Johan Helmich Roman - (The) Swedish Virtuoso
Roman the Swede delivers the goods – despite a right royal muddle
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johan Helmich Roman
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Proprius
Magazine Review Date: 10/2009
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 58
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: PRCD2044
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Sinfonia |
Johan Helmich Roman, Composer
Johan Helmich Roman, Composer Maria Lindal, Zedlau REBaroque |
Partita |
Johan Helmich Roman, Composer
Johan Helmich Roman, Composer Maria Lindal, Zedlau REBaroque |
Concerto for Violin and Strings |
Johan Helmich Roman, Composer
Johan Helmich Roman, Composer Maria Lindal, Zedlau REBaroque |
Concerto for Flute and Orchestra |
Johan Helmich Roman, Composer
Johan Helmich Roman, Composer Maria Lindal, Zedlau REBaroque |
Trio Sonata |
Johan Helmich Roman, Composer
Johan Helmich Roman, Composer Maria Lindal, Zedlau REBaroque |
Drottningholm Music, 'Royal Wedding Music', Movement: First Movement |
Johan Helmich Roman, Composer
Johan Helmich Roman, Composer Maria Lindal, Zedlau REBaroque |
Author: Richard Lawrence
His instruments were the violin and the oboe. As a composer he adapted works by his contemporaries, resulting in questions of authenticity that remain unresolved. The present recording gives a good idea of his range: well travelled as he was, he picked up stylistic elements from France, Italy and north Germany. Four of the works here have an old-fashioned cast, each movement rooted in the same tonic, major or minor; but there is plenty of variety. The Sinfonia in D minor, BeRI/27, has an arresting opening, a stern, dotted figure over a descending chromatic bass; the second movement of the Partita in C minor is not only rhythmically teasing but turns out to be thematically related to the preceding Largo.
REBaroque dispatches this agreeable music with skill, but the Trio Sonata is marred by a strange fade-in at the beginning of track 18. The booklet confuses Queen Ulrika Eleonora with Queen Louisa Ulrika: it was the latter who was the sister of Frederick the Great, and for whose wedding in 1744 Roman composed the Royal Wedding Music, the first movement of which concludes the disc.
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