p h o La Cetra Barockorchester Basel t o : M e David Plantier *, first violin (leader) i n r a Plamena Nikitassova, Helena Zermanová, Dorina Mangra, first violins d S c Lenka Koubková, Roberto Falcone, Christoph Rudolf, second violins h w e Salome Janner, Andreas Torgersen, violas i z e r Katharina Gohl Moser, Maya Amrein, cellos Ludek Bran y´, violone Katharina Arfken*, Maike Buhrow, oboes Eckhard Lenzing*, bassoon Václav Luks, harpsichord Evangelina Mascardi, theorbo David Plantier & Václav Luks, direction * soloists 5 A co-production of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis - University of Early Music at the Musik-Akademie Basel with wdr 3 Recorded in the Katholische Kirche Seewen (Solothurn, Switzerland) in September 2002 Engineered by Tritonus Musikproduktion GmbH, Stuttgart (Germany) Recording producer, balance engineer, editing: Andreas Neubronner Executive producer & editorial director ( scb ): Thomas Drescher Executive producer (La Cetra): Meinrad Schweizer All texts and translations (except Spanish) © 2004 Harmonia Mundi France / Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Design: Valentín Iglesias Executive producer & editorial director (Gloss a/ MusiContact): Carlos Céster Editorial assistance: María Díaz © 2011 MusiContact GmbH Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello (1690-1758) 18-20 Sinfonia in D major (ré majeur / D-Dur / re mayor) for 2 violins, viola and basso continuo Concerti, Sinfonie, Ouverture 18 Allegro 1:52 19 Adagio 0:44 20 Presto 3:17 Concerti et Sinphonie op. 1 no. 1. Amsterdam, 1738 5 21-23 Concerto in Bb major (si bémol majeur / B-Dur / si bemol mayor) 1-3 Sinfonia in F major (fa majeur / F-Dur / fa mayor) for violin, bassoon, strings and basso continuo for 2 violins, viola and basso continuo 21 Allegro 3:52 22 Adagio 4:17 23 Allegro 2:35 1 Allegro 2:26 2 Adagio 2:36 3 Presto 2:42 Wiesentheid, Musiksammlung des Grafen von Schönborn-Wiesentheid, Ms 445 Concerti et Sinphonie op. 1 no. 5. Amsterdam, 1738 24 Chaconne in A major (la majeur / A-Dur / la mayor) 5:33 4-6 Concerto in G minor (sol mineur / g-Moll / sol menor) for 2 violins, 2 violas and basso continuo for violin, oboe, strings and basso continuo Universitätsbibliothek Rostock, Musica saec. xviii . 9/2 4 Allegro 3:20 5 Grave 2:14 6 Allegro 4:34 Wiesentheid, Musiksammlung des Grafen von Schönborn-Wiesentheid, Ms 446 5 7-9 Concerto in E minor (mi mineur / e-Moll / mi menor) Edition and performing materials by Eckhard Lenzing for violin, strings and basso continuo 7 Allegro 2:53 8 Adagio: Piano e staccato 2:15 9 Allegro 2:35 Schola Cantorum Basiliensis - University of Early Music at the Musik-Akademie Basel Concerti et Sinphonie op. 1 no. 4. Amsterdam, 1738 Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz ( fhnw ) www.scb-basel.ch 10-17 Ouverture in G minor (sol mineur / g-Moll / sol menor) Special thanks to Eckhard Lenzing for rediscovering the music and for providing the performance material. for 2 oboes, 2 violins, viola and basso continuo We would also like to thank the libraries that preserve in their collections the works recorded here for their kind permission to make use of them. 10 Ouverture - Fuga 3:31 11 Gavotte 1:15 12 Aria: Presto 1:38 13 Rondeau 1:39 14 Aria: Siciliana adagio 2:43 15 Aria 2:34 16 Rigaudon 1:37 17 Gigue 1:39 La Cetra Barockorchester Basel would like to express its heartfelt thanks to the Universitätsbibliothek Rostock, Musica saec. xviii . 9/4 Trafina Privatbank ag and the Sophie and Karl Binding Foundation. 4 5 English English left their mark on music particularly in the German- charge of a large court orchestra with occasionally The outer movements are distinguished by elegantly speaking areas. over sixty musicians. Following the death of the sov - virtuoso treatment of the solo instruments. Little of Brescianello’s oeuvre has come down to ereign Karl Alexander in 1737, the court’s finances Particularly noteworthy, however, are the slow us. Although the “opera pastorale” Tisbe (1718) is were in such a catastrophic state that the orchestra movements with their rich melodies and exciting known, his preserved works are primarily instrumen - was reduced to just a few musicians, and Brescianello harmonic turns. The Concerto in G minor for violin tal chamber music and orchestral works, with the lost his post. Only in 1744, when Karl Eugen assumed and oboe additionally contains written-out cadenzas Concerti et Sinphonie, op. 1 (Amsterdam, 1738) standing the throne, was Brescianello again appointed to his for both solo instruments. The sinfonias of 1738 are out as the only published edition. Brescianello’s com - former position, from which he finally retired in early examples of the large subsequent form, and positions are, as this recording hopes to show, by no 1751. He remained in Stuttgart, dying there in 1758. serve at this stage above all as vehicles for brilliant means merely mass-produced goods from the first Brescianello lived and worked in an epoch of orchestra playing. G. B. Brescianello half of the eighteenth century. On the contrary, they great musical productivity and