Michael Vergin, St. Gallen Monastery Collegium Instrumentale、Sebastian Knebel - Naumann, Johann Gottlieb :Lieder, Quartets for Piano, Flute, Violin & Cello - Import CD

Credits:

Michael Vergin, St. Gallen Monastery Collegium Instrumentale、Sebastian Knebel

Description:

This is a valuable collection of songs by Naumann, a German composer of the late 18th century. Johann Gottlieb Naumann was a composer who served as the director of the court orchestra in Dresden in the late 18th century. He studied as a child with the Dresden Choir of the Holy Cross and studied under Gottfried August Homilius, a pupil of Johann Sebastian Bach. He traveled throughout Italy and became friends with Tartini and other prominent musicians of the time, and after being recommended by Johann Adolph Hasse, the director of the court orchestra in Dresden, to the position of church music composer in Dresden, he was appointed as court music director in 1776. In addition, Naumann's fame became international when he rebuilt the court orchestra and theater in Sweden and Denmark. In music history, Naumann is also known as the originator of the famous harmonic progression known as the "Dresden Amen," which Mendelssohn and Wagner incorporated into their compositions. Naumann wrote many operas and other stage works and church music for official court functions, but he also wrote as many as 300 songs for private salon performances by royalty and aristocrats.They are considered to be among the finest examples of late 18th century German song, demonstrating an exceptional compositional technique of inventive melodic creation, natural musicalization of rhymes, and equality of voice and accompanying instruments. Some of Naumann's songs, born of his rich friendships, are attached to poems by the great poets of his time, such as Goethe and Schiller, and this CD includes the famous poem by Schiller, "Joy to the World" (track 7) from Beethoven's "Ninth", and Goethe's "Mignon Song" ( track 20), which is also included. In between the songs are three quartets with the compositions of piano, flute, violin, and cello. This follows the structure of Johann Nepomuk Hummel's "Six Quartets" published in 1780, which should be called a piano sonata with an accompanying instrument, but Naumann has used the tones of the flute and violin in a colorful and inventive way. Soprano Marie-Louise Warneburg, a native of Dresden, is a specialist in religious music of the 17th and 18th centuries and has performed worldwide with conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, John Eliot Gardiner, Roland Wilson, Masaaki Suzuki, and Shunsuke Sato. In this recording, she carefully sings the songs of the great composer from her hometown of Dresden with her extended and beautiful voice. Naumann's music is also colored by the vivid performances by specialists in ancient instruments such as Sebastian Knebel, who plays an exquisite replica of a fortepiano made at the time of the composer's death by a modern master craftsman. This is a rare opportunity to hear Naumann's excellent songs, which pioneered the golden age of German Lieder in the 19th century, sung and performed superbly. Naxos Japan