Here you can listen to a few compositions of Quantz that are available on YouTube.
I want to encourage every visitor to buy the cd’s and support the artists.
Concerto à 10 in G major (QV 6: 6): Allegro – Siciliana – Allegro
The concerto in G major à 10 for two flutes, two oboes, solo violin, strings and continuo (QV 6: 6) was written for the Dresden court orchestra. It’s a brilliant concerto in the Dresden style. You can find the concerto on the Vanguard Classics-cd “Concerti from Dresden & Berlin”. The concert is recorded by Musica ad Rhenum, a group of musicians specialized in the performance of 17th-and 18th-century music on period instruments. The soloists on flauto traverso are Jed Wentz and Marion Moonen.
The manuscript of the concerto used for the recording is in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz:“Pour Potsdam” or “pour Charlottenbourg”. Concerto , à 10. Flauto Travers: Primo, Flauto Travers: Secondo, Oboe Primo, Oboe secondo, Violino Concertato, Violino primo ripieno, Violino secondo, Violetta, Fagotto, è Cembalo di Quantz.
Concerto in e minor (QV 5: 120): Allegro mà non tanto
My flute teacher told me “The most beautiful flute concertos are in E minor”. And I think it is true. Think of the flute concertos in e minor of Devienne, Mercadante, Benda and Telemann, to name only a few. And also this concerto in E minor (QV 5: 120) of Quantz is jewel of late baroque music. Here you can listen to the Allegro mà non tanto. Quantz composed this concerto around 1730, when he was a member of the Dresden Court Orchestra. The concerto is on the KammerTon-CD “Musik für Sans-Souci”. The soloist is Christoph Huntgeburth. On this superbe live concert recording he plays a copy of a baroque flute by G.A. Rottenburgh from his own workshop. The recording is made with the Ensemble Sans-Souci Berlin. There is a printed version of the concerto: Concerto per il Flauto Traverso con Due Violini Alto Viola e Basso continuo del Signor Quantz. Avec privilege du roy. (Boivin, Le Clerc, Estien, Paris after 1733) (Augsbach).
This is the best known of all concertos of Johann Joachim Quantz. There are now 18 different recordings of this concerto in the discography. It’s recorded by James Galway, Partick Gallois, Michael Martin Kofler, Alexandre Magnin, Abbie de Quant, Claudio Ferrarini, Peter-Lukas Graf, Rachel Brown, Wolfgang Schulz, Benedek Csalog, Per Øien, Josep-Francesc Palou, Emmanuel Pahud, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Vaclav Kunt, Daniela Koch, Hans-Ulrich Niggemann and Willy Freivogel. On YouTube you can listen to the Allego assai of the concerto recorded by Johannes Walter with the Dresden Kammersolisten. The concerto is on the Berlin Classics-CD “Johann Johann Quantz – Flötenkonzerte”. This is one of the best Quantz CD’s. The concerto was composed around 1744, when Quantz was already in Berlin. There are two different versions of the concerto: the original complete Berlin sources of the concerto and a manuscript copy that is in the Dresden library. The concerto on the Berlin Classics-CD is based on this copy that is in the Dresden library, Concerto, â 5, Flauto Traversiero, Violino Primo, Violino Secondo, Violetta, e Basso, di Quantz (Mus. 2470 – O – 1). It was taken there by Johann Georg Pisendel. The flute part contains many alterations by Moritz Fürstenau (1824 – 1889), an excellent flute virtuoso of the Dresdner Hofkapelle, who performed the concerto on March the 14th, 1877 in Dresden. The original version you can find on the Hungaroton-CD “Johann Joachim Quantz – 4 concertos for flute”.
Concerto in G major (QV 6: 7): Allegro mà non tanto
Here you can enjoy the first movement of the Double flute concerto in G major that is on the highly recommended Archiv-CD Concerti “per l’orchestra di Dresda”. All the music recorded on this CD is absolutely sublime. The music on the CD is recorded by Musica Antiqua Köln (on authentic instruments) under the direction of Reinhard Goebel. In the double concerto extreme virtuosity is demanded of the soloists. There is little doubt that Johann Quantz himself and his teacher Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin were the soloists. On this recording the soloists are Jed Wentz and Marion Moonen. The manuscript of the concerto is in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden.
Quartet in D major no. 1 ( QV 4: 8): Vivace – Largo – Allegro
This quartet in D major no. 1 ( QV 4: 8) for flute, violin, viola and basso continuo is on the Hungaroton-CD “Six Flute Quartets” by Johann Joachim Quantz. In the early eighteenth century a quartet was a type of contrapuntal chamber sonata for three melody instruments and basso continuo. Mary Oleskiewicz states: “Quantz’s quartets are among his best works. They demonstrates his mastery of counterpoint and undoubtedly represent a milestone in his development as a composer“. Mary Oleskiewicz plays a Baroque flute after Quantz. David Schulenberg plays harpsichord, Elizabeth Field violin, Stephanie Vial cello and Daniel Elyar viola. The performances on this world première recording CD are excellent. This is a CD you must have in your collection. Mary Oleskiewicz is a specialist in Baroque music. She is a highly regarded teacher of historical and modern woodwind instruments, and one of the leading scholars of her generation on the music of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries, and certainly also of Quantz. The quartets were rediscovered by Mary Oleskiewicz in the archives of the Berlin Sing-Akademie, after their return in 2001 from the Archive-Museum for Art and Literature in Kiev.