Anner Bylsma, L'Archibudelli & Smithsonian Chamber Players - Dotzauer: Quintet, Pieces for cello, Quartet (1995)

In his day, Friedrich Dotzauer (1783-1860) was extremely influential as a performer, teacher and composer. In addition to having a highly successful career as an orchestral player. Dotzauer taught many of the best-known cellists of his age, and was prolific as a composer of sacred music, symphonies and chamber music.

This issue makes available a sample of Dotzauer's chamber music which reveals the composer's craftsmanship and rich imagination. The four-movement Quintet. Op. 134 has an easy grace and carefree melodiousness that Bylsma and his colleagues express most engagingly. Broad, lyrical passages and contrapuntal material are effectively contrasted in the outer movements, and Bylsma's sensitive playing of the third movement's noble cello theme is genuinely enchanting. Similar qualities can be found in the Quartet for cello obbligato, Op. 64: the Larghet to's satisfying warmth is vividly caught by the excellent recording which exploits these period instruments' superb tonal and timbral qualities, and the faster music is performed with infectious spontaneity.

Dotzauer is best known today for his solo cello studies, and Bylsma's skilful integration of the score's linear and vertical dimensions, in the three studies included here makes it easy to understand what impressed the composer's contemporaries. The Pieces for three cellos and the refreshing Canon for two violins, in which the music's wide expressive range is enhanced by beautiful, natural sound, complete this highly appealing anthology of Dotzauer's music. Cellists, in particular, have plenty to be grateful for here; but non-players will also find much to delight them.