances, highly imitative contrapuntal movements, and dramatic recitative, often with highly chromatic harmonic progressions, Pezel’s sonatas include homophonic dances, less complex examples of counterpoint, and the occasional voluntary, all of it less venturesome harmonically. The composer’s previous experience as a Kunstgeiger (city-employed fiddler) and later Stadtpfeifer (member of a typical loud ensemble, with cornetts and sackbuts) in Leipzig can be heard in the distinctively instrumental character of wind, brass, or strings in various movements; though the work was published in seven string parts, with continuo furnished by bassoon and an unspecified additional instrument.


As to why Pezel would give his sonatas feminine names drawn from Greco-Roman history and mythology: Like many academics since the late Middle Ages, he relished showing off knowledge garnered from the Attic Greeks and Romans. So the Sonata Dejanira refers to the tragically unconfident woman who was married to Heracles, while the Sonata Quinquatria highlights the Roman festival held in honor of the goddess Minerva. None of this has any bearing on the music itself.


Acronym is a string ensemble formed in 2012 specifically for this CD project. But as only nine of its 12 members perform here, and other projects including tours are underway, we can safely assume the group has taken on a life separate from Pezel’s work. It was still common enough during Pezel’s lifetime for music to be performed in any variety of arrangements, reduced or augmented, as circumstances warranted. Here, the continuo is provided by either of two performers who handle the honors for theorbo and guitar, and harpsichord and organ, while there’s some trading off among viols and violas—as Pezel didn’t specify da bracchia or da gamba.


The performances of the livelier dance movements have a fine rhythmic bounce, especially the start of the Sonata Nabathea. Any unison playing on this release has a rich, full sound. Individual instrumentalists can at times display an unattractive tone, however, made more evident because none of the performers use vibrato. (As Sergiu Luca once told me, just because you don’t use vibrato doesn’t mean you have to display an ugly tone. Quite the opposite. You don’t have vibrato to cover for you, and have to work to improve your sound.) The Sonata Ciacona exposes this mercilessly, with a very occasional note tonally off-center. Most of the playing aside from this is first-rate, while tempos are varied and well-sustained. There’s an attractive legato in slower movements, and a judicious amount of accenting on both the beat and at cadences.


A final word or 111 about the liner notes. Written by one of Acronym’s musicians, they evidently draw upon some historians of Leipzig who are very much of the Annales School, emphasizing cultural matters by way of source studies in surviving town hall records, legal documents, etc. It’s a pleasure to read someone take such joy in relating more than the usual born/educated/married/died information, right down to the social distinctions between the various music guilds: the Kunstgeigeren, Stadtpfeiferen , lowly Bierfiedlers , and the haughty trumpet players, the top-of-the-heap Kammeradschaft —even to mentioning the brawls on record that resulted when some Stadtpfeiferen employed trombones provocatively shaped and played like trumpets, but with alternative names.


All in all, these are successful readings of attractive music. Recommended.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

Tracklist 25 tracks

  1. Disc 1
  2. 1 Sonata Abella in G Major 05:16
    Track
    1
    Title
    Sonata Abella in G Major
    Duration
    05:16
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  3. 2 Sonata Baccha in D Minor 07:06
    Track
    2
    Title
    Sonata Baccha in D Minor
    Duration
    07:06
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  4. 3 Sonata Cadmea in A Minor 04:35
    Track
    3
    Title
    Sonata Cadmea in A Minor
    Duration
    04:35
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  5. 4 Sonata Dejanira in E Minor 04:47
    Track
    4
    Title
    Sonata Dejanira in E Minor
    Duration
    04:47
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  6. 5 Sonata Ebura in B-flat Major 04:46
    Track
    5
    Title
    Sonata Ebura in B-flat Major
    Duration
    04:46
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  7. 6 Sonata Fabaria in F Major 04:21
    Track
    6
    Title
    Sonata Fabaria in F Major
    Duration
    04:21
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  8. 7 Sonata Gaba in C Major 07:07
    Track
    7
    Title
    Sonata Gaba in C Major
    Duration
    07:07
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  9. 8 Sonata Hoemonia in G Minor 05:34
    Track
    8
    Title
    Sonata Hoemonia in G Minor
    Duration
    05:34
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  10. 9 Sonata Ja in D Major 04:17
    Track
    9
    Title
    Sonata Ja in D Major
    Duration
    04:17
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  11. 10 Sonata Kohlerina in A Major 04:16
    Track
    10
    Title
    Sonata Kohlerina in A Major
    Duration
    04:16
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  12. 11 Sonata Laconia in E Major 04:13
    Track
    11
    Title
    Sonata Laconia in E Major
    Duration
    04:13
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  13. 12 Sonata Macra in B Minor 05:33
    Track
    12
    Title
    Sonata Macra in B Minor
    Duration
    05:33
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  14. Disc 2
  15. 1 Sonata Nabathea in G Major 06:08
    Track
    1
    Title
    Sonata Nabathea in G Major
    Duration
    06:08
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  16. 2 Sonata Octavia in D Minor 05:16
    Track
    2
    Title
    Sonata Octavia in D Minor
    Duration
    05:16
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  17. 3 Sonata Padusa in A Minor 05:33
    Track
    3
    Title
    Sonata Padusa in A Minor
    Duration
    05:33
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  18. 4 Sonata Quinquatria in E Minor 05:03
    Track
    4
    Title
    Sonata Quinquatria in E Minor
    Duration
    05:03
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  19. 5 Sonata Rha in B-flat Major 05:21
    Track
    5
    Title
    Sonata Rha in B-flat Major
    Duration
    05:21
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  20. 6 Sonata Sabaea in F Major 06:18
    Track
    6
    Title
    Sonata Sabaea in F Major
    Duration
    06:18
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  21. 7 Sonata Tamara in C Major 04:36
    Track
    7
    Title
    Sonata Tamara in C Major
    Duration
    04:36
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  22. 8 Sonata Vacuna in G Minor 06:38
    Track
    8
    Title
    Sonata Vacuna in G Minor
    Duration
    06:38
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  23. 9 Sonata Wallona in D Major 05:10
    Track
    9
    Title
    Sonata Wallona in D Major
    Duration
    05:10
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  24. 10 Sonata Xantippea in A Major 04:48
    Track
    10
    Title
    Sonata Xantippea in A Major
    Duration
    04:48
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  25. 11 Sonata Yvana in E Major 05:15
    Track
    11
    Title
    Sonata Yvana in E Major
    Duration
    05:15
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  26. 12 Sonata Zacchantea in B Minor 05:11
    Track
    12
    Title
    Sonata Zacchantea in B Minor
    Duration
    05:11
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM
  27. 13 Sonata Ciacona in B-flat Major 09:49
    Track
    13
    Title
    Sonata Ciacona in B-flat Major
    Duration
    09:49
    Composer
    Johann Christoph Pezel
    Ensemble
    ACRONYM