The Overtures of Joseph Martin Kraus

This is exactly the sort of discovery that first got me “into” Classical music. Perhaps I'd find an obscure composer on a Turnabout LP (Koželuch sings to mind on one occasion), and the search for more - more music, more detail, more history - began.

The German label cpo feeds me these days, perhaps more than any other. Here is a set of overturs by Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1792), born in the same year as Mozart and only outliving him by a year. The performers are THERESIA, a training ensemble (think the European Union Baroque Orchestra). Small wonder the performances are chock-full with enthusiasm.

Born in Miltenburg am Main, Kraus moved to Göttingen (Sweden) where he felt the influence of literary Sturm und Drang via a society there, “Göttinger Hainbund”. Kraus' treatise Etwas von und über Musik is one of the few writings to tackle music and Sturm und Drang head-on. His journey to the court of Gustav III of Sweden was not an easy one, and it was an opera the got him the job of Deputy Kapellmeister (the opera Proserpin). In 1787, after a tour of Europe, Kraus became Kapellmeiser at Gustav III's court.

The programme begins with Kraus' “Overture to the Prologue of Æneas i Cortago, carefully placed to fully immerse us, the listeners, into the Sturm und Drang that is so much a part of Kraus. This fits in nicely after the Haydn 49 with the LPO the other day :

More of Æneas (the Dido story) peppers the disc. The Overture to Act V is full of portent, like a coiled spring, the young players of THERESIA giving it their all:

In contrast, the Overture to Act I is full of contained beauty, grace, and eloquence in is slow introduction; the Allegro is pure theatre music Perhaps one can hear, a little, the small gap between the young players and an experienced professional orchestra here in some of the ensemble, but this remains compelling::

There is a full Naxos disc of excepts from his opera if you want to investigate further, performed by the Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä under Patrick Gallois. It is worth reading the full story of the opera's gestation and its premiere only after Kraus' death, available at this link.

After the drama of the Overture to the Prologue of Æneas, cpo places the much lighter Overture to Fiskarena (The Fishers): a ballet, this time, its overture brief but frothy:

Kraus has a chameleon ability the make his music perfect for the stage; although most of his recorded pieces so far have been symphonies (Naxos unsurprisingly has had a go), It is obvious he was a man of the theatre through and through, and one hopes for a recording of a complete opera to test ou this hypothesis. In the meantime, there is the coiled-spring energy of the Overture to Olympia, where the shadow of Gluck is surely not far away:

Soliman II takes us to the trope of Turkish music (which was seen as “Oriental” and exotic) : think Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail. It comes complete with Turkish percussion, and the young performers clearly have a ball:

Kraus' music is fascinating in that it contains such energy. Mozartian overtones are more obvious in some pieces than others. The Overture to Äfventyraren is one, especially in the arpeggio figures approaching cadences:

Just as the excerpts from Æneas are separated, so too are those from the Funeral Cantata for Gustav III: but here it is two parts of the Introduzione, with the first part preceding the Overture to the Cantata for the Birthday of Gustav III! Here is Kraus in hyper-dark mood, unsurprisingly, while the clouds part and sunshine reigns (again, unsurprisingly) for Gustav's birthday:

In between also is the Overture to Proserpin, the opera mentioned above. The main body reminds me of J. C. Bach (the so-called “London” Bach) in its freshness and cleanliness of expression. THERESIA gives the music real character, esepcially the strings. Clearly, conductor Claudio Astronio has a real sense of period (and Kraus'!) style, too:

The shift back to funeral music is perhaps too pronounced; part 2 of the “Introduzione” to the Funeral Cantata is a bit of a downer on which to end, although it does certainly leave an echo of the depth Kraus is capable:

Overall, a delightful, though-provoking disc. The recording (two venues, both in Ravenna) is excellent, as one has come to expect from cpo.

The Amazon link is here; streaming below. The Gallois/Naxos is available here and, again, streaming below.