Galant Night Fever. Quartets, Trio and Duet for Flute, Strings and Basso

Featuring

Matteo Gemolo
Conor Gricmanis
Blanca Prieto Acera
Elias Bartholomeus
Lisa Kokwenda Schweiger
The WIG Society Chamber Music Ensemble

Ernst Eichner
Hans Hinrich Zielche
Franz Xaver Sterkel
Joseph Haydn
Václav Pichl
Joseph Schmitt

Did you know?

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Compositional Technique

Galant style composition used "stock phrases" or "schemata," comparable to Lego bricks, which originated from Italian composition pedagogy.

Performer Biography

The WIG Society Chamber Music Ensemble, founded in Brussels in 2020, consists of pioneering musicians from across Europe dedicated to unearthing and performing lesser-known chamber works from the Enlightenment to Romanticism.

Historical Context

Flute quartets, divertimentos, serenades, and cassations were conceived as musical entertainment for the elite, serving as a distraction from the unfolding revolutions of the late 18th century.

Historical Context

Chamber music in the Galant era was heard in courts and salons, often alongside great works of Enlightenment literature and philosophy.

Instruments

The harpsichord was still widely available in European courts during the Galant era, even as early fortepianos gained royal support, and was used for balls and salon music.

Composer's Artistic Vision

The instrumental quartet was seen as an analogy for polite conversation among equals, where each instrument had something substantial to say, and musical structure resolved any discord.

Interpretation

The WIG Society Chamber Music Ensemble uses both a keyboard and a 16-foot pitch double bass to realize the continuo part, aiming for a more vivid sound atmosphere typical of the era.