Violin* — * SUITES for SOLO VIOLIN (1656-1705) PAUL JOHANN VON WESTHOFF
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1 MENU — TRACKLIST P. 4 ENGLISH P. 5 FRANÇAIS P. 11 DEUTSCH P. 17 2 Recording: Mülheim, Martinskirche, September 2019 Artistic direction, recording & editing: Daniel Comploi Assitenz: Matthias Müller Executive producer: Jérôme Lejeune Booklet cover: Plamena Nikitassova © Taschko Tascheff Acknowledgements Victor Fritz Plamena Nikitassova: Nikitassova: Plamena — * SUITES FOR SOLO VIOLIN SOLO FOR SUITES (1656-1705) WESTHOFF VON JOHANN PAUL https://nikitassova.com violin* 3 MENU EN FR DE Suite II in A-Dur Suite IV in C-Dur 1. Allemande 3:57 18. Allemande 2:34 2. Courante 1:42 19. Courante 1:49 3. Sarabande 1:54 20. Sarabande 1:19 4. Gigue 1:53 21. Gigue 2:22 Suite V in d-Moll Suite III in B-Dur 5. Allemande 3:21 22. Allemande 2:49 6. Courante 1:35 23. Courante 1:58 7. Sarabande 2:05 24. Sarabande 1:50 8. Gigue – Autre Gigue 1:51 25. Gigue 2:27 Suite pour le Violon sans Basse Continu 4 in A-Dur 9. Prelude 2:25 10. Allemande 2:48 11. Courante 2:05 12. Sarabande 2:40 Instrument: 13. Gigue 2:27 Sebastian Klotz (1696-1775), Mittenwald, ca 1730 Suite I in a-Moll Pitch: 466 Hz. 14. Allemande 3:07 15. Courante 2:20 Sources 16. Sarabande 2:00 1-8, 14-25: Sechs Suiten für Violino solo, 1696 17. Gigue 1:26 9-13: Mercure Galant, Paris 1683 JOHANN PAUL VON WESTHOFF – DE SUITES FOR SOLO VIOLIN — FR From the viewpoint of music history, the 17th century was an era of innovation at a fundamental level and of radical change; these transformations created not only harmonic EN tonality but also almost all of the musical genres that have remained current to the present day. When we bear in mind the invention of monody (a solo vocal line accompanied by chords) and the development of opera, of oratorio and of the cantata, it is easy to forget that the 17th century also saw the beginnings of instrumental music in its own right. The arrival of the basso MENU continuo brought about an astonishingly rapid emancipation of instruments from their role as either reinforcement or complement to the vocal lines in polyphonic music; both players and composers were stimulated to explore the instruments’ individual possibilities. In the case of the violin, this situation led to particularly spectacular results. Seemingly out of nowhere, 5 Italian violinists began to investigate the possibilities of double and triple stopping as early as the 1620s, they developed refined bowing techniques and they also explored the higher regions of the fingerboard. From the middle years of the century, after the end of the Thirty Years’ War, these innovations were taken up as a matter of priority by German musicians and incorporated into a virtuoso technique that is as astonishing today as it was then. TheSonatae unarum fidium by the Viennese court musician Johann Heinrich Schmelzer that appeared in Nuremberg in 1664 marked the beginning of a genre that would reach its apogee in Johann Sebastian Bach’s six sonatas and partitas for solo violin in 1720. TheSuites by Johann Paul Westhoff, chamber musician to the Saxon Elector, engraved on copper plate in Dresden in 1696, mark an important stage in this development. The small amount of information available on Westhoff’s life — the principal source is an article in the Musicalischen Lexicon (1732), as indispensable today as it was then, by Johann Gottfried Walther; this article was clearly based on first-hand accounts. The dates given in this article allow us to trace the contours of an eventful and adventurous life. Johann Paul Westhoff was born in 1656 in Dresden, the son of the lutenist and trombonist Friedrich Westhoff ca( 1611–1694); his father was originally from Lübeck and had moved to Dresden after a short period of employment as captain of horse in the Swedish Army. Nothing is known about Johann Paul Westhoff’s musical education, although we can assume that he received this from his father and possibly also from other musicians of the Dresden court. He clearly also possessed an unusual gift for the Romance languages (French, Italian and Spanish), and his mastery of them must have served him well on his later journeys. Walther tells of Westhoff’s employment as language teacher to the Saxon Electoral princes, although his dates here seem to be in error: Westhoff would have been only 15 in the year 1671, at which time his two pupils, the princes Johann Georg and Friedrich August, were still infants. His teaching of them most probably took place between 1685 and 1690. Westhoff set out on his first extended journey at the age of 18 in 1674, travelling to Lübeck where his father had been born. The renowned 6 organist Dietrich Buxtehude was resident there, who had won fame throughout Germany with his renowned Abendmusiken. It is