Fischer: Musicalisches Blumen-Büschlein (Olga Martynova)

Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (1656-1746) 是我之前寫那一篇有關法國鍵盤組曲時有提到一位巴洛克中期的德國作曲家。他是將法國鍵盤組曲那特別的風格，引進德國的人，其作品也深深引影了年輕的巴哈與韓德爾。他被許多同時期的音樂家稱為是當時最厲害的鍵盤音樂家，也極優秀的作曲家。可惜，歷史對他不盡公平，今天並沒很多人知道他是何許人也。

Fischer在1656，出生於波西米亞的一個小鎮Schoenfeld(今為捷克的Krasno)，並在Schlackenwerth(今捷克的Ostrov)就讀了一Piarist天主教學校，並在此接受了最初的音樂教育。當時Julius Franz，也是當時的Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg，他的宮殿剛好在Schlackenwerth，而且他相當重視自己宮廷的音樂文化。Fischer幸運地進入了他的宮廷樂團，並在這裡有機會繼續增進他樂器上演奏的技巧以及增長他對音樂各方面的知識。他出色的表現，使他日後成為宮廷的音樂總指揮(Kapellemeister)。

在Saxe-Lauenburg的宮廷，他大量接觸法國派的音樂，特別是Lully(盧利)的法國管絃樂作品。倒底Fischer有沒有長時間待過法國，今天已經無從而知，但他就算在布拉格那一帶活動，那兒的音樂圈無疑已經大量引進盧利以舞曲做為主軸的新音樂風格。當時另一位重要的德國作曲家Georg Muffat，在法國曾是Lully的學生。他在維也納，布拉格，以及薩爾斯堡一帶活動的時候，大力將Lully的曲子向德奧的音樂家推廣。(他日後會再到義大利學習音樂，成為融合法式和義式曲風的德國重要作曲家)。

1689年，Julius Franz突然逝世，可也沒留下兒子繼承爵位，只有兩位女兒。小女兒Sybilla Augusta後來嫁給了Ludwig Wilhelm總督(margrave)，Saxe-Lauenburg的皇室也跟著遷到了Ludwig Wilhelm管轄的Baden。起初這幾年，因為Ludwig Wilhelm在外帶兵對抗土耳其帝國入侵歐洲，整個Baden皇室與宮近的人過得相當艱辛，總督夫人常常還得伴隨先生在外紮營~~  這一陣子，Fischer的生活也是顛沛流離，一直要到1714年戰事都平息後才好轉。這時Ludwig Wilhelm因戰場上的傷而過逝，Baden一切朝政由Sybilla Augusta當攝政王，代為處理，而Fischer被聘為Baden宮廷的Kapellemesiter，同時也是Sybilla Augusta以及日後她的孫女Elisabeth Augusta的鍵盤老師，並為她們各寫一套大鍵琴組曲集。

這張CD上的組曲集，是獻給總督夫人Sybilla Augusta的，並有Musicalisches Blumen-Büschlein(音樂小花束)的可愛暱稱，是形容組曲裡有特色的各種舞曲。這一套組曲，其實他之前就有以Pièces de Clavessin之名出版過一次了，但Fischer在1697年，為慶祝王子Karl Joseph的誕生而將這些曲子重新整理修訂過，以全新面貌獻給總Sybilla Augusta。據說，Fischer認為，比較靜謐的獨奏鍵盤作品，比吵雜的管絃樂曲子，更適合小王子與母親。Sybilla Augusta是一位業餘的音樂家，所以Fischer考慮她的能力的情況下，並沒有將曲子的困難度寫得太高。

Musicalisches Blumen-Büschlein有八首組曲，不過每個組曲的舞曲樂章都不同。之前Froberger所擬定的Allemande - Cournate - Sarabande - Gigue主要舞曲，八首組曲只有第六首組曲有乖乖地將這四種舞曲全都收錄在裡面。另外的組曲，不論長度上，或裡面組成的舞曲，都有很大的差異。Fischer是喜歡多樣化的作曲家，因此另外自行加了像Minuet， Gavotte， Rondeau， Canary， Passepied， Bourree， 和Branle等當時漸漸流行於法國的組曲的舞曲。全部曲子唯一有的共同特點，是開頭的第一首曲子皆為一首前奏曲(Praeludium)，但八首組曲的前奏曲的性格也都不同 - 有些是簡單的和絃的演進，有些有快速的琵音，有的則不流於任何特定的形式。這些前奏曲，受到了巴哈日後極大的欣賞，在他自己寫平均律的時候，事先一定是研究地相當透徹。

因學到法國組曲的精髓，所以大部份的舞曲長度不長，是精緻的小品。但是，這不代表Fischer不會寫較長的曲子。第五首組曲的前奏曲以外，就只一首主題和八個變奏。第八首組曲，也是只有兩樂章，一首前奏曲和一首Chaconne。以夏康舞曲做為最後一首組曲的結尾是有特別意義的。當初Lully寫的宮廷音樂裡，通常劇場結尾時，也都是以夏康舞曲做華麗圓滿的收場。Fischer的這部作品，以它當最後一首，是適合也不過。

這張CD是由俄國音樂家Olga Martynova所彈奏。她在莫斯科，原本是鋼琴主修，走的也是傳統俄國的曲目，不過有一次因緣際會，聽了一場音樂之後，大大改變了她對巴洛克音樂的看法。她在俄國念完，又繼續留學法國。她在這家俄國的新唱片公司Caro Mitis錄了幾張唱片(包括這張)，不過最神奇的，應該是她在大鍵琴上彈了一些浪漫派作曲家為鋼琴所寫的曲子，包括俄國的Shostakovich(!!!)和Khachaturian。如有興趣，那張專輯的資料在這兒。

