Search - Johann Joseph Fux, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer :: Music at the Court of Leopold I

Early "Early Music"

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 03/18/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'd love to know when this music was recorded. The list of personnel in Concentus Musicus suggests that it might have been as early as the 1960s, in which case the surprise is how technically excellent the ensemble was. That was an era when reactionary critics of the "historically informed" music movement constantly clamored about 'tuning problems' and 'defective instruments.' Their charges conveniently ignored the musical reality that mainline modern performers had a share of dropped notes and smudged tunings also; perfection was and is rare. For the price of this CD, you can afford to arrive at your own judgement, but to me this early offering from Nikolaus Harnoncourt sounds mighty darn good.



More than half the CD is devoted to chamber music by Johann Josef Fux (1660-1741), on of the dominant composers on the middle baroque from his position as the Kapellmesiter of the Hapsburg Court in Vienna. The two violin/continuo sonatas by Heinrich Biber and Johan Schmelzer have certainly been surpassed by more recent performances, but are still worth hearing. The Sonata for Four Violas da Gamba by Giovanni Legrenzi is quite tastefully played. Altogether this was an elegant concert that still reveals the pioneering sensitivity of conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt."