The billing of Les Idées Heureuses’ concert as chamber music by the German composer Christoph Graupner was somewhat misleading: it was essentially a harpsichord recital, thinly disguised as a chamber music recital by virtue of a trio sonata and a couple of obbligato harpsichord and violin sonatas. This aside, we can be thankful to Geneviève Soly for introducing us to some largely neglected composers and repertoire, and for taking the time to provide us with some background and other titbits of information during her spoken introductions.
A friend and colleague of Telemann, Graupner’s works are, like Telemann’s, influenced by Italian and, more noticeably, French style. He was a renowned keyboard player and wrote no less than forty-one solo harpsichord suites, of which the opening work of this concert, the Suite in c, GWV 133, was one. A conventional eighteenth-century French dance suite, its final Aria & Variations calls to mind Rameau’s Gavotte et doubles from the Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Claveçin (1726–1727). The final movement also, rather unusually, quotes the theme from the earlier Courante.
Soly takes her harpsichord playing quite as earnestly as she does her introductions, and consequently sometimes overlooked the flashes of humour in the music she played. However, where her spoken introduction was enthusiastic and expansive, her playing in the first work was more confined. Having spent several minutes emphasizing the importance of dance forms and of playing freely in the opening Praeludium of the suite, she promptly provided us with the most shackled of interpretations for her prelude, and with ensuing dance movements that were dry and bore only fleeting resemblance to their titles. Perhaps it was nerves; perhaps a spoken introduction is not such a good idea, after all.
The two other pieces under Graupner’s name on the programme were probably not by Graupner at all, but rather copied by him. Famed for his elegant calligraphy, he was extraordinarily prolific as both composer and copyist until blindness halted his work in 1754. By that time, Graupner had written, amongst other things, 113 symphonies, 86 overture-suites and almost 1500 cantatas. He also copied over 300 works by contemporaries including Telemann, Graun and Stamitz.
Both pieces copied by Graupner were sonatas for obbligato harpsichord and violin, for which Soly was joined by violinist Olivier Brault. Soly postulated that the first, GWV 709 in g, was the work of a young W. F. Bach. It was certainly Galante in style, and as the copy is dated 1735, he would, at 25, certainly have been young; but to my ears, it sounded more like later Telemann or even early C. P. E. Bach.
Soly does not possess the largest of sounds, but Brault, who chose to play sitting, was still overpowered by her in both sonatas. Together, they were a serious pair in music permeated with humour and light-heartedness. One could not fault Soly’s or Brault’s dedication, but in their hurry to make us cherish the music as they do, they had a habit of musically spelling everything out, no matter how obvious or small. Brault’s sound grew in assurance during the last movement of GWV 709 and in parts of the second sonata in G (GWV 710), but his confidence and intonation throughout were unstable, and small mistakes caused him to keep shrinking away.
Christoph Graupner was clearly a man full of surprises: also on the programme was his entertainingly unusual Sonata in F, GWV 210, for viola d’amore, bass chalumeau and basso continuo, for which Vincenzo Casale joined Brault (viola d’amore) and Soly (continuo organ). It is often the case that works with bizarre instrumentation such as this (one is also reminded of C. P. E. Bach’s trio for bass recorder, viola and basso continuo), are more for novelty value rather than serious music, and this was no exception. The instruments blended well- rather too well, in fact, since it was often hard to hear either chalumeau or organ distinctly- but the musical material was unremarkable at best. Brault seemed more at ease with the lower instrument, but Casale, when he could be heard, had an uncomfortable edge to his tone and appeared to be slightly out of touch with his two colleagues.
Two Capriccios for solo harpsichord, one by Handel (HWV 481) and one by Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, were serviceably played by Soly in between Graupner’s sonatas. Zachow is probably best known as Handel’s first teacher, and indeed, his Capriccio had what we now recognize as a Handelian flavour to it. Handel himself quoted his teacher in his own works, and Zachow’s ideas on instrumentation are evident in some of his pupil’s works, such as the oratorios Esther and Saul.
Handel and Graupner were colleagues at the Hamburg Opera around 1705, and the programme ended with connected works by the two composers. First came the Marche en Rondeau from Graupner’s Suite in G, GWV 145, followed by Handel’s Sonata in G, HWV 579, during which Handel quotes Graupner’s theme verbatim and uses it to build his own work. The sonata is full of idiosyncrasies: Handel used exactly half of Graupner’s theme, also quoted from Buxtehude and other works by Graupner, and meticulously notated every manual change. This was vintage Handel, full of wit, and Soly finally relaxed and treated us to an amusing performance which was by far the most effective of the concert.
Overall, the performance had more the feeling of lecture recital than a concert. This was partly to do with Soly’s lengthy spoken interludes and more to do with the impression that it was not so much the actual performing of the music that interested either her or her colleagues, but rather an academic interest in uncovering and reviving old music. There is nothing wrong with this, but this fascinating programme was one for the lecture hall rather than a concert platform. She and Brault obviously believe in what they do (indeed, if Brault’s concert attire is anything to go by, he aspires to eighteenth-century culture both within and without music), but there was too much insecurity, indirection and imprecision for their performance to be successful. Enthusiasm can only excuse so much.