The project
The aim of the project is to record all the compositions of the German composer and flutist Johann Joachim Quantz (1697 - 1773) and make them available free of charge, as well as to publish the original sheet music of the works also for free.According to he plan is all the flute works, that is roughly 550 compositions, to be recorded as soon as possible and made available to wider audience.
These works are an extremely valuable part of the European musical heritage, and can be considered to be one of the outstanding achievements of German late baroque music. They are not only of musicological importance, but also really excellent music that wide public would enjoy.
Until the end of the twentieth century, the oeuvre of Quantz was not part of the repertoire of flautists, only a few works were played at concerts, very few recordings were made, only a few scores were released in modern edition.
I can proudly say that I also took part in the rediscovery of Quantz's works: my two CD's released by the Hungaroton label are among the early pieces of the Quantz-discogaphy:
- Quantz: 4 Concertos For Flute - Hungaroton, HCD31916, released in 2000
- Quantz: 7 Sonatas for flute & basso continuo, HCD32052, released in 2003
As things stand, I will record the approximately 200 flute sonatas myself, and to record the other works, I would need to involve other performers in the work.
The website of the Quantz Project was completed in 2020, and the uploading of audio recordings began in 2022 with full intensity. Some of my older recordings have been temporarily added to the website, but I will replace them with newly recorded versions in the near future.
The project also includes the publication of the scores of the works, in the form of scanned versions of the original manuscripts, early manuscript copies and 18th-century prints. These manuscripts can be found almost entirerly in various European libraries, primarily in the collection of the 'Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin'. Since they are public domain and I received permission from the library to publish the scores, I will gradually upload them to the project's website.
The status of the project as of March 2024:
- 41 sonatas have been recorded, 27 of which are already available on the website, the rest are still in post-production.
- Scores for 68 works have been uploaded to the website, another 20 are under preparation.
The project is basically self-funded, so far I have financed the major part of expenses myself, I have not received any state support. A smaller part of the costs was financed by crowdfunding campaigns and private donations for which I would also like to express special thanks. You can read more here about how to support & donate the project financially or otherwise.
In 2023, the Budapest-based 'The Haydneum – Hungarian Center for Early Music' bought the non-exclusive publishing rights of 4 sonatas, thus helping the creation of the recording. But these recordings are also uploaded to the website and can be freely downloaded.
In 2023, the Dutch label Brilliant Classics label approached me with the offer to publish the approximately 200 sonatas, in the form of physical CDs, but also on free online platforms such as Youtube and Spotify. Since free accessibility is extremely important to me, I accepted the offer, because this way the recording reaches many more people.
The first CD will be released in June 2024, after which new CDs will be published every 2-3 months. But the Quantz Project website will remain.
According to the agreement with the Brilliant Classic© label, the new recordings made from mid-2023 onwards will only be available on CDs distributed by Brilliant Classics, as well as on their online interfaces. Therefore, in the case of these new recordings, only links to the website of Brilliant Classics will be visible.
Most of the older recordings will be re-recorded in even better quality for Brilliant Classics, and only the new recordings will be available on this website and elsewhere.
Since Quantz's oeuvre is almost exclusively composed for flute(s), the very few non-flute works will also be part of the project. Outstanding artists will be invited to record and publish these works - a few concertos without flute and about 30 songs.
For the list of the already published recordings and the ’to be recorded’ works see here .
The recordings made before mid 2023 were made in high-resolution audio quality 96kHz or 192kHz at 24bit and uploaded to this website in best possible streaming (MP3 320 kpbs) quality. Above means that downloading and listening to the recordings in MP3 quality is free of charge, the further distribution of the recordings is free of charge as well, but soliciting money for distribution by third parties is strictly prohibited.
You can read more about the legal status of the recordings here .
The recordings are to be made on excellent modern replicas of original, well preserved flutes built by Quantz. The pitch used for the recordings is the one used in Quantz’s environment at that time, namely at ca. A = 392 Hz, 400 Hz or 415 Hz.
Benedek Csalog