In their last recording project Handel Tribute, L'Apothéose pays homage to the great composer by performing six chamber music top pieces chosen from his op. 2, op. 5 and solo instrument with basso continuo repertoire. Mozart is reputed to have said of G. F. Händel (1685-1759): Handel understands affect better than any of us. When he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt. L'Apothéose is considered as one of the reference groups in the historical interpretation in Spain. In recent years the ensemble has won 12 national and international awards including the First Prize at the 2019 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition (United Kingdom), First Prize at the Göttingen Händel Competition 2017 (Germany), Second Prize at the prestigious International Van Wassenaer Competition 2018 within the Oude Muziek Festival in Utrecht (Netherlands) and the Second Prize at the Concours International de Musique Ancienne de Val de Loire 2017 (France) chaired by William Christie. All these merits have brought L'Apothéose to become "Ensemble in Residence" of the 2019/2020 season of the CNDM (Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical) in Spain and to the main international and national venues.

Gilbert Rowland is one of Europe's most senior and accomplished exponents of the harpsichord. Following his critically acclaimed 6-album series of the Harpischord Suites of Handel for Divine Art, he moved to the Athene imprint specializing now in baroque music and 'period' instruments for his well received album of Suites by Johann Mattheson. This 2-album set is the first volume in a projected complete survey of the Harpsichord Suites by Johann Jakob Froberger, whose organ and harpsichord music is individual in nature and ground breaking - he was one of the first composers to settle the 'dance-movement' style of Suite taken up by Couperin, Bach, and Handel among many others. There are 12 Suites in this collection. Gilbert Rowland plays a 2 manual French style harpsichord made by Andrew Wooderson after an instrument by Goemans (Paris, 1750).

The term used to describe the epoch in which the works brought together on this album were composed is a matter of dispute. Did it come before the period of Viennese classicism, which means that it represents "pre-Classicism?" Or is it part of this period, that is, "Early Classicism?" The Austrian musicologist Rudolf Flotzinger came up with a pithy formulation for this phase of music history, terming it "the epoch between the epochs," which means that it is no longer Baroque and not yet Classicism. During this period, in the middle of the eighteenth century and in the age of Empress Maria Theresa, the genres of instrumental ensemble music continuing even today to dominate the concert repertoire were developed - including the "clavier concerto," which was performed in equal measure on the organ, on the harpsichord, and later on the pianoforte. The designation "clavier" current at that time merely generally referred to an instrument with claves (keys). A collection of clavier concertos extant in the Studies Library in Ptuj (Pettau), Slovenia, preserves the compositions recorded here in manuscript form. The harpsichordist Michael Hell, along with the Neue Hofkapelle Graz, led by him and Lucia Froihofer, performs these exciting works. Two highly outstanding instruments were available to Michael Hell for this recording: the harpsichord built by Johann Leydecker in Vienna in 1755, now freshly restored, and it's copy built by Martin Pühringer in 2017. These instruments enable listeners to become acquainted with two instruments forming a perfect match for this repertoire: on an extremely well-preserved original instrument and on a copy that in it's way is tonally just as suitable - after all, even during the time of it's composition the music was performed on new instruments. The Ptuj collection shows how fragile and incomplete our knowledge of the musical practice from "the epoch between the epochs" really is. The transmitted manuscripts, above all the extant concertos by Wagenseil, document the variety of performance options, broad compositional palette, and widespread dissemination of music for keyboard instruments.

This release of soloistic sonatas for bassoon represents only a small part of the Italian pre-Classical repertoire. It is music that many performers today are still quite unfamiliar with and much has yet to be discovered from both a musicological as well as performing standpoint. With this collection, MVC hopes to have contributeed to bringing to light a production that is by no means secondary from a qualitative point of view and which is of fundamental importance for it's role in connecting to the late Baroque with the mature Classical style.

