Brahms composed only a small number of original works for piano four hands, but arranged almost all of his chamber music and orchestral works for this instrumentation. He played most of them immediately after their completion with Clara Schumann and greatly appreciated her opinion. In his Hungarian Dances Brahms brilliantly transformed original Hungarian melodies and rhythms into multi-coloured orchestral works. The Blüthner grand piano from 1867 shows how Brahms made perfect use of the entire keyboard in his writing for four hands. The various registers appear completely transparent and clear. It is not generally known that Brahms was a great admirer and friend of Johann Strauss. And he loved waltzes! Thus Brahms also created an instrumental version of his Liebeslieder-Walzer for piano four hands. Robert Schumann's last theme, which he wrote for his so-called Ghost Variations immediately before being admitted to a mental hospital, is used by Brahms in his homage to Schumann, which was written immediately after his death in 1856: the Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann op. 23 for piano four hands, which ends with an impressive funeral march.
For the piano duo Wyneke Jordans & Leo van Doeselaar it was an obvious choice to conclude their series with recordings of four-handed piano works by great German composers on period instruments with Brahms.
In the present recording, the organists Liuwe Tamminga and Leo Van Doeselaar have selected eleven double-choir instrumental pieces (from Giovanni Gabrieli. This selection of eight-to-twelve-part pieces, performed on two of the most beautiful and suitable organs for this repertoire—the two magnificent organs of the San Petronio Basilica in Bologna (unfortunately no comparable organs have...
Deep remorse and the longing for divine redemption are two of the central topics in the cantatas of Northern German Baroque composers. Griet De Geyter and Il Gardellino have selected three exemplary works in this genre by Dieterich Buxtehude, Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach, giving special emphasis to the clearly led voice and striking expressivity of the young Belgian soprano....
Sebastian Bach composed many works for violin (besides the pieces for organ and harpsichord, the two instruments he mainly played). He had learned to play the violin as a child and knew its characteristics perfectly well. Unfortunately, the manuscripts of many of his compositions were lost after his death: the three sonatas for violin and basso continuo BWV 1021, 1023 and 1024 are today a small...
This recording presents 5 violin sonatas by Vivaldi that Pisendel took with him to Dresden after his stay in Venice. We know that Vivaldi wrote these extremely virtuoso sonatas for himself around 1710. The recording also presents a world première recording of a chamber concerto for violin and t movements for violin and basso continuo with cello concertato (RV 252 and RV 7a) which are also world...
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...
