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Contents:
DDD 53:33 – Recorded: Kirche Marthalen Switzerland, 13-15 October 2008 Kaspar Fritz (1716-1783) Six sonatas opus II Is there a musical rococo? When listening to the sonatas op.II by Kaspar Fritz one would tend to give an affirmative answer. In the way that “gallant” and “sensitive” elements balance each other within them, there is not a more suitable term to describe the musical style, which is prevalent here. In total contrast to this sensuous and worldly music there was the centuries-old tradition of psalm singing, which was almost the only musical activity allowed in Geneva, a town characterised by Calvinism, where Kaspar Fritz spent most of his life. Born in Geneva in 1716 as the son of a violinist immigrated from Celle – therefore his German surname -, he went to Turin in early years to study violin and composition under Giovanni Battista Somis, whose school also produced Gaetano Pugnani and Jean-Marie Leclair. Only one further stay abroad has been verified for the year 1756, when Fritz performed his own work in the Concerts Spirituels in Paris. Clearly the cultural climate in Geneva was not well-disposed towards his art, because quite significantly, Fritz dedicated his printed work (except for symphonies op. VI) to foreigners, who also established a modern concert and music system in Geneva. In particular, a circle of young music-loving English people came to the fore with the foundation of the Common Room of Geneva in 1740, which, next to theatric performances, finally also offered more space for musical performances. Fritz taught some of these young people and conducted the orchestra, which played in the Common Room. Members of the club popularised Fritz’ works abroad and reported in 1741 in two letters to their friends who had stayed behind in Geneva of the enthusiastic impressions Locatelli and Handel had received from this music. There is only little evidence of Fritz’ practical activities as a musician. Achilles Ryhiner-Delon (1731-1788), son of a Basel textile manufacturer and himself skilled on the violin, also visited Ghent on his grand tour in early 1758, where he heard Fritz play. He criticised in his diary that Fritz, despite of all his tonal purity and virtuosity, now and again lost his rhythm as a result of his excessive ornamentation, and he accused him of a lack of musical taste. The benign judgement of the English musicologist Charles Burney sounds totally different. Burney met Fritz during his stay in Geneva in July 1770, and Fritz played one of his solos to the traveller:”Irrespective of the fact that he must be about seventy years old, he plays with as much zeal as a young man of twenty-five. His bow stroke and expression are admirably beautiful, and he himself must be a true lover of music, as he keeps so well in practice, although he has so little opportunity to show off his talents and be amply rewarded for them”. One of these rare occasions, for example, presented itself to him in June 1759, when he played to Voltaire on his estate in Ferney. As a composer Fritz seems to have concentrated on instrumental music. Apart from the flute sonatas op. II recorded here, we know of six quadro sonatas op. I (in the fashion of Telemann’s Paris quartets), six violin sonatas op. III, six trio sonatas op. IV, six duets for two violins, six symphonies op. VI, one violin concerto, some violin sonatas published in collective prints, as well as a missing harpsichord concerto. The printed opus collections were published between 1742 and 1772 in Geneva, Paris and London. There have been a number of copies preserved, especially as far as the sonata prints are concerned, in Danish and Swedish libraries, but also in Brussels, Berlin and Berkeley (with North Italian provenance), which is evidence of how widespread and popular his music was during his lifetime. The VI Sonate a Violino o Flauto Traversiere Solo Col Basso op. II appeared in score printing as a publication by an unknown publisher, probably in Geneva around 1748. Only three copies are known of this version: as expected, one is in the library of the Conservatoire in Geneva, whilst the second one preserved in Switzerland is kept in the Zurich Zentralbibliothek, belonging to the collections of the Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft. The third copy of the print is in the private collection of André Meyer in Paris. The sonatas are dedicated to the still very young heir to the throne Frederick III of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1735-1756), who was, most probably, Fritz’ pupil during his study stay in Geneva, and in 1749 socialised with distinguished experts, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Friedrich-Melchior Grimm. The title of the collection leaves the choice of solo instrument to the player, therefore demonstrating the consideration towards the addressed buyers of the opus, as well as the pragmatic adaptation of the music to the respective circumstances of performance in an epoch, which did not yet know the “opus” as a monolithic, inviolable, unchangeable creation. However, the professional violinist Fritz always had the possibilities of the flute in mind whilst composing these sonatas. Even in his late symphonies from the 1770ies he uses the horn and the flute instead of the oboe, the flutes sometimes taking over thematic functions and dealt with idiomatically. The fact that the sonatas op. II were perceived by his contemporaries as flute idiomatic is demonstrated by the dedication of the fourth sonata to Johann Joachim Quantz in one of the copies in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin in a copy from the 18th century. In sonatas op II the modern three-movement format predominates, as it had developed in the works of Tartini, Locatelli and Tessarini. Fritz only employs the classical model of the four-movement sonata da chiesa in the third sonata. For him the final movements in variation form are characteristic, which appear in sonatas Nos. II, IV, and VI (here as a minuet), and are always worked over an ostinato. The fourth sonata is very impressive, which in the first movement shows thematic echoes of the sonata in B minor for flute and harpsichord BWV 1030 by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is especially illuminating that the great violin virtuoso Pietro Antonio Locatelli in Amsterdam commented in more detail on the fifth sonata of op. II. Although he liked this composition very much, he gave Fritz the message that the false relation in the third bar in the B-part of the andante should be removed, and that some rests in the bass in the allegro should be filled with suitable figures. Without intervening in the movement structure of this music, historically documented performance practice requires appropriate ornamentation of the musical manuscript. The significance of the ornament for all arts in the 18th century is undisputed, for it was part of that sensuous beauty that ran through the entire artistic work of that century. In this recording the suspension of the basso continuo is enriched figuratively in the sense of the partimento practice. The embellishments of the flauto traverso orientate themselves by historical original examples, as they have primarily been passed down for vocal music. A rare case of ornamentation put into writing is even found in the print of op. II at the end of the adagio in the IInd sonata: a differentiated, widely expanding cadence (see illustration). Fritz’ musical education in Romandy and in Piedmont was quite effortlessly reflected in his works as a mixed taste à la Quantz in the way he conveyed French and Italian elements (the latter clearly outweighing). His melodic line is pervaded by a sensitive, jagged rhythm, which reminds of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. If one would like to use the term of musical rococo suggested at the beginning, this definitely applies to sonatas op. II by Kaspar Fritz. L’Arcadia The ensemble playing of the two musicians Claire Genewein (transverse flute) and Nicoleta Paraschivescu (harpsichord/organ) developed into the Ensemble L’Arcadia according to the motto ”Aus der Seele muss man spielen und nicht wie ein abgerichteter Vogel…” (“One must play from the soul and not like a trained bird…”) (C.Ph.E. Bach, Berlin 1753). The ensemble chose their name with reference to Accademia degli Arcadi, founded in 1690 following the death of Queen Christine of Sweden in Rome, and which is significant for its music and literary history. The ensemble wants to revive the zeitgeist and sound culture of European music in the 17th to early 19th century, and performs in various formations, ranging from a duet to a chamber orchestra. L’Arcadia deals intensively with historical sources of music and traces forgotten compositions in archives and libraries in order to reproduce them for today’s audience. Premieres and commissioned compositions also have become firmly established in the Ensemble’s repertoire. Their love for other expressive art forms has created several stimulating projects, using a fusion of music, literature and painting.
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