A l s o ava i l a b l e A selection of Piano Classics titles For the full listing please visit www.piano-classics.com
RACHMANINOFF Chopin Variations Op. 22 Piano Sonata No. 1
Chopin
Liszt MishA DACic
4 Ballades, 4 Impromptus 24 Preludes, Op. 28 20 Nocturnes
Zlata Chochieva
Yuan Sheng
3-CD
PCL0047
PCL0048
Pleyel 1845
PCL0049
GALINA USTVOLSKAYA
Rachmaninoff Moments Musicaux Op. 16 Transcriptions
RAVEL COMPLETE PIANO MUSIC
FRANÇOIS DUMONT
Piano Sonatas Nos. 1–6 Twelve Preludes for piano
IVAN SOKOLOV
PCL0050
Alexander Ghindin 2-CD
2-CD
PCL0054
Bach
& the Early Pianoforte
COMPLETE PIANO MUSIC
PCLD0055
Luca Guglielmi Cristofori Piano 1726 Silbermann Piano 1749 Hubert Clavichord 1784
B ac h & t h e E a r ly P i a n o f o rt e given kind permission for the continuation of the temporarily suspended Collegia Musica, tomorrow,Wednesday, June 17, 1733, the beginning will be made by Bach’s Collegium Musicum at Zimmermann’s Garden on the Grimmische Steinweg, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, with a fine concert. It will be mainteined week by week, with a new harpsichord, such as had not been heard before, and lovers of music as well as virtuosos are expected to be present.
Johann Mattheson: “Critica Musica” – p.380 (P.VIII), 1725 “[...] Which the renowned Herr Sécretaire König intends to take the trouble to do in detail if he has the time, and to compare the Florentine [Bartolomeo Cristofori’s pianos] and the Freyberg instruments [Gottfried Silbermann’s pianos].” Bach Dokumente No. 331 Leipzig, June 17, 1733 His Royal Highness and Electoral Grace having
Bach Dokumente No. 142a Bach sells a Silbermann piano: the receipt for his payment That to me, the undersigned, the payment of 115 rhtl., written out one hundred and fifteen rhtl. in Lui blanc [= 23 louis d’or], for an instrument called Piano et Forte which shall be delivered to His Excellency Count [Jan Klemens von] Branitzky in Bialastock [Bialystock, Poland], was properly handed over by Mr. [Barthelemy] Valentin here, I herewith attest. Leipzig, May 6, 1749. Joh: Sebast: Bach. Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Court Compositeur Bach Dokumente No. 436 Lorenz Mitzler, Musikalische Bibliothek – Leipzig, 1738ca.
«2»
“Mr.Telemann and Mr.Graun are excellent composers, and Mr.Bach has written works of just the same quality, but if Mr.Bach at times writes the inner parts more fully than other composers, he has taken as his model the music of twenty or twenty-five years ago. He can write otherwise, however, when he wishes to. Anyone who heard the music that was peformed by the students at the Easter Fair in Leipzig last year, in the Most High Presence of His Royal Majesty in Poland, which was composed by Capellmeister Bach, must admit that it was written entirely in accordance with the latest taste, and was approved by everyone. So well does the Capellmeister know how to suit himself to his listeners”. Bach Dokumente No. 554 Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats-und gelehrten Sachsen (Spenersche Zeitung), No. 56 – May 11, 1747 One hears from Potsdam that last Sunday the famous Capellmeister from Leipzig, Mr. Bach arrived with the intention to have the pleasure of hearing the excellent Royal music at that place. In the evening, at about the time when the regular chamber music in the Royal aparments usually begins, His Majesty’s was informed that Capellmeister Bach arrived at Potsdam and was waiting in His Majesty’s antechamber for His Majesty’s most gracious permission to listen to the music. His August Self immediately gave orders that Bach be
