Search - Johann Joseph Fux, Armonico Tributo Austria, Lorenz Duftschmid :: Concentus Musico-Instrumentalis 1

Excellent performance!

canzona86@hotmail.com | Traverse City, MI USA | 09/17/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The music of Fux is definitely something that has needed to be rerecorded for the last thirty years and finally here it is in a lively and most inspired performance by Armonico Tributo Austria under the expert direction of Lorenz Duftschmid. Fux is primarily remembered as a theoretician because of his Gradus ad Parnassum but little if any of his music has ever been recorded and that's been a terrible oversight until now. The pieces performed on this recording present a composer whose talent is at the very least comparable to that of his more illustrious contemporaries such as J.S. Bach, Handel, and Jean Baptiste Lully. As well written as the seranada and the two overtures are, the surprise saved for the end is the "Turcaria". This is a suite of pieces arranged as a psuedo-ballet. The orchestration and the firey almost bombastic interpretation certainly predicts the "alla Turca" of Mozart and Beethoven. I certainly look forward with great anticipation to a volume two of Fux performed by this wonderful orchestra! - Norbert Fronczak"

Inspired Music-Making, Excellent Engineering, Exemplary Docu

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 03/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Johann Joseph Fux (1660 - 1741): Concentus Musico-Instrumentalis I: Serenada K. 352; Overture E. 109; Overture K. 355; Turcaria. Performed by: Armonico Tributo Austria [Gunar Letzbor, Chiharu Abe, Ilja Karol, Wolfhard Schuster, Brigitte Täubl, Barbara Erdner and Sigurd Imsen, violins; Peter Aigner and Eva Posvanecz, viola; Lorenz Duftschmid, viola da gamba; Juris Teichmanis, violoncello; Walther Rumer, violone; Andreas Lackner and Herbert Walser, baroque trumpets; Alfredo Bernardini and Paolo Grazzi, baroque oboes; Alberto Grazzi, bassoon; Michael Oman, recorder; Eduardo Eguez, tiorbo; Norbert Zeilberger, harpsichord; Charl Fischer, percussion; Gerald Endstrasser, carillon], dir. Lorenz Duftschmid. Recorded in the "Kaisersaal" (Imperial Hall) of the Benedictine Monastery at Kremsmünster, Austria, in September 1997. Published in 1998 as Arcana A 58. Total playing time: 61'50".



Lorenz Duftschmid here enables us to re-discover the instrumental music of Johann Joseph Fux (his name rhymes with "looks"), a composer who, if not completely forgotten, is normally associated with sacred music (and, of course, with his treatise "Gradus ad Parnassum", but I think the other reviewers have said enough about that.) Fux was, for many years, Kapellmeister at the Imperial Court in Vienna. This CD presents a collection of festal suites, which Lorenz Duftschmid has put together from Fux's "Concentus Musico-Instrumentalis" and from other sources. "Festal" not only because the music was composed for festive occasions, but because the fanfares with their kettle drums and trumpets and the suites with their superb winds remind one of other baroque music composed for royal occasions - such as Handel's "Water Musick" or Johann Helmich Roman's "Drottningsholm-Musiken". The last suite of the four, the so-called "Turcaria", is put together from various short pieces in which Fux gives a musical portrayal of the besieging of Vienna by the Turks (and not the "occupation" as the English version of the notes wrongly translates). If you take a look at the list of musicians involved (see above), you will see that a number of renowned Early Music specialists were at work here. And that is how the result sounds, in every way. According to the notes, the musicians felt especially inspired by the glorious barock hall at Kremsmünster Abbey - and that is certainly how it sounds, this is 60 minutes of thoroughgoing enjoyment! But the sound engineering is also excellent and the documentation, as practically always with Arcana, is exemplary.

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A review of this recording

Slobberer | Astoria, NY United States | 09/29/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Johann Joseph Fux was a contemporary of Bach, but his compositions owe more to the lyrical, Austrian-Italian musical tradition of Biber, Muffat, and Schmelzer than to the contrapuntal complexities of his North German colleagues. This is all the more remarkable when you consider that he was the author of the most revered counterpoint textbook (Gradus ad Parnassum, Vienna, 1725) in the history of Western music. Written in Latin in the form of a Socratic dialog, the book offered such a thorough and systematic course of self-study in the musical language of "Golden Age" composers such as Palestrina, and was so immediately successful, that it completely obliterated Fux's reputation as a composer. In some ways this unfortunate turn of events was understandable, for his music is as simple, tuneful, and pleasing as his textbook is austere and intimidating. An encounter with Fux the composer must have come as a shock to his latter-day scholarly admirers, a musical revelation equivalent to the scene from The Wizard of Oz in which Toto pulls back the curtain to reveal the Wizard as a clever, grandfatherly old charlatan. The four suites on this recording--one a compilation of Fux's exotic "Turkish" music from various sources--are simply delightful. They follow the typical Baroque pattern of an introductory Overture (or Fanfare, in one case), followed by a selection of characteristic arias and dances. Even better, this beautifully planned and vibrantly performed disc promises to be the first in a series. It's high time we got to know the ingratiating "other side" of this fascinating, indeed legendary, musical figure.





--David Hurwitz







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