Anders Muskens | Vogler à la chambre de Marie-Antoinette & INO, eine Kantate

This album features a collection of compositions by the late 18th-century musician Georg Joseph Vogler, also known as “Abbot” or “Abbé” Vogler. Born in Würzburg, Germany, in 1749, Vogler was a highly versatile musician and travelled extensively throughout his career as a composer, Kapellmeister, pedagogue, organ virtuoso, music theorist, organ builder, and priest. He is particularly known for his affiliation with the Mannheim School, one of Europe’s most important and influential musical centers during the 18th century.

The album begins with “Concerto Pour Clavecin ou Forte-Piano,” a concerto for harpsichord or fortepiano with accompaniment from two violins, an alto, a bass, two oboes, and two horns. This composition was first premièred at the Concert de la Reine in Versailles in 1781. For this project, we used an original fortepiano from 1788 in recording this concerto, and the performance edition was provided by the Forschungszentrum Hof | Musik | Stadt.

Next is the “Quatuor pour le Forte-Piano, Violon, Alto, et Violoncelle,” composed and first performed at the Concert de la Reine in Versailles in 1782. This quartet features Anders Muskens on fortepiano, Clara Sawada on violin, Corinne Raymond-Jarczyk on viola, and Madeleine Bouïssou on cello.

The final work on the album is “Ino, Eine Kantate,” a cantata for soprano and orchestra from Mannheim in 1779, featuring text by Karl Wilhelm Ramler. Since moving to the Netherlands from Canada, award-winning soprano Elisabeth Hetherington has quickly established herself as a stand-out up-and-coming performer and interpreter of early, contemporary and modern European repertoire. Hetherington, a renowned soprano, performs the cantata with Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester under the direction of Anders Muskens, who also produced the performance edition.

The album liner notes provide more context on the life and work of Georg Joseph Vogler. He was often described as a polarizing figure, with some seeing him as a man with grandiose ideas who couldn’t execute them and others seeing him as an “epoch maker in music.” He was a lifelong traveller, covering considerable distances in the age of horse-drawn stagecoaches. He was a composer, Kapellmeister, pedagogue, organ virtuoso, music theorist, organ builder, and priest. He was also highly adept at using the news media of his time to further his goals. He studied ecclesiastical and secular law at the University of Würzburg before deciding to pursue music and studying in Mannheim, one of the foremost centers for music in Europe at the time. He later held positions as court Kapellmeister in Munich and music director at the Swedish court, but his desire to travel and disseminate his ideas never truly subsided.

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