Young & Foolish: Mozart & C.P.E. Bach from Café Zimmermann

Music that makes you happy.

If there is anything these days that we need in large quantities, it’s music that makes you happy. Well, here it is, thanks to Alpha Classics. It is said that Mozart’s music has a positive effect on the psyche. Studies prove it though others -as always- deny such an effect. Whatever the truth, test it for yourself. I have no reliable information on a similar spin-off from C.P.E. Bach, but by listening to the works recorded here, it worked for me. 

In this context, Café Zimmerman and its ‘bartender’ Pablo Valetti are a further uplifting element. With Madame Frisch as a ‘regular’ at the harpsichord, and visiting artist, Monsieur Melnikov, playing the fortepiano, your enjoyment can’t go wrong.

Who is the Young; who is the Foolish?

The title of this release is puzzling. Reading the liner notes to discover why ‘Young & Foolish: Mozart & C.P.E. Bach’ was chosen, the ‘Why’ doesn’t become altogether clear. In the sense: Young Mozart against foolish C.P.E. Bach, is not very complimentary for the second ‘Hamburg & Berlin’ son of Pappa Bach. The other way around, then? Mozart the Fool? Could be. But then again C.P.E. Bach was years his senior and not Foolish. So, we must accept the explanation of Café Zimmermann: “One can readily imagine them, the young man and the old, crafting the history of music and of art .. with the enthusiasm of reckless youth: young & foolish”. 

Or is it ‘Fresh & Fruity’?

Reading the accompanying booklet, one searches in vain for details about Café Zimmermann. It is not a pub, but a French Baroque Orchestra, created in 1999, with a complement of around 20 musicians, led by violinist Pablo Valetti and harpsichordist Céline Frisch. It is named after and aims at “bringing together soloists who strive to revive the artistic emulation brought about by the establishment of Gottfried Zimmermann (Zimmermannsches Kaffeehaus, or Coffeehouse) in Leipzig in the 18th century”. The place no longer exists. It was destroyed at the end of the Second World War. But its importance for the world of Baroque lingers on in Avignon, in the South of France, the home base of this ensemble. In this new recording, their playing is straightforward. No unnecessary salon-style frills. Firm in tone and attack, committed and virtuoso in a brilliantly shaded execution of the scores. ‘Fresh & Fruity’, that’s how it sounds to me. 

Stern Lutheran North meets Sunny Catholic South.

The Sunnyside first. One of the most inspiriting parts of this release comes from Mozart. Who else? His popular Third Divertimento KV 138 was indeed meant for pleasure. Not too difficult and full of charm. Café Zimmermann play with gusto and succeed in making the listener happy. Most enjoyable!

From the North comes C.P.E. Bach’s Symphony in D major WQ 1831/1, and double keyboard concerto, in a version for harpsichord (Mme Cécile Frisch, playing a 2013 Christoph Kern copy after Michael Mietke, Berlin 1710) and fortepiano (Monsieur Alexander Melnikov, playing a 2007 Christoph Kern pianoforte copy after Anton Walter, Wien 1795). I wonder how many are familiar with these works. They are new to me. Looking at bot, typically a case of Lutheran North meets Sunny Catholic South. Different in structure, but similar in bringing new to old, whether or not that be ‘Foolish’ is not up to me to judge. 

In the Double Concerto, both soloists treat us with a buoyant and sparkling performance that can best be compared to a glass of bubbling Champagne. Tossing the narrative back and forth between harpsichord and fortepiano, interspersed with glowing accentuating strings and twinkling flutes, in the outer movements, and a stern more solemn (Nordic?) tone in the middle to remind us that joy is a bonus that needs to be earned.    

Covering More Drama than the album’s etiquette suggests.

The orchestral forces deliver the perfect background for Alexander Melnikov to perform Mozart’s 17^th piano concerto on a fortepiano. Though the final part of the programme, it is by all means its central main item. Melnikov’s reading breathes the genius of a talented composer. Popular as it was at the time and now still is, it is more dramatic than the album’s etiquette suggests. Melnikov adds baroque-style ornaments, which I like. And not only to reinforce the orchestral body in the tuttis. At the same time, however, the andante foreshadows elements of Romance. Carefully and sensitively portrayed. The final movement is the cherry on our longing for optimism, ending with lots of blustering conviction. I find his reading altogether a gripping mix of insight, virtuosity and musicality.

Blangy-le-Chateau, Normandy, France.

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