Combattimento Consort Amsterdam

Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Jan Willem de Vriend – J.S. Bach: Christmas Oratorio (2006)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82 MHz | Time – 72:01 + 66:56 minutes | 5,48 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover |  © Challenge Records

Jan Willem de Vriend shares his thoughts on the Christmas Oratorio:
‘The Combattimento Consort Amsterdam has always performed the complete Christmas Oratorio with only two exceptions. On these two occasions the concert hall did not want a complete performance and the choice was left to us which movements to leave out. However, this is in fact an impossible choice, as in my view the work forms a single entity. So, it has happened on occasion that we have performed four cantatas. And even though prior to the concert we thought that on the one hand it would be fine to finish earlier, as it turned out — and I think I can speak for all my colleagues — after the performance we felt it a great pity after all, not to have included those two cantatas. During a performance of the complete cycle we have become accustomed to pausing between each cantata, to insert just a short break of around five minutes before beginning the following cantata. Incidentally, this is just one of the ways to divide up the work; I could also imagine that the cycle could be spread out, that one decides: “This morning I will perform one, then this evening another, with another cantata the following day.” Nevertheless, the point is that even when a performance is spread out over a number of days, as happened in Bach’s time, the work still continues to function as a unified whole. I am absolutely convinced that the churchgoers of the time had a far greater retention of the music, that the music remained more firmly entrenched in their memory until the following church service. Just compare how it is these days. After the concert, you may be sitting in your car and you switch on the radio to hear if there are any traffic jams reported, so you keep hearing fragments of music and as a result of this a large part of your recent musical experience is erased. I myself am glad that after performing a work it stays in my head for some time. Perhaps this was much more often the case in those days. As far as this is concerned, the effect of such a cantata would have been far stronger and of longer duration back then. Something similar also applies in the case of the various tonalities. In view of the fact that even temperament was nowhere near as widely in use in those days, a much greater differentiation was experienced between the various keys with their individual characteristics. With the advent of modern tuning, this entire sensibility to the different keys has vanished.’

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Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Jan Willem de Vriend – Haydn: Divertimenti (2009)
DSF Stereo DSD64, 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 58:54 minutes | 2,33 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records

On May 1 in the year 1761, Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) entered into the service of the princes of Esterhzy. It was an association that would last nearly 30 years and prove fruitful for Prince Nikolaus I and the composer. At first, Haydn was merely the deputy kapelmeister. He was expected, as specified in the contract, to behave, obligingly write whatever music was assigned to him, and comport himself as an example to the other musicians. Additionally, he was to report in livery to the prince each day at noon to receive his instructions for the day.

Several years later, he was named kapelmeister. In this function, he wrote nearly all of the music heard in the court, from piano sonatas to symphonies, violin concertos to operas. Under the influence of the Enlightenment, the relationship between employer and employee began to change in the second half of the 18th century. Previously, a court or church musician was considered a servant who should bow to his superiors and be at all times obedient. But now, a musician — at least, an outstanding one — was seen more as a valued employee who could bring credit to his patron and should thus be fostered. Haydn held an enviable position with the Esterhzys in that regard. To a degree, he had a confidential relationship with Prince Nikolaus, owing in particular to the prince’s unusual hobby: Nikolaus was a passionate player of the baryton. This relative of the viola da gamba was even then uncommon. The baryton, roughly the size of a cello, has six or seven strings that the musician plays upon and an additional nine to twenty strings that provide resonance through sympathetic vibration, lending the instrument its unique muffled sound. Because it was so difficult to play, the instrument never became very popular, and it was largely obsolete by Haydn’s time. As the prince played the baryton, however, Haydn as a matter of course had to compose for it.

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Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Jan Willem de Vriend – Handel: Concerti grossi Op. 3 (2005)
DSF Stereo DSD64, 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 55:46 minutes | 2,2 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records

In the first decades of the eighteenth century, London was one of the most important European music centres.

There was a rich courtly life as well as a great deal of music-making among the bourgeoisie. Just like Amsterdam, London was a hub of music pub- lishers and instrument builders. London’s musical life had a strong Italian orientation. It was mainly the Italian composers who were suc- cessful there, especially Arcangelo Corelli. Although his oeuvre is lim- ited to instrumental music and only has six opus numbers, his influence was considerable. For example, the London-based Italian Francesco Geminiani made orchestral arrange- ments of Corelli’s violin sonatas opus 5. Geminiani’s Concerti grossi opus

1 and Corelli’s own Concerti grossi opus 6 were published in many differ- ent arrangements.

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