Ignaz Joseph Pleyel (1757 – 1831): Sinfonia Concertante no 5 in F Major, B115
For Flute, Oboe, Bassoon, French Horn and Chamber Orchestra
Aside from Ludwig Van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn had one other celebrated pupil – or at least celebrated in his day. Although now somewhat forgotten, Ignaz Joseph Pleyel was one of the most popular European composers of the late eighteenth century. For a time it seemed that his music was played everywhere, filling countless salons and concert halls.
Also from humble origins, Pleyel’s musical talent was quickly recognised and he benefitted in his youth from tuition from both Johann Baptist Wanhal (a celebrated Czech composer) and from Haydn at the Esterházy estate. His friendship with the latter would be lifelong, and even when rival concert promoters were trying to pitch them against each other in London in the 1790s, the two men frequently dined together and included each other’s music in their concerts.
Like his great teacher, Pleyel initially veered towards aristocratic patronage. But then he went off at an entirely different tangent by moving to Strasbourg while still in his mid-twenties and taking up a position as organist and (subsequently) maître de chapelle at the cathedral there. Pleyel had use of a superb choir and orchestra and a large musical budget, allowing him to put on regular concerts and generally do much as he wanted. He was at his most prolific as a composer during these years. His successful career was only threatened for a time by the French Revolution. With concerts and church performances temporarily banned in Strasbourg, Pleyel went to London, where his music was warmly welcomed by all and sundry and where, like his friend Haydn, he amassed a small fortune.
He should perhaps have stayed there, or at least for a little longer. He arrived back in France just in time for the post-revolution Reign of Terror. Pleyel quickly attracted unwelcome attention from the ominously named Committee of Public Safety, who declared the foreign and suspiciously well-heeled composer (he had recently bought himself a chateau with his London profits) a person of interest. Pleyel ultimately avoided the guillotine by publicly insisting he’d always been a committed republican, while writing several prominent works in praise of the new regime.
By the early 1800s, Pleyel’s compositional career was on the wane. Perhaps he recognized that his musical sensibilities were not best fitted to some of the radically new stylistic currents sweeping across Europe. He firstly worked as a publisher before setting up an important piano-making firm in his name, the latter surviving him by nearly 200 years.
But while he is best remembered today as the founder of Pleyel and Cie and for certain didactic instrumental pieces, his main body of compositions are largely forgotten. But the popularity they enjoyed in their day is not a complete anomaly – they are often lively and vibrant, and genuinely uplifting to listen to even today.
This Sinfonia is a good example of that. It dates from 1802, just at around the time when Pleyel’s priorities were changing. The title which he chose for this piece, Sinfonia Concertante, was very much a construct of the late eighteenth century, growing naturally out of a popular Baroque form known as Concerto Grosso, where a small group of soloists (known as the concertino) would work in dialogue with a larger ensemble of instruments (the ripieno). The composer JC Bach (son of JS) would write several sinfonia concertantes in the 1770s (using a similar soloists versus orchestra principle), while both Mozart and Haydn would each produce celebrated essays in the genre a few years later.
Pleyel’s own offering (also one of several he wrote) is an attractive, upbeat work, full of inventiveness and wit, although stylistically firmly rooted in Classical ideals. After an orchestral passage opens the first movement, an Allegro Con Brio, the four solo instruments – oboe, flute, French horn and bassoon – each enter one by one with their own distinctive melodic material. With the orchestra taking on a mainly accompanying role, Pleyel shares the themes and motifs between the four soloists with admirable equality (perhaps he had absorbed some of the spirit of the French Revolution after all), sometimes allowing them to shine on their own, sometimes paring them in duets or as a four-part harmonic block, and all the time within a diverse range of rhythmic and textural patterns.
The second movement is a slow-ish Minuet, its leisurely tempo allowing Pleyel further scope to job-share the ever varying musical elements from soloist to soloist. The work ends with a short and exuberant presto, its irresistible momentum only briefly interrupted by one final, wistful appearance from the Minuet.
Suggestions for Further Listening:
Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E Flat Major K364 (1779).
Haydn: Sinfonia Concertante in B Flat Major Hob 1/105 (1792).
Like his teacher, Haydn, Pleyel was a prolific writer of symphonies, string quartets and other chamber music. One of his most substantial works is his Symphony in C Major op 66, written around a year after this Sinfonia Concertante.