DDD Absolutely Digital CDR 90000 030 FIRST TIME ON CD PADRE ANTONIO SOLER (1729-1783) QUINTETS FOR HARPSICHORD & STRINGS Quintet No. 4 in A Minor (23:39) 1 I. Allegretto (6:13) 2 II. Minuetto I & II (2:49) 3 III. Allegro assai (5:40) 4 IV. Minuetto con variazioni (8:48) Quintet No. 5 in D Major (28:30) 5 I. Cantabile (6:59) 6 II. Allegro Presto (5:48) 7 III. Minuetto & Quartetto (5:23) 8 IV. Rondo. Allegretto (10:11) Quintet No. 6 in G Minor (22:27) 9 I. Andante (4:55) 10 II. Minuetto (6:37) 11 III. Rondo. Andante con moto (10:48) David Schrader, harpsichord Chicago Baroque Ensemble TT: (74:57) Cedille Records is a trademark of The Chicago Classical Recording Foundation, a not- for-profit foundation devoted to promoting the finest musicians and ensembles in the Chicago area. The Chicago Classical Recording Foundation’s activities are partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. The Keyboard Quintets of Soler Antonio Francisco Javier Jose Soler still recognized as valid, it is well to note y Ramos was baptized on December that the modulations were considered 3, 1729. Destined for a career in the radical enough in eighteenth century church, in 1736 he entered the choir Spain to elicit critical rebuttal, to which school of the great Catalan monastery Soler himself responded with a 1765 of Montserrat, where he studied with tract entitled Satisfacción a los reparos the monastery’s Maestro, Benito Esteve, precisos (reply to specific objections). and its organist, Benito Valls. After Like Domenico Scarlatti, Soler also becoming Maestro de Capilla, or Music enjoyed the patronage of a member of Director, at Lerida circa 1750, Soler was the royal family: Prince Gabriel, the son ordained to the subdiaconate in 1752. of Charles III. Soler wrote many of his He entered the Hieronimite monastery solo keyboard sonatas for the prince, at El Escorial, the large palace and col- who was also quite likely the inspiration lege cum monastery established a cen- for Soler’s six concerti for two organs tury and a half earlier by King Philip II, and his six quintets for keyboard and taking the habit on September 25, 1752. strings. Soler became Maestro de Capilla at El Escorial in 1757, upon the death of the The source for Soler’s quintets for key- incumbent maestro, the redoubtable board and string quartet is a manuscript Domenico Scarlatti. The monastery’s found in the archive for the Maestria de extant records, or actos capitulares, note Capilla, or Music Directorship, at the that Soler had an excellent command of Escorial. It consists of five notebooks Latin, organ playing, and musical com- which in turn give us the full scores position; his conduct and application to and the individual string parts for the his discipline were said to have been quintets. The score for the first quintet exemplary. is inscribed: Soler is known for his theoretical writ- Obra primera ings, which, in addition to the famous Quinteto primera con violinos, Llave de le modulacion (key to modu- viola, violoncelo y organo o clave lation) of 1762, even include a treatise obligado. on the conversion rates between Cata- Para la Real camara del Serenis- lan and Castilian currencies. While the simo Señor Infante Don Gabriel principles contained in the Llave are Compuesta i dedicada a su Alte- za Real por el Fray Antonio Soler. side of Spain. Ano 1776. The keyboard parts are composed in (First work, first quintet with vio- a style similar to that of Soler’s sona- lins, viola, violoncello and obbli- tas for solo keyboard. The cleverness, gato organ or [other] keyboard. elegance, and mercurial virtuosity of For the royal chamber of the Most those sonatas are encountered in the Serene Lord Prince Gabriel, com- quintets as well. The keyboard parts posed and dedicated to His Royal of the quintets heard on this record- Highness by Father Antonio Soler ing abound with the rapid-fire orna- in the year 1776.) mentation and the minute detail that Although Soler is primarily identified typify Soler’s keyboard style. Although with the baroque tradition, his incipient this recording employs a harpsichord, classical bent is well favored in these the title page also suggests the use of remarkable quintets. Like many of Sol- a chamber organ. The organ, accord- er’s later sonatas for solo keyboard, the ing to indications given in the score, quintets are multi-movement pieces. seems to have had two keyboards (or While Soler does not follow the stan- at least some sort of mechanical device dard sequence of movements employed capable of producing echo effects) and by Viennese classicists of the time, the several different registers such as regals character of the music itself is largely (“buzzy,” short-resonator reeds) and a reflective of the esthetic of the