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Padre Antonio Soler: Quintets for Harpsichord and Strings Numbers 4-6
David Schrader, Chicago Baroque Ensemble
Padre Antonio Soler’s six quintets for harpsichord and string quartet are post-Baroque masterstrokes, blending Baroque and early Classical styles with a savory seasoning of Spanish folk music.
The complete quintets are represented on two CDs, sold separately, and are the only currently available recordings in any format of Soler’s quintets, according to the fall 1996 Schwann Opus catalog, and form the first complete set on CD. (The first three quintets are available on Volume I.)
“In terms of crowd-pleasing qualities, the last three quintets of Soler may even eclipse their predecessors,” says record producer James Ginsburg. “Yet they also reward the serious listener.” In fact, Ginsburg suggest that newcomers may want to start with the second and newest Soler CD, and then, if it whets their appetite, pick up the earlier CD.
While formally less diverse than the first three quintets, the latter three are especially lyrical and offer a stimulating variety of moods and timbres which — at least in the hands of the present performers — evoke the sound of woodwinds, chimes, harp, and even Spanish guitar.
Cedille undertook the Soler quintets because they represent neglected yet pleasurable repertoire — the label’s hallmark — and in Schrader, Cedille found a Chicago-based artist who championed Soler and could be counted on to give a world-class reading, Ginsburg says. The Chicago Baroque Ensemble, two of whose members performed on the first quintets CD, is a relatively new organization that testifies to the quality and depth of Chicago’s period-instrument community.
Though rare even on LP, Soler’s quintets charmed listeners of the vinyl era. American Record Guide (October 1964) deemed the Quintet No. 6, on Westminster Records, “well off the beaten track of repertoire” and of “considerable musical as well as historical value,” with “lovely moments that are worth savoring for themselves.” Reviewing a Vox LP set of the complete quintets, Stereo Review‘s Richard Freed wrote (October 1973), “All six of these are really so endearing that it would take a hard heart to resist the set, once exposed to it.” Paul Henry Lang, in High Fidelity (October 1973), called them “charming, melodious, and euphonious compositions.”
Program Notes
Download Album BookletThe Keyboard Quintets of Soler
Notes by David Schrader
Antonio Francisco Javier Jose Soler y Ramos was baptized on December 3, 1729. Destined for a career in the church, in 1736 he entered the choir school of the great Catalan monastery of Montserrat, where he studied with the monastery’s Maestro, Benito Esteve, and its organist, Benito Valls. After becoming Maestro de Capilla, or Music Director, at Lerida circa 1750, Soler was ordained to the subdiaconate in 1752. He entered the Hieronimite monastery at El Escorial, the large palace and college cum monastery established a century and a half earlier by King Philip II, taking the habit on September 25, 1752. Soler became Maestro de Capilla at El Escorial in 1757, upon the death of the incumbent maestro, the redoubtable Domenico Scarlatti. The monastery’s extant records, or actos capitulares, note that Soler had an excellent command of Latin, organ playing, and musical composition; his conduct and application to his discipline were said to have been exemplary.
Album Details
Total Time: 74:57
Recorded: May 25-28, 1996 at WFMT Chicago
Producer: James Ginsburg
Engineer: Bill Maylone
Cover: Facade of the Basilica at El Escorial. Ink drawing by Jack Simmerling.
Design: Cheryl A Boncuore
Notes: David Schrader
© 1996 Cedille Records/Cedille Chicago
CDR 90000 030