Archiv - Codex Treasure from Archiv Produktion

1 CD - 453 171-2 - (p) 1996

50 Jahre (1947-1997) - Codex I Serie - 10/10

SIX CONCERTOS FOR TWO KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS

Antonio SOLER ( 1729-1783)	Concerto no. 1 in C major		10' 33"
	- Andante	5' 26"		1
	- Minué	5' 07"		2
	Concerto no. 5 in A major		9' 31"
	- Cantabile	3' 59"		3
	- Minué	5' 32"		4
	Concerto no. 3 in G major		11' 30"
	- Andantino	5' 49"		5
	- Minué	5' 41"		6
	Concerto no. 4 in F major		9' 04"
	- Afectuoso - Andante non Largo	4' 11"		7
	- Minué	4' 53"		8
	Concerto no. 2 in A minor		13' 06"
	- Andante	4' 22"		9
	- Allegro	3' 26"		10
	- Tempo de Minué	5' 18"		11
	Concerto no. 6 in D major		10' 47"
	- Allegro - Andante - Allegro - Andante	4' 15"		12
	- Minué	6' 32"		13


Kenneth GILBERT Trevor PINNOCK Concertos 1, 3, 4 & 6 on two harpsichords Concertos 2 & 5 on two fortepianos	The instruments: Harpsichords: - Clayson & Garrett Lyminge, Folkesonte, 1978 & 1979, after Vincenzio Sodi, Florence, 1782 Fortepiano: - Adlam Burnett Workshop, Finchcocks, Goudhurst, Kent, 1974 & 1977, after Matthaeus Heilmann, Mainz, c. 1785 Pitch: a' = 440 Hz Publishers: B. Schott's Söhne, Mainz 1972, ed. M. S. Kastner (ED 6230)


	Luogo e data di registrazione		Henry Wood Hall, London (Inghilterra) - 26-28 maggio 1979
	Original Editions		Archiv Produktion \| 2533 445 \| 1 LP \| (p) 1980 \| ANA
	Edizione "Codex"		Archiv Produktion "Codex" \| 453 171-2 \| durata 64' 55" \| LC 0113 \| 1 CD \| (p) 1996 \| ADD \| stereo
	Executive Producer		Dr. Andreas Holschneider
	Recording Producer and Tonmeister		Heinz Wildhagen
	Recording Engineer		Joachim Niss
	Cover		Francisco de Goya "La Vendimia - El Otono" (detail), Museo del Prado
	Art Direction		Fred Münzmaier
	Note		Original-Image-Bit-Processing - Added presence and brilliance, greater spatial definition


