Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847)
Quatuor pour piano en do majeur, op. 22
Quatuor pour piano en fa majeur, op. 30
Trio pour piano en do majeur, op. 4

Christian Euler, alto
G.A.P. Ensemble

Emilio Percan, violon
Oriol Aymat Fusté, violoncelle
Luca Quintavalle, pianoforte

Natif des environs de Solingen en Allemagne, Johann Wilhelm Wilms fit carrière aux Pays-Bas où il s'installa dès l'âge de 19 ans. Le G.A.P. Ensemble nous propose trois de ses oeuvres, deux quatuors avec piano (renforcé par l'altiste Christian Euler) et le trio avec piano en ut majeur op. 4. Le premier quatuor op. 22, également en ut majeur, est une oeuvre de musique de chambre composée entre 1800 et 1806 dans laquelle le piano joue le rôle de 'primus inter pares' cependant que le second en fa majeur op. 30, daté d'avant 1812, est conçu comme un concerto pour piano avec accompagnement de trio à cordes, forme déjà exploitée par J.Ch. Bach. Publié en 1799, le trio apparaît fortement influencé par le modèle mozartien. Ces partitions d'un charme mélodique indéniable et d'une science certaine dans les raffinements sonores souffrent de l'intention manifeste d'épater le public, notamment dans la partie toujours dominante de pianoforte. Luca Quintavalle joue pleinement le jeu de cet esbroufe avec le soutien irréprochable et même enthousiaste de ses partenaires. Reste, qu'en dehors de l'un poco adagio du trio qui marque plus de retenue, cette musique peine à émouvoir. (Michel Lorentz-Alibert)

Thanks to recordings such as this one, the figure of Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847) is increasingly coming into focus and prominence as a notable contemporary of Beethoven who deserves better than his previous obscurity. In 1807, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described the Wilms as ‘one of the most ingenious, spirited, and best educated artists’ of his generation: a judgment borne out by the this trio of high-spirited chamber works. Born near Cologne, only two years after and some 60 km distant from Beethoven, Wilms made his career in Amsterdam as both performer (on flute and piano) and composer, inviting further parallels. His tenuous foothold on posterity has depended until recently for being known as the composer of the Dutch national anthem. His style may be more notable for fluency and charm than depth, but this album traverses his own expressive journey from the elegant Classical manners of an early piano trio to the intimations of Romanticism and melancholy in the second of his piano quartets. Though the piano quartets of Wilms have been recorded before, this is the first-ever recording made on instruments of the period, and the inclusion of the piano trio makes it a generous coupling and a perfect introduction to an original voice in European music of the Classical era. Known together as the G.A.P. Ensemble, Emilio Percan, Aymat Fusté and Luca Quintavalle aim to build musical bridges between eras much as Wilms himself did, considered retrospectively. Their previous albums have been enthusiastically reviewed in Gramophone, Diapason and elsewhere. The recording was made in October 2021 in the studios of WDR radio in Cologne, presenting both composer and performers in a warmly attractive light.