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Stolzel: Quadri di Dresda e Bruxelles / Epoca Barocca
CPO

Stolzel: Quadri di Dresda e Bruxelles / Epoca Barocca

$18.99

Details

Composer
STOELZEL, GOTTFRIED HEINRICH
Artist
Epoca Barocca
Format
CD
Label
CPO
Released
Jan 29, 2013
Catalog #
777764-2
UPC
761203776429

About



STÖLZEL Quadri di Dresda e Bruxelles • Epoca Barocca • CPO 777 764-2 (51: 09)


Back in 24:1 and 24:5, Brian Robins passionately took up the cudgels of advocacy for Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690–1749) in interviews with conductor Ludger Rémy, undertaken in conjunction with releases of two CDs comprising the composer’s Weihnachtsoratorium . Apart from that, there is still only one entry for the composer in the Fanfare Archive, for a single quartet from a baroque anthology disc. Finding listings of CDs of his works available domestically presents a serious challenge, as the search function on the normally reliable ArkivMusic website has something seriously askew in his case, alternately producing either only one entry, or else a list of 100 entries that are mostly for J. S. Bach instead, with the handful of genuine Stölzel items randomly intermixed. (For a proper list, visit my favorite European website, jpc.de). Apart from the five releases that Rémy has produced for CPO, the only other Stölzel CDs I can find in print are another version of the Weihnachtsoratorium on the MDG label, a disc of chamber music on the Ambitus label, and now this new CPO release of the composer’s Quadro Sonatas.


The continued obscurity of Stölzel is, at first sight, difficult to understand, given the considerable reputation he enjoyed in his own lifetime. Born in the small town of Grünstädtel, southeast of Zwickau and near the northwestern border of the modern Czech Republic, he came from humble circumstances; his father, the son of a miner, was the local schoolteacher and church organist. Although his parents gave him some musical training, they did not want him to pursue a career in that field, and upon graduation from secondary school in Gera he obediently enrolled as a student in theology at the University of Leipzig. However, once there he was soon entirely absorbed into the city’s thriving musical scene, becoming a copyist for Melchior Hofmann, a pupil of Emanuel Kegel, and a devoted friend of Johann Friedrich Fasch. By the time he moved to Breslau in 1710 he was composing his first opera in addition to some instrumental music. Shortly afterward he moved on to Halle and then, after rejecting offers of employment from the courts at Gera and Zeitz, went to Italy to further his musical education, where he met among others Antonio Vivaldi, Alessandro Marcello, Johann David Heinichen, and Domenico Scarlatti. Late in 1714 he went back north to Prague, and—after a brief stay in Bayreuth in 1717, plus rejection of a lucrative offer of employment at the electoral court in Dresden, probably because his strong Protestant convictions made a post at a Catholic establishment uncongenial—returned to Gera to become the court music director. In November 1719 he assumed what would prove to be a lifelong position as Kapellmeister for the ducal court in Gotha. Highly esteemed by his contemporaries, he was, for example, admitted to membership in the Correspondierende Societät der musicalischen Wissenschaften (Corresponding School of Musical Science) of the renowned Leipzig scholar Lorenz Christoph Mizler (1711–1778) several years before the application of J. S. Bach was accepted. Mizler also composed a funerary ode to Stölzel upon the latter’s death. For his part, Bach paid a minor tribute to Stölzel by including a Partita in G Minor by him (with the addition of a trio of Bach’s own devising) in his Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.


While Stölzel was a prolific composer of stage works, oratorios, masses, cantatas, and various instrumental works, little of his output has survived; for example, only 12 of his 85 known secular cantatas, and fragments from only 10 of his 442 sacred cantatas, are extant. At least 18 orchestral suites and over 90 vocal serenatas are completely lost. Part of this is due to the fact that his music quickly became unfashionable after his death; his successor at Gotha, Georg Benda, explicitly stated that he thought only select works of Stölzel’s compositional corpus were worth preserving, ones that he weeded out from what he termed “useless junk.” The rest was consigned to leaky attics, where depredations of weather and hungry rodents soon took their toll. In the case of the nine quadros presented on this CD, eight are taken from the musical archives in Dresden (assembled primarily by Georg Pisendel) and the ninth is preserved in an archive in Brussels. They are unusual not only for their inclusion of the horn, but also for using it as an equal partner at a time when, outside of music for hunting and martial occasions, it was usually assigned to a strictly subordinate role of reinforcing instrumental climaxes. The limitations of the valveless horn of that period necessitated that F Major be the predominant key of all of these quadros.


