Live recordings of concerts of Early Music. This episode features two concerts from 2023 and an extra treat from a recording from Belgium, where Concertzender now also regurlarly records. You will hear the concert recordings of organist Peter van Dijk, Les Plaisirs du Parnasse and La Penserosa.
We will kick off with an organ recital by Peter van Dijk, as part of a series of coffee concerts that took place in the summer of 2023 at the Tuindorpkerk in Utrecht.
With the music of the Baroque era, you could host one concert after another for several lifetimes. Between 1600 and 1800, composers composed one piece after another. However, many of them were forgotten. In recent years, musicians have rediscovered the Baroque era. Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi most certainly had contemporaries.
In this episode of Concertzender Live Early Music, we won’t overlook these greats of music, but we will focus on lesser-known yet masterful composers, including Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, Elias Brunnenmüller, Johann Gottfried Walther, Jacob Wilhelm Lustig, and Christian Friedrich Ruppe. These names may be unfamiliar to many music lovers.
Ensembles like Les Plaisirs du Parnasse specialize in these lesser-known Baroque composers, uncovering hidden gems, drawing connections between the French and Italian musical styles of the time, and executing them wonderfully.
In this episode, Les Plaisirs du Parnasse performs a trio sonata by Jean-Marie Leclair, the founder of the innovative French violin school.
An interesting detail is Leclair’s connection with the Netherlands. After a conflict over the leadership of the Musique du Roi, a collaboration of musicians who provided music at the French court, the composer stayed in the Netherlands from 1738 to 1743. He served at the courts in Leeuwarden and The Hague under Princess Anna of Orange. He frequently visited Pietro Locatelli in Amsterdam. They had previously performed together in London and Germany, where legend has it that Leclair played like an angel and Locatelli like a devil. In the night of October 22, 1764, Leclair was found dead in his Paris apartment. The murder was never fully solved.
Apparently, the lives of some musicians were not entirely free from danger.
A) Organ concerto Peter van Dijk
1. Johannes Pachelbel (1653-1706)
– VI Suites et Fugues: Fuga in F
2. Elias Brunnenmüller (1690-1712)
– Fasciculus Musicus
3. Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)
– Concerto del Signore Tomasso Albinoni (3 parts)
4. J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
– Vater unser im Himmelreich BWV 737
5. G.F. Handel (1685-1759)
From the Keyboard book by Quirijn and Jacoba Elisabeth van Bambeek van Strijen:
– Allemande and Courante
6. Jacob Wilhelm Lustig (1706-1796)
– from XXIV Capricetten, for harpsichord: Capricetto 1
7. Christian Friedrich Ruppe (1753-1826)
– From Concerto for organ: Rondo Allegretto
Peter van Dijk, organ
Recording: 6 August 2023, Tuindorpkerk Utrecht
Tech and production: Wijnand de Groot
B) Concert Les Plaisirs du Parnasse in Baarn
8. Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764)
– Trio sonata in D op. 4 no. 3
9. Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770)
– Trio sonata in D minor
10. Jean-Joseph Cassanea de Mondonville (1711-1772)
– Trio sonata in C minor, op. 2 no. 6
11. Giuseppe Sammartini (1695-1750)
– Trio sonata in G minor, op. 3 no. 12
12. G.F. Handel (1685-1759)
– Trio sonata in G, op. 5 no. 4
13. Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
– Trio sonata in D minor, La Follia, op. 1 no. 12 RV63
14. Giuseppe Sammartini (1695-1750)
– Fragment from Trio sonata in G: Pastoral (encore)
Les Plaisirs du Parnasse: David Plantier, violin and conductor. Isabelle Lucas, violin. Annabelle Luis, cello. Yvan Carcia, harpsichord
Recording: 23 April 2023, Pauluskerk Baarn
Tech and production: Wijnand de Groot
C) Part of concerto La Penserosa
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
15. Trio sonata op. 3 no. 11 in G minor:
– Grave, Presto, Adagio, Allegro
16. Concerto Grosso op. 6 no. 4 in D minor:
– Adagio-Allegro, Adagio, Vivace, (Giga), Allegro
La Penserosa led by Maia Silberstein, violin
Recording: 19 November 2023, Sint-Michielscollege Brussel
Tech: Leo De Bock
Pictured above: David Plantier (source: Outhere Music)
