Wilhelm van Wassenar (1692-1766) Dutch Composer

[Guest]

On "Through the Night" today at 0651, I was fascinated and "uplifted" by the Concerto No 4 in C Major by Wilhelm van Wassenar , who was almost an exact contempory of G F Handel in England, and in fact died a few years after Handel in 1766. I wonder if Handel knew about Wassenar, as the latters music follows a similar style to Handel, but is rather more florid, at least in my non- expert opinion.. However the mystery about this music is that it was not attributed to Van Wassenar himself, but to an Italian musician called Ricciotti, who copied Wassenars music against his wishes, and put his own signature (Ricciotti) to the copied manuscript (according to the Baroque Guide to Music). interestingly , Van Wassenar was one of the Dutch nobility, and was not only a musician, but also a Diplomat, which must have been a useful entry to Court music around Europe.
Did anyone awake this morning at 0650, also listen to this music. I am so pleased I heard it, unfortunately the recording broadcast today, does not appear to be available commercially, as listed on the playlist. does anyone know of a CD of this Composer ?

[mercia]

According to Wikipaedia, Wassenaer (this seems to be the accepted spelling) didn't want the Concerti published under his own name because of his noble birth. Under this alternative spelling there seem to be several recordings of Concerti 1 - 6 on the Amazon website including an inexpensive Naxos recording.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dclassical&field-keywords=wassenaer

[poshsussex]

Hercule ! thanks for info on Wassenaer (as spelt correctly), and will order a CD from Amazon, as suggested. I do hope that I can hear some of this composers music " live" in Uk, possibly with some Handel music also. maybe Handel House in London ,will include Wassenaer in one of their Thursday evening ensemble concerts ?

[Roehre]

van Wassenaer's concerti were (until he emerged as its composer in 1980 or so) not only attributed to Ricciotti. The concerti were published as Sei Concerti armonici attributed to Pergolesi and as such you will still find them in record catalogues. There are more than a dozen recordings available at the moment, either as Pergolesi or as Van Wassenaer.
Nice detail: Stravinsky used one of the movements of these concertos in his Pulcinella.

[MickyD]

Hi poshsussex,

Glad you share my enthusiasm for the Wassenaer concerti! Sadly Ton Koopman's version seems no longer available, but a very good alternative is The Brandenburg Consort on Hyperion's budget Helios label, a real bargain!