continual musical In the Ouverture in G minor , Brescianello shows, prove to be an interesting mixture of older and newer change that was held in constant motion by a lively quite untypically for a composer of Italian origin, Concerti, Sinfonie, Ouverture elements, of Italian and French tradition, full of international exchange of personnel and repertoire. complete mastery of the French orchestral language melodic elegance and rhythmic vitality, and endowed Corelli and Vivaldi supplied the models for count - in the tradition of its German proponents Johann with a special feeling for orchestral timbre. less concertos. In addition, the opera cultures of Sigismund Kusser, Philipp Heinrich Erlebach and – Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello (1690-1758), Individual turns of phrase even seem to give the lis - France and Italy gave important impulses for the last but not least – Johann Sebastian Bach. The Württemberg court Kapellmeister for many years, was tener a glimpse of the new musical language of the new instrument “orchestra”, both through the sinfo - Chaconne in A major , finally, is a wonderful represen - an only slightly younger contemporary of Georg mid-eighteenth century. nia , the tripartite opening piece of the Italian opera tative of that extended ostinato work for larger for - Philipp Telemann, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Nothing is known of Brescianello’s origin or (lastingly influenced by Pietro Antonio Locatelli’s mations, providing a veritable display of fireworks Frideric Handel, and Jean Philippe Rameau. Antonio training. In 1715 he went to Munich from Venice to Introduttioni teatrali of 1735), as well as through the in its instrumental effects. In the well-thought-out Vivaldi was born half a generation before, and Johann enter the service of the Bavarian prince elector Max overture followed by dance movements, an instru - disposition and careful treatment of the inner voic - Adolf Hasse, perhaps the most popular opera com - Emanuel as a violinist, but left there already in 1716 mental style derived from the French tragédie es, Brescianello additionally shows an intrinsic rela - poser of the eighteenth century, nine years after him. for the Württemberg court of Duke Eberhard lyrique . During the first decades of the eighteenth tionship to Georg Muffat’s large Passacaglia from These illustrious names give an idea of the incompa - Ludwig in Stuttgart, where in 1717, as musique century it was uncertain, above all in Germany, Sonata v of Armonico Tributo of 1682, or to its later rable fertility and of the rapid development of musi - directeur, maître des concerts de la chambre , he succeeded which of the two forms would assert itself as the version of 1701. cal culture during the first half of the eighteenth cen - Johann Christoph Pez in the office of court most important orchestral genre. The aural impression of Brescianello’s orches - tury, at the beginning of which Arcangelo Corelli Kapellmeister . During the years 1719-1721, Reinhard Brescianello, active in southwestern Germany tral music, notable for its sensitivity to timbre, published his violin sonatas and concerti grossi , and at Keiser attempted determinedly, but unsuccessfully, at a geographic and cultural vertex, was confronted speaks for itself; it demands a revision of the rather whose end Joseph Haydn composed his first works. to oust the “damned Italian” from his position. Only with both traditions, and able to express himself elo - cursory judgement passed on it by music historians In an international music scene, Brescianello in 1731 did Brescianello receive the title of Rath und quently in both. His concertos clearly display touch - until now. With his secure mastery of various belonged to that large group of Italian musicians who Oberkapellmeister . At that time he was successfully in es of the Venetian tradition influenced by Vivaldi. European musical languages, the Italian Brescianello 6 7 English shows himself to be an interesting representative of Jacobs and Gustav Leonhard) or with direct chamber music the “mixed” German taste in music at the time of interaction. In 2009 Andrea Marcon was appointed the orches - Bach and Telemann. tra’s artistic director. Ultimately, all efforts serve only a single purpose: to bring to life the music of yesteryear for the people Thomas Drescher of today – in vital, thrilling, and up-to-date interpretations. Translation: Howard Weiner [www.lacetra.ch] Since its creation in 1933, the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (SCB) and its working philosophy have lost nothing of their La Cetra Barockorchester Basel was founded in Basel in 1999. topicality. Founded by Paul Sacher and close colleagues in The name of the orchestra is taken from the title of Antonio Basel, Switzerland, this University of Early Music (since 2008 Vivaldi’s opus 9, a collection of violin concertos from 1727. part of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern “La Cetra” refers to the mythical lyre of the ancient singers, Switzerland) remains to this day unique in numerous respects.