Another disc of music from Frederick the Great’s court, another cover reproduction of Menzel’s evocation of a flute concert at Sanssouci. This time, however, the painting appears with more than usual justification, for this release is devoted entirely to sonatas for the flute, that favourite instrument both of Frederick and of many another eighteenth-century amateur. Frederick, mark you, was only an amateur in the sense that his time understood it, which is to say that he was a skilled and much-practised performer and also a reasonable composer. His somewhat foursquare sonata, one of over 100, sits at the centre of the programme, surrounded by examples by his teacher and court flautist Quantz, and by several non-flute players: J. G. Graun and his successor as the Berlin Opera’s Konzertmeister, Franz Benda, Kapellmeister C. H. Graun; the theorist Kirnberger; and J. G. Muthel, who never actually worked in Berlin but studied there with C. P. E. Bach. All have the grace and charm you would expect from pieces written for court digestion; Benda and Muthel may hint at a slightly more Sturm und Drang sensibility, but this is definitely music for soothing savage breasts rather than exciting subversive passions.
Barthold Kuijken’s performances of this modest but undeniably attractive music are a constant joy. Surely no other baroque flautist can play with such liquid ease and consistently sweet, mellow tone. There is not a harsh moment, one is scarcely aware of him breathing, and in passagework he never loses his elegance or poise. The fiddliest ornaments, too, are assumed into the overall musical line with unruffled ease, especially in the refreshingly pacey minuets with which most of these sonatas end. The support offered by the continuo team is solid without being remarkable – and there are a few sour notes from the cello – but this really is Kuijken’s show; one can imagine flute sonatas every evening being a drag for Frederick’s courtiers and musicians, but with a flautist of this calibre around, who would not want to listen to or write them?
