Jan Ignac Frantisek Vojta.

Jan Ignac Frantisek Vojta

Sonatas I-III, Parthia amabilis, Anima mea dilecta, Arietta cordialis, Threnodia hujus temporis

La Gambetta, Elen Machova. Production: V. Janda. Text: Cz., Eng., Ger. Recorded: 9/2005, the Church of the Bohemian Brethren, Nymburk. Released: 2006. TT: 65:54. DDD. 1 CD Arta F10141 (distribution 2HP Production).

The Czech musical world has a new star, but not many people are aware of him. The new "Superstar" is no show-business victim, as you might imagine, but the Prague physician and composer Jan Ignac Frantisek Vojta, who is now perhaps celebrating his three-hundred and fiftieth birthday in the next world. This Baroque composer definitely deserves posthumous fame and admiration. The best argument is of course the recording under review, which is the first to give the broader public a comprehensive view of the music of J.I.F.Vojta. Although his main profession was medicine, his music was quite widely diffused, even outside the Bohemian Lands. Probably what have caused the greatest surprise and even sensation are the three sonatas, probably a sonata triptych, a copy of which has been preserved in the musical collection of the Vienna Minorites. These pieces have been compared with the works of H.I.F.Biber, and quite rightly so. These are compositions possessing refined formal qualities, emotionally very rich and at the same time making great demands on the technical skill of the performer. Like Biber's Rosary Sonatas they also use scordatura (retuning of the strings)--a technique also employed in the last preserved instrumental piece by Dr. Vojta, the Partita amabilis, i.e. a suite for violin, viola and basso continuo, which has survived in Paris. With these pieces alone Vojta would have assured himself a brilliant place in the very patchy and hole-ridden picture we have of Czech Baroque music. Fortunately, however, three vocal pieces have also survived: the solo motet Anima mea dilecta, the St. John's Feast/Midsummer Arietta cordialis and the cantata Threnodia hujus temporis. While the joyfulness of the St. John' motet clearly draws on the Czech peasant Baroque tradition, the other two pieces are written in the typical vocal style of the last third of the 17th century. In the case of the Threnody, however, we encounter a unique, relatively lengthy dialogic cantata for soprano and basso continuo. The main credit for reviving this beautiful music must go to Jiri Kveton, who has copied the pieces from various sources and prepared them for the recording, for which he has also written a commentary. Here he focuses mainly on a possible symbolic interpretation of the sonatas, which is certainly another interesting level of Vojta's work, albeit all such interpretations are on thin ice. The pieces are played by the La Gambetta ensemble (and its numerous guests) led by Elen Machova, a young, medially inconspicuous but already recognised violinist specialising in historically authentic interpretation. Her play is masterful, energetic and at the same time sensitive. She communicates the rhetorically rich sonatas very convincingly, her violin becoming a true instrument of narration. The recording is also fascinating for the variety of the instruments used for the basso continuo in the hands of a succession of brilliant musicians; apart from harpsichord, organ and violon we hear and archlute (Miloslav Student), triple harp (Chiara Granata), Baroque guitar and galizone (Pietro Prosser), which is an instrument akin to the lute but with a deeper range. Among the vocalists the soprano Hana Blazikova stands out, always impressing with the sweet shimmering colour of her voice, and a heartfelt but very natural rendering that is entirely ideal for this music. If we leave aside a few small points of intonation, we can only praise the whole recording as a highly successful, revealing and worthy project.

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