Silvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750)
Sonate pour luth baroque en do majeur, SC N 40 "Pour son Altesse Sérénissime Monsieur le Duc de Lobkowitz"
Sonate pour luth baroque en sol mineur, SC N 51


Paul Beier, luth baroque

Les manuscrits de Dresde du compositeur luthiste Silvius Leopold Weiss (1787-1750) est un legs essentiel de ce compositeur. Il comprend six volumes de tablatures et trente-quatre sonates soigneusement rassemblées selon leur tonalité. Elles ont toutes été composées entre 1706 et l’année 1750 pour un luth à onze puis à treize chœurs. Ajoutons que ce manuscrit est passé entre les mains de copistes plus ou moins méticuleux et d’un collectionneur luthiste (Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf) soucieux d’établir un véritable catalogue. Le style musical de Weiss est issu de l’école italienne, Corelli en particulier, mais imprégné d’un contrepoint très allemand. Fort d’une pratique quotidienne de l’improvisation et du continuo, Weiss se distingue de ses pairs, nonobstant son invention mélodique, par sa capacité à exploiter dans de sinueuses méandres les fameuses marches harmoniques. La tardive Sonate en Sol Mineur (qui ne fait d’ailleurs pas partie de la collection Breitkopf) comprend six mouvements contrastés dont une Allemande ici particulièrement développée (10’37 minutes) et une fort brève polonoise (1’46 !). Paul Beier, excellent luthiste au demeurant, semble ici au bord d’une léthargie post-comateuse. On baille. La Courante qui suit se traîne comme un boulet et la Bourée n’est plus une bourrée mais une danse pour pied bot. Ça devient ensuite impossible de lenteur. Si la Sonate en Do majeur bénéficie d’un tactus plus conforme à la progression de la polyphonie, elle ne parvient guère plus à convaincre. Quid de la sèveuse écriture de Weiss ? On s’interroge alors sur l’implication de l’interprète quant au projet d’un second volume… (Jérôme Angouillant)

Sylvius Leopold Weiss was born in the then Bohemian province of Silesia (now in Poland) in 1687 and grew up under the strong influence of Losy, which can be seen clearly in his early compositions. After his Italian sojourn (1710-14), Weiss became deeply involved with the Prague musical milieu and, according to numerous documents, he must have spent much time there even after he was invited by Augustus the Strong, on the 23rd of August 1718, to become an “Electoral Saxon and Royal Polish Chamber Musician” at his court in Dresden. In the years between 1717 and 1724 he worked closely with Johann Christian Anthoni von Adlersfeld at the Prague Music Academy to create one of most extensive collections of his music ever assembled, what we now know as the “London Manuscript.” Also, in this period he worked with the Prague lute maker Thomas Edlinger to improve upon the 11-course instrument normally used by adding two bass courses to extend its range. Two different solutions were possible: using thicker or slightly longer strings. The thicker strings didn’t sound very good, so the extra length was decided upon. The added bass courses were placed on a newfangled contraption attached to the side of the pegbox, called a “bass-rider.” This is the kind of lute I play for this recording. By the way, lutes were strung in gut and not in metal, as they often are today, and I have continued this tradition for the present recording. The Dresden manuscript includes many of Weiss’s best-known works that are found in other manuscripts as well, but it also contains a number of expansive sonatas composed late in life that are unique to this source. A few of them are in Weiss’s own hand, but the rest were probably copied by the Saxon minister for war, Friedrich Wilhelm Raschke, who, according to Crawford, “seems to have gained access to what must have been Weiss’s personal archive of music.”