Like his contemporary Louis Couperin, Johann Jacob Froberger preferred to let his music speak for itself. He left no known treatises to clue the interpreter one way or the other as to interpretation, save for the usual dance markings in the suites themselves. Once in a rare while he'll title a movement programmatically, alluding to an extramusical subject (such as in the Allemande of Suite III here subtitled "Wasserfall" or waterfall); but otherwise, the performer is left to freely interpret within the stylistic keyboard parameters of the time. For the less imaginative performer this can be stultifying. For the adventurous one however, the rich variety of Froberger's ideas can bring great joy.

On this new two-CD set from CPO, harpsichordist Ludger Rèmy is thankfully up to the task. He offers the debut recording of Froberger's complete autograph Strasbourg Manuscript, an amazing collection of 14 keyboard suites brimming with fine ideas which was discovered in 1675, eight years after its composer's death. How youthful and exuberant these works are! And how pensive and introspective they can become. The scope and variety of Froberger's imagination places him on par with Rameau, the Couperins, Frescobaldi, and d'Anglebert in their prime. In Germany certainly, he had no peer before J.S. Bach. Listen to the marvelous Gigue in Suite XII, for instance. Rèmy's pointed contrapuntal voice-leading may make the piece impossible to dance to--it is, after all, a stylization--yet it's musically fascinating, a real treat for the ear. In the Allemande of Suite IV, Rèmy treats each run as if it were a new beginning; a fresh start in a series of fresh starts that ends up completeing the piece. The simple minute-long Courante in Suite X is a model of dignity undermined, with it's cocky twists and flourishes humorously interupting the march. This set is loaded with similarly brilliant inventive moments.

CPO's sound is excellent; Rèmy's harpsichord has sufficient weight, yet sparkles gracefully. His fascinating, personal notes are appropriately suited to the diverse interpretive nature of the program. Since this is the only recording of these pieces, there is no comparison. However, for those inclined to further their enjoyment of Froberger, I heartily recommend last year's "Ou L'intranquillité" by longstanding Froberger champion Blandine Verlet (Astree Naive), as well as a much older, transcendental program performed by Enrico Baiano (Symphonia). Like these, this recording could not be recommended more highly!
--John Greene, ClassicsToday.com

Georg Anton Benda (1722–1795), a member of a talented musical family, belonged to that largely lost generation of pre-Mozartian Classicists who started out as post-Bach Baroquists. Of this group, only C. P. E. Bach has achieved true celebrity, and that was a long time coming. The Benda name does pop up with some regularity and is familiar to those with a special interest in the period, but these harpsichord concertos by Georg Benda aren’t just for specialized tastes; if you like C. P. E. Bach, you’ll enjoy these works, too. They share the minor-key urgency of C. P. E. Bach and the Mannheim composers, and while they follow the structural patterns that were becoming standard in the 1770s and 1780s, they avoid predictability.


More than half the musicians in the group La Stagione Frankfurt also belong to Camerata Köln; the early-music scene in Germany seems as incestuous as that in London. At any rate, you’ll know what to expect from such performers: clean articulation (one of the great virtues of harpsichordist Sabine Bauer), lively rhythmic sense, and a feeling of real commitment to the music at hand. The lovely multichannel DSD recording has the harpsichord up close, with the strings not far behind, and just enough air around the players and behind the listener to make sure nothing feels claustrophobic. This is an enjoyable disc in every respect.


FANFARE: James Reel
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Rediscover the music of brilliant Italian keyboard virtuosos whose works are rarely heard today. Songs, toccatas, ricercars, fugues, and dances come together in a richly woven program that captures the excitement of an era when instrumental music was just beginning to find it's own voice. Rooted in the expressive world of vocal madrigals yet pushing toward new independence, this repertoire reflects a moment of bold musical innovation. With charisma and imagination, Corina Marti brings these works to life, inviting listeners into intimate, personal moments at the keyboard-moments of reflection and creative freedom once enjoyed by court musicians behind the walls of Renaissance palaces.

