Rebecca Troxler P la y S F L u t e M u S i c B y S o n S o F B A c h Acknowledgments Producer: Kevin Ryan CD 1: Dwight Robinette recording engineer Editing: Rebecca Troxler and Kevin Ryan Recorded in Baldwin Auditorium, Duke University Mastered by Jonathan Wyner, M Works Studios, Cambridge, Massachusetts CD2: Christopher Greenleaf recording engineer Editing: Rebecca Troxler and Andrew Willis Recorded in the Organ Recital Hall, UNC-Greensboro Mastered by Jonathan Wyner, M Works Studios, Cambridge, Massachusetts Cover art: Allan Troxler Special thanks to Jane Hawkins and Scott Lindroth for all their support at Duke University, and to Jonathan Wyner for his remarkable mastering. Dedicated in loving memory of Grace Ann Krumdieck (October 13, 1998-December 28, 2013) www.albanyrecords.com TROY1490/91 albany records u.s. 915 broadway, albany, ny 12207 tel: 518.436.8814 fax: 518.436.0643 albany records u.k. box 137, kendal, cumbria la8 0xd tel: 01539 824008 with David Schulenberg fortepiano Brent Wissick cello © 2014 albany records made in the usa ddd waRning: cOpyrighT subsisTs in all Recordings issued undeR This label. Steven Lubin fortepiano Gesa Kordes viola Sandra Miller classical flute Barbara Blaker Krumdieck cello Andrew Willis fortepiano The Music In 1740 or 1741 Emanuel became court keyboardist to King Frederick “the Great” of Prussia, serving him in Berlin and Potsdam until 1767. He probably helped Friedrich gain his own court position, for in 1749 the cD1 latter became chamber musician to Count Wilhelm of Schaumburg-Lippe, a political ally of King Frederick. The five works on the first compact disc are by two of the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach, and all but one are Friedrich remained at Count Wilhelm’s court of Bückeburg in northwest Germany for the rest of his life. His examples of what were known at the time as trios. Yet they are a diverse group, reflecting not only the distinct only significant travel was in 1778 to visit Emanuel, who had moved to nearby Hamburg, and to London, styles of their two composers but also the various types of sonatas written by them and their contemporaries. where he left his son Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst to study with his uncle Johann Christian. Friedrich returned to Bückeburg with an English piano, and his music subsequently exploited the capabilities of the highly J. S. Bach had no fewer than five sons who became professional musicians; all were keyboard players, and regarded instruments then being made in England. four of them were composers. The oldest, Wilhelm Friedemann (1710–84), was a brilliant improviser who wrote down comparatively little music; the youngest, Johann Christian (1735–82), was a prolific composer The three compositions by Emanuel Bach recorded here all date from relatively early in his Berlin period, of symphonies, operas, and chamber music who exerted a decisive influence on the young Mozart. when he was making himself known as a brilliant player and composer primarily of keyboard sonatas and concertos. He had, however, been composing solo and trio sonatas for the flute since his student days in Between them came Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714–88) and Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732–95). They Leipzig. These were probably among the things that had brought him to the attention of King Frederick, who were actually half-brothers, for Emanuel’s mother, Maria Barbara Bach, died when he was just six, and he was an accomplished amateur flutist and composer. was brought up in part by Sebastian’s second wife (Friedrich’s mother) Anna Magdalena. Emanuel left the family home in Leipzig for university studies at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder barely two years after Friedrich was The best known of these three works is the sonata in A minor for unaccompanied flute (item 132 in Alfred born. But the two were on friendly terms later in life, exchanging letters and music. Wotquenne 1905 catalog of Emanuel’s compositions, still the standard means of identifying the composer’s works). It was composed at Berlin in 1747, the year of Sebastian’s famous visit to the court of King Frederick, Although all the Bach sons undoubtedly gained their most important training from their father, none which resulted in the Musical Offering. Music for unaccompanied flute was rare but not unheard of; in addition attempted to imitate his style. Sebastian appears to have encouraged each to strike out on his own and to to Sebastian’s partita in A minor, probably composed around 1720, Telemann—who was Emanuel’s godfather adopt music by younger and more fashionable composers as their models. —had published twelve fantasias during 1732–33. Emanuel’s is nevertheless the earliest known sonata for flute alone, and his only such work. By