Georg Muffat Armonico Tributo

What the largely unknown name of Georg Muffat may lack in dissemination and reputation, he makes up for in incredible variety, virtuosic power, and influence, especially on the development of instrumental music. The treasure trove of Muffat, which comes to light in particular in his sonata collection Armonico tributo, is what the early music ensemble Concerto Copenhagen and its director Lars Ulrik Mortensen are taking to the discographic spearhead of their 30th anniversary in 2022.

These five sonatas which form the Armonico Tributo make the best possible case for Georg Muffat as a composer of the first rank. He apparently drew together the French, German and Italian styles in a way that was unprecedented, and the result is surprisingly moving and brilliant, likely to make new listeners wonder: Muffat where have you been all of my life? In fact it is deeply seductive, often with beautiful harmonies and exquisite grace notes that really get under the skin in this fantastic ambiance. They are in effect like double violin sonatas with a small chamber accompaniment in which each part is taken by one instrument. Roy Goodman leads with aplomb in a period style that has no lack of emotional weight, and contributes a useful note that puts this neglected name into the context of his time, being born 40 years before Bach.

Muffat was in more ways than one the product of many cultures. Born in Savoy to a family of Scottish descent, he was trained by Lully in Paris, was taken under the wing of Pasquini and Corelli in Rome, and yet always considered himself a German. The style of his music is equally eclectic, combining the dance-like nature of seventeenth-century French music with the gusto and fantasy of Italian music and the sombreness of the music of the North. The result is astounding. In this vigorous performance, Ensemble 415, one of the best of today's period-instrument groups, tries to recreate the sound of the seventeenth-century Roman chamber orchestra.

Emotions ruffle the elegant surface of these instrumental suites by Georg Muffat - caprice, melancholy, martial fervor, amorous longing - and like ripples on a moonlit pond, they shimmer and are gone. They're only ripple deep, these musical evocations, easily recognized but not sustained. Even the titles are stylized - "Indissoluble Friendship", "Noble Youth", Chaconne of the "Lucky Stars", "Quis Hic?".. Who's There? Who indeed? The dancing master, of course! The five suites are composed of the familiar courtly dances of the 17th Century: minuets, bourees, gigues, sarabandes, gavottes, all so exquisitely graceful that one can easily visualize the dancers in their brocades and lace.

The five-part writing for strings has its period of greatest development in the 16th and 17th centuries, only to fall into a progressive obsolescence. The most commonly used instrumental ensemble included two violins, alto and tenor viola da braccio, cello and basso continuo. Of this quintet, the instrument that undergoes a progressive dismissal is the viola tenore, which in this recording we propose in its original late seventeenth century mounting.

The five-part writing for strings has its period of greatest development in the 16th and 17th centuries, only to fall into a progressive obsolescence. The most commonly used instrumental ensemble included two violins, alto and tenor viola da braccio, cello and basso continuo. Of this quintet, the instrument that undergoes a progressive dismissal is the viola tenore, which in this recording we propose in its original late seventeenth century mounting.