Graupner : Concerti e Musica di Tavola

Description

Graupner, along with Stölzel, Fasch, Heinichen, and Zelenka, among others, was one of the major composers of Bach’s and Telemann’s generation. In his youth he had the opportunity to meet the latter and work with him, and his style, especially his instrumental style, was forever marked by it. Following the defection in 1729 of the musician in charge of instrumental music, he began composing 80 orchestral suites, 44 concertos, 50 harpsichord suites, 112 symphonies, and other chamber music pieces, after the 1,400 cantatas, operas, and other vocal works created since his appointment in 1709, total blindness alone bringing his work as a composer to an end in 1754. It is from this fabulous body of work that the 4 concertos and the suite recorded here now reemerge, in the sumptuous colors lent to them by the Accademia Daniel led by harpsichordist Shalev Ad-El. If the concertos for oboe d’amore, and the one for bassoon, irresistibly evoke Telemann, it is all of the latter’s lyricism and expressiveness that we find intact in the violin concerto, with its overblown finale, modeled on those of the Hamburg master. The “Musique de Table” is a French-style suite, where after an astonishingly solemn overture that brings us back to Corelli’s world, “gallantries” with alternately French and Italian titles parade before our delighted ears, sonic counterparts to the paintings of Watteau or Pater. Another superb success for this rising young ensemble. (Jean-Michel Babin-Goasdoué)