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 but in concert halls, where he demanded the listener’s undivided attention for sudden changes of mood and colour.
Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu did indeed leave its traces: both Haydn and Beethoven showed great interest after a series of three performances conducted by Mozart in Vienna. Not only did it pave the way for Haydn’s oratorios, but there are also clear influences on the Pamina arias in Die Zauberflöte written a few years later. C. P. E. Bach wrote to his publisher Breitkopf, “I think this is the best work I have ever written.”
Full of fire, spirit, and life”: this description of the Bohemian composer Josef Mysliveček’s character was made by none other than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his younger contemporary. Mysliveček (1737-1781) spent his entire career in Italy and committed himself to the life of a freelance composer: he obstinately refused to accept any type of employment in permanent service. Not only did he...
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...
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....
As the name suggests, a claviorganum is a keyboard instrument with a harpsichord and an organ section, which can be played individually or together on one or two manuals. While this instrument may seem like a curiosity today, many sources confirm that "curiosities" were rather the norm on the European continent from the 15th to the 17th century. There was a variety of different keyboard...
As the name suggests, a claviorganum is a keyboard instrument with a harpsichord and an organ section, which can be played individually or together on one or two manuals. While this instrument may seem like a curiosity today, many sources confirm that "curiosities" were rather the norm on the European continent from the 15th to the 17th century. There was a variety of different keyboard...
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...
In addition to his famous large-scale song cycles, Schubert also composed and published numerous smaller song compilations. Some of these “miniature cycles” consist of songs written at different times and under different circumstances, but which Schubert himself assembled on the basis of thematic and textual connections. The selected cycles appeared in print during Schubert’s publishing career...
From the budding blossoms of first love and the heat of passion, to when feelings subside and fade away, “the seasons of love” are the overarching theme of this programme of madrigali concertati by three notable members of the Venetian school: Biagio Marini, Giovanni Rovetta and Giovanni Valentini. The madrigals on this recording exemplify the new musical aesthetic of affetti and the seasons of...
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 Leuven Chansonnier (1470–75) includes not only fifty compositions by such leading 15th century Franco-Flemish names as Johannes Ockeghem, Antoine Busnoys and Firminus Caron but also twelve newly rediscovered works that exist in no other source. The Ensemble Sollazzo here brings a selection of this music to life in an interpretation that is both brilliant and refreshing.
NESHIMA is Orí Harmelin’s exciting debut solo lute and theorbo album. Orí explores a new realm of possibilities for personal creation as a modern musician using the musical language of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The album contains Orí’s arrangements of Madrigals, Motets and Chansons by Cipriano de Rore, Josquin des Prez and Thomas Tallis, alongside his own compositions of variation...
The Italian Renaissance is the golden age of the lute. In quality and quantity, the lute pieces from this period are comparable to the piano works of the 19th century. Most of the works selected for this recording are by Francesco da Milano, an extraordinary virtuoso and gifted composer who was also known as "Il Divino" (the Divine), an epithet he shared with Michelangelo and Monteverdi. In...
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...
Flemish composer Johan Huys is equally proficient on all keyboard instruments, but he is best known as a harpsichordist. He was president of the competition at the MA Festival Bruges for 39 years. For this world-famous competition, which is inextricably linked to him, he composed several pieces for harpsichord, including the compulsory work for the 2018 harpsichord competition: Ceci n’est pas...
Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater was extremely popular throughout Europe soon after it was composed in 1736. Countless printed and handwritten versions of this work, which was considered the stylistic ideal of sacred music in the 18th century, can be found in libraries all over the world. There are five manuscript copies of the Stabat Mater in the archives of Málaga Cathedral. This recording presents a...
With this disc, Swiss harpsichordist Michel Kiener presents his interpretation of the Goldberg Variations, one of Bach’s absolute masterpieces. Kiener completed both his piano and harpsichord studies at the Geneva Conservatoire, where he won the prize of virtuosity in both disciplines. He perfected his art with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam and was laureate of the Bruges International...
With THE FLEMISH CONNECTION vol. 2, I SOLISTI release a second album with works by their composer-in-residence Frederik Neyrinck. He has mastered the art of writing brilliant and innovative compositions that make the most of the wind ensemble’s wealth of sound colours quite like no other. The setting of texts and stories is a recurring theme throughout this fascinating album. Featured are...
NESHIMA is Orí Harmelin’s exciting debut solo lute and theorbo album. Orí explores a new realm of possibilities for personal creation as a modern musician using the musical language of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The album contains Orí’s arrangements of Madrigals, Motets and Chansons by Cipriano de Rore, Josquin des Prez and Thomas Tallis, alongside his own compositions of variation...
In 1959, two composers wrote nonets: Nino Rota’s melodic Nonetto, on which he would continue to work for almost 20 years, and Bohuslav Martinů’s farewell chamber music piece, a nonet, which he composed as a last piece to satisfy his longing for his homeland. Eisler did not compose his nonet in his native country either, but arrived in Mexico in 1941 as a refugee from the Nazis. There he wrote...
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...
