Cabinet of Wonders, Volumes 1/2
Kinga Ujszászi (violin) and Tom Foster (harpsichord) record violin sonatas from the manuscripts located in the Saxon State and University Library in Dresden, from the so-called Schrank II collection. The collection’s title, a Wunderkammer or cabinet of wonders, seems appropriate, as the collection is made up of what is believed Pisendel’s varied and esoteric collection of violin works.
Pisendel was well-known to us as a virtuosic violinist, one who was well-associated with Vivaldi. As Dresden was a strong center for music making, his position has historically been of some renown. What he left us under his own pen is remarkable, if not an echo of the style that won over the public’s favor during the height of his career.
The first edition includes works by Vilsmayr, Visconti, and Schrievogel. Volume two includes works by Bitti, Laurenti, Albicastro, Fiorelli and Montanari. Yes: these are composers whose names are likely more unfamiliar, yet belong in the historical position of the ‘high baroque,’ just shy of the death of J.S. Bach. The first disc includes several premier recordings; the second album is all the more comprehensively new to the recorded canon.
Both albums include good notes which situate the pieces and their history. The albums are recorded at high resolution by Chiaro Audio at a church in Plumstead, London.
What surprised me most about these two recordings were the high quality of the performances; I was not familiar with the Hungarian Ujszászi, who is an excellent violinist who is captured up-close, securing for us all her expressive details in performance. The choice to perform these with a single keyboard instrument is commendable. Foster is a sympathetic accompanist who is capable of pivoting from very simple support to a far different approach with florid support.
The works included in this project, which is expected to be on-going with financial support, are all virtuosic, to some degree. The variety showcases the wide variety of musical language and styles which came to Dresden. It’s hard to say if these pieces were in all in active rotation. Pieces from the first disc vary from three to five movements; in the second, the variety spans from three to six movements in length per sonata. All that goes to show the form was not as standardized.
Always upfront in these recordings is the violinist’s warm and rustic sound; I found her tone and her instrument’s natural timbre to be extremely pleasing. The first sonata from the second volume in its fourth movement goes across the gamut of the violin, hovering in the middle of the instrument’s register, before reaching skyward. The extension of gamut needs to be seen to us as a virtuosic element. The playing throughout this sonata is clean. The ending Giga might have been enhanced with some embellishment in its repeat.
The opening of the Laurenti sonata, in the album’s next track, is of a completely different character, overwrought in a baroque excess of a graced melody. Certainly captures one’s attention! The pair here shows no sign of stress. Which makes the monument of the recording all the more remarkable.
While the quality in composition is not wholly consistent across these two albums, some do approach the high quality of Pisendel’s own sonatas. The C major sonata from the second volume, SalB SV9 is one that I believe qualifies. Another is the one attributed to Schreivogel in E minor from the first disc. Its turns of harmony require an intelligent choice around tuning and temperament. The piece turns fiercely more difficult with the faster, last movement’s double stopping.
The final track of the E-flat major sonata from the first disc is enigmatic of the collection’s charm. Not sure who needs to write a sonata in E-flat, but there it is. Plenty of flats too, in the key of C minor. The Visconti sonata, tracks 7-9 in the first volume, are stylistically connected to the other sonatas; even if the themes aren’t more fully developed, they are ripe rhetorically. Ujszászi plays the more melodic, cantabile sections with equal force as the runs which often punctuate these sonatas, including the C-minor. The material in the final movement of the C minor gets repeated and while the repeat is not a carbon copy, I felt there was potential to be even more inventive.
These two albums represent some of the best efforts by HIP artists to uncover new and interesting works for the modern audience that have survived in oblivion. The performances are emotionally and technically strong, admirable, in fact. There are instances, however, where I could see some artists taking more extroverted liberties with the music. That said, these performances are far from bland. The pieces, themselves, are rich in good invention, which for me, even if the movements are short, make them fun listens. I can’t say how much editing went into what ultimately got recorded, but those presented here are all worthy for concertizing.
