SCHMELZER J.H. (1620/23-1680) CHAMBER WORKS / Musica Florea / M.Štryncl

Johann Heindrich SCHMELZER (1620/23-1680):

1. SONATA CUM TUBIS IN PLENO a 9 3:33

2. SONATA a 2 5:56

3. LAUDATE PUERI a 2 - Antonio Pino 5:20

4. SONATA a 3 VIOLINI 6:21

SONATA AD TABULAM a 4 6:24

5. Allegro 2:18

6. Adagio 1:52

7. Allegro 2:08

8. SONATA a 5 (IV.14) 5:38

9. LAUDATE PUERI a 7 - Johann Joseph Flixi 7:08

10. SONATA a 5 (IV.151) 3:05

11. SONATA a 3 5:15

12. SONATA AMABILIS a 4 4:19

13. LAUDATE PUERI a 4 - anonym? 5:14

14. SONATA a 7 3:49

Total time 62:50

Musica Florea

Marek Štryncl conductor

Anna Hlavenková soprano (9), Martin Prokeš tenor (13), Michael Pospíšil bass (3)

Schmelzer was the first non-Italian court conductor in Vienna, he was the most famous violinist of his time, the founder of the "South German violin school". This school enriched the hitherto existing violin literature by the use of chord play, the use of "scordatura", which meant a different, special tuning of the violin, necessary for achieving certain effects in the chord play. Technically, he stylised the various instrumental parts excellently, being obviously aided by his own poly-intrumentalist experience. In his court dances, he incorporated the original folk elements, achieving a kind of folklore effect which was rather exotic for the court. He perfected the form of programmatic sonata.

Hardly anyone knows his beautiful masses, motets and Christmas cantatas, in fact "pastorals", as we know them from 18th and 19th-century music in Bohemia.

The exquisite stylisation of the various, often very demanding parts, melodic invention, logic, effects, all this must have been the cause for his music being frequently copied and played. In rom, a number of Schmelzer's compositions have been preserved in two or three copies, the probable reason being that several originally different collections were put together. For example, SONATA a 5 (by mistake published and recorded as a composition by Pavel Vejvanovský).

(Studio Matouš)