Hans-Martin Linde-Consort Bach Orchestral Suites Vinyl 2-LP Record Gatefold VG+

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1983 Hans-Martin Linde-Consort Bach Orchestral Suites Vinyl 2-LP Record Gatefold VG+
Record Grade per Goldmine Standard: VG+
J.S. BACH The Four Suites for Orchestra BWV.1066-1069 Linde Consort HANS-MARTIN LINDE conducting Side One J.S. BACH: Suite No. 1 in C, BWV.1066 (20:20) Ouverture Courante Gavottes I & II Forlane Menuets I & II Bourses I & II Passpieds Side Three J.S. BACH: Suite No. 3 in D, BWV.1068 (18:12) Ouverture Air Gavottes I & II Bourse Gigue Side Two J.S. BACH: Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV.1067 (18:38) Ouverture Rondeau Sarabande Bourses I & II Polonaise (Lentement) & Double Menuet Badinerie Hans-Martin Linde (flute) Side Four J.S. BACH: Suite No. 4 in D BWV.1069 (17:51) Ouverture Bourses I & II Gavotte Menuets I & II R^jouissance “Orchestral suite’’ and “overture”: both terms are used to denote the same works by Bach, and both are equally familiar to present-day music-lovers. In each case there are historical as well as material reasons in favor of its use, “suite” being the expression which embraces the whole work with all its movements, while “overture,” by means of synecdoche, acknowledges that it is in the nature of the opening movement to overshadow the whole. Historically, overtures were first conceived as introductions to works for the stage, in the train of the new interest awakened by the drama of classical antiq- uity, with its synthesis of all the arts. The practice of starting both operas and dramatic ballets with instru- mental introductions developed in both France and Italy, notable examples being the Ballet Comique de la Royne, first performed in Paris in 1581, which opens with a piece for wind ensemble, and in Italy Claudio Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo of 1607. The armorial bearings of the com- poser’s employer were blazoned in music in the intro- ductory Toccata. “Toccata,” “canzona,” “sonata” or even “sinfonia” were the names customarily given to these introductory pieces, which are really too heterogeneous in form to be regarded as making up a musical genre in its own right. The overture as we know it today, as the first movement in an orchestral suite, owes its origin to Louis XIV, who insisted on having appropriate pieces to open the ballets de cour — a genre which long occupied the place at the French court equivalent to that held by Italian opera every- where else in Europe. In the form it was given by Lully, the French overture soon colonized all Europe. In the late Seventeenth Century, in addition to its function in the theater, it was placed at the head of groups of purely instrumental pieces. We find such combinations as over- ture and instrumental movements, or overture and dance movements from operas or ballets. The earliest known published collection of the latter kind, by Johann Sigismund Kusser (1660-1727), dates from 1682. Before long such groups of movements were being specially composed, instead of being compiled from the existing repertory. As a genre of orchestral music they were particularly prevalent in the German-speaking parts of Europe, where they were often called “orchestral suites.” The term “suite” was first used in France in the Six- teenth Century, to denote a group of dance movements, originally all of the same kind, but later of different kinds. Grouping dances in that way was of course older than the term. The orchestral suite, as a form of Gebrauchsmusik, enjoyed a steady growth in popularity all over Europe, especially in France, England and Germany. In Germany, in particular, the practice of beginning a suite with a French overture contributed to its popularity. Suites survive by such composers as Georg Muffat, Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, J.S. Bach, Handel, and above all Telemann. The one hundred and more suites by Telemann. The one hundred and more suites by Telemann which survive are only a fragment of the number he wrote; he is credited with nearly a thousand. It was not purely by accident that Telemann was so especially productive. The suite, with its short move- ments, relatively simple harmonic conventions and song- like melodies, offered him a wealth of opportunity to real- ize the esthetic ideal of thegfl/cw/ style of which he was a leading exponent. One of his suites, Hamburger Ebb und Fluht (1723), is one of the very best-known examples of thegenre, alongside Bach’s orchestral suites and Handel’s Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. The transfer of the overture from the theater to the purely instrumental arena coincided with the emergence of parts for solo players in such music, which did little at first to change the formal layout of suites. It was Johann Sebastian Bach who married the popular concertato style to the style of the French suite, especially in the overture. The introduction of this Italian element on the one hand meant a musical enrichment of thegenre, but on the other hand meant the abandonment of the lines laid down by Louis XIV for this type of composition (a French style diametrically opposed to the Italian style); but then, France no longer had the same political influence over the German states. Another factor was the polyphonic com- positional techniques of which Bach was a supreme master; thus in the sarabande