Johann Adolph Scheibe and Morten Ræhs - Flute Sonatas

JOHANN ADOLPH SCHEIBE AND MARTIN RÆHS

Flute Sonatas

Maria Bania, flute

Lars Ulrik Mortensen, harpsichord

A sparkling set of sonatas for flute accompanied by harpsichord from a golden age of Danish musical life; that is what the Norwegian-born flautist Maria Bania and the Danish harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen entertain us with on this CD of rare and forgotten music by Johann Adolph Scheibe and Martin Ræhs the Younger. It is music which, although composed to order and for the needs of the moment, exhibits a refreshing originality and gives us a wonderful glimpse of a musical culture that is almost forgotten today. Danish musical life flourished in the eighteenth century. Composers like Scalabrini, Sarti, Naumann, Schulz and Kunzen cast their sparkle over court life, and as one can hear from the names, these were composes and musicians who were imported from among other places Italy and Germany. Johann Adolph Scheibe (1708-76) is no exception in this respect. He was born in Leipzig and in 1740, after various detours, arrived at the Pietist court of the Danish King Christian VI, where he became court conductor. There he fought the good fight against Italian opera. Scheibe wrote music in the spirit of the Enlightenment, and his flute sonatas are splendid examples of how the music seems transilluminated by one brilliant musical idea after another, and how flute and harpsichord play off their ideas against each other in the best ‘conversational’ style; and how sense and sensibility are by no means incompatible. This is great art on the small scale. Martin Ræhs (1702-66) was from a Jutland musical family but trained in England, where he made the acquaintance of among others Handel. Ræhs was a musician and composer who knew his own value, but it was only in the year before he died that recognition came in the form of a salary at the court in Copenhagen. His flute sonatas are written in a light, virtuosic style which at the time would have made great demands on the flautist; rare Danish examples of the galante style combining the Baroque and the Classical, found in the collection of the Royal Library in Copenhagen.

REVIEWS

"Bania and Mortensen are ideal exponents of this unprofound yet diverting music. Bania’s pure, delicate tone suits the works’ refined melodies ... Mortensen’s alert, precise keyboard provides her with an ever-responsive accompaniment." 

International Record Review

"There are fine and expressive conversations between the two instruments in Scheibe's graceful and by no means slight sonatas ... Ræhs' sonatas are beautifully revealed through the soft, supple and agile transverse flute of Maria Bania ... Lars Ulrik Mortensen's eloquence is abundant."

Politiken

"This is an attractive aural morsel that rescues these composers from anonymity."

Classics Today

ANOTHER GENEROUS CONTRIBUTION FROM DAFFY!!!