The present album constitutes a juxtaposition of works of two musical families: the greatest one, without which it would be hard to imagine the history of modern music - the Bach family - and the Podbielski family, of Polish origin, who have almost been completely forgotten and pushed to the margin of consciousness. Four unique personalities emerge from this compilation - each immersed in their own time and operating with their individual expression style. The common denominator of the works presented on the album is a unique instrument, considered to be perfect in the times of Johann Sebastian Bach - the viola da gamba. The listener will hear it together with the harpsichord in the interpretation of a marriage of musicians specializing in Early Music performance - Krzysztof and Anna Firlus.

Lively, tonally varied performances … a very attractive sound.

This is volume two of the Naxos reissue of Lars Ulrik Mortensen’s Buxtehude series. It previously appeared on Dacapo. This particular volume was Dacapo 8.224117.

Mortensen is a fine musician, whose approach to Buxtehude is vivacious and dignified in equal proportions. His Buxtehude has both passion and seriousness - but not solemnity - of mind. Mortensen makes sparkling use of the resources of his instrument, a copy by Thomas Mandrup-Poulsen of an original by Ruckers. Though the notes to this present CD give no further details, it sounds like the beautifully-toned instrument, made in 1984, which Mortensen played on some of his Bach recordings (CPO 999 989-2) and Froberger (Kontrapunkt 32040). It sings delightfully – at least it does when played by Mortensen! The use of mean-tone tuning will surely disturb very few modern listeners.

The theme of the set of variations on More Palatino (not More Palantino as printed on the back cover) is a student drinking song, though the rather stately form in which Buxtehude presents it is not especially redolent of the tavern. Still, it is an attractive and melodically various set, Mortensen’s varying use of registration producing some charming effects and some insistently dancing rhythms. The same is true of a second set of variations played here, those on Courant Zimble – a title we might translate as ‘Simple Courante’, and aptly so, since it is an uncomplicated piece which invites – and gets – some direct and appealing variations from Buxtehude. Mortensen resists the temptation to over-inflate these or make any excessive claims for them.

Each of the two Suites is made up four movements, in the order Allemande-Courante-Sarabande-Gigue. In each work the allemande is the most substantial movement, considerably longer than any of the other three movements. The allemandes also tend to have a greater musical gravity, that which opens Bux WV 242 being particularly grand in manner and phrasing; the courantes have, by way of contrast, a rippling vitality, that in Bux WV 25 being full of pleasant twists and turns. Buxtehude’s sarabandes have a graceful simplicity about them, a quality heard to perfection in Mortensen’s performances of the two in these suites, especially that in the E minor suite, where the registration is beautifully judged and employed. The gigues of the two suites make more much use of counterpoint, especially in comparison to the simpler lines of the sarabandes which precede them. But these are by no means academic fugues and in both suites the final movements very forcefully remember the dance origins of the gigue.

All of the shorter pieces in this programme have their genuine attractions and all are well characterised by Mortensen. The chorale ‘Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren’ is more often heard on the organ, although it makes no requirements that the harpsichord can’t fulfil – as Mortensen persuasively demonstrates. Indeed there is a particular sprightliness to this reading that is distinct from anything that can be achieved on the baroque organ and which offers an alternative, equally valid, view of the music. Bux WV 170, 171 and 174 are pieces which survive amongst the manuscripts of Buxtehude’s organ music but which, again, are eminently playable on the harpsichord. The fugal writing here is more ‘correct’ than in the gigues of the suites, but don’t let that make you imagine that these are unduly staid pieces. Here they have the same vivacity which characterises this programme as a whole and they are played with the same loving care for the aptness of instrumental sound and tone.

Without wanting to claim Mortensen’s as the ‘best’ recordings of Buxtehude’s harpsichord works – if one had to pick I suppose the vote might go to Ton Koopman – there is not the slightest reason to feel in any way dissatisfied with this fine recital. If you don’t know Buxtehude’s writing for harpsichord – this is an excellent value-for-money place to start; if you are already an aficionado of this repertoire you will surely be just as keen to add this to your collection.

-- Glyn Pursglove, MusicWeb International