Bassoon Concertos From The Courts Of Baden-wurttemberg

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BassoonConcertos by Court Kapellmeister from Baden and Wurttemberg  Peter Joseph von Lindpaintner (1791- 1856)(Stuttgart) Concerto in F major, Op. 4 Johann Melchior Molter (1695- 1765) (Karlsmhe) Concerto in G minor Conradin Kreutzer (1780 -1849) (Donaueschingen) Fantasiain B flat major Johannes Wenzeslaus Kalliwoda (1801- 1866) (Karlsruhe) Variations and Rondo in B flat major, Op. 57 The bassoon already enjoyed much favour as a soloinstrument in the eighteenth century, as can be seen from the writing of thepoet and musician Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739- 1791), from thefortress of Hohenasberg in the Wiirttemberg city of Ludwigsburg:  This instrument has in our owndays played a major role. Not only has it been used for accompaniment of themost important pieces for organ, for the theatre and for chamber music, butalso as a solo instrument, competing with the first instruments in the world.In solo work the bassoon has the purest tenor, descending to the lowest notesand a certain comic irony, rising again to the tenor F and throughartistry again to the high tenor F, brilliant in the high register as inthe lower: it demands the fullest breath and such a sound and manly embouchurethat very few people can attain mastery in its playing. The tone of theinstrument is so sociable, so communicative, so in tune with every unspoiledlistener that certainly the last day of the world will find many thousandbassoons around us.  Schubart'sthoughts on musical aesthetics, from which the foregoing quotation is taken,provide an important document for the Storm and Stress movement that led theway to musical and literary classicism, among which we may also count thehitherto unpublished Concerto in G minor for bassoon and stringsby Johann Melchior Molter. Coming from the Thuringian-Saxon region, he wasemployed about 1717 as violinist in the service of the Margrave Carl Wilhelm ofBaden- Durlach. The Margrave made it possible for his young court musician tostudy for two years in Venice and Rome and in 1722 appointed him his Court Kapellmeister.Because of the war of the Polish Succession we find Molter from 1733 forseveral years at Eisenach. From 1743 he was again at Karlsruhe and in 1747re-organized the court musical establishment under the patronage of theenlightened Margrave Carl Friedrich (1728-1811). Now for the first time he hadhighly qualified musicians at his disposal, such as the flautist, oboist andclarinettist Reusch or the bassoonist Muller, whose pupil Andreas GottlobSchwarz later won great fame. In his wind concerti there are influences fromhis time in Italy, not to mentionthose of the neighbouring Mannheim school.  In spite of great popularity the concerti forbassoon as compared with those for flute and clarinet remain rather theexception. Carl Almenriider (1786-1843), a leading virtuoso and maker of animproved form of bassoon wrote as follows:  For all other wind instrumentswe have, in comparison, excellent schools f