admitted, and went, at his entrance, to the so-called Forte and Piano, condescending also to play, in His Most August Person and without any preparation, a theme – for the Capellmeister Bach, which he should execute in a fugue. This was done so happily by the aforementioned Capellmeister that not only was His Majesty pleased to show his satisfaction thereat, but also all those present were seized with astonishment. Mr. Bach found the theme prepounded to him so exceedingly beautiful that he intended to set it down on paper as a regular fugue and have it engraved on copper. On Monday, the famous man let himself be heard on the organ in the Church of the Holy Spirit at Postdam and earned general acclaim from the listeners attending in great number. In the evening, His majesty charged him again with the execution of a fugue, in six parts, which he accomplished just as skillfully as on the previous occasion, to the pleasure of His Majesty and to the general admiration. Bach Dokumente No. 743 Jacob Adlung/Johann Friedrich Agricola: Musica Mechanica Organoedi – Berlin, 1768 On Silbermann’s pianofortes [...] Mr. Gottfried Silbermann had at first built two of these instruments [pianofortes]. One of them was seen and played by the late Capellmeister, Mr. Joh. Sebastian Bach. He
«3»
praised, indeed admired, its tone; but he complained that it was too weak in the high register and too hard to play [i.e., the action was too heavy]. This was taken greatly amiss by Mr. Silbermann, who could bear to have any fault found in his handiworks. He was therefore angry at Mr. Bach for a long time. And yet his conscience told him that Mr. Bach was not wrong. He therefore decided – greatly to his credit, be it said – not to deliver any more of these instruments, but instead to think all the harder about how to eliminate the faults Mr. J.S.Bach had observed. He worked for many years on this. And that this was the real cause of this postponement I have the less doubt since I myself heard it frankly acknowledged by Mr. Silbermann. Finally, when Mr. Silbermann had really achieved many improvements, notably in respect to the action, he sold one again to the Court of the Prince of Rudolfstadt. Shortly therafter His Majesty the king of Prussia had one of these instruments ordered, and, when it met with His Majesty’s Most Gracious approval, he had several more ordered from Mr. Silbermann. Mr. Silbermann also had the laudable ambition to show one of these instruments of his later workmanship to the late Capellmeister Bach, and have it examined by him; and he received, in turn, complete approval from him.
Bach Dokumente No. 627 – Specification of the Estate of Johann Sebastian Bach (Leipzig, Autumn 1750) Specification of the Estate Left by the Late Mr. Johann Sebastian Bach, Formerly Cantor at the St. Thomas School in Leipzig, Departed in God July 28, 1750 Ch. VI: Instruments. 1. veneered Claveçin, which if possible is to remain in the family.................. 80 rhtl. [...] Bach Dokumente No. 706 – Anna Magdalena Bach: Burial service (Leipzig, February 29, 1760) Friday, February 29. An almswoman of 59 years, Anna Magdalena, neé Wilcke, Widow of the former Cantor of the Thomas School, Mr. Johann Sebastian Bach, died in Haynstraße. “Leipziger Intelligenzblatt” September 29, 1764 A Silbermann piano, of incomparable tone and extraordinary strength of sound, built in the shape of a harpsichord, compass: F-f’’’, the body and lid veneered, with a nice stand, along with other different solidly built and melodious keyboard instruments, are to be sold at a modest price at the great Joachimsthal in
«4»
Haynstraße, in the court, on the third floor, by Mr. Bose. The Bose family, that was in close friendly relations with the Bach, lived in a renaissance house facing the St.Thomas Church (now the Bach-Archiv).The founder, Georg Heinrich Bose (1682-1731) was a wealthy merchant, the son of Caspar (1645-1700) a Leipzig patrician, merchant of precious stones and owner of “Großbosicher Garten” (famous French garden).The son Georg Mathias Bose (17101761) was a famous scientist, also known for his experiments with static electricity. Anna Magdalena (1701-1760) was a close friend of Georg Heinrich’s daughter Christiana Sybilla. After Bach’s death in 1750, Anna Magdalena remained with her stepdaughter Catherina Dorothea (1708-1774) and her two daughters Johanna Carolina (1737-1781) and Regina Susanna (1742-1809). Having to leave the apartment in the Thomas School, they went to live in a modest apartment in Haynstraße, generously made available by the Bose family. Bach Dokumente No. 695 – Jacob Adlung: Guide to the musical erudition (Erfurt, 1758) –“Bach’s KeyboardWorks” Bach, (John Sebast.) Is to be mentioned here again because he published many celebrated works. [...] But among the manuscript output there are also great works, as his Inventions, 15 Trio [Three-part Inventions], 6 Sonatas and
