il Gardellino

Johann Friedrich Fasch might, on the surface, seem like the very model of a minor Baroque composer. Settling in a post in the remote Saxon town of Zerbst in 1722, Fasch labored there for 36 years, producing over 100 orchestral suites and at least 63 concertos in addition to other kinds of works. The only prominent exposure Fasch has enjoyed in modern times is through a couple of concertos included on the famous "purple Pachelbel" recording circulated by RCA Victor and featuring Jean-François Paillard and his orchestra. These were so-so concertos, and their inclusion didn't necessarily help the reputation of the composer.

This release is part of a set of Bach cantata recordings by the Belgian group Il Gardellino and director Marcel Ponseele: not an entire new Bach cantata cycle but a set of thematically oriented recordings that may also include works by other composers. "De profundis" (from the depths) offers three cantatas based on Psalm 130, which begins with the words "From the depths I cry to thee, Lord" and was translated into German in several ways.

In 1764 a couple of German musicians lodged together in London. They shared a sort of common background, for one was the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, newly arrived in town to write opera, and the other, Carl Friedrich Abel, had been Bach’s student back in Leipzig more than a decade earlier. He was in town to make his living as a composer of instrumental works and as a performer on that now-anachronistic instrument the viola da gamba. The two apparently hit it off quite well, for they soon conspired to develop the famed Bach-Abel concert series that became a fixture in the city for more than a decade and a half. Given that they also contrived to perform as well, it is not surprising that both men created a wide variety of works for their instruments, Bach on the keyboard and Abel on his gamba.

Handel's Dixit Dominus HWV 232 (1707) is certainly one of the most impressive compositions of his several years in Italy. With this extremely effective piece, the only 22-year-old obviously wanted to demonstrate all of his compositional skills. Il Gardellino and Bart Van Reyn accompany him on their recording with the breathtaking cantata Il Pianto di Maria, which was long attributed to Handel until recent research has shown that it was penned by the Italian composer Giovanni Battista Ferrandini (1710-1791).

“Full of fire, spirit and life.” is how Mozart described this work of his contemporary, presented here for the first time on this new 2CD set. Mozart’s positive verdict on Josef Myslivecek (1737-1781) was intended to make the listener aware, for the fact that the extremely critical Salzburg composer expresses himself positively about a colleague is an absolute exception. His oratorio Adamo & Eva, performed in Florence in 1771, was composed at precisely the time when contact with the Mozart family seemed to have been particularly close.

The story of the liberation of the Israelites from their enslavement in Egypt, as told in the Book of Exodus, has often been set to music. The works by Telemann and Rolle recorded here are based on this subject and partly even on the same libretto. And yet these two composers, separated by only one generation, handle this topic in remarkably different ways.