Composer: Paul Gay, André Previn, Tony Schemmer
Performer: Aleksey Semenenko, Artem Belogurov
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: BIS
Catalogue: BIS2545
Release: 2021
Size: 1.26 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Previn: Violin Sonata No. 2
01. I. Joyous
02. II. Desolate – Fast, Like Shadows – Subito molto meno mosso
03. III. Brilliant, quasi cadenza – A tempo
Schemmer: Oboe Sonata
04. I. Allegro
05. II. Sandor’s Ballad
06. III. Omaggio a Django
07. IV. Finale
Gay: Violin Sonata
08. I. Introduction & Toccata
09. II. Sonnet
10. III. Idyll
11. IV. Games & Epilogue
Franz Ignaz Beck is one of the most fascinating composers of the eighteenth century, a musical visionary as well as a »genuine European« with roots in Mannheim. His opera L’isle déserte (1779), long regarded as lost, has resurfaced in a score manuscript in France and now is celebrating its recording premiere with La Stagione Frankfurt. Magnificent music and a magnificent text!
Beck’s L’isle déserte is particularly interesting in the context of music history: first, because it is by a composer who continued to await discovery; second, because a composer active in France availed himself of an Italian libretto – which continued to be an exception before 1780, especially when Metastasio was the librettist. Beck’s L’isle déserte is thus a model example of a material and text-historical adaptation and even more so of a transfer to the music theater. In other words, in Beck’s version of »The Deserted Island« Italian libretto artistry and French music theater meet, while special appeal is generated by this composer from Germany, an émigré, so to speak, who was not operating with French as his genuinely native language.