Partitas without bass (h), but especially the “Well-Tempered Clavier” in two parts. h) There are actually solos for violin without bass, 3 sonatas and 3 partitas, but one can play them well on the keyboard Bach Dokumente No. 808 – Johann Friedrich Agricola: Allgemeine deutsche Bibliotek (Berlin, 1775) Why does not the author mention, more properly, Joh.Seb.Bach’s six Solos for Violin? The composer himself frequently played these pieces on the clavichord adding the harmonies he felt was necessary. In this particular case he recognized the need of a harmony resounding in itself, that was not possible to obtain in a more complete form in such a composition. Johann Nikolaus Forkel: On Johann Sebastian Bach’s Life, Genius, and Works – Leipzig, 1802 [...] Till Bach’s time, this rule had been applied only to compositions in two, three, or four parts, and that but very imperfectly. He not only fully sastied this rule in settings for two, three, and four parts, but attempted also to extend it to a single part. To this attempt we are indebted for six solo for the violin and six others for the violoncello, which are without any accompaniment and which absolutely admit of no second singable part set to them.
«5»
By particular turns in the melody, he has so combined in a single part all the notes required to make the modulation complete that a second part is neither necessary nor possible. It is not a quality, but rather a consequence of its qualities, that Bach’s melody never grows old. It remains ever fair and young, like Nature, from which is derived. Everything that Bach took form the prevailing taste of his time (and mixed into his earlier works) is now antiquated; but where, as in his later works, he developed his melodies from the internal sources of the art itself, without any regard to the dictates of fashion, all is fresh and as new as if it had been produced but yesterday. [...] Bach Dokumente No. 996 – Johann Friedrich Reichard (1796) – On Bach’s keyboard works [...] His works for clavier and organ will remain, as long as those splendid instruments endure, the higher school of organists and clavier players, just as he himself, as a practicing artist, was the highest model for organists and clavier players. He invented the convenient and sure fingering and the significant style of performance, with which he cleverly combined the ornamental manner of the French artists of the time, and thus made the perfecting of the clavier important and necessary, in which task Silbermann was so fortunately at his side. [...]
Harpsichord or Piano? The question concerning the “correct” instrument to perform Bach’s keyboard works has always been put in this very unilateral and basic form. Great artists such Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli or Aldo Ciccolini were in favour of the harpsichord and ABM after a certain point of his life decided not to play Bach’s music because “now there is a new generation of harpsichordists that could play properly Bach and Scarlatti’s music on the instrument for which it was created by both composers”. However, such an “illuminated” point of view has been very rare in a quite confusing and, once again, unilateral general attitude that could be summarized as follows: from one side, the lovers of the modern Steinway grand piano that say, in their anachronistic and passionate way: “if Bach had known the modern piano, he would surely have used it!”; on the other side the so-called “champions of philology” swearing that Bach conceived and played his keyboard music only for the harpsichord and that he disliked any sort of experimental fortepiano, surely because of their quite primitive construction. Both are wrong. The historical documents in our possession show a much more balanced version of reality and an artistic attitude very much in the style of Bach’s musical personality.
