Bohemian Rapsdoy

Gottfried Finger was a Moravian composer and virtuoso viol player. Born in Olomouc, in the modern-day Czech Republic, and arriving in England in 1685, Finger worked for the court of James II before becoming a freelance composer. Hazel Brooks has spent a great deal of time researching the music for this recording, all of which may be found in the British Library manuscript Add. 31466, the single biggest source of violin sonatas by Finger. She writes: 'Finger's sonatas contain a quirky mix of styles. Bohemian features from his homeland, simpler Corellian traits, and the occasional nod to the English Purcellian school are fitted together like crazy paving.

Amsterdam Sinfonietta has combined a romantic masterpiece of the string orchestra repertoire with two wild compositions from the inter-war period. Dvorák, Haas, and Schulhoff hardly make a conventional mixture, but all three of these composers had their roots in a region which was known for many centuries as “Bohemia.” One can hear this common ground in the rhythmic diversity, the influence of folk music, and the melodic inventiveness that characterizes their music.

One of the benefits wrought by the CD era was the recording of composers and repertoire that the big international labels would never even consider in the LP era. Many small Cd labels did very well with early music, composers of national or regional repertoire and minor composers of all eras some of whom were major composers in their day. This is the case with the three composers on this disc, all of whom had reputations throughout Europe.

The Thirty Years War (1618–48) had resulted in the Hapsburgs taking over the kingdom of Bohemia, but it was impossible to suppress the Czech love for music, a fact exploited by the Austrian nobles who filled their new Bohemian estates with musical talent. Once government had been transferred to Vienna, many Czech musicians moved away from their homeland to find work. As one Czech historian put it, ‘[A] lmost all the musical sources which welled up from the soil of Bohemia sped by the shortest course to join the main stream of the world’s music.’ … Some went to Vienna itself: Bárta, Fiala, Vent, Koželuh, Vanhal and the Vranickýs, but some went to Berlin, others to Mannheim, while Mysliveček made his home in Italy.

Gottfried Finger was a Moravian composer and virtuoso viol player. Born in Olomouc, in the modern-day Czech Republic, and arriving in England in 1685, Finger worked for the court of James II before becoming a freelance composer. Hazel Brooks has spent a great deal of time researching the music for this recording, all of which may be found in the British Library manuscript Add. 31466, the single biggest source of violin sonatas by Finger. She writes: 'Finger's sonatas contain a quirky mix of styles. Bohemian features from his homeland, simpler Corellian traits, and the occasional nod to the English Purcellian school are fitted together like crazy paving.