Customer Reviews

Johann Gottlieb Graun: Concertos

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I got hooked on the Grauns after reading Michael O'Loghlin's book on Frederick the Great's gamba players and went in search of anything recorded - the gambists of Frederick's court formed the last bastion of virtuoso viol playing before the end of the eighteenth century and their music is fabled for its difficulty. I stumbled on this disc and am glad I did. All of the works on this disc are fascinating and wonderfully played. The Sinfonia grosso is a rambunctious work with a brilliant brass-heavy orchestration; the violin concerto in D minor is a taught and dramatic work something in the style of J.S. Bach; the A major concerto sweet; but the real highlight is the electrifying playing of Vittorio Ghielmi in the A major viola da gamba concerto. A typical Graun concerto is a reasonably sprawling work that hangs together through a unity of mood rather than an organic obsession with motif or counterpoint; accordingly, sympathetic performance is critical and the soloists and orchestra on this recording deliver it in spades. The Grauns are a little like C.P.E. Bach with the odd bits removed, but the music is generally attractive and sometimes highly affecting. Highly recommended, and probably the best of five or six discs of the instrumental music of the Graun family I now own.

I never cease to be amazed at the musical fecundity of the Baroque period. Johann Gottleib Graun is hardly a well-known composer even among many aficionados of Baroque music, but he was a master of many forms from sturdy German church music (some of which could be be JS Bach if you didn't know better) to energetic, tuneful, and well-formed Italianate concerti. This excellent CD has several of the latter, well played by the Wiener Akadamie led by Martin Haselbock with two different violin soloists in different concerti and a viola da gambist in yet another. This is an excellent CD, a perfect introduction to Graun for those who don't know him, and welcome additions to the CD library for those who do.

I didn't know what to expect from J.G. Graun. He's a bit baroque, and a bit classical, and entirely fun--but not in a light sense. This is great music from a top-notch ensemble.