Cheeky ghost in the wasteland

The International Fröhlich Society Brugg, initiated by the singer Barbara Vigfusson, has been committed to the performance and dissemination of the music of the Aargau early Romantic composer Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich (1803-1836) since 2016. There is now also a Fröhlich Concert Choir Brugg, led by church musician Markus J. Frey, and a cultural association "Fröhlich Concerts Brugg".

The fact that Aargau produced Switzerland's most important early Romantic composer has been known at least since the dissertation by Winterthur grammar school teacher Pierre Sarbach in 1987 and his Fröhlich performances with the vocal ensemble pro musica. Fröhlich's Missa was published in 1987 in the series "Schweizerische Musikdenkmäler", but it turned out to be a copy by Fröhlich of a mass by Johann Gottlieb Naumann (1741-1801) from 1794. There is a great deal to discover in Fröhlich's own works: well-sung choral and vocal ensemble works, several orchestral overtures, many songs, chamber music and piano pieces - original Gebrauchsmusik in the best sense of the word. Incidentally, his estate is in the Basel University Library.
 

Fröhlich received his basic musical training at Hans Georg Nägeli's "Singinstitut" in Zurich. He was originally supposed to study law. However, musical life in Berlin really took off for him: he attended many concerts and came into contact with the best musicians of the time, including Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Friedrich Zelter from the Berlin Sing-Akademie. In this environment, Fröhlich also experienced Mendelssohn's music-historically significant revival of Bach's St. Matthew Passion with.

His Passion Cantata He wrote it shortly after his return from Berlin and performed it in Aarau in 1831 - not with an orchestra, but with piano accompaniment. Fröhlich had returned to a musical wasteland. There was no orchestra in Aarau and no regular music lessons at the cantonal school with which he could have made a living. So he founded his own singing school.

The texts for the Passion Cantatabased on the four Gospels, was provided by his brother, the reformed theologian Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich. The oratorio is extensive, consists of 21 numbers and not only has an original instrumentation, Fröhlich also "plays" with it: mixed choir, women's choir and men's choir sing in alternation, plus six soloists and a wind orchestra. The unconventional yet singable melodic line is striking; harmonically, he repeatedly finds interesting, early Romantic turns and colors. The instrumentation is surprisingly good.
 

Fröhlich's oratorio could now be experienced in the Stadtkirche Brugg under the masterful direction of Markus J. Frey. The participating Fröhlich Concert Choir Brugg also included the excellent female vocal ensemble Vocembalo, conducted by Barbara Vigfusson. This was clearly audible in the well-intoned, extremely high soprano parts. Overall, the choir and Chaart's orchestra mastered this work with fresh verve, good intonation and precise fugal entries.

Sunday also showed that this Fröhlich project involves good musicians who are committed to the cause. The song recital with soprano Muriel Schwarz and her subtly attuned pianist Andrea Wiesli embedded Fröhlich's songs - including some Swiss songs in dialect - between those of the siblings Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The Biedermeier-style pieces, which bear witness to Fröhlich's humor and joie de vivre, were performed sensitively and wittily.

In addition, violinist Sebastian Bohren and the Stradivari Quartet took on the Swiss premiere of the Piano Quartet in D minor (1835), first published by Amadeus-Verlag; Benjamin Engeli was at the piano. They played the work by the early Romantic composer from Aargau after Mozart's Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor K. 478 and showed that it could certainly hold its own alongside Mozart. They infected the audience with their delight in Fröhlich's sense of sound and cheeky spirit. It would be time to promote this locally and nationally significant Fröhlich initiative more strongly in terms of cultural policy.