不過回到Fischer的音樂，這張CD不是我第一張Fischer的CD。我是先買了Fischer寫給Elisabeth Augusta公主的組曲集，自己也練了其中一首組曲，也非常喜愛Fischer的大鍵琴曲子。看到這張，是發現可以完成Fischer大鍵琴音樂的收藏，所以很高興地買了下來。Martynova彈的一台琴是大約1970年代William Dowd仿法國的大鍵琴，音色輕亮，適合這些不同的法國舞曲。Martynova的彈法採平順路線，沒有太情緒化，是穩健的風格。在Allemande和慢的前奏曲，是一種相當優美的效果，但一些快的舞曲中，則給我的感覺有點過於內斂。我比較希望她在樂句上的斷句更厲害，使曲子變得更有精神。Martynova不是沒有做到，只是我的要求說不定過高而已。整體而言，她的詮釋非常一致，而且水準相當好。最重要的，它使人認識，並欣賞Fischer的音樂，瞭解他鍵盤作品的高素質。希望愛樂人總有一天能還他一個公道~~  :)

Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (1656-1746) was a German middle-Baroque composer born in the Bohemian town of Schoenfeld (now present day Czech's Krasno).  He was influential in bringing the French keyboard suite into the German-speaking countries, whose keyboard compositions were highly admired by Bach and Handel.  He was also regarded by his peers as the finest keyboardist of his time.  It's a shame that he is not more well-known today.

After his young musical training in a Piarist school, he entered the court of the Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, then held by Julius Franz.  Franz was a cultured man, and he made sure that he had a large kapelle group.  Fischer was able to further improve his music studies in the court, but most importantly, he was to be exposed to a variety of different musical styles.  The one composer who made the largest impact on him was French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully, whose orchestral suites he studied in great detail.  It is not clear whether or not Fischer actually spent extended periods of time in France, but he certainly had ample access to Lully's pieces.  Georg Muffat, a pupil of Lully, was in the Vienna - Prague - Salzburg area, and he distributed his teacher's music around.

After Julius Franz's unexpected death in 1689, the royal household of Saxe-Lauenburg would endure several difficult years.  Leaving no male heir, Franz's two daughters would marry other wealthy royal families.  His younger daughter Sybilla Augusta would wed Ludwig Wilhelm, Margrave of Baden-Baden, also known as "Turk Louis" for fighting the Turks on the battlefront.  Fischer would move with the Baden, where it was not until 1714 that he secured a position as the Kapellemeister to the Baden court.  By this time, Ludwig Wilhelm had passed away, and the margravine Sybilla Augusta acted as the regent to Baden-Baden.  Fischer would write to sets of suites dedicated to Sybilla Augusta and her granddaughter (albeit 40 years later).  

The set of 8 harpsichord suites recorded here are titled "Musicalisches Blumen-Büschlein" (Little bunch of musical flowers) and was dedicated to Sybilla Augusta to celebrate the birth of Prince Karl Joseph.  These pieces are not original works, but a reworking of an earlier publication called Pièces de Clavessin, a reference to the great Chambonnières, founder of the French harpsichord school.  Sybilla Augusta was an amateur harpsichordist, and because of this, Fischer's pieces do not require much technical skill to perform, but it is still well-written music.

The suites here deviate significantly from Froberger's early suite format of Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Gigue.  In fact, out of the 8 suites here, only the 6th suite follows this format and includes all these dances.  For the remainder of the suites, Fischer would include an assortment of other dances, like the Gavotte, Rondeau, Canaries, Passepied, Bourree, and Menuet, which were making their way into French orchestral suites at time.  Those familiar with Bach's keyboard suites probably take these dances for granted, but keep in mind that this was a novel thing at the time.  In fact, Bach studied Fischer's pieces extensively, which only further proves Fischer's strong influence on the young Bach.  Fischer opted for variety, and the implementation of different dances certainly succeeded in doing so.

The only common throughout all the keyboard suites is that they all begin with a Prelude (Praeludium), with varying characters.  These trace back to the French unmeasured preludes, but Fischer gives them a German touch.  Once again, it won't come to you as a surprise that Bach drew inspirations from Fischer's preludes when writing his own Well-Tempered Klavier masterpieces.  The dance pieces are very much French in character, and because of such, are all miniature pieces, fitting of the "musical flower" description.  This doesn't mean that Fischer was a slouch in composing lengthier pieces.  His 5th suite has only two movements, a Prelude followed by an Air and 8 Variations.  Similary, the last suite has only two movements, the Prelude and a Chaconne.  The Chaconne was a piece used by Lully to complete his theater works, and so it was natural for Fischer to conclude his set with this grand piece.  

This CD is played by Russian harpsichordist Olga Martynova.   This is not my first Fischer recording, as I have his other set of keyboard works and actually played one of his suites personally.  I do very much like Fischer's pieces, who is always able to construct great musical lines.  Anyways, Martynova was a Russian pianist who decided to go Baroque after listening to Hopkinson Smith play.  She has released a few recordings on the Russian label Caro Mitis.  One of the more peculiar recordings (or interesting, however you want to put it), is her recording of some romantic piano works on the harpsichord, most of them which involve Shostakovich.

Martynova plays on a Dowd French harpsichord, which has a light sound, ideal for the type of music being played here.  Her playing is very solid and phrasing very smooth, which works superbly for the Allemandes and Preludes.  For the faster dance movements, however, I would have preferred slightly even more articulation, something more punctuated, to bring out the spirit in the music.  If you have heard Christophe Rousset play a French Courante or Gigue, you will know what I am talking about. That being said, this is but a minor detail, because she is overall consistently good with her interpretations.   What more important though, is that this recording gives the listener a chance to get to know Fischer's music, which deserve much more credit than it does.