ORIGINAL EDITIONS 1 LP - 2533 445 - (p) 1980	Treasures from Archiv Produktion’s Catalogue A rare and valuable collection of documents is the pride of any library or archive. CODEX, Archiv Produktion’s new series, presents rare documents in sound from 50 years of pioneering recording. These recordings have been digitally remastered using original-image bit-processing technology and can now be appreciated in all the richness of their original sound-image. They range from the serene counterpoint of a Machaut, the intensely spiritual polyphony of a Victoria, to the imposing state-music of a Handel. For the artists on Archiv Produktion recordings, a constant aim has been to rediscover the musical pulse of past times and to recreate the spirit of past ages. In this sense each performance here - whether by Pro Musica Antiqua of Brussels in the 1950s, the Regensburg Domchor in the 1960s, or Kenneth Gilbert and Trevor Pinnock in the 1970s - made a vital contribution to the revival of Early Music in our time. CODEX highlights recordings that were unique in their day, many of them ﬁrst recordings ever of this rare and remarkable repertoire, now appearing for the ﬁrst time on CD. A special aspect of the history of performance in our century can now be revisited, as great moments from Archiv Produktion’s recording history are restored and experienced afresh. Dr. Peter Czornyi Director, Archiv Produktion SOLER: SIX CONCERTOS FOR TWO KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS Antonio Soler was born at the beginning of December 1729 at Olot de Porrera, a Catalan village in the province of Gerona, and died on 20 December 1783 in the monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is known to have been baptized on 3 December 1729. It was in this same year that Domenico Scarlatti was installed at the court of Spain. At the age of six, Soler, son of a musician of the Numancia regiment, entered the choir-school of the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat. This great place of pilgrimage, situated near Barcelona, possessed one of the most famous music schools of Spain. There Soler received his musical education; he studied, among other things, the vocal and instrumental works of Juan Cabanilles, Miguel López and José Elias. He was thus brought up in the purest Spanish musical tradition. Soler spent ten years or so at Montserrat, after which, still very young, he was appointed maestro de capilla of Lérida Cathedral. This ﬁrst post allowed him to put into practice what he had learnt at Montserrat; besides this, he there prepared to enter the Church, and received minor orders at the hands of the Bishop of Urgel. The latter, who had been the prior of the monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial, let him know that the post of organist there was vacant. Soler applied for it, and in 1752 obtained the position. The following year he became a monk of the Order of St. Jerome, and was later appointed maestro de capilla. Despite the importance of his functions and his religious duties, Soler was able to profit by the teaching of two of the most important musicians of that time in Madrid, José de Nebra, organist and member of the royal chapel, and Domenico Scarlatti. The latter, who was then Queen Maria Barbara’s harpsichord teacher, stayed for a long time each year in the Escorial when the royal family spent the autumn there. Scarlatti‘s teaching, which ended with his death in 1757, profoundly affected Soler’s style in his keyboard compositions. Later on, Soler was entrusted with the musical education of King Carlos IlI’s sons, the Infantes Don Antonio and Don Gabriel, during their stays in the Escorial. Don Gabriel in particular was a talented musician, and for him Soler wrote several of his most important works, among them the quintets for string quartet and organ, and the concertos for two organs. Padre Soler enjoyed a prodigious capacity for work: the writer of the Memorias sepulcrales relates that he needed very little sleep, and would go to bed only after midnight, rising at 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning to go and say Mass. He composed more than 130 keyboard sonatas, a Fandango, six quintets for string quartet and organ, and six concertos for two organs; over and above this he wrote a considerable quantity of religious music, including a Requiem and numerous villancicos, as well as theatre music - intermezzi, tonadillas, sainetes, etc. - for the entertainment of the court. 428 manuscripts are preserved in the library of the Escorial, but only a collection of 27 sonatas was published during the composcr’s lifetime. Presenting a strange contrast with the austerity of the Escorial building, Soler’s music for keyboard is extremely gay, sometimes even facetious, written for the pleasure of performer and listener. If on the whole his harmonic language is conventional and conservative, Soler is much more audacious in his choice of modulations, which he considered essential; for as he himself wrote in his theoretical work Llave de la Modulación (Madrid, 1762), modulation should be used by the composer to bring variety to his works. Most of Soler’s keyboard compositions are based on binary form, a form greatly developed by Domenico Scarlatti in his sonatas. Nevertheless it would be wrong to see in Soler a simple reflection of his former teacher. Soler was able to assimilate certain elements of Italian music in vogue at that period, while remaining faithful to the long Iberian tradition established by Cabezon, Correa de Arauxo, Coelho, Bruna, Cabanilles, Seixas, etc., and sometimes incorporating his country’s folk tunes and rhythms. The sole known manuscript of the concertos for two organs, an oblong volume of 50 sheets bound in white parchment, is found in the music library of the Escorial and bears the following title: Seis Conciertos de dos Organos Obligados Compuestos por el Pe. Fr. Antonio Soler / Para la diversión del SSmo, Infante de España Dn. Gabriel de Borbón. In the upper right corner of this title-page is found the indication “Quaderno 1.°”, showing that this book was meant for the player of the part written for instrument I. It was very probably the prince who took this part, for, as the musicologist and Hispanicist Macario Santiago Kastner remarks in his preface to his edition of these concertos, it was richer and more brilliant than that for the second instrument and so would have allowed the princely pupil to stand out. Kastner also rightly emphasizes that the reference “de dos organos” should not be taken too literally and that it should be understood rather as “concertos for two keyboard instruments”. In fact, Soler’s style here appears very neutral, as well suited to the clavichord, harpsichord or fortepiano as to the organ proper, like most of the music written in Spain up to that time. It is moreover very probable that Soler and his pupil would have played these concertos on the harpsichord or clavichord, for on the one hand the range of these scores often exceeds that of the organ keyboards of the time, and on the other the organs of the chapel in the Escorial monastery were too far away from each other and would have made performance of the concertos very difficult. The concertos are in two movements, except for No. 2, which is in three. The ﬁrst movements, and the second of Concerto No. 2, are written in binary form, similar to that of the keyboard sonatas: the ﬁnal movements are all minuets. Except for that of the second concerto, they do not follow the traditional Minuet-and-Trio form, but consist of a theme followed by four to seven variations, developed according to the technique of the old Spanish diferencias. In his concertos Soler shows himself, to quote Kastner again, “a consummate master of the two-keyboard-instrument combination. The distribution of the text between the four staves is realized in so felicitous a manner that, in reality, the two instruments complement each other marvellously, avoiding the alarming imbalances only too frequent in music for two pianos. Bernard Brauchli (1980) (Translation: Lionel Salter)