«6»
Bach did know and indeed play the piano, at the same time as the harpsichord, for at least the last twenty-five years of his life. He always had a deep interest in instrument building (as his organ reports and his own collection of harpsichords, clavichords, Lautenwerck, pianos, lutes and stringed instruments show) and from the beginning he liked the new tone of the piano of his days. He was involved personally in the instrument’s technical development and he surely possessed one of the pianos built by the celebrated maker Gottfried Silbermann (*Kleinbobritzsch, 1683 †Dresden, 1753), with whom he was well acquainted. The history of the birth of piano and its development has been recently put in a new light following Kerstin Schwarz’s research on the ingenious Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori (*Padova, 1655 †Firenze, 1732) and Gottfried Silbermann, the man who better than any other, understood Cristofori’s invention and put it into practice in the German speaking countries. All other later attempts to simplify the action for commercial reasons, such as those of Zumpe or Stein, gave results inferior to Cristofori’s original invention. Even the celebrated “Viennese action” is far from being comparable to Cristofori’s and Silbermann’s action. Of course, later builders increased
the volume of sound, according to the taste of their time. Cristofori’s instrument in particular , far from being a prototype or something imperfect, is now appreciated as its great quality deserves: the creation of a genius that in less then twenty years exhausted all possible technical improvements, raising the first piano to a level that would be unsurpassed until 1821, when Sebastien Erard (*Strasbourg, 1752 †Passy, 1831) created the “double escapement”, actually improving Cristofori’s action. Cristofori started building his instruments in the first years of the 18th Century. By 1725 he achieved the highest level of technical perfection that could be reached at that time. Many celebrated musicians and amateurs knew and played the new instrument. Among them: Alessandro Marcello, Antonio Lotti, Edward Holdsworth, Charles Jennens, George Frederic Handel, Ludovico Giustini, Giovanni Benedetto Platti. Gottfried Silbermann, the famous saxon organ builder, probably came to know Cristofori’s invention thanks to König’s 1725 translation of Scipione Maffei’s famous article of 1712 describing the new instrument, and also from direct observation of one or more instruments present in German countries; most notably thanks to Antonio Lotti’s stay in Dresden (1717-19, for the performance of «7»
his operas Teofane, attended by Handel among others, Giove in Argo and the “festa teatrale” Li quattro elementi) and Giovanni Benedetto Platti’s activity as court musician in Würzburg since 1722. Mattheson refers to both Cristofori and Silbermann in his “Critica Musica” of 1725, showing that a knowledge of both instruments was already circulating in those years. Probably Silbermann started doing his own experiments with the piano around the Twenties. According to Agricola, Bach played one of the two prototypes Silbermann built and praised its beautiful tone, but regretted the hard action and weakness of the high register. Silbermann decided not to continue building his new instrument and dedicated himself to the resolution of these defects (he was angry with Bach for some time following this judgement). After several years he produced new instruments and Bach, this time, gave them his “complete approval”. We don’t know when this moment took place, but it was surely around the end of the Thirties or beginning of the Fourties. On June 1733 Bach played a piano at a concert with his Collegium Musicum at the Leipzig Café Zimmermann, but we can’t say if it was a Cristofori piano, a first Silbermann prototype or the new perfected model. Anyway, knowledge of the piano was slowly penetrating the musical world Photograph: Simone Bartoli
