Stylistically speaking, the music on this disc will sound familiar even if none of the four Dutch composers’ names rings a bell. Two sonatas by Carolus Antonius Fodor (1768-1846) follow the three-movement game plan developed and perfected by Haydn, fortified by Fodor’s sharp ear for deft modulations and dramatic silences. By contrast, the Air du Tonnelier by Carolus Antonius’ older brother Carolus Emanuel Fodor (1759-ca.1799) is a charming, decorative minuet of the Mozartean variety. Less memorable is a Polonaise by Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847), although its period charm cannot be denied. Lastly, a Grande Marche Funèbre represents the early Romantic Dutch composer Henri Messemaeckers Jr. Its brooding outer sections contrast with a lyrical central interlude reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words. If the composition seems a shade too long for what it has to express, it would better hold our attention in a less fidgety, nitpicking performance than what Arthur Schoonderwoerd has to offer. In the aforementioned sonatas, his taprered phrasings and calculated rubatos become easily predictable and erode the music’s backbone. Schoonderwoerd’s fortepiano, however, has an attractive, well-regulated sonority, and his scholarly annotations are models of their kind.