This is my first exposure to Stölzel’s music. Not having heard either the Weihnachtsoratorium or the Brockes-Passion that so roused the enthusiasm of my colleague Brian Robins, I have neither a basis nor desire to gainsay his highly positive judgment of those. However, I can say that, based on these works, I do not share his enthusiasm. Imagine, if you will, nine knock-offs of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 by a modestly talented pupil who lacks his master’s genius and artistry, and you will have the results presented here. They are pleasant and genial, and make for moderately enjoyable listening, but their commonplace thematic material prevents them from being anything more than that. I find no fault in either the sterling performances by Epoca Barocca, which presents these pieces in their best possible light, nor in CPO’s typically excellent recorded sound and lavish booklet notes. Based on this slender acquaintance, I am not about to make any general pronouncement on Stölzel’s merits as a whole; I will say that this disc is a purely discretionary rather than obligatory acquisition for the devotee of baroque instrumental music. If you choose to buy it, this disc will provide you with pleasure, but don’t expect it to bowl you over.


FANFARE: James A. Altena

Tracklist 27 tracks

  1. 1 I. Allegro 02:42
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Allegro
    Duration
    02:42
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  2. 2 II. Adagio 01:19
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Adagio
    Duration
    01:19
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  3. 3 III. Allegro 02:38
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Allegro
    Duration
    02:38
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  4. 4 I. Allegro 03:31
    Track
    4
    Title
    I. Allegro
    Duration
    03:31
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  5. 5 II. Adagio 01:00
    Track
    5
    Title
    II. Adagio
    Duration
    01:00
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  6. 6 III. Allegro 01:57
    Track
    6
    Title
    III. Allegro
    Duration
    01:57
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  7. 7 I. Allegro 00:56
    Track
    7
    Title
    I. Allegro
    Duration
    00:56
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  8. 8 II. Adagio 01:15
    Track
    8
    Title
    II. Adagio
    Duration
    01:15
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  9. 9 III. Allegro 01:46
    Track
    9
    Title
    III. Allegro
    Duration
    01:46
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  10. 10 I. Allegro 01:50
    Track
    10
    Title
    I. Allegro
    Duration
    01:50
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  11. 11 II. Adagio 01:40
    Track
    11
    Title
    II. Adagio
    Duration
    01:40
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  12. 12 III. Allegro 02:08
    Track
    12
    Title
    III. Allegro
    Duration
    02:08
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  13. 13 I. Allegro 01:48
    Track
    13
    Title
    I. Allegro
    Duration
    01:48
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  14. 14 II. Adagio 00:57
    Track
    14
    Title
    II. Adagio
    Duration
    00:57
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  15. 15 III. Allegro 01:44
    Track
    15
    Title
    III. Allegro
    Duration
    01:44
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  16. 16 I. Allegro 01:47
    Track
    16
    Title
    I. Allegro
    Duration
    01:47
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  17. 17 II. Adagio 01:03
    Track
    17
    Title
    II. Adagio
    Duration
    01:03
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  18. 18 III. Allegro 02:14
    Track
    18
    Title
    III. Allegro
    Duration
    02:14
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  19. 19 I. Vivace 02:52
    Track
    19
    Title
    I. Vivace
    Duration
    02:52
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  20. 20 II. Adagio 01:30
    Track
    20
    Title
    II. Adagio
    Duration
    01:30
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  21. 21 III. Vivace 01:35
    Track
    21
    Title
    III. Vivace
    Duration
    01:35
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  22. 22 I. Andate 03:16
    Track
    22
    Title
    I. Andate
    Duration
    03:16
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  23. 23 II. Adagio 01:14
    Track
    23
    Title
    II. Adagio
    Duration
    01:14
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  24. 24 III. Vivace 01:50
    Track
    24
    Title
    III. Vivace
    Duration
    01:50
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  25. 25 I. Andate 02:16
    Track
    25
    Title
    I. Andate
    Duration
    02:16
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  26. 26 II. Adagio 01:46
    Track
    26
    Title
    II. Adagio
    Duration
    01:46
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca
  27. 27 III. Vivace 01:48
    Track
    27
    Title
    III. Vivace
    Duration
    01:48
    Composer
    Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
    Ensemble
    Epoca Barocca