Not this time

Joseph Anton Steffan: Concertos for Harpsichord

Josef Antonín Štěpán, known in Vienna as Joseph Anton Steffan, was born in 1726, six years before Haydn, and died in 1797, six years after Mozart. He's part of the extraordinary composing flowering in Bohemia in the 18th century, with greats like the Stamitzes, the Bendas, Richter, Dusek, Mysliveček and Rosetti, not to mention the great Christoph Willibald Gluck. After listening to these four rather slight concertos, I wouldn't hesitate to relegate Steffan to a second tier in the Bohemian Composers' League. This is in spite of their fleeting charms and occasional erudite flashes. Perhaps it says at least as much about the very high level of his countrymen's music than any deficiencies of Steffan's. Harpsichordist Edita Keglerova and the Hipocondria Ensemble give their best efforts, which are significant, but they're eventually undone by the slightly washed-out music, which a few times veers close to the banal.

Everyone hopes to hit gold when they come across an obscure release like this; I know I do. Hope springs eternal, but I have to say, yet again, "not this time".

This album will be released on March 6, 2020.