possible that Westhoff himself took part in some of these concerts as violinist, and that he began to look around for attractive employment in the city. This may well have been the sign that caused the Elector Johann Georg II to recall the young Westhoff to Dresden and to offer him a position as chamber musician there. Westhoff interrupted his employment in Dresden after some five years — Walther gives the year as 1679 although, bearing our comments above in mind, 1680 is a more probable date. A virulent strain of the plague broke out in Vienna in 1679, which then made its inexorable way north. The first cases of the disease in Saxony were registered in the spring of 1680 and it was predicted that the epidemic would soon reach Dresden. Westhoff gave this danger as his reason to leave the city; once again his travels took him to the north. After the end of the Scanian War between Sweden and Denmark in July 1679, preparations were made in Copenhagen and Stockholm for the wedding between king Charles IX of Sweden and princess Ulrike Eleonore of Denmark. Westhoff travelled in the bride’s retinue to Stockholm; a manuscript in his own hand of a sonata that he composed there gives the impression that he made appearances there as a virtuoso violinist. He subsequently visited the province of Livonia — modern Estonia and Latvia — that was then under Swedish rule before returning home. He found, however, that circumstances in Dresden had changed radically during his absence. The Elector Johann Georg II, Westhoff’s patron, had died on 22 August 1680; his son, Johann Georg III, then dismissed the majority of the court musicians shortly afterwards. Westhoff then joined the personal guard of the imperial general von Schultz as standard bearer; von Schultz intended to take part in the campaigns against the Turks as they made their way northwards. The new Elector, however, recalled Westhoff unexpectedly and graciously granted him a leave of absence for an “extended journey through Italy and France, where he made the acquaintance not only of the most renowned and learned people and virtuosi, but also of the Grand Duke of Florence; kings of France also presented him with valuable gifts, as also occurred at the imperial court in 1684, when he was presented with a golden chain”. Few details 7 have survived of these journeys, which were most probably connected to diplomatic missions for the Dresden court, with the exception of his visit to Paris. TheMercure galant, the leading French periodical of its day, published two works by Westhoff — aSonata violino solo col suo basso continuo and a Suite pour le Violon seul sans Basse continu in December 1682 and January 1683 respectively. The accompanying article states that Westhoff had played the first of these pieces for Louis XIV, who marvelled at the German musician’s talent and who gave the title La Guerre to the virtuoso seventh movement of the suite. We can also deduce from this article that Walther’s account of the progress of Westhoff’s travels is not completely accurate. TheMercure galant stated that Westhoff had visited Paris on his return journey from London and that he planned subsequently to set out once more for Italy. A command from the Elector Johann Georg III, who wanted Westhoff to be in Dresden during Carnival, compelled him to return to Dresden in January 1683. His visit to the imperial court in Vienna was therefore a second undertaking, a third being the journey that Walther describes, to Holland, England, lower Germany, Brabant and Flanders. Westhoff’s travels came to an end in 1685, when he married the eldest daughter of Bernhard Schmied, the Archdeacon of Dresden. He had also by this time taken up a position as language tutor to the Electoral princes, most probably to prepare them for their Grand Tour. Despite two changes of government, these had been quiet years in Dresden; these were soon disturbed, however, by rumours that the Elector Friedrich August (August the Strong), who had come to power in 1694 after the death of his elder brother Johann Georg IV, was intending to convert to Catholicism in order to become king of Poland. When this indeed took place in the summer of 1697, the fervently Lutheran Westhoff decided to turn his back on the Saxon court. His knowledge of foreign languages now came to his aid and enabled him to become a professor at the university of Wittenberg. He did not, however, seem to feel at home in the academic sphere; the duke Wilhelm Ernst zu Sachsen-Weimar soon 8 appointed him to his court orchestra and granted him the title of secretary to his chambers. Westhoff may well have made the acquaintance of the young Johann Sebastian Bach in Weimar during 1702-1703, when Bach served there for half a year as a Laquai, a member of the court orchestra without any fixed duties.