Gemmingen: Violin Concertos 1 & 2, Sperger: Sinfonia in F

Gemmingen, Ernst von, Sperger, Johann Matthias

Lessing, Kolja, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Schirmer, Ulf

CPO 777 454-2

Everybody knows Joseph Haydn's Farewell Symphony. During the last movement one musician after the other disappears, until only two violinists are left on the stage as a duo and bring the work to its close. Johann Matthias Sperger, the principal double bassist in the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court chapel and one of the leading double bassists of his time, regarded Haydn's idea as so original that he wrote a counterpart to it: in his Arrival Symphony a violin duo initially sits on the stage, and the other musicians gradually join these two, until the whole orchestra has gathered. The main discoveries on this CD, however, are the first two violin concertos of Ernst von Gemmingen, the scion of a Württemberg family of knights. We know very little about him as a man and a musician. He began the usual career of a court official and was an envoy in Berlin prior to settling in Heilbronn. His affinity for music is documented in many sources. During the years around 1800 he composed four violin concertos already pointing far ahead into the romantic era. It is thus all the more astonishing that we have no references at all to additional compositions by him. Kolja Lessing, whom we have to thank for the valid interpretation of the concertos recorded here, speaks of the »great early romantic concertos« that the music world has always sought: Voilà!

CD x 1

CPO

3/22/12

761203745425