Muslca Antiqua Koln Bach

Heinichen's Dresden Concertos created quite a stir when they were first released a couple of years ago, and for good reason. This is vital, colorful music scored for a large and varied ensemble. Like most composers of his day, Heinichen spent the majority of his compositional talent in the service of vocal music, for either the opera house or church. These pieces represent his only surviving set of concertos, and anyone who enjoys, for example, Bach's Brandenburg Concertos or the orchestral works of Zelenka will certainly want to hear these as well. These performances are simply the last word in style and virtuosity.

This album is full of surprises, not all of them associated with its musical contents. Advance PR materials stated that its contents were recorded originally for televised broadcast in 2004, then forgotten, and only just rediscovered. A final recording by the celebrated Musica Antiqua Köln, forgotten by its The music is a bit of a surprise as well, if not the result of an “original genius” that Goebel likens to C. P. E. Bach. Johann Friedrich Meister (1638–97) seems by all accounts to have been something of a rebel, getting himself imprisoned the year after his appointment as music director of the Hofkapelle of Duke Ferdinand Albrecht I of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 not only opened the border to the West for seventeen million East Germans; it also allowed art lovers and researchers to gain access to the rich cultural treasures housed in Central European museums and libraries. As director of Musica Antiqua Koln, Reinhard Goebel was constantly on the lookout for musical treasures from the Baroque for his ensemble to perform. So he did not mingle with the souvenir hunters along the length of the Berlin Wall but headed straight on the treasure trail to Dresden. It was here in the 18th century that culture had enjoyed a golden age unprecedented in Germany thanks to the tireless patronage of Augustus the Strong and his successor: an active building programme turned the Saxon capital into the Florence on the Elbe immortalized in the wonderful canvases by Bernardo Bellotto (Canaletto).

Nach der atemberaubenden Einspielung der Concerti grossi nun ein Blick in das umfassende geistliche Schaffen Johann David Heinichens, jenes am Dresdner Hof des kunstsinnigen August des Starken tätigen Kompositeurs, um dessen Stelle sich 1733, vier Jahre nach Heinichens Tod, ein gewisser J. S. Bach aus Leipzig — vergeblich — bewarb.

Nine chaconnes may sound a little too much of a good thing, but the wonderfully varied melodic patterns that skilful composers could develop over an ostinato or ground bass fully justify the programme. Disciplined and animated playing make the release stimulating and entertaining.

“…The precision of ensemble, the crisp articulation and the clarity of texture which Goebel achieves, not perhaps without considerable effort, are admirable features of the Archiv Produktion set and, for sheer efficiency and dependability in such matters, these artists have few rivals…Telemann published his Musique de table in Hamburg in 1733. Each of its three parts or ''Productions'', as he called them, is laid out identically, embracing the principal orchestral and instrumental forms of the late-baroque: French overture and dance suite, quartet, concerto, trio solo sonata and a little orchestral coda, so to speak, which Telemann simply and practically called ''Conclusion''.

Here is a case of expectations richly rewarded. Telemann's flute quartets are vibrant and tuneful, at times making great demands on the soloists. The Musica Antiqua Koln are in all ways up to the challenge, delivering a musical bouquet that is at various turns elegant, soothing, and exciting.