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Fanfare Magazine: 39:3 (01-02/2016) 
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Brilliant Classics
95089BR



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In 35:1 and 38:5 I previously gave attention to releases of sacred vocal music by Johann Kuhnau (1660–1722). This set brings us what is advertised as being the composer’s complete surviving organ works. Since Kuhnau generally did not specify any particular type of instrument for his keyboard works, and since most previous recordings of them have been made on harpsichord and clavichord, this description is liberally employed by organist Stefano Molardi (who provides the informative booklet notes for this release) as inclusive of all of the composer’s keyboard works suitable for performance on organ. In any case, it is good to have them now assembled into one convenient collection—especially since several of those previous recordings are now out of print—and at Brilliant’s super-budget price to boot.

In my previous review in 38:5, I observed of Kuhnau: “The standard portrait of him ... has been of a rigidly conservative, dogmatic, pedantic Kapellmeister opposed to all innovation, particularly that from Italian sources. Yet one only need hear a few minutes of Kuhnau’s music to realize the utter falsity of this charge....While not the last word in imagination or innovation, they certainly are not dull note-spinning either, but well crafted, expressive, and engaging.” And indeed, when one looks at previous reviews of recordings of the main works presented here—of the six Biblical Sonatas by William Youngren and Edward Strickland (6:2), and of the Frische Clavier Früchte by Tom Moore (16:5)—those are summarily dismissive of Kuhnau in that older vein, whereas more recent reviews of recordings of the Biblical Sonatas by David Johnson (13:2) and Brian Robins (19:5) are by contrast much more open-minded and receptive to Kuhnau’s music and its objectives.

With this release, definitely count me in among Kuhnau’s more recent enthusiasts. Admittedly, his inventiveness does not equal that of Buxtehude before him, or of his immortal successor at the Thomaskirche after him; but it is quite engaging on its own terms, nowhere more so than in the Biblical Sonatas that are his keyboard masterpieces. Early examples of program music, each of these has its movements underscored at the beginning with specific written indications of the Old Testament episodes that the music portrays. For example, the First Sonata, “The Combat between David and Goliath,” consists of the following movements:

“The boasting of Goliath”;

“The trembling of the Israelites at the Appearance of the Giant, and Their Prayer to God”;

“The Courage of David, and His Keen Desire to Repel the Pride of His Terrifying Enemy with the Confidence that He Puts in the Help of God”;

“The Combat between the Two and their Struggle”;

“The Stone is Thrown from the Slingshot – Goliath Falls”;

“The Flight of the Philistines, who are Pursued and Slain by the Israelites”;

“The Joy of the Israelites over their Victory”;

“The Musical Concert of the Women in Honor of David”;

“The General Rejoicing, and the Dances of Joy of the People.”

Each of these employs suitable music forms. For example, Goliath’s boasting features a spirited ascending major-key melody based on a dotted eighth-plus-16th note figure with interjected runs, succeeded by a slow minor key tread underneath sustained long notes for the Israelites’ trembling. The combat has the two protagonists flinging alternate agitated musical phrases at one another; the hurling of the stone is given a brief whirling figure that comes to a sudden stop as the projectile hits its target in Goliath’s forehead; and so on. It is all extremely colorful and engaging. For the biblically literate (and presumably devout) audience that Kuhnau had at the Thomaskirche, such music would have been equally by turns edifying and entertaining; though doubtless it was also the sort of thing that prompted protests from Lutheran traditionalists against the intrusion of unseemly Italianate “opera” into worship, a charge later lodged against Bach’s cantatas and Passions.

The seven sonatas of the Frische Clavier Früchte also employ Italian musical forms. In style, however, these works, and likewise in the assorted individual works featured here—some freestanding pieces, and others taken from the two volumes of the composer’s Neuer Clavier Übung of 1689 and 1692—are far closer to German models in their sound world. Indeed, some movements seem to look back past Buxtehude to earlier composers of the mid-17th century, such as Tunder or Weckmann, though the more lively ones clearly draw their inspiration from recent Italian models.

The performances here are exemplary. In particular, for all of the Biblical Sonatas I find the use of an organ infinitely preferable to that of a harpsichord or clavichord, as the former is capable of the extraordinary range of coloristic effects these pieces need in order to come fully to life. Comparing these performances to those in the long out of print Harmonia Mundi set by John Butt (which utilizes organ in four of the sonatas and clavichord in two), I also find that I prefer Molardi’s interpretations overall, although Butt employs some imaginative effects (such as bells) that the latter does not. For example, the complaint of dull scholasticism by Youngren and Strickland gains some traction when one hears the excessively slow tempo that Butt adopts for “the trembling of the Israelites”; if Molardi perhaps errs in being a bit too fast here, his take on the movement is infinitely preferable. Both players perform on instruments from Kuhnau’s own lifetime. Molardi’s notes provide detailed descriptions of the effects he adopts for each of the movements of the Biblical Sonatas, as well as extensive discussions of the other sonatas and passing remarks on the shorter works. There is also a brief artist bio, and lists of specifications for the two Silberman organs utilized. Brilliant Classics offers a winning entry here that all aficionados of Baroque organ music will want to snap up without delay; enthusiastically recommended.

 

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