Walther Scherzi for Violin and Continuo

Johann Jakob Walther ’s suites, or scherzi, are recorded here, all twelve, by Bojan Čičić and the Illyria Consort. The ensemble has already tackled another less well-known violin master, Carbonelli. The two albums featuring Carbonelli were well-done, but lacked dimensionality, or the potential for greater contrast in dynamics and rubato in the way artists would contrast light and dark in chiaroscuro paintings and drawings. (For those interested, compare the recording with the 2004 release by Hélène Schmitt on Alpha.) While this album has rather impeccable polish from both the violinist and the continuo team, it carries the same flavor from their earlier recordings in leaving me in want of just a little more personality.

This album’s liner notes do an excellent job at establishing Walther’s place in musical history and how this collection acts as compendium of the most expressive of violin technique.

They write:

Walther’s collection is an almost encyclopædic endeavour in showcasing both the potential of the violin to stir the ‘passions and affections’ and his own versatility and imagination as a violinist.

We can make worthy comparisons to Carlo Farina’s Capriccio Stravagante in its use of imitative techniques, or even the Rosenkranz-Sonaten of H.I.F. Biber in its exploratory use of scordatura. Four of the sonatas in this collection are recorded here for the first time. Props to Čičić and the Illyria Consort for taking on repertoire that is technically challenging and giving us the first “complete” recording.

For those unfamiliar with Čičić might be interested to know that he’s replaced Pavlo Beznosiuk as leader of the Academy of Ancient Music (on violin; Laurence Cummings is now their director). Since 2016 he’s taught at the Royal College of Music in London. His consort is made up of Susanne Heinrich on viol, David Miller on bass lute, and Steven Devine on keyboards. As the booklet indicates, they use a string bass or lute and keyboard, either organ and harpsichord across the works which is what is called for by the composer .

Čičić plays cleanly and the recorded sound is transparent and natural sounding.

Despite the artist’s great pedigree and that of his companions, the music on this recording failed to speak to me in a profound way. It’s not that it lacks expression, but the musicians resist inserting any of interpretive drama into their playing. While I think dramatic interpretation can go too far, I’d point out the interpretations of Gunar Letzbor as a counterpoint; his recording of the Italian Pandolfi across two CDs was an interesting release of drama, darkness, and light; the opening of what I believe was the second recording from September 2013 plays with both dynamics and time. While these composers are not tightly aligned in time or location, they both wrote solo violin music that was designed to “stir the passions and affections” and were more or less contemporaries.

The question remains who is responsible to stir the passions and affections; is it a formula someone applies to which notes go onto the page? There is little doubt in my mind of Walther’s creativity and his many attempts to compose music that advanced violin technique using the structures, expectations, and musical idioms of his time. A great example of the fourth and fifth movements of the C major sonata marked Ondeggiando and Apreggiando con arcate sciolte. The first is more or less an undulating introduction to the bariolage which follows. Articulating the same pitch on different strings is notable for giving us a different flavor in the sound; the following athletics required requires an appropriate grip on the bow to be loose enough to cleanly articulate all the notes. (The technique was extended further by composers beyond the Baroque.) Čičić’s technique is fully up to the task in both sections. The Apreggiando is a tour-de-force in consistent and energetic playing, but it is one of the few examples where I felt the challenge. The confidence is matched in the 11th sonata’s Staccaro.

Another point of comparison is the 10th sonata, Imitatione del cuccu. I first became familiar with this sonata from Musica Antiqua Köln’s album (1990), Scherzi musicale. Under Goebel’s bow the music takes on a far more virtuosic flavor. The repetitive motives are each presented with rhetorical flair. The imitation is more bird-like. The performance is another comparative counterpoint to the question I posed about who is responsible for the affective nature of the music. Compositionally, we have Biber’s own imitative Sonata representativa to compare how another composer approached the business of writing birdsong. But the age old question is whether we play simply what’s on the page, or take this historical evidence as an inspiration on how to move our contemporary audiences?

In the end, I just feel that Čičić and the Illyria Consort play too consistently in tone, volume, and style which robs the music of the finer details hidden within to move and engage the listener. For those that are familiar with the first book of Castello’s Sonate Concertante from the Academy of Ancient Music, where Čičić plays second fiddle to Pavlo Beznosiuk under the direction of Richard Egarr (2016, AAM Recordings), it’s an apt comparison as well. The Castello recording more clearly embraced rubato despite the lack of energy the ensemble was able to find in a number of the first book’s pockets.

There has long been a comparison of contemporary nationalist styles in performance of “historically-informed performance practice” or HIPP. The easiest comparisons are between the mainstream British ensembles (say, the AAM or English Concert, in their heyday of recordings on Decca and DG, respectively) and period Italian ensembles that began recording sprees in the following decades. While it is easy to look at recordings through this type of analysis I think it’s fair to say that the decisions to play these pieces with some reserve in what I can only call rhetorical drama was deliberate. A thirty-two year old recording of the same piece is far more musically fulfilling to my ears and while I applaud the technical achievement in playing earnestly and consistently across both CDs, I am ultimately disappointed that there wasn’t a more thoughtful attempt to explore the dramatic depth of the music.

My small disappointments aside, this is recording is well-recorded and provides us a very clean and articulate recording of Walther’s complete set of sonatas. This high level of art comes from the synergy between well-rehearsed musicians and a sensitive recording team. That itself deserves a listen for more comprehensively appreciating the art and influence of one of Germany’s more “significant violinists of the 17th century ([Wikipedia][1]).”

[1]: My small disappointments aside, this is recording is well-recorded and provides us a very clean and articulate recording of Walther’s complete set of sonatas. This high level of art comes from the synergy between well-rehearsed musicians and a sensitive recording team. That itself deserves a listen for more comprehensively appreciating the art and influence of one of Germany’s more “significant violinists of the 17th century (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Jakob_Walther_(composer))).”