Musica Poetica
Musicalische Fruehlings-Früchte
- Type CD
- Label Challenge Classics
- UPC 0608917233223
- Catalog number CC 72332
- Release date 07 September 2009
About the album
Beckers collection ‘Musicalische Frühlings-Früchte’ was published in 1668 and is dedicated to the city council, who had appointed him to the position of City Capellmeister. Recent research suggests that, not only was Becker one of the most important violinists of his time, but that he was the first composer to use the sequence of Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Gigue in ensemble suites.
Flor’s Suite in C opens with a Praeludium, a type of written-down improvisation. Short improvised preludes were a means of checking the tuning of the instrument and the quality of its tone, and of loosening the player’s fingers. An unscripted improvisation can be heard on this recording as a prelude to the Suite in G: it is based on a free selection of single dances and an air from Lully’s opera “Roland”.
The Suite in d starts with an Aria instead of an allemande and has no gigue. Every movement has a double, called Variatio in this case.
The ‘Hochzeitlicher Freuden-Klang’ is an occasional work, dated 18 April 1659. According to the front page, Flor composed it for the wedding of his friend Heinrich Elers, preacher at St. Johannis. The piece is a charming combination of instrumental suite with so-called ‘Generalbasslied’ or continuo song. These secular, strophic songs are mostly solos with continuo and instrumental ritornellos and belong to a genre that is typical of the music of Protestant Germany. Flor adds a quick Ballo to the Allemande – Courante – Sarabande – Gigue sequence and finishes the work with a beautiful slow cadence in which the singer calls on the couple to dance until it is time to go to bed. The Gigue in common time (C) shows the influence of English music, which entered North Germany via Hamburg.
Becker’s collection ‘Musicalische Frühlings-Früchte’ contains sonatas and suites as well as combinations of both forms. Sometimes we find a sonata preceding a suite of dances, thus playing the role of an introduction (e.g. in the Suite in G). This introductory sonata still keeps the Italian sonata form with the combination of slow and fast movements. In other places we find single sonatas which include dances, as in his sonata for 2 violins, violone and continuo, which ends with a quick gigue.
Stylistically, the two Anonymous suites from the Düben collection (Manuscript No.: IMHS 64:13) might be related to one or two different (North) German composers at the end of the 17th or the beginning of the 18th century. Neither suite follows the Allemande – Courante – Sarabande – Gigue sequence. Both are examples of a category of suites whose formation and disappearance was the direct result of their having been composed for specific occasions – for ballets or related dramatic performances. The first suite opens with a French Ouverture which surprises the listener with a furious bass solo that breaks into the polyphonic middle section. Another typically French feature is the Chaconne at the end, with virtuosic violin solos and shifting rhythmical accents.
The highlight of Suite no. II certainly is the beautiful Tombeau with its deeply expressive lament, performed by the first violin and accompanied by the bow vibrato of the rest of the group. The lament passes into a dance in ¾ which gives an impression of salvation after painful suffering. A chromatic Final(e) ends the Suite.
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11Sonata and Suite in G Sonata
03:34 -
12Sonata and Suite in G Allmand
01:20 -
13Sonata and Suite in G Courant
00:57 -
14Sonata and Suite in G Sarband
01:38 -
15Sonata and Suite in G Gique
01:12 -
16Suite in d for harpsichord Aria & Variatio
01:36 -
17Suite in d for harpsichord Corrente & Variatio
01:50 -
18Suite in d for harpsichord Sarabande & Variatio
02:00 -
19Suite no. II in e Entrée
01:27 -
110Suite no. II in e Tombeau
04:30 -
111Suite no. II in e Gigue
01:05 -
112Suite no. II in e Anglois
00:48 -
113Suite no. II in e Menuet
00:50 -
114Suite no. II in e Final
01:15 -
115Suite in C for harpsichord Praeludium
01:03 -
116Suite in C for harpsichord Allemande
02:01 -
117Suite in C for harpsichord Courante
01:10 -
118Suite in C for harpsichord Sarabanda
01:59 -
119Suite in C for harpsichord Gigue
02:05 -
120Sonata in G Sonata
04:54 -
121Suite no. I in e Ouverture
03:51 -
122Suite no. I in e Allemande
02:10 -
123Suite no. I in e Menuet
00:55 -
124Suite no. I in e Air
02:36 -
125Suite no. I in e Chaconne
02:29 -
126Suite in G for harpsichord Praeludium
01:57 -
127Suite in G for harpsichord Ballet
00:33 -
128Suite in G for harpsichord Air Rolandi
00:58 -
129Suite in G for harpsichord Menuets
01:26 -
130Auf, höret meine Sinnen
06:40