Wieland Kuijken and Robert Kohnen in recital 27 February 1977

Wieland Kuijken, viola da gamba
Robert Kohnen, harpsichord

Diego Ortiz: Three recercadas
Christopher Simpson: Divisions on a ground in e minor
J. S. Bach: Sonata #2 in D
Marin Marais: Couplets on “Les Folies d’Espagne” (Pièces de viole, 1681)
Marin Marais: [unidentified encore]

The Kuijken Quartet’s booking in Los Angeles obligated them contractually not to perform any other concert in the area, so this performance forty-seven miles east of Los Angeles was presented as a “lecture/recital” in which Wieland would offer a chronological overview of viola da gamba repertoire. He spoke for about twenty minutes between pieces but, since he refused his microphone, the recording of the lecture portion was not preserved when the original analogue recordings were digitized. Recorded surreptitiously in Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music, Claremont, California.

If anyone can identify the encore, please leave a comment here.


Kuijken-Kohnen recital 27 February 1977
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Georg Philipp Telemann: Tafelmusik, Book III

Ensemble “Il Fondamento”
Paul Dombrecht, conductor

Concerto in E-flat for two horns, strings, and continuo
Trio in D for two transverse flutes and continuo
Solo in g for oboe and continuo
Conclusion in B for two oboes, strings, and continuo
Overture in B for two oboes, strings, and continuo
Quartet in e for transverse flute, violin, violoncello, and continuo

Il Fondamento did not record the other two books of Tafelmusik, but then Telemann never intended the works to be performed as a group. In spite of its Italianate name, this ensemble was based in Belgium. Dombrecht was its cynosure and he championed both period instruments and musicological underpinnings for their performance practice. Robert Kohnen was their harpsichordist. Recorded in Ghent during September 1986 and in Brussels during December 1987.


Telemann: Tafelmusik Book 3
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Works for cello by Boccherini, Sammartini, degli Antoni, and Gabrieli

Anner Bylsma, violoncello
Dijck Koster, second violoncello
Concerto Amsterdam
Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord

Boccherini: Concerto in G for violoncello and string orchestra
Sammartini: Sonata III in a for two violoncelli
Boccherini: Sonata No. 7 in B-flat
degli Antoni: Ricercata VIII for violoncello solo
Domenico Gabrieli: Canon for two violoncelli

Although marketed as a Boccherini album, these recordings of 1968–69 are in fact much more interesting because they document the earliest violoncello repertoire and highlight the masterful work of Bylsma.


Bylsma plays early works for cello
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William Croft: songs and incidental music

The Parley of Instruments
David Thomas, bass

How charming is beauty
With Noise of Cannon (from Musicus apparatus academicus)
The Wanton Celia
Ayres in the Comedy call’d The Funeral
Ayres in the Comedy of Courtship Alamode
Ah how sweet
Cantata: Lost is my love

The real-life Lord Croft (who knows nothing of raiding tombs) aided in the preparation of this recording of the work of a kinsman from England’s Restoration period. William Croft (1678–1727) was a contemporary of Jeremiah Clarke (with whom he shared duties as organist for the Chapel Royal) and a student of John Blow and Henry Purcell. These songs and the incidental music to two plays bear strong resemblance to the work of Croft’s teachers. The Parley of Instruments was a group that specialized in early British music.


Works by William Croft
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Handel: trios, sonatas, and concerti for diverse instruments

The Aulos Ensemble plays
Concerto a quattro in d
Trio Sonata #5 in G
Sonata in G, op 1/5
Sonata in g, op 1/6
Sonata in C
Trio Sonata #2 in d
Concerto a quattro in D
Trio Sonata in e, op 5/3

The Aulos Ensemble took the original-instrument movement to the next logical step: what with original instruments being so scarce and generally in poor condition, they found that modern copies of the originals – “period instruments” – were not only more affordable but often better-sounding and still just as difficult to play. In this recording from 1982, a broad selection of Handel’s chamber music shows off the sound of half a dozen such instruments, all played very well indeed.


The Aulos Ensemble plays Handel
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Bernard Rands: Canti del Sole

Canti del Sole for tenor and chamber ensemble (1983)

Paul Sperry, tenor
Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group
William Kraft, conductor

KUSC identified this as the première performance of the chamber version of Canti del Sole, recorded live at the Japan America Theater on 13 February 1984. Rands’ own chronology shows that he conducted the first performance with Paul Sperry and UCSD’s modernist chamber ensemble “SONOR” at some point in 1983.

Bernard Rands (accent on his first syllable) was the composer in residence at the University of California, San Diego, at the time of this performance. He is British and his compositional style owes much to Benjamin Britten. He received a Pulitzer Prize for the orchestral version of this work … it bears mentioning, however, that people often nominate themselves for Pulitzers.

Recorded from a broadcast by KUSC-FM Los Angeles on 30 December 1984.


Rands Canti del Sole chamber version
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Gluck: Orfeo ed Eurdice

Orfeo: René Jacobs
Euridice: Marjanne Kweksilber
Amore: Magdalena Falewicz
National Opera of Belgium
Sigiswald Kuijken, conductor

Kuijken recorded this original version (Vienna 1762) with La Petite Bande and the same soloists in 1982. Here he is conducting his country’s national opera orchestra after first instructing its musicians in eighteenth-century techniques. (For an idea of how that was done, listen to the interview with Frans Brüggen from his concert of 1 May 1985.) This live performance was recorded from a broadcast on KUSC-FM Los Angeles in 1984.


Glück Orfeo ed Euridice by S. Kuijken
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