To listen to Johann David Heinichen's concerti is to listen to a composer ‘who relied more on the tendresse, gout and brilliance of the music than on cardboard crickets’ (as J.D. Heinichen wrote about himself in ‘Der General-Bass in der Composition’, page 9).

And if Heinichen emphasises that ‘the soul and tendresse of composition truly does not consist of a few hundred mouldy, superfluous rules’, Heinichen was nevertheless someone who did not leave music entirely to the ear, but rather explored rules for playing the basso continuo based on listening experience, entirely in the spirit of the sciences of the time, which no longer derived cosmic world views and musical rules from any ancient authorities and theories.

But listening to Heinichen's compositions also means encountering a high epoch of virtuoso instrumental or sacred music-making at the court of Augustus the Strong. In the years when Heinichen was court music director (from 1717 to 1729), the Dresden court was a cultural centre of European Baroque painting and music. Frederick Augustus II in particular, the son and successor of Augustus the Strong, travelled culturally throughout Europe at the age of 19, but especially to Italy. In Dresden, he promoted Italian music as he had experienced it with his musicians, particularly in Venice. At his suggestion, Augustus the Strong appointed Heinichen court conductor at the Dresden court. Until his early death, Heinichen subsequently conducted one of the best orchestras of the time with the most brilliant instrumentalists. Names such as Jean Baptiste Volumier, predecessor of Johann Georg Pisendel (as solo violinist), Pierre Gabriel Buffardin (as flautist), Jan Dismas Zelenka (as composer and double bassist) are still well known today. In addition, the violinists and composers Francesco Maria Veracini and Antonio Lotti also met at the Dresden court, so that one could speak of a Baroque avant-garde in Dresden.

With such prominent soloists at the time, it is understandable that concerti grandi for various instruments were just as attractive as concertos for individual soloists. Soloists took turns within the same movements and stood in attractive tonal comparison. In this way, they represented the power, culture and festive and entertainment capacity of an era in Dresden. Just over 100 kilometres away from Dresden, in Leipzig, lived another figure of this diverse era: Johann Sebastian Bach. When Heinichen died of consumption (tuberculosis) and his position became vacant, Bach also applied to be his successor. However, Augustus the Strong left the position vacant. A few years later, Augustus the Strong then awarded Johann Adolph Hasse the title of ‘Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Kapellmeister’. Hasse and his wife, the singer Faustina Bordoni, moved to the court of Dresden under Augustus III in 1733. What would have become of Bach and his late work if he had moved to Dresden around 1729...

Bach's violin concerto literature is ubiquitously known, and here I would like to point out the widely unknown Concerti grandi by Johann David Heinichen, which are clearly simpler and shorter and yet come in a variety of scorings alongside the solo violin. According to Heinichen scholar Reinhard Goebel, these concertos are characterised by their courage to be simple, grandiose and obvious, as well as by the colourfulness of the instrumentation and the division of labour between the voices. Listening to Heinichen's concerti means consciously indulging in a sound experience of Baroque grandeur and variety.

Listen here!

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Listen here!

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