Luogo e data di registrazione		-
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		-
	Prima Edizione LP		Telefunken - 6.42825 AZ - (1 LP) - LC 0366 - durata 46' 57" - (p) 1982 - Digital
	Edizione "Reference" CD		Tedec - 8.44010 ZS - (1 CD) - LC 3706 - durata 46' 57" - (c) 1988 - DDD
	Cover		"Musiyierender Satyr", Fayence, Eckernförde 1765. Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg.

The term sonate concertate appeared by 1621 at the latest in the title of relevant Venetian editions; the term refer - unlike the older type of canzona sonata and analogous to the modern concerto - to a special category of ensemble sonata: the individual instruments can, for example, act as solos, or they can perform “in concerto style” quite different material within the framework of the ensemble. These solo passages are occasionally set off from one another by tutti sections (e.g. ritornelli), but they sometimes flow into one another without a break. They often give the impression of being improvised, particularly when they are based on likesounding bass models. Further characteristics of the sonata concertata are the differentiation of ripieno and concertino sections according to the type of movement and the choice of motif. The contrast between upper and lower choir or between wind and string timbre came to have an idiomatic and structural significance beyond the traditional antiphon singing. In the course of the 17th century, Vienna developed into one of the leading music centres of Europe under the supervision and patronage of the Habsburg Emperors Ferdinand II, Ferdinand III and particularly Leopold I, all of whom were extremely fond of music. These three rulers encouraged strong Italian influence in the court orchestra, and a distinct “Austro-Italian” musical style was founded and developed under the Hofkapellmeister G. Priuli and G. Valentini and Monteverdi’s pupil G. B. Buonamente. Almost all the important musicians at the court came from Venice, and they were nearly all engaged in the import and cultivation of Venetian opera in Vienna. The definition of the post-Gabrieli instrumental style was the major achievement of the “Viennese Venetians”, who may be listed chronologically as follows: Priuli, Valentini, Buonamente, Bertali, Cesti, Schmelzer, Fux. Giovanni Battista Buonamente, whose splendid Orchestra Sonata and five-movement Trio Sonata are both notable for their fertility of inspiration, was a musician at the Imperial Court in Vienna from 1622 onwards. It was his set of suites and sonatas, published in Venice, that brought the new Italian instrumental style to Austria. Johann Heinrich Schmelzer enjoyed a considerable reputation as a virtuoso violinist, and was the first Austrian in a long line of Italian Hofkapellmeister, directors of music at the court. His “Sonata la Carolietta à 4” is divided into two fully worked-out outer movements and a central section of virtuoso, improvisational character. Here, within the framework of a tutti ritornello (3/2 time), two pairs of instruments play in each case almost identical solos one after the other: violin and trombone “improvise” over one repeated bass line, cornet and dulcian over another. The work is only preserved in a single copy in the St. Maurizius-Archiv in Kremsier. Kremsier, the residence of another music-loving member of the aristocracy, the Prince-Bishop Karl Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn of Olmütz, played a key role in the development of the magnificent Viennese-Venetian style. We know little about the life of Heinrich Aloys Brückner. His three-movement, two-choir sonata for four soprano instruments is also preserved in the Kremsier archives. Marc-Antonio Ferro spent the last twenty years of his life as a theorbo-player at the Imperial Court. The only works of his to have survived are a collection of two-, three- and four-part sonatas, compositions which are marked on the one hand by conservatism and on the other by surprising ideas in the thematic and harmonic phrasing. Giovanni Valentini, like his predecessor Priuli a pupil of Gabrieli, entered the court orchestra in Graz in 1614 after ten years as organist to the King of Poland. When the Archduke was to be crowned Emperor Ferdinand II, he moved to Vienna together with the orchestra, and here he was promoted to the position of Hofkapellmeister in 1629. Idiosyncracies in the form and sound of his works show that he always strove to write individual music in spite of his own strong traditional streak. Johann Joseph Fux is represented here by his “ Sonata a quattro”, a sonata da chiesa of a rather anachronistic kind. The cornet and the trombone, for example, were universally considered oldfashioned in classical music by Fux’s time. The “modern” instruments, violin and bassoon, are also employed differently in places - in the “concertante” insert in the middle of the second movement, for example. The third part of this movement is a masterpiece of counterpoint: three to four subjects are impressively handled. The third movement, a full-sounding adagio rich in dissonance, leads directly into the fourth movement; the time marking is not altered by the transition, unlike the quality of the phrasing. The fifth movement is once again split into three parts. In spite of the austere double and triple fugues, the work is attractive for its melodic intimacy and the beauty of the sound. This sonata is the late crowning of a tradition of scoring for violin and wind instruments which survived with vigour until the beginning of the 18th century, despite the predominance of music for string ensemble. Giovanni Legrenzi does not belong properly to the “Viennese Venetians”. Ambitious in his career, Legrenzi advanced through various posts to be appointed maestro di capclla at San Marco in Venice at the age of 58; neither dedicatory compositions on his part, however, nor the generous recommendations of others were able to secure him the equivalent position at the Vienna court. The selection of sonatas on this record represents two different traditions of sonata a quattro scoring apart from the two pieces by Buonamente. One is a mixed instrumentation with cornet, violin, trombone and bassoon; the other is the double-choir combination consisting of two groups, each with two soprano instruments and a bass continuo, the latter also being chorally divided in places. These ensemble pieces are without exception sonate da chiesa, albeit in most cases no less expressly intended for camera than chiesa. Holger Eichhorn Translation: Clive R. Williams The Musicalische Compagney, anensemble devoted to music of the 16th amd 17th centuriesm was founded in 1972 by Holger Eichhorn (cornettist and musicologist) and Klaus Eichhorn (church musician). Taking as a working title "An experiment in the real way to play historic music", the group strives to reconcilie a historically accountable - i. e. intellectually appropriate - presentation of the correlation of timbre, delivery and emotional expression with actual performance. The Musicalische Compagney had cosolidated its reputation as a rather special ensemble with numerous concerts in Germany and abroad (Belgium, Denmark, East Germany, France, Holland, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, USA...), and with radio and television broadcasts and gramophone recordings, Among the major events in their work in recent years have been an hour-long television film, the first performance of Monteverdi's "Vespers" in the conjectural original version and an annual series of concerts which the group has now given several years running.