from 1720 and the new instrument found its place among the many alternatives of the so-difficult-to-translate German word Clavier. This word, together with the French Claveçin and the Italianate Cembalo, is to be taken until the beginning of the 19th Century as synonymous for “keyboard instrument” (even Beethoven wrote in his Sonata Op. 101 “tutto il cembalo”) including harpsichord, clavichord and spinet, particularly for people of scant musical culture. For this reason it’s very rare to find precise indications like “Sonata per il pianoforte” and so on, until the last years of the 18th Century. The Bach-Dokumente reports a receipt in Bach’s hand in which the Leipzig Cantor was the intermediary for the sale of “an instrument called Piano et Forte”. The specification of Bach’s estate indicates that he owned a “veneered Claveçin, which if possible is to remain in the family”. Many scholars agree in identifying this instrument as a Silbermann piano. We will never have the hoped-for documentary proof, but a few years after Anna Magdalena’s death in 1760, in great poverty, we find an announcement in a Leipzig weekly newspaper in which “a Silbermann piano [...] veneered [...] along with other different solidly built and melodious keyboard instruments are to be sold at a modest price [...]”. The address given in the announcement is the same as that of Anna Magdalena’s place
«9»
of death. The three Bach daughters were struggling to survive, selling what remained of their father’s instrument collection. Some artistic remarks on the compositions recorded here. BWV 846/1: one of J.S.Bach’s more celebrated keyboard work, it was composed for the Clavierbüchlein fürWilhelm Friedemann Bach, around 1720 and then reworked for the 1722 first volume of TheWell-Tempered Clavier. It was also later copied into the Clavierbüchlein of Anna Magdalena Bachin. It’s a “harpeggio” piece that fits particularly well on the Silbermann piano. Here the damper raising mechanism is used throughout the piece. As there is no possibility of controlling this mechanism except with the hand levers, the effect is more or less the same as in Beethoven’s “Moonlight” sonata, in which the composer himself states that si deve suonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissimamente e senza sordino. BWV 911: composed before 1714, it is one of Bach’s early works that reveals his outstanding quality as a keyboard composer. With influences of Buxtehude and Reincken, it is in the form of multi-movement Toccata, so typical of North German style. The four octave keyboard compass fits perfectly the possibilities of the Cristofori Piano as well as the dynamic and echo effects suggested in the writing.
BWV 1010/1: composed after 1720, following the Libro Primo of the “Sei Solo” (3 Sonatas and 3 Partitas), performed on the keyboard following Bach’s orginal intentions according to Adlung and Agricola. BWV 998: designated for “la Luth ò Cembal”, where “Luth” means not lute but Lautenwerck (a harpsichord with gut strings, Bach owned two of them built by Zacharias Hildebrandt, according to the specification of the estate), composed between 1740 and 1745. Together with BWV 995, 997 and 1006a the work belongs to a group of pieces written in an apparently new “easier and simpler” style, after J.A.Scheibe’s famous criticism, describing Bach as a compleat keyboard virtuoso but a “somewhat obscure and difficult” composer. BWV 999: as in the previous work, it is a piece whose destination was often considered the lute. Written around 1720 as an improvisation in broken style (Style brisé), it survives in a single source copied by Bach’s pupil Johann Peter Kellner. BWV 997: mistakenly considered a work for lute, composed after 1740. All seventeen sources describe the piece as written “pour le clavier”; only one source (Weyrauch) is a lute arrangement of three of its five movements. The Prelude contains two fermatas that can be
embellished with freely improvised cadenzas. The fugue is a “Da Capo Fugue”, typical of the mature style. The Sarabanda is reminiscent of the concluding chorus of St.Matthew Passion and the Gigue & Double are here performed in the style of a piece with written ornamented reprises, instead of two separate movements as perhaps they were intended. BWV 1003: composed around 1720, is part of the celebrated cycle of “Sei Solo” (3 Sonatas and 3 Partitas) that was normally played by Bach at the keyboard, according Adlung and Agricola. The theme of the extremely complex and elaborated fugue was in great consideration also during Bach’s life, as a Mattheson citation of 1737 reveals. BWV 995/4: an extract from the so called “Lute Suite” in g minor BWV 995, arranged around 1730 from the Cello Suite in c minor BWV 1011, this beautiful Sarabanda is a perfect example of Style brisé (broken style) in which a single melodic line forms chords and harmonies of incredible beauty. In this slow and delicate piece the use of both special stops of the Silbermann piano seems particularly appropriate: the una corda and the senza sordino (a damper raising mechanism). ©LUCA GUGLIELMI 2013
Photograph: Simone Bartoli