this date, however, he had composed at least nine sonatas for During a long career, Emanuel wrote more than a thousand works ranging from keyboard sonatas and flute and basso continuo (that is, a bass line for cello plus a partially improvised keyboard part). Whether concertos to songs (lieder) and sacred choral music. He is particularly known for his sometimes startlingly any of these were for the king is unknown; there were many other fine players of the instrument. original approach to harmony and rhythm. This is often manifested in dramatic pauses and other musical surprises, although he also composed delicate, expressively embellished melodies. Friedrich, who was Emanuel’s unaccompanied work is probably the longest of his twelve flute sonatas. It is certainly the never as well known as his brothers, nevertheless composed prolifically in virtually all the types of music most demanding, thanks to such details as the high F—rarely called for in eighteenth-century flute in which Emanuel and Christian were active. Often he appears to imitate one or the other of their quite music—near the beginning. Other challenges include concerto-style passagework or figuration in the quick distinct styles, sometimes adopting the expressive style of Emanuel and, especially after 1778, writing in movements and long, hard-to-breathe phrases throughout. Numerous wide leaps reflect the ingenious com- the more fluid if less striking manner of Christian. position of the single flute part to incorporate a bass line as well as the melody. Yet in other respects the work is in the form favored by King Frederick, whose flute teacher Quantz wrote hundreds of sonatas and Despite his close association with two of the century’s most famous flute players, Emanuel composed just concertos for the instrument. Thus it opens with a slow movement followed by two quick movements, both one work for two flutes and continuo. The trio in E (W. 162) dates from 1749; again it was composed at in a variety of sonata form. The first movement ends with an optional cadenza—surprising today, when we Potsdam, and again we do not know for whom it was written, although it too exists in the composer’s later associate cadenzas with the quick movements of a concerto. A short, elegantly expressive improvisation arrangement for keyboard and flute. The key is a difficult one on the eighteenth-century instrument, and was, however, expected here; both the king and Emanuel himself were famous for their performances of Emanuel must have expected it to be played by two accomplished flutists, perhaps in concerts sponsored slow movements, presumably including improvised cadenzas. by the fledgling musical societies (known as “academies”) that flourished at Berlin during this time. The sonata in D, W. 83, was one of four “trios” that Emanuel composed in the same year at Potsdam, In both of Emanuel’s trios, each movement opens with one soloist introducing the main theme, which is outside Berlin. That year, 1747, also saw completion of the royal palace there known as Sanssouci, where then imitated by the other. The style was probably inspired by duets that Emanuel would have heard in the the king retreated to play chamber music with a few select musicians, including Emanuel. Whether the Italian operas that his colleague Graun was composing at the time for the king’s newly established royal latter’s compositions of the year were related in any way to Sebastian’s Musical Offering, which includes a opera house. Opening movements in both works are conversational and discursive; each closes with a trio sonata, is unknown. more dance-like movement in binary form, that of the E-major trio being notable for its lively humor. Both trios are particularly notable for their slow second movements, which are in minor keys. The Adagio of the Our work, Emanuel’s eleventh trio, was originally composed for flute, violin, and basso continuo (in that form E-major trio is remarkable for its expressive harmony. Whereas the Largo of the D-major trio pauses at it is listed as W. 151). But it was customary for one of the two melody parts—here that of the violin—to be the end for the traditional cadenza—originally a joint improvisation by the two soloists—in the later work taken over by the keyboard player, who also continued to play the bass line. Thus the original trio—which Emanuel wrote out the final cadence, which follows a pause on an expressive dissonance. was actually for four players—could be performed by just two. That the composer authorized the arrangement is documented by a much later manuscript copy of the work that includes a title page in his own hand The two trios by Friedrich Bach show how the genre had developed two and three decades later in the declaring it a “Sonata for Flute and Cembalo.” hands of a composer belonging to the next generation.