of the second suite, in B minor, he wrote a canon between the upper part and the bass. Bach took the overall shape of the overture — slow, fast, slow — from Lully, but in the fugato fast sections he used a structure familiar to us from other works: tutli ritornellos developed fugally, with modulating episodes. This feature forms a link between the suites and the Brandenburg concertos. It also bursts the bounds of the Lullian overture in terms of length. There is some variation in the extent to which the concertato principle is developed in the overtures to Bach’s four orchestral suites. While the C major suite (BWV.1066) with its overture is the most like a suite by Lully, the B minor suite (BWV.1067) is already very dif- ferent: its overture is often described as one of the earliest flute concertos, while concertato groups occur in the two D major suites (BWV.1068 and 1069). Features such as these shed light for music historians on the murky confusion surrounding the dating of these orchestral suites: as the C major suite observes the prin- ciples established by Lully more closely than the others, it is generally regarded as the earliest. The dating is diffi- cult because only a small amount of the music survives in autograph. Our principal sources are copies of the Leipzig period (after 1723), some written or corrected by Bach himself. These copies are often associated with Bach’s direction of the Leipzig collegium musicum, for which the suites might have been written. However, another possibility is that they were composed while Bach was in the service of Duke Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen (from 1717 to 1723). As well as the fact that all Bach’s chamber music was written for his noble patron, and the fact that the orchestral suite was a courtly genre by ori- gin, there are other more concrete indications to support the second hypothesis. In the Cothen orchestra Bach had at his disposal accomplished musicians like the well-known flautist Freytag and other soloists for whom other works requir- ing solo players were also composed. The scoring of the orchestral suites — mostly one player to each part — requires that degree of accomplishment. Easier solo parts, such as that of the third trumpet in BWV.1068 or 1069, also give an illustration of how things were managed at a small court like Cothen, which could never have afforded to maintain three trumpet virtuosos in its orchestra, but could call on the services of a trumpeter from the military corps of signallers. The most conclusive evidence that the orchestral suites were written at the court of Cdthen is the fact that the overture of the fourth suite was adapted to provide the opening movement of the cantata “Unser Mund sei voll Lachens,” BWV.110, of 1725. There are many examples of this type of parody in Bach’s oeuvre, but, as Ludwig Finscher has demonstrated, it has never yet been shown that Bach adapted a sacred work to a secular use, which would have been to devalue it. All the parodies are either sacred-to-sacred or secular-to-sacred, the latter meaning an upward revaluation of the music. The cantata’s date, 1725, indicates that the fourth suite, at least, dates from the Cdthen period, even if it was later altered for Leipzig. Is it unreasonable to suppose that the other suites are from the same period? Some mention must be made of the dance movements in Bach’s orchestral suites, even though they occupy a relatively small space in them. As with the overtures, Bach departs from models and predecessors. Listeners can see for themselves how little he conforms to the sequence of the movements in the “classical suite,’’ namely Allemande — Courante — Sarabande — Gigue. The “new” dance movements interested Bach’s con- temporaries, too, includingjohann Mattheson, who made the following comments in Der vollkommene Capellmeister of 1739: “Thus...LeMenuet...has no other affection (i.e., expresses no other emotion) than a moderate merriment. “Let us next consider the Gavotta...Its affection is really a most exultant joy.. .Italian composers employ a kind of gavottes for their violins, on which they work in a special manner, often filling whole sheets with their extravagances, never less, but they are still other than they should be. But if an Italian can only make people admire his speed, he will do whatever is in his power. “A melody which has a more flowing, smooth, gliding and coherent nature than the gavotte is...theBowrr&... But I must say here that it is truly distinguished by contentment and an amiable character, conveying as it were something untroubled or relaxed, a little negligent, easy-going and yet not unpleasant. “The Polonaise.. .if I had to compose something, or set words of a kind, wherein an especial openhqartedness and a very free character predominated, I would choose no other type of melody than the Polish. "Aria, with and without variations, which are called partite an Italian, doubles in French. This kind of aria is played on the clavier as well as on all kinds of other instruments, and is usually a short, singable, simple melody, divided into two parts, which is in most cases so plainly drawn only in order that one may turn it about, embellish it and vary it in countless ways, so that, while sustaining the fundamental progressions, one may exhibit one’s dexterity.” —Annotation ©1983 by Petra Schmitz Translated by Mary Whittali








LP448