« 10 »
« 11 »
Pianoforte Gottfried Silbermann, Freyberg 1749 Copy by Kerstin Schwarz,Vicchio (Florence) 2013 Inscribed under the soundboard: “Dieß instrument: Piano et Forte genandt, ist von den Königl. Pohlnischen, und Churfl. Sächs. Hof und Landt Orgel, und Instrument macher, in Freyberg von Herrn, Gottfried / Silbermann, verfertiget worden, Datum, Freyberg in Meißen den 11. Junij / Anno Christi 1749”. Oak case. Spruce soundboard. Iron scaling. Double strung. Una corda stop. Senza sordino stop (damper raising mechanism). Cembalo stop. Compass: 60 notes FF-e’’’. Hammer action by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1726). Original instrument conserved in Nürnberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Pianoforte Bartolomeo Cristofori, Florence 1726 Copy by Kerstin Schwarz,Vicchio (Florence) 1997 Poplar case, lined with cypress on the inside, painted on the outside. Cypress soundboard. Brass scaling. Double strung. Una corda stop. Compass: 49 notes C – c’’’. Hammer action. Original instrument conserved in Leipzig, Musikinstrumentenmuseum Clavichord Christian Gottlob Hubert, Ansbach 1784 Copy by Dr. Angelo Mondino, Ivrea (Turin) 1989 Inscribed on the case beside the lowest key: “Christian Gottlob Hübet [sic] / Anspachischer u. Bäyreuthischer / Hoff. Orgel u. Instrumenten / bauer fecit : Ao: 1784” Cherry case. Double strung. Thicker tangents for the lowest 11 notes suggest the original use of covered strings. Compass: 54 notes C – f’’’. Doublefretted action. Original instrument conserved in Edinburgh University Collection of Historical Musical Instruments Photograph: Kerstin Schwarz
« 12 »
« 13 »
Luca Guglielmi is one of the world’s leading exponents of the historical keyboard (harpsichord, organ, fortepiano, clavichord). He was born on June 6, 1977 in Turin (Italy) where he studied humanities at the University and composition and conducting at the Conservatorio “G.Verdi”. For the past twenty years he has specialized in performing on historical keyboards. He studied under the guidance of Ton Koopman, Patrizia Marisaldi, Vittorio Bonotto and Eros Cassardo. He graduated in Composition with Alessandro Ruo Rui, and in Choral Music and Choral Conducting with Sergio Pasteris. In 1999 he was chosen to participate in the Extraordinary Course in Conducting under the direction of Carlo Maria Giulini at the Fiesole Music School. He has collaborated as harpsichordist and organist with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale di Torino of the RAI under the conductors Jeffrey Tate, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Roberto Abbado. In 2001 he debuted as choir conductor with the Petite messe solennelle by Rossini conducting the Ex-Coro di Torino della RAI. The following year he debuted as conductor with Mozart’s Requiem at the church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Bologna. He has conducted the orchestras of the Early Music Courses at Barbaste (France) and Urbino (Italy), with particular emphasis on the classical repertory. He was invited by Pierre Cao to conduct his celebrated French vocal ensemble Arsys Bourgogne in a Monteverdi programme with which in 2010 he performed in concerts in France, Spain and Luxemburg. In June 2010 he debuted in Florence as conductor and soloist with the Orchestra della Toscana in a programme including Mozart’s Symphony Nr. 39 K. 543. Composer of notable talent, he has composed several works for mixed a cappella choir, a format he favours; his compositions have been performed in Italy and abroad by the Vocalensemble of Turin conducted by Carlo Pavese, by the Coro Filarmonico “Ruggero Maghini” and by the St Jacobs Chamber Choir conducted by Gary Graden. At the same time, from 1993 he has had a busy international career as a harpsichord, organ, clavichord and fortepiano soloist and as an ensemble conductor. He teaches at the Urbino Early Music Course, Pamparato Early Music Course, Barcelona ESMUC “Academia Jordi Savall”, and the Stage de Musique Baroque de Barbaste (France). He has 12 solo recordings and more than 40 other recordings in ensemble, both CD and DVD, for the most prestigious recording companies (Decca, Teldec, Accent, Arcana, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Alia Vox, Stradivarius, cpo, naïve, Alpha, ORF, Mirare) all highly praised by specialized critics. In April 2013 his recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for the Italian label Stradivarius has been awarded with the “Diapason d’Or”.
Photograph: Marco Borggreve
« 15 »