François-Joseph Gossec: Six Quartets, Op. 15 - Quatuor Ad Fontes

François-Joseph Gossec: Six Quartets, Op. 15 - Quatuor Ad Fontes

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
The Six Quartets Opus 15

Quatuor "ad fontes" (Zurich)

Alice Piérot, violin
Enrico Parizzi, violin
Monica Ehrsam, viola
Reto Cuonz, cello
On original instruments

The string quartet of the Enlightenment is not well known apart from the masterpieces of Haydn, Mozart and the young Beethoven, which have come to symbolise classical style. But these works by the great masters, however prestigious, must not be allowed to occult the abundant output of their contemporaries, who, throughout Europe, cultivated the genre that was to establish itself as the quintessence of chamber music, writing pieces for the amateur musicians who played at private concerts. Of all the great but now lesser known musical figures of the so-called ‘transitional’ period in France, between the Enlightenment and Romanticism, Gossec was one of the most original, inventive and eclectic. His twelve string quartets, published in two sets (Opus 14, 1770; Opus 15, 1772) were among the earliest examples of a genre that was then quite new to France. Concise in form, voluble and flowing in their writing, personal in style, these pieces are among the finest chamber works of their time, representing the very French art of ‘conversation en musique’, with all the voices (or parts) essential to the musical discourse. The quatuor concertant as exemplified by Gossec differed from the Haydn-type quartet, based on intense thematic work, in its texture (dialogue between the instruments), its solo style (each instrument in turn taking the solo part) and its two-movement structure. The Quartets Opus 15, published in Paris and dedicated to André-Pierre Haudry de Soucy, obviously met with success, for they were published the same year by Hummel in Amsterdam and Bremner in London, and some of their movements were so popular that, like the favourite operatic arias of the time, they were arranged for harpsichord or forte-piano, with violin ad libitum. Published the year Haydn composed his Sonnen-Quartette Opus 20, whose strict counterpoint was to epitomise Germanic genius in the eyes of posterity, Gossec's Quartets Opus 15 illustrate the cosmopolitanism of French instrumental music at the time of the Enlightenment. A cosmopolitanism that was appreciated in Baron de Bagge's salon in Paris, where they were no doubt played. The Versailles Centre for Baroque Music has decided to devote its Grandes Journées 2002 to the revival of Gossec's most inspired compositions. This recording of his Six Quartets Opus 15 gives a preview of those events, to be held at the Palace of Versailles.

François-Joseph Gossec: Six Quartets, Op. 15 - Quatuor Ad Fontes, Music, François-Joseph Gossec, Quatour Ad Fontes

François-Joseph Gossec: Six Quartets, Op. 15 - Quatuor Ad Fontes

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