latter “flautado,” or principal register. part of the eighteenth century. Although The Fourth Quintet, in A Minor, is com- this is not confirmed, scholars believe posed in four movements: Allegretto, that Soler had some familiarity with the Minuetto I and II, Allegro assai, and work of Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805), a concluding Minuetto con variazioni. who lived in Madrid from 1769 to 1785, The first movement employs an agile after having spent his formative years theme first heard in the strings—a in Vienna in the late 1750’s and 1760’s. downward scale with quick trills. This This would offer a precedent for the idea is expanded upon throughout a skillful string quartet writing found in sizable opening “tutti,” as it were, and Soler’s quintets. The imaginativeness is then taken up by the keyboard. The of Soler’s writing often defies contem- strings and keyboard act in dialogue porary parallels, however, suggesting joining forces only occasionally to pro- that Soler may have conceived these duce a movement that, while meeting quintets with only the most superficial the harmonic requirements of classical knowledge of classical traditions out- sonata form, does not develop its the- matic material in the way that is cus- sonatas. The tempo is very quick—the tomarily associated with that form. The passages for strings alone are often first Minuetto is played by the strings; punctuated by vigorous and percus- the second by the keyboard alone.The sive triple-stops for all four players (no, musical language of the Allegro assai is this does NOT add up to composition largely reminiscent of the solo sonatas in twelve notes!), and the keyboard is of Scarlatti and Soler. The movement heard chiefly in contrast to the strings, is intense and dancelike, composed in again reminiscent of concerto writing. 3/8 time. Again, classical form is not The next movement, a Minuetto (how really fully developed—the ideas found did you guess?), suggests the sound of in the opening section, played by the folk instruments because of the drones strings alone, are worked out using the played by the viola and ’cello. The con- late baroque practice of “spinning out,” trasting section that follows is not called rather than in the mature classical man- a second Minuetto or a Trio, but a Quar- ner. The final Minuetto and its variations tetto, in which the ’cello is not heard. feature various combinations of string The keyboard and the first violin play a instruments by themselves, sometimes dialogue accompanied by the delicate incorporating highly virtuosic material pizzicati of the second violin and the into their texture. The keyboard is heard viola. The work concludes with a Rondo by itself as well as in dialogue and in and variations. concert with the strings. The Quintet in G Minor operates on The Fifth Quintet, in D Major, begins two very distinct ideas: a lyrical theme with another massive section played is developed in the strings is answered by the strings. The texture then chang- by a surprising change in tempo and es with the entrance of the keyboard, character when the keyboard enters. which initiates a wonderful, sonata-like The contrast of muted and unmuted dialogue with the muted first violin. strings is used as in the fifth quintet. This pattern of alternating solo (key- These two contrasting ideas work out to board and first violin) and tutti sections a beautifully symmetrical form—slow- forms a delicate chain of ritornello and fast-slow-fast-slow, with the keyboard solo passages that calls to mind concerti entering only during fast sections, and of the middle of the eighteenth century. then joining with the strings to end the With the following Allegro presto, the movement. The next movement consists hearer is once again reminded of the of a Minuetto in dialogue between the sounds and style of Soler’s keyboard strings and keyboard and a Quartetto, this time for the strings alone. The final abandoned in favor of the devices that movement is a gracious Rondo with seemed to work so well in numbers four, twelve variations—the instruments are five, and six? In any event, the last three heard in a wide variety of combinations, Quintets all contain elements that are ultimately joining together to replay the typical of concerti written during the theme in its initial form. 1760s and 70s—all in Soler’s unique and The fourth, fifth, and sixth Quintets are curious language that unites the musi- formally not quite as diverse as the first cal characteristics of Spanish folk music three—there is no use of the “intento,” with the more rarified atmosphere of or fugue in the last three. The keyboard the court. writing is gracious, but not as virtuo- One note regarding repeats: All are sic as in the C Major (no.