Johann Joachim Quantz: Flute Concerto in G minor, QV 5:193 | 1727-41

Описание: The history of composition, as in many lines of work, is rich with artists who are variously generalists or specialists. Mozart, for example, wrote for voices and for instruments, operas, and masses etc. Chopin, similarly, wrote exclusively for the piano (alone or with orchestra), and he was a virtuoso performer of his own work. Equally specialized, in the eighteenth century, was the German flautist, composer and genius J. J. Quantz. Almost all his works are for flute, with orchestra or continuo, and he had a successful career as a player, conductor and author. Quantz is nowadays of course most famous as author of the “Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen” (Berlin, 1752), the most thorough treatise on any instrument to date.

00:00 I. Allegro
06:32 II. Adagio
12:36 III. Vivace

In 1718 Quantz became oboist in the Polish Chapel at the court of Elector August II in Dresden. He soon realized that with this instrument, he had no chance of advancement. Quantz went on to learn the flute, taking lessons with Buffardin, the famous French flutist of the Dresden court orchestra. The “flute transversiere” was now in his life, as was the task of expanding its repertoire and the possibilities of this instrument. No sooner had he switched to the flute, than he discovered that there was very little literature available for the new instrument.

The friendship Quantz had found with Pisendel, who was ten years older, grew closer and closer. The violin virtuoso impressed him with his diligence, integrity and his “exquisitely touching way” of playing. Pisendel encouraged Quantz to compose, which he learned eagerly.

Pisendel, a native of Franconia, had met Vivaldi a few years earlier on a trip to Italy, and he and Vivaldi have been warm friends ever since. Subsequently, Vivaldi dedicated many works to the violinist. And through the presence of some French musicians at the Dresden court, Pisendel was also able to get to know and appreciate their music. So Quantz now makes this exciting mixture his own. “If one knows how to choose the best from the tastes of different peoples […], then a mixed taste flows from it, which one could now, without overstepping the bounds of modesty, call […] the German taste”.

Quantz is chiefly remembered, however, at least by non-specialists, for his association with Frederick the Great. That monarch, whatever his other strengths and weaknesses, was a devoted lover of music, and an enthusiastic amateur of the flute. He played it well and, amid all his preoccupation with affairs of state, nothing gave him greater pleasure than to display his prowess as a performer in palace concerts at Potsdam. Recording had not yet been invented, so there is no way to know whether he was really good enough to get solo spots by sheer ability; a servile court would have applauded him anyway. Frederick certainly took the right steps to nourish his love of the flute in the best possible way. He hired Quantz as his teacher and as a composer-in-residence who would cater to his hobby by furnishing a constant supply of new pieces for the royal embouchure. With a staggering salary of 2,000 thalers per year for life (for example CPE Bach's salary was 300 thalers) plus 100 ducats for every new flute he made and bonus payments for every new composition, the job was a good one and it lasted for thirty-two years. Quantz continued plugging away in Berlin for another twenty-three years, secure in royal favour and nourished by regular performances of his work. He died in 1773.

Quantz was almost the last composer to have enjoyed that kind of secure support from a patron. The last and most famous one, of course, was Haydn, who spent much of his career as artistic protégé of the Esterhazy family. His younger contemporary, Mozart, had constantly to scrabble for commissions wherever he could find them, and died in poverty. Great Vivaldi had similar fate.

Nowadays, the situation is depressingly different. Musical taste, over recent years, has progressively declined. Fortunately, there are activists who insist that bakers enjoy fair wages and good working conditions, whatever the vagaries of the market-place. And there are also those who understand that man cannot live by bread alone and who, accordingly, perceive the string quartet as one strand, among many, in the tapestry of civilization, meriting support from public funds. There are, in consequence, examples of high-minded state subsidy still to be found, available to composers and other artists. These pockets of enlightenment, however, are more common in Europe than in North America. In Canada, while there are arts councils dispensing largess at all three levels of government, their decisions are hopelessly mired in the rut of political correctness.

Reference:
● Hailey Buckley: JOHANN JOACHIM QUANTZ
● Rachel Brown, Hyperion.

Cover art:
● Man Writing a Letter, circa 1664-1666 by Gabriel Metsu.

Performed by:
● Johannes Walter / Dresdner Kammersolisten