G051 - G56

Clifford Bartlett, Early Music Review - 107 - June 2005:

... Philipp Heinrich Erlebach (1657-1714) worked most of life for Count Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, a few miles south of Weimar. Most of his music was lost in a fire at court in 1735. This [G054] is the fourth of his 6 sonatas published in Nuremberg in 1694; Edition Güntersberg are issuing them as single titles. Erlebach published four partbooks: violin, viola da gamba, continuo and a violin alternative to the gamba. In this (and also in Sonata III), both violin parts are in scordatura (CGCE). The edition supplies parts as notated and at sounding pitch - playing without retuning doesn't look impossible. The gamba part is mostly in the alto clef but the score uses octave treble. The continuo part in current copies is unfigured, but future copies will have the figures included. These are genuine trios - the gamba part is not an elaborated bass, and the level of interest between the parts is even. The music avoids extravagant gestures, but is interesting enough to be worth playing. There is an opening sonata movement, followed by a four-movement suite.

Both these editions [Note by Edition Güntersberg: The review covers another title as well] are edited by Leonore and Günter von Zadow. ...Unobtrusive but sound keyboard realisations are supplied by ... Dankwart von Zadow. These are just two of an expanding series of mostly-German music for viols ... All are well printed, with any blank space in the scores sensibly occupied by facsimiles.