Molter Europa Symphony

Johann Melchior Molter (1696-1765) - Orchestral & Chamber Music
Nova Stravaganza / Siegbert Rampe
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 322 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Gold" # 341 1279-2 | Country/Year: Germany 2004
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque

Johann Melchior Molter was a German baroque composer and violinist. (…) Molter's surviving works include an oratorio; several cantatas; over 140 symphonies, overtures, and other works for orchestra; many concertos, including some of the first clarinet concertos ever written; and many pieces of chamber music.

Thuringia has always been a highly musical region. Along with the greats who resided there, including at times Schutz, Telemann, Bach and his sons, and Liszt, a closer examination reveals other Thuringian composers who indisputably contributed to the course of music history such as Johann Melchior Molter. This composer from Tiefenort was active in Eisenach and Karlsruhe and during his lifetime was regarded as one of the most productive and significant composers as well as a trailblazer participating in the transition from the Baroque to the classical era. On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of his death Theater&Philharmonie Thringen has launched an editorial project in cooperation with the Institute of Musicology in Weimar-Jena.

This complete recording of the trumpet concertos of German High Baroque composer Johann Melchior Molter actually includes the concertos in which the trumpet plays any role at all, and this is its biggest strength. Sample some of the concertos on the second CD, such as the Sonata Grossa for three trumpets, two oboes, timpani, strings, and continuo, or either of the works designated as a sinfonia concertante – the trumpet is not the first work one would associate with that elegant French form and its genteel conversations among a group of solo instruments, but Molter's command of instrumental textures is most unusual for his era.

Thuringia-born Johann Melchior Molter (1696-1765) is at best known as the composer who wrote some of the earliest concertos for the clarinet, which had just been invented at the time. Otherwise, the practical exploration of the oeuvre of the long-time Karlsruhe court kapellmeister is still in its early stages. In the highly acclaimed series 'Forgotten Treasures' at ARS PRODUKTION, Michael Alexander Willens and his Kolner Akademie present some of the concertos and orchestral works in first recordings, which once again make us take notice because of their above-average quality and remarkable inventiveness.

Johann Melchior Molter is a composer well-known among enthusiasts of music for winds, but generally his output is performed on modern instruments. Extensive research in the field of historically informed performance practice theoretically allows for the faithful reconstruction of the original sound of this music, but there exist only very few trumpetists today who are able to play on the required natural, valveless instruments. Jean-François Madeuf is one of these, extracting a warm, noble sound which make these concertos a very pleasurable listening experience.

Johann Molter was a prodigious composer of trumpet concertos in the first half of the eighteenth century. He spent his musical life moving between his base, Karlsruhe, and Italy, where he obviously absorbed the baroque influences of the time. He was an inventive and capable composer, and although these concertos are very much alike they are each enjoyable if taken singly. The allegros have vitality and slow movements are agreeable, sometimes serene, sometimes moving on at a gentle, walking gait.