Since the late 17th century London was one of the
musical centres of Europe. For performers and composers it was one of the
places to be. Immigrants from overseas played a major role in musical events,
from the intimate rooms of the aristocracy to opera. The ensemble La Rêveuse
devoted two discs to what was written and performed in London during the
first half of the 18th century. The respective titles of these discs
indicate the developments at the music scene during these fifty years or so.
The first disc shows the influence of Arcangelo Corelli. The man himself
never visited England, but his music disseminated across Europe and had a
huge influence on other composers of his generation and the next. When his
sonatas and concerti grossi were printed in England, the whole music-loving
country fell for it and came under the spell of his music, and the Italian
style in general. His music was arranged in many different ways and found an
enthusiastic reception among the amateurs, playing it at home and/or
together in the many musical societies across England, Wales, Scotland and
Ireland.
One particularly striking feature of music life at the time is the
coexistence of tradition and modernity. The latest music from Italy was
embraced, but at the same time amateurs continued to play the recorder and
the viola da gamba, two instruments which enjoyed their heydays in the 17th
century. In Italy the viola da gamba had become obsolete since the mid-17th
century, and since the last decades of that century the main string bass was
the cello. In England music for the viola da gamba was still written, for
instance by Benjamin Hely, which indicates there was still a market for such
music. It is not known for whom Handel may have written his only sonata for
viola da gamba, included here. Interestingly, Pietro Chaboud, who was a
bassoonist, also played the viol. This may well explain why he arranged an
aria from Alessandro Scarlatti's opera Il Pirro e Demetrio, which had
been adapted for the London stage by Nicola Francesco Haym, for viola da
gamba and basso continuo.
The popularity of the recorder is documented by the many arrangements of
Corelli's violin sonatas for the instrument. Many such arrangements were
printed, and they are well documented on disc. Arrangements of his concerti
grossi are less well-known, and it is interesting that this disc offers one
of them: Johann Christian Schickhardt, himself of German origin, composed
much music for his own instrument, for instance six sonatas Op. 6 after
Corelli's concerti grossi. He also wrote a set of six concertos for four
recorders, strings and basso continuo. It is a bit of a shame that the
performers decided to arrange the Concerto in d minor, op. 19,2 in
order to play the solo parts with two recorders and two transverse flutes.
William Babell has become best-known for his keyboard arrangements of opera
arias by Handel. The Concerto in D is taken from a set of six
concertos with one or two recorder parts.
For a long time the violin had been mainly used as an alternative to the
treble viol in consort music. After the Restoration in 1660, when music life
started to join in with the latest fashions on the continent, it was more
and more used as a solo instrument. The influx of Italian composers after
1700, most of whom were violinists by profession, contributed to the
dissemination of the violin and advanced its role in music life. One of
those violinist-composers was Francesco Geminiani, who presented himself as
a pupil of Corelli, which certainly favoured the reception of his music. The
Sonata in D, op. 1,4 is a specimen of his art.
A really new instrument was the transverse flute, usually called the 'German
flute'. It was still not widespread in the 1720s. From that angle the
inclusion of an arrangement of an aria from Handel's opera Admeto,
which was published by John Walsh in 1738 or 1743 is a bit out of place here,
and would have been better included in the second programme, devoted to
music of the 1740s.
The second disc brings music from the 1740s. Handel was still a force to be
reckoned with, and obviously he is represented in the programme. However,
the heydays of the Italian style were gone. Italian opera had lost its
appeal, partly under the influence of the Beggar's Opera which
ridiculed opera and the social circles that had embraced it. Handel
abolished opera and turned his attention to oratorios on an English text.
Another development was the emergence of public concerts: "[Concerts] by
amateur music societies, series of public subscription concerts, opera
seasons at the Lincoln's Inn Fields or Covent Garden theatres, open-air
summer seasons in the pleasure gardens, and even a Masonic musical season
organised by the 'Philo-Musicae et Architecturae Societas Apollini', one of
the oldest Lodges, founded by Geminiani in 1724." (booklet) During
summertime the elite was on the countryside, and concert life came to a halt.
Jonathan Tylers, the owner of the Spring Gardens at Vauxhall, took advance
of the presence of professional musicians who did not have much to do: he
organized public concerts of high calibre, but open to everyone for a modest
price of admission. The concerts at Vauxhall Gardens have become very
well-known, as some of the best composers of the time wrote music for it,
such as Handel. However, most pieces performed there were taken from
existing sources. It is there that the tradition came into existence of
crowds's singing 'Rule, Britannia!', taken from Thomas Augustine Arne's
opera Alfred.
The programme comprises music by composers most of whom were associated with
Handel in that they played in his orchestra. It opens with the Concerto
in e minor for transverse flute by Charles Weideman, who was from
Germany (born as Carl Friedrich Weidemann) and joined Handel's orchestra in
1725. It attests to the increasing popularity of the flute, which was mostly
played by performers who were educated on the oboe. Weideman may have been
one of them (as New Grove states in the entry on the flute; the
article about himself suggests that he was educated on the flute). Giuseppe
Sammartini certainly was an oboist by profession, and according to
contemporaries probably the greatest of them all. Here we hear his
best-known work, the Concerto in F, in which the solo part is
originally written for the recorder.
Pietro Castrucci was from Rome, and there he met Handel, when the latter was
staying there. Castrucci followed Handel to London in 1715 and became
concertmaster of the latter's orchestra. According to Charles Burney he
invented the violetta marina, a kind of viola d'amore which Handel
used in two of his operas. The largest part of his modest output comprises
violin sonatas, but here we get a curious piece for viola da gamba, an
instrument that in his time was in the process of being overshadowed by the
Italian cello. However, among the higher echelons of society the gamba was
still played; until the end of his life Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787)
taught the viol to some of them.
One of the features of English concert life in the mid-18th century was the
growing popularity of traditional music, be it from Scotland or from
Ireland. Several composers included traditional tunes into their
compositions or arranged such tunes for 'art' instruments, such as the flute
or the violin. In this programme that aspect of concert life is represented
by James Oswald, who was from Scotland and was educated on the cello. He
settled in London and became acquainted with the English, Italian and French
styles. He a had a strong influence on later generations of composers. Here
we hear a selection of his versions of traditional tunes, played on a
variety of instruments.
The entire ensemble closes the programme with a performance of the
Hornpipe in D, a piece that Handel wrote specifically for the Vauxhall
Gardens.
These discs offer a nice mixture of well-known pieces and unknown items.
Among the former are the pieces by Handel and Sammartini's recorder
concerto. Weideman may be new to the catalogue, and I am pretty sure that
Castrucci's sonata for viola da gamba has never been recorded before. That
is certainly a valuable addition to the viol repertoire. Some of the
arrangements on the first disc may also appear here for the first time. La
Rêveuse has produced a most interesting and musically compelling survey of
what was written and performed in London during the first half of the 18th
century. The ensemble includes some young performers but also an old hand as
the French recorder player Sébastien Marq, who delivers an excellent
performances of the solo concertos. He also shines in a number of pieces by
Oswald. From Serge Saïtta we get a fine performance of the aria from
Handel's Admeto, Oliver Riehl is the outstanding soloist in
Weideman's concerto, and Florence Bolton excells in the solo pieces for the
viola da gamba.
