The booklet notes to this release from Germany's CPO label go into quite a bit of detail about the uncertain authorship of these concertos from mid-18th century Germany, and the album may be of most interest to those specializing in the ways the Italian concerto made its way into Germany and evolved there. It turns out that most of the manuscripts that preserved them indicate the composer simply as "Graun," with no indication of which of the two brothers, Johann Gottlieb Graun or Carl Heinrich Graun, was the actual writer ...
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The booklet notes to this release from Germany's CPO label go into quite a bit of detail about the uncertain authorship of these concertos from mid-18th century Germany, and the album may be of most interest to those specializing in the ways the Italian concerto made its way into Germany and evolved there. It turns out that most of the manuscripts that preserved them indicate the composer simply as "Graun," with no indication of which of the two brothers, Johann Gottlieb Graun or Carl Heinrich Graun, was the actual writer (and they might even have collaborated). One work, the Bassoon Concerto in F major (tracks 7-9), is argued by director Michael Schneider to be by Christoph Graupner, not either of the Grauns; its manuscript simply says "Grau." For the average listener, this is a pleasant collection of unfamiliar concertos for various instruments. The most interesting is doubtless the Concerto for violin, viola, strings, and continuo in C minor (tracks 4-6), here definitely ascribed to Johann Gottlieb...
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