Rosenmüller: Sonate da Camera & Sinfonie

Johann Rosenmüller

Sonate da Camera & Sinfonie, 1654-1682
Hespèrion XX - Jordi Savall, dir.
Astrée (Auvidis) E 8709 [CD]
Astrée (Naïve) "Musica Germanica" ES 9979 [CD]

Contents:

1. Sinfonia seconda (Venice 1667, D major)
   1. [Sinfonia]
   2. Alemanda
   3. Correnta
   4. Ballo
   5. Sarabanda
2. Sonata VII (Nürnberg 1682, D minor)
   1. Largo
   2. Adagio
   3. Prestissimo
   4. Adagio
   5. Allegro
   6. Adagio
3. Sinfonia Quarta (Venice 1667, G minor)
   1. [Sinfonia]
   2. Alemanda
   3. Correnta
   4. Ballo
   5. Sarabanda
4. Suite I (Leipzig 1653, C major)
   1. Paduan
   2. Alemanda
   3. Courant I. Adagio
   4. Courant II. Alegro
5. Sonata XI (Nürnberg 1682, A major)
   1. Alemanda
   2. Courant
   3. Ballo
   4. Sarabanda
6. Sinfonia Prima (Venice 1667, F major)
   1. [Sinfonia]
   2. Alemanda
   3. Correnta
   4. Ballo
   5. Intrata à 5 obligati. Ballo
   6. Sarabanda
7. Sonata IX (Nürnberg 1682, D major)
   1. Grave
   2. Allegro
   3. Adagio
   4. Presto
   5. Adagio
   6. Largo
   7. Adagio
   8. Presto

Playing time: 62' 00"

Performers:
Hespèrion XX
Monica Huggett (violin), Chiara Banchini (violin), Jordi Savall (viola da gamba), Sergi Casademunt (viola da gamba), Roberto Gini (viola da gamba), Carol Lewis (viola da gamba), Paolo Pandolfo (viola da gamba), Bela Zedlak (violone), Bruce Dickey (cornetto), Jean-Pierre Canihac (cornetto), Harry Ries (trombone), Charles Toet (trombone), Richard Lister (trombone), Willem Jansen (organ, harpsichord), Robert Clancy (theorbo)
Jordi Savall, dir.

Recording site and date:
Église catholique de Seewen, Soleure, Switzerland [03/1984];
Rel.: 1992, 1998 (E), 2002 (ES).

Reviewed in:
Diapason (#-p.): 380-158 (march 1992)
Early Music America (Vol./#-p.):
Fanfare (Vol./#-p.):
Goldberg (#-p.):
Gramophone (Vol./#-p.):

Comments:
Information from CD

Johann Rosenmüller (1619-1684) provides a clear link between German and Venetian instrumental music. He was trained young in Venice, then returned to Germany with a position of some responsibility in Leipzig. He was thrown out in 1655 under the cloud of sexual charges, and eventually returned to Venice where he was a trombonist and composer until 1682. Near the end of his life, he returned to Germany, to a position in Wolfenbüttel.

Rosenmüller's Sonate à 2. 3. 4. è 5. stromenti da arco & altri (Nuremberg, 1682) is by far his most highly acclaimed publication, composed at the end of his time in Venice, and showing a strong fusion of Italian with embryonic German styles. Together with his earlier instrumental music, the sonatas place Rosenmüller among the most important German composers to import the Italian style.

Other recordings:

Rosenmüller: Sonate a 2, 3, 4 e 5 stromenti

Mensa Sonora - Jean Maillet
Pierre Vérany 700 041

Rosenmüller

17th-Century Instrumental and Vocal Music
Hargis / King's Noyse - David Douglass
Harmonia Mundi USA 907179

And a couple of significant recordings devoted to Rosenmüller's sacred music:

Rosenmüller: Vespro della beata Virgine

Cantus Cölln / Concerto Palatino - Konrad Junghänel
Harmonia Mundi 901611/12 (2 CDs)

Rosenmüller: Requiem

La Capella Ducale / Ensemble Canticum - Roland Wilson
Sony Vivarte 89470 (2 CDs)

Rosenmüller: Deutsche geistliche Konzerte

Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble - Arno Paduch
Christophorus 77319

As a composer of instrumental music, Rosenmüller's most important German contemporary was Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (c.1620-1680) of Vienna, a stronghold of Italian influence. A fine recording:

Schmelzer: Violin Sonatas

Romanesca
Harmonia Mundi USA 907143

The above shows the solo violin sonata early in its history

A recording devoted to another contemporary, Andreas Hammerschmidt (1612-1675), by Hespèrion XX:

Hammerschmidt: Vier Suiten aus "Erster Fleiss"

Hespèrion XX - Jordi Savall
Ars Musici 1170

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