Composer: Johann Wilhelm Hertel
Performer: Bettina Messerschmidt, Michael Schönheit, Merseburger Hofmusik
Conductor: Michael Schönheit
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: CPO
Catalogue: 555203-2
Release: 2021
Size: 477 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Sinfonia in F Major
01. I. Allegro
02. II. Andante
03. III. Allegro
Cello Concerto in A minor
04. I. Allegro con spirito
05. II. Adagio poco andante
06. III. Allegro
Organ Concerto in G Major
07. I. Allegro
08. II. Largo
09. III. Allegro
Sinfonia in D major
10. I. Allegro
11. II. Andante
12. III. Allegro
Cello Concerto in A major
13. I. Allegro ma non troppo
14. II. Larghetto
15. III. Allegro ma non troppo
Since only a very few compositions from Johann Wilhelm Hertel’s complete oeuvre were printed during his lifetime, the dissemination of his music was very limited and restricted. The rediscovery of this master’s two cello concertos in the early 1990s already represented a great enrichment of the repertoire of violoncello concertos from the age of Empfindsamkeit and the style galant around 1750. Bettina Messerschmidt became acquainted with Hertel’s music at the beginning of her career as a Baroque cellist and enthusiastically welcomed the warmth, power, and melodiousness of his compositions right from the very start. In the concertos she often develops a dialogue between the cello and the strings through contrasting expression of an intensity recalling the cello concertos written by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach around the same time. Along with two symphonies by Hertel, his only organ concerto, in all probability composed during 1756-57, is heard on our new releases. Here too the organ shines in dancy movements with fiery figurations.