Output details

Mozart: La finta giardiniera

Research content/process:

This project stems from Crouch's AHRC funded fellowship on chordal cello accompaniments for recitative in late 18th-century opera, and aims specifically to examine the use of the double bass in the continuo group, highlighting the effect its inclusion has on the role of the chordally accompanying cello. Ferdinand Kauer’s 1788 treatise gives a table of 'chords one should know for the accompaniment of recitative', and these are little-acknowledged clues to performance practice. Kauer’s instructions raise the possibility of the double bass’s inclusion alongside the cello and highlight implications for the cello’s role. Despite a wealth of evidence supporting the double-bass’s inclusion (treatises, first-hand accounts, orchestral layout diagrams, lists of payments), until this project financial constraints and artistic conservatism have prevented its use in present-day performances and recordings. This project first focussed on the technical demands for the cello explicit and implicit in Kauer’s Anweisung: including double-stopped chords and the omission of the fundamental note in the cello part. Crouch went on to examine the specific technical demands on the double bass in combination with the chordal cello, then finally worked with keyboardist and singers to investigate balance issues and exploit the full potential of the tripartite continuo group. (Where previous attempts have been made to invigorate secco recitative accompaniment they have been based less on historical evidence than on the whim of the director. Rebalancing and/or microphone replacement between recitatives and arias weakens the very dramatic continuity those whims were supposed to enhance.) The works on this disc were also presented live, and performances of several other works (Mozart Le nozze di Figaro, Lucio Scilla etc.) and complementary materials including videos and programme notes contributed both to the preparatory research and its impact as detailed in the dossier of materials submitted to aid assessment of this output.