Entre ciel et terre Johann Georg Albrechtsberger Quatuor Mosaïques Ensemble Baroque de Limoges Christophe Coin Albin Paulus, Jew’s harp PARENTHÈSES ENTRE CIEL ET TERRE JOHANN GEORG ALBRECHTSBERGER (1736 – 1809) Concerto per trombula e viola (da gamba), Divertimento a tre con viola, violoncello e violone, FA / F (1767) due violini, viola e basso con sordini, MI / E (1771) 10. Allegro moderato 03’23 1. Tempo moderato 05’10 11. Menuet 02’32 2. Adagio 05’25 12. Finale (presto) 02’30 3. Finale (tempo di menuet) 06’05 Pierre Franck : alto, Mathias Hornsteiner, Mittenwald, ca. 1760 Albin Paulus : trombula (guimbarde, jew’s harp, maultrommel, scaccia pensieri), Christophe Coin : violoncelle, Jacob Petz, Vils, 1796 Josef Jofen, Molln, 2003 – 2007 David Sinclair : violone, Johann Christoph Leidolff, Wien, 1729 Christophe Coin : viole de gambe alto, Anon., Bohême ?, fin 17e s. Ensemble Baroque de Limoges Andrés Gabetta : violon, Jean-Nicolas Lambert, Paris, ca. 1750 Sonata per due violini, due viole, due violoncelli (violone), ré / d (s.d.) Matyas Bartha : violon, id. 13. Adagio 03’29 Pierre Franck : alto, id. 14. Fuga 03’15 Denis Severin : violoncelle, id. David Sinclair : violone, Johann Christoph Leidolff, Wien, 1729 Ensemble Baroque de Limoges : sextuor de J.N. Lambert, Paris, ca. 1750 Margret Köll : harpe modèle Cousineau, fin 18e s., Beat Wolf, Schaffhausen, 1992 Andrés Gabetta, Matyas Bartha, Pierre Franck, Liana Mosca, Christophe Coin, Denis Severin, David Sinclair : violone, Johann Christoph Leidolff, Wien, 1729 Divertimento a tre con violino piccolo, violino secondo e viola, FA / F (1759) Andante ma non troppo 03’35 4. Partita per viola d’amore, flauto e violone, RÉ / D (1773) 5. Menuet 02’31 15. Adagio 04’08 6. Scherzo 01’47 16. Menuetto 04’00 7. Finale 01’23 17. Finale (allegro assai) 03’22 Erich Höbarth : violon piccolo, Martin Petz, Wien, 2e moitié 18e s. Andrea Bischof : violon, Franz Geissenhof, Wien, 1806 Liana Mosca : viole d’amour, Georg Aman, Augsburg, 1734 Anita Mitterer : alto, Franz Geissenhof, Wien, 1797 Maria Tecla Andreotti : flûte, Lorenzo Cerino, Torino, ca. 1770 David Sinclair : violone, Johann Christoph Leidolff, Wien, 1729 Sonata per violino, viola e violoncello, op. 11 n° 1, do / c (1794) 8. Andante un poco 03’30 Sonata II a due cori, SOL / G (1799) 9. Fuga (Allegretto) 03’14 18. Andante grazioso 02’41 Andrea Bischof : violon, Franz Geissenhof, Wien, 1806 19. Fuga (Allegro) 03’32 Anita Mitterer : alto, Franz Geissenhof, Wien, 1797 Quatuor Mosaïques : quatuor Franz Geissenhof, Wien Christophe Coin : violoncelle, Franz Geissenhof, Wien, 1794 Erich Höbarth, Andrea Bischof, Anita Mitterer, Christophe Coin Quatuor EBL : quatuor Jean-Nicolas Lambert, Paris Andrés Gabetta, Liana Mosca, Pierre Franck, Denis Severin Total timing : 65’40 Total 2/23 Between heaven and earth, at the console of the great organ of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna Between heaven and earth, Albrechtsberger explores all the registers, from the very high to the very low, as here, from the violin piccolo to the double bass Between heaven and earth, workaday and occasional inspirational pieces (church sonatas, adagios and fugues), to divertimentos in gallant style so appreciated by the audience of that time. Christophe Coin Leopold Kupelwieser : Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, oil on canvas Albrechtsberger, Johann Georg Kupelwieser : Leopold Wien © Sammlungen der Gesellschaft in der Musikfreunde 3/23 Johann Georg Albrechtsberger Johann Georg Albrechtsberger was born in 1736 Johann Georg Albrechtsberger died in Vienna Dr. Otto Biba in Klosterneuburg, a town located northwest of on 7 March 1809, barely three months before his Translated by Howard Wiener Vienna. He began his musical career as an organist, childhood friend Joseph Haydn. and as such always had to compose for sacred as On the basis of this biography, it would be wrong “Vienna may regard Mr. Albrechtsberger, director well as secular purposes. By 1759 he had already to assume that Albrechtsberger was primarily of music at the archiepiscopal church here, become monastery organist of the Benedictine bound to church music. It indeed secured him his perhaps the best organ player in the world, and Abbey at Melk in Lower Austria – a particularly livelihood, but already since his adolescence he certainly one of the most scholarly composers, as important and attractive position due to the its Sebastian Bach, and also reveres him as such.” fact that the imperial court was accustomed to Thus the judgement passed in 1808 by music stopping there overnight on its journeys. aesthetician and author Iganz von Mosel on the composer to whom this CD is devoted. Just a On the recommendation of Joseph and Michael few hours before his death, Wolfgang Amadeus Haydn, Albrechtsberger went to Vienna in 1765, Mozart made arrangements for Albrechtsberger again as organist, but also as “Clavier-Meister,” that is to succeed him as assistant Kapellmeister at to say, as a teacher for advanced piano instruction, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, because he was the only above all with an eye toward interpretation one Mozart considered worthy of this