Composer: Ernst Wilhelm Wolf
Performer: Flóra Fábri
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: CPO
Catalogue: 555490-2
Release: 2022
Size: 389 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Piano Sonata in G minor
01. I. Allegro di molto
02. II. Adagio
03. III. Allegro
Piano Sonata in B-Flat Major
04. I. Allegro
05. II. Molto adagio
06. III. Non tanto allegro
Piano Sonata in D minor
07. I. Allegro moderato
08. II. Lusingando
09. III. Allegro di molto
Piano Sonata in F major
10. I. Allegro
11. II. Allegretto e un poco vivo
12. Fantasia mit einem dreizehnmal variierten Thema
Here, Flora Fabri interprets the highly praised sonatas and a fantasy by Ernst Wilhelm Wolf on a “tangent grand”. The ingenious invention of this grand piano for the time around 1770 is an intermediate form of clavichord, harpsichord and fortepiano. When a key is struck, a wooden stick with a leather head is struck against the string from below, and a second stick dampens the string again.
“Wolf […] belongs not only […] among our classical and best composers in any subject, but is also original”. More recognition seems hardly possible from the perspective of the “Sturm und Drang”: the introduction that Ernst Ludwig Gerber chooses in 1792 to his encyclopedia article on Ernst Wilhelm Wolf paints in a few words the picture of an original genius whose artistic uniqueness dominates a maximum of professional expertise. He was a pupil of Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel. In Gotha he became acquainted with the music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Carl Heinrich Graun, which strongly influenced him. Above all, he appreciated the works of C. P. E. Bach, with whom he had a lifelong friendship. At the University of Jena he was mainly engaged in music, and he was given the direction of the Collegium musicum, which gave him the opportunity to perform his own compositions.