Composer: Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer
Performer: Elisabeth Joye, Philippe Humeau, Quientin Blumenroeder
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: L`Encelade
Release: 2016
Size: 1.15 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Musicalischer Parnassus (Uranie)
01. I. Toccata
02. II. Allemande
03. III. Courante
04. IV. Sarabande
05. V. Gavotte
06. VI. Gigue
07. VII. Rigaudon & Double
08. VIII. Menuet I & II
09. IX. Passacaglia
Musicalischer Parnassus (Melpomene)
10. I. Praeludium
11. II. Allemande
12. III. Passepied
13. IV. Rondeau
14. V. Gigue
15. VI. Chaconne
Musicalischer Parnassus (Clio)
16. I. Praeludium harpeggiato
Musicalisches Blumen-Buschlein
17. Praeludium 8 et Chaconne
18. Praeludium 5
19. Aria et 8 Variations
Ariadne Musica
20. Praeludium et Fuga 10 en Fa majeur
An den liebhaber der Edlen Music
21. Prelude No.1 – 6 Fugues et Finale
Ariadne Musica
22. Praeludium et Fugue 13 en Sol majeur
23. Praeludium et Fugue 1 en Do majeur
24. Praeludium et Fugue 15 en la mineur
25. Praeludium et Fugue 3 en re mineur
Musicalischer Parnassus (Euterpe)
26. VI. Chaconne
Ariadne Musica
27. Ricercaras super totidem sacrorum anni temporum ecclesiasticas cantilenas – Ricercar pro Festis Paschalibus
In the mid 18th century, Quantz traced the origins of the Germanic style back to the country’s composers’ talent for combining foreign musical styles. Fischer’s works for keyboard, combining as they do French-style galanteries and dances, Italian influenced toccatas and passacaglias and German contrapuntal science, are an excellent example of this “mixed style”.
We know little about the life of Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (1656-1746) other than that he came from a family of craftsmen from Schönfeld in Bohemia and received his earliest musical training at the Piarist grammar school. In around 1689, he was appointed Kapellmeister of the court of Saxe-Lauenburg, in Schlackenwerth, entered the service of the Margrave of Baden in around 1690 and then, in 1715, he arrived at the latter’s royal residence of Rastatt, inspired by the Château of Versailles, where the glittering musical life led him to compose many religious and profane works. He was to remain Kapellmeister there until his death in 1746. In addition to the four collections of music for keyboard from which the pieces in this programme are taken, Fischer left behind a cycle of eight orchestral suites printed under the title Le Journal du Printemps in 1695, along with various pieces of religious music (masses, vespers, litanies, etc.). On the other hand, both his dramatic works (operas, court festivities, school dramas) and the majority of the religious works he composed for the Rastatt court are lost.
The programme for this recording offers a sample of the enormous variety of Fischer’s work for keyboard, drawing on the four collections published over the course of his career: Musicalischer Parnassus, Musicalisches Blumen-Büschlein, Ariadne Musica and Blumen Strauss.