honor. And and composition. In 1772 Albrechtsberger was Joseph Haydn respected his judgement so highly appointed second court organist after Emperor that Albrechtsberger was the first person he told Joseph II had already grown to appreciate him in about his planned oratorio The Creation, and Melk, and after court chapel-master Johann Georg for whom he played the corresponding musical Reutter had taken positive notice of him when ideas. After Albrechtsberger’s death, Ludwig he played the organ part of a mass in G Major in van Beethoven remarked that there was now no G-Sharp Major on a low-pitched organ. As court longer a musical authority whom he trusted. It is organist, Albrechtsberger was responsible for all also telling that in 1798 Joseph Haydn, Antonio arising duties in church and secular music, solo and Salieri, and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger were in ensemble, on all sorts of keyboard instruments. the first foreigners honored with a membership Moreover, he retained the position of choir director in the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, just as at Vienna’s Carmelite Church until 1792. Albrechtsberger was mentioned time and again in His further career was nearly predestined: in 1792 contemporary sources alongside Haydn and Salieri first court organist, in 1793 cathedral chapel- (and until 1791 Mozart) as numbering among master, and with that the move from the court Vienna’s greatest musical celebrities. These few musical establishment to Vienna’s St. Stephen’s examples should suffice to show Albrechtsberger’s Cathedral. standing and the esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries. Engraving Engraving of J.G. Albrechtsberger, by Johann Library Public Gottfried Riedel, 1724-1784. © New-York Gottlieb Friedrich Scheffner, 1765-1825 (engraver) after, 4/23 had also composed instrumental and secular vocal Albrechtsberger’s compositional style corresponds for this recording – were adapted for the particular music, and in Vienna he was just as active in public in all details to that of the so-called Viennese space conditions of the musical gallery found then musical life as in the semipublic life of the musical Classicism. He took the formal standard of the pre- in the chapel of Vienna’s Hofburg, which virtually salons. He frequented and made music in the same classical period as his starting point, developed invited double-choir performance. Like the Italian salons as Mozart (for example, in that of Franz it further in a personal manner, and ultimately Baroque church sonatas, the Viennese classical Cajetan Ployer) and Joseph Haydn (for example, represented the highest maxims of the Classical church sonatas have their roots in the liturgical use in those of Franz Bernhard von Keess and Peter style. On the present recording, one can easily of music during the Gradual of the solemn High and Marianne von Genzinger). As a final example follow this path from the Divertimento with violin Mass, but they also found their way into secular of Albrechtsberger’s integration in the Viennese piccolo through the Divertimento à tre and the music. In an anonymous travel report from Vienna, musical scene, mention should be made of the Partita of 1773, to the Andante grazioso of the published in 1800, we read: concerts of the Vienna Tonkünstlersozietät (Society Sonata à due cori from 1799. Albrechtsberger had of Musical Artists). It was for this benevolent more opportunities than Haydn and Mozart – thus association that Haydn composed the oratorio Il the above-cited comparison with Johann Sebastian Ritorno di Tobia in 1775, Salieri La Passione de Giesù Bach – to realize the particular character of Viennese Christo in 1777, Albrechtsberger Die Pilgrime auf Classicism: on the one hand, the composers were Golgatha in 1781, and Mozart Davidde penitente in challenged to quickly further develop themselves 1785. with continually new ideas, and in any case to always be “modern.” On the other hand, the time- In spite of the newly awakened interest in honored fugue technique was still considered the Albrechtsberger’s works in recent years, he is still highest criterion of compositional skill. On many known in wide circles merely as Beethoven’s teacher. ceremonial occasions, sacred as well as secular, Indeed, this short sketch of Albrechtsberger’s fugues were prescribed for the musical program as position and importance would be incomplete if the musical symbol of timeless validity; moreover, one were not to mention that he was a sought- listening to fugues and being able to follow the after composition teacher, and that with his compositional work was considered a very special treatise Gründliche Anweisung zur Composition pleasure. This was primarily true of fugues, but (“Thorough Instruction in Composition”), first also of the stile antico in general. Like no other published in 1790, and his posthumously issued composer of his epoch (and as the last in a long collected writings, Sämtliche Schriften über line), Albrechtsberger composed two-movement Generalbaß, Harmonie-Lehre und Tonsetzkunst, he church sonatas in the Viennese tradition, that is influenced at least two generations of composers.