Friday, May 27, 2022

Leonhardt Recordings Beyond Sebastian Bach

Gustav Leonhardt taking a bow at a recital at the Cité de la Musique in Paris in September of 2008 (photograph by Paul Ruet, from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license)

As promised, my examination of The New Gustav Leonhardt Edition released by Warner Classics this past April, has advanced from a focus on Johann Sebastian Bach to the other German composers, whose music was performed for recordings made by Leonhardt. Those performances are realized in a variety of capacities, which include both conductor and instrumentalist. The instruments, in turn, are both harpsichord and organ, as well as cello on an album of sonatas for recorder composed by George Frideric Handel.

I am afraid that this is not the best organized of collections, particularly since one of the CDs includes three tracks of music by Henry Purcell. As might be guessed, the “extended” Bach family gets a generous amount of attention. Two CDs is devoted entirely to Carl Philipp Emanuel, one for three cello concertos and one for five symphonies. The symphonies are particularly interesting due to the number of attacca transitions from one movement to the next. More important, however, is that one can appreciate how these symphonies paved the way for the symphonies subsequently composed by the First Viennese School composers, Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in particular. The other members of the Bach family one encounters are Johann Christian and Wilhelm Friedemann. However, their offerings in the collection are too modest to allow for establishing much of an acquaintance.

The other composer to receive more than one CD of attention is Johann Kuhnau. He is probably best known for having composed six Biblical Sonatas for solo keyboard. Each of these amounts to program music based  a story from the Old Testament. Leonhardt alternated between harpsichord and organ in playing these selections, each of which was introduced with his own narration of the story being represented. Sadly, neither those texts or versions translated into English are available. The best one can do is negotiate the movement titles, that basically guide the listener through each of the narratives. These are printed in German, and I must confess that I have not tested Google Translate on any of this content.

This raises an annoying element in Warner Classics packaging. The only background text is found in a booklet that is too skimpy to be of much use. For much of this content, Wikipedia turned out to be a rather useful source; and it is more readily accessible than the online version of Grove, which is “protected.” (Fortunately, I have access to that site through my public library card; but, since I like to provide hyperlinks for my readers, I find that Wikipedia satisfies more needs than I would have originally guessed!)

From a more positive point of view, I have found myself consistently satisfied with the performance technique, at least on the basis of what I have learned about performance practices by going to concerts and recitals. More often than not, even when the name of the composer may be unfamiliar, both structure and style tend to reflect my experiences of listening to more familiar composers. Nevertheless, such a background only satisfies the most superficial aspects of the content. Those wishing to approach Leonhardt’s recordings as “informed listeners” will not find very much useful guidance in the packaging of this collection.

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