Fux: La Grandezza della Musica Imperiale - Freiburger B.O.

Johann Joseph Fux
La Grandezza della Musica Imperiale
Freiburger Barockorchester
Carus 83.308

Fux followers – and there are some – will have cause to welcome this latest Carus disc because it renders valuable discographic duty. The works here have only fairly recently been rediscovered and none therefore had been recorded before. Because of the nature of the works – none tied to a specific event – it’s impossible to date them with any certainty. But it’s conjecturally supposed that they were written around 1700, a period which saw him imperial court composer to Leopold I and therefore around the time he assumed the position of music director at St Stephen’s Cathedral and was elevated still further in the imperial echelon.

Fux is best known for his masses and oratorios, and other church music, as well as his pedagogic study Gradus ad Parnassum. Around two thirds of his surviving oeuvre is constituted by such works. But he did write orchestral music and these five are pleasing examples of his command of dance forms, whether stylised or more personal.

The Ouverture in D N4 for two oboes, two violins, viola and bass continuo is a seven-movement work of ingratiating skill. Robustly played though it is, it never quite hides the rather conventional nature of the writing – certainly in the opening. Later on nightingale evocations are to be heard and a generally improvisatory element encouraged. Just when the Minuet seems to be running out of steam the Passepied trio erupts into rude health. Experienced practitioners in the field the Freiburger Barockorcester under their violin-leader Gottfried von der Goltz refuse to linger in the Air and bring earthy vitality to the Francophile dance movements.

The Concerto in D E112 is actually a more compact but emotively more personal and complex work. It veers from the external and rather showy to the more plangently reflective with some avidity. The players pick up on its chilliness as well as its seamless lines. And they are on the ball in the Fantasie third movement where we journey from avuncular to notturno introspection with rapidity.

The Intrada in C is a four-movement dance based piece. This one however has a virtuosic role for violino piccolo, presumably played by van der Goltz and an accomplished if rather impersonal air all round. The Suite in C N83 is quite a brash and ceremonial affair and its French sounding leanings are confirmed in the Rondeau and in the ebullient concluding March. The final work, to round out this portrait of Fux the composer of dance music, is the little Rondeau in C.

The orchestral works don’t, it’s true, add materially to what is known of Fux. Too conventional to be stamped with any highly personalised traits they satisfy more domestic and traditional courtly needs. They are nevertheless played with vigour and understanding by the Freiburger Barockorcester and Fux Followers will need no second invitation.

Jonathan Woolf, Musicweb-International.com

Fux: Ouvertures - Il Fondamento, Paul Dombrecht

Johann Joseph Fux
Ouvertures
Il Fondamento, Paul Dombrecht
Passacaille 905

Born approximately 25 years before Bach, Johann Joseph Fux was Austria's number one baroque personality in the early eighteenth century. He wrote hundreds of instrumental and vocal works during his lifetime, the contents of this CD representing just four orchestral suites of the great number he composed. The B flat sinfonia and G minor suite are from his spectacular publication of 1701, "Concentus Musico Instrumentalis", and together with the D minor and B flat ouvertures they represent a wonderful and addictive set of recordings. I decided to buy this CD after becoming fascinated by the Fasch Ouvertures also with Il Fondamento, and was not disappointed when I began playing this CD. The unique sound of Paul Dombrecht and the other musicians really shows through here, creating something truly outstanding in quality and in musicianship; the style is one which effectively brings to life the wonderful and original style of Fux in a "light" manner - the sound being authentic due to the period instruments and not at all laboured as with so many other recordings of music from the period. Very highly recommended for anyone interested in Baroque music, or indeed anyone wishing to listen to something not spoiled by over-exposure.

Amazon Customer Review

Fux: Il Fonte della Salute - Wiener Akademie, Haselböck

Johann Joseph Fux
Il Fonte della Salute
Wiener Akademie, Martin Haselböck
CPO 999 680-2

Sorry folks! No scans included for this one.
Worth downloading never the less of course.

This early German Baroque work is composed in what is known as the "sepolcro" tradition, which appears to be a cross between a Passion Play and an Oratorio. The characters are allegorical: Mercy, Justice, and Grace (who represent Christ), along with a Contrite Sinner, an Obstinate Sinner, and a Demon. The "dramatic tension", and I use the words as lightly as humanly possible, comes both from the Demon's attempts to seduce the stubborn sinner, who is still in the running for hell, and from the contrite sinner's support of the three allegorical ladies who are Christ's stand-ins. What we get is more than two hours of sparsely if beautifully accompanied recitative-aria-recitative-occasional duet or terzetto-recitative-aria.

I can't imagine a better sung performance of this work and it's still amazingly dull: The contrite sinner is gorgeously performed by countertenor Henning Voss; soprano Kumiko Koike's Grace is lovely and pure; Johannes Chum exhibits an agile, handsome tenor voice as the obstinate sinner; Wolfgang Bankl, in the difficult role of the Demon (he must tempt without seeming smarmy or evil) is excellent; and Linda Perillo's Mercy and Ann Monoyios' Justice are lovely traits. The orchestral playing is superb--graceful, crisp, and clean, with a nice pair of bassoons--and the recording is ideal.

The flaws therefore must lie with the music itself--which is dreary as only allegorical, liturgical, early German Baroque music can be--and, moreso, the dead-in-the-water leadership of Martin Haselbock, who probably could have enlivened the proceedings but opted to buy into its piety rather than its "theatricality", be that as it may. And so, an oddity, an historical footnote, mainly for historians and those sorrowful, devout folk who like deep, gloomy, thought-pieces. Sorry--sad, but true.

Robert Levine, Classics Today.com