Bach. English Suites

Bach’s English Suites are entitled in a way that is as strange as it is hard to explain, at least at first glance. Contrary to what one might assume, these works are more closely related to French suites than to English music. The title is taken from the inscription “Fait pour les Anglois”, found on a manuscript owned by Bach's youngest son. In addition to an extensive prelude and four...

The Art of Resonance

At the beginning of the 17th century, music in Italy underwent a radical change. From the first experimental attempts in Florence to revive the musical practice of Greek antiquity, which had not been handed down in detail, the genre of the monody developed, in which the singer could finally express all the nuances of the text (the "affects"), freed from the strict constraints of polyphony. To...

Johannes Tourout

Tonrroutt, Thauranth, Tauront, Taurath, Torenth... few composers have had their names mangled by scribes so badly as the protagonist of this recording. The identity of the composer behind these variants has long remained shrouded in mystery. It is known that a certain Johannes Tourout was cantor in the chapel of Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg. The composer must have been very popular in...

Préludes. Interludes. Postludes

In this recording, Jan Michiels transports us back to the Parisian salons of the 19th century. These were not only an ideal environment for Chopin – his Préludes op. 28 are a recurring thread throughout this album – but also for Debussy, whose Préludes are closely correlated with those of Chopin. Michiels opens his salon to various visitors: first Alfred Cortot, whose Chopin interpretations...

Schubert. Complete works for violin & pianoforte

Franz Schubert (1797-1827) was an extremely prolific composer, but his entire output for violin and piano fits on two CDs. His bold use of tonalities is already evident in the early works from 1816 and 1817, which clearly reflect his admiration for Mozart. The first three are labelled "Sonatina", possibly intended to appeal to amateur musicians. However, they are highly complex works by the...

CPE Bach. Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu

Radical, daring and extremely refined: that’s how C. P. E. Bach saw his new path for the Oratorio, after his father’s Passions had marked the climax of the baroque era. Encouraged by his godfather Telemann and liberated from the yoke of the capricious Frederick of Prussia, he found himself in Hamburg with an audience hungry for new music. And he brought them his oratorios, no longer in churches...

Al compás de la vihuela

Alejo de los Reyes had his first experience of playing the guitar in Argentina with his parents, who were classical guitar players and teachers. In his parents’ home, Argentine folk music was part of every celebration and every gathering, and the tango was his grandfather’s favourite music. During his studies, De los Reyes played alternately in classical concert halls and tango salons. After...

Adonia

Through centuries of re-telling the myth of Venus and Adonis, the ritualistic Adonia festival held in ancient Athens has remained a part of the story which fascinated a number of literary figures during the Italian Renaissance. The ritual was both a lamentation of love cruelly stolen by the hands of fate, and a feverish “final dance” with all of life's short-lived pleasures and desires. The...

Leuven Chansonnier VOL. 1| Sollazzo Ensemble

On the Breath of Angels

During the height of its popularity, from the mid-16th century into the 18th, the cornetto was frequently depicted in art as an instrument of angels. Paintings, sculptures, and engravings abound in which the cornetto takes a prominent place among choirs of angelic musicians, usually paired with at least one voice and with other instruments such as the organ, viol, lute, harp, violin and...

NARVÁEZ | Los libros del delphin | Xavier Díaz-Latorre

the Six Books of the Dolphin of Music for Vihuela (Valladolid, 1538) is the second collection published in the Iberian Peninsula dedicated in its entirety to music for vihuela, or vihuela and voice

Jomelli: Requiem and Miserere

Niccolò Jommelli was one of the most sought after composers of his time, but finally accepted to become musical director at the court of Stuttgart in 1753. Three years later he composed his Requiem to commemorates the recent death of the Duchess von Württemberg, mother of his patron, the Duke Carl Eugen.. Despite the fact that Jommelli owed his fame almost exclusively to his operas during his...

Seicento: The Virtuoso Early Italian Violin

Small size, four gut strings, a short bow were at beginning the ingredients of the magic. Such magic happened in Italy, the cradle of the violin, during the seventeenth century. “Seicento!” is therefore a multifaceted time-travel through the Early Baroque, from Venice to Sicily, exploring the wonders of the first violin virtuosos and their dexterous-passionated playing. A collection of music...

Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco: Cello Sonatas - Elinor...

Passacaille Records and cellist Elinor Frey, with harpsichordist Federica Bianchi, lutenist Giangiacomo Pinard, and cellist Mauro Valli, present the first recording of cello sonatas by Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco (1710-1805). Dall’Abaco’s sonatas are full of cantabile melodies with the lightness of folk songs, passagework that demands brilliance and facility, and extraordinary slow movements...

Pièces pour Théorbe et Guitare

Artist(s):Xavier Dìaz Latorre Composer:Robert de Visée

A late medieval mass on the RYSUM ORGAN

Works by Johann Walter, Hans Buchner, Josquin Desprez, Nicolaus Cracoviensis, Heinrich Finck, Nicolaus Cracoviensis, Heinrich Isaac, Tylman Susato and from the Cracow Tablature, the Tablature of Joannes de Lyublyn, the Oldenburg Tablature, the Buxheim Organ Book and the Adam Ileborgh Tablature. In the German village of Rysum, in East Frisia, a precious instrument is preserved: an ancient organ,...