German harpsichordist and organist Christine Schornsheim has studied at the Spezialschule fur Musik Berlin, the Hoschshule fur Musik Berlin, and individually under Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman, Johann Sonnleitner, and Andreas Staier. Christine has been an active freelance harpsichordist since 1985. She has appeared at illustrious festivals all over the world, and performs on stages with conductors such as Sir Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado, Peter Schreier, and more. The cornerstone of this work is the Bach Goldberg Variations. Christine writes: “…the Goldberg Variations rank among the most significant works of clavier literature. I listened to my first recording, produced 25 years ago, only to notice that over the course of the years I have remained true to myself in many respects. On the other hand a process of maturation has taken place, the outcome of which I now indeed wanted to document.”

The son of a Weimar-based organist, Johann Krebs (1713-1780) entered the Thomasschule in Leipzig under the tutelage of Capellmeister Bach at the age of 12 in 1726. There he remained for the best part of a decade, and a glowing testimonial from Bach commended his talents on the clavier, violin and lute, as well as in composition. Krebs never attained the Leipzig post which his instrumental talents deserved, but he served as an organist in several churches south of Leipzig through the course of a long and distinguished professional life which reached fruition as organist at the court of Prince Friedrich of Gotha-Altenburg from 1755 onwards. The inveterate traveler and commentator Charles Burney reported that ‘M. Krebs of Altenburg, scholar of Sebastian Bach, has been much admired for his full and masterly manner of playing the organ.’ The style of Krebs’s own music reflects the transitional period in which he lived. The hand of the master lightly guides the cosmopolitan elegance of the three partitas on album 1 of this collection. Krebs compiled a Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice) of his own in 1744, from which Michele Benuzzi performs a C major suite and, six lively Italianate sonatas. A volume of six suites from 1746 shows the influence of the galant style which was coming into fashion at the time, embodied by the output of Bach’s most accomplished son, Carl Philipp Emanuel. Several more suites here are sophisticated examples of Krebs’s mastery in the ‘French and Italian taste’ as well as demonstrating the fluency of his keyboard writing and the craftsmanship of his counterpoint.

This important collection joins several other albums of little-known keyboard music from the period, recorded for Brilliant Classics by Michele Benuzzi. A student of Ottavio Dantone, he has performed the complete sonatas of Scarlatti and given recitals at major festivals in Europe and Asia.

Born as Charles-Antoine Campion in the Lorraine region of France, Carlo Antonio Campioni (1720-1788) made the decisive move to Florence as a 17-year-old violinist, probably studying with Giuseppe Tartini in his famous ‘school of nations’ in Padova. By 1752 he had become an experienced music director as well as composer, appointed as maestro di capella at the cathedral in Livorno. Around a decade later he moved back to France for a temporary stay in Paris but in 1763 he took up the prestigious post of maestro di capella for the Grand Duke of Florence. In this capacity Campioni travelled widely and his own music became known through its publication in Amsterdam, Paris and London. One eager consumer of his music through the London editions was the young amateur violinist (and future US president) Thomas Jefferson, who made a thematic catalogue of the seven collections he then owned, and this catalogue still serves as an aid to sorting out the bewildering confusion of Campioni's printed works. By 1789, when he left Paris, Jefferson owned nearly all of Campioni’s music for strings. Campioni amassed an impressive music library of his own, which attracted the attention of the traveller and writer Charles Burney. Campioni was also an accomplished harpsichordist, as this collection of sonatas amply demonstrates. Full of elegant writing, graceful melodies and graceful ornamentation, the six sonatas fuse Classical-era and Baroque forms: sonata-form movements with dances such as gigues and minuets, and arpeggiated preludes such as one finds in the dance suites of Bach and Couperin. These bold and venturesome works should delight all lovers of Baroque rarities, winningly performed as they are here by Simone Stella.

When Giovanni Benedetto Platti was born, Johann Sebastian Bach was already twelve years old, and when he died, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was only two weeks short of his seventh birthday. So far scholars have not been able to unearth any significant information about this composer’s childhood and youth, and his dates make it easy to understand why posterity has assigned him to one of those perilous »transitional gap periods« from which many composers like him never reemerge. However, especially since the beginning of the new millennium Platti by exception has enjoyed something of a renaissance. From 1722 until his death in 1763 Platti served the Würzburg Prince Archbishop Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn and his hardly less renowned brothers. He was a highly regarded virtuoso and composer who as a productive musician not only was diligent but also and above all very imaginative and even fond of experimentation. The writing style of his harpsichord and cello sonatas, trios, and concertos is often so highly original that they practically had to be rediscovered sooner or later. The selection of works recorded here also shows that this Italian-in-Franconia was an artist who in particular expertly negotiated oscillating harmonic boundaries, never reached his limits with the means of expression available to him at the time, and formulated astonishing solutions to meet the needs of instrumental virtuosos.

Giovanni Picchi (1572-1643) flourished in Venice, notably as the organist at the Scuola di San Rocco. He became renowned as a composer of both secular and sacred music, attested by his presence in the Nobiltà di dame by Fabrizio Caroso, the most important collection of dance music of the time. A collection of his canzone was published in 1625 and his fame spread to England, where a Toccata for harpsichord was transcribed within the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (of which Brilliant has recently released the first-ever complete recording, 95915). Other important sources for his keyboard music include collections published in Venice in 1621 and an undated collection of intablatures (transcriptions and elaborations of music by other composers) which is now held in Turin. Together they amount to some of the most brilliant and appealing music for the harpsichord from 17th-century Italy. Picchi’s harmonic language was especially daring, and his flair as a performer is reflected in the style of his writing, which exploits the full range of the instrument. In complement to Picchi’s work, Simone Stella has chosen other jewels from Venetian composers of the time: toccatas, ricercare and canzone by Annibale Padovano, Claudio Merulo, Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli and Vincenzo Bellavere. Bellavere is another neglected figure nowadays, but the Toccata recorded here is a gloriously ornate example of the genre, alternating intricate counterpoint with filigree decoration.

Review

Keyboard music was an important genre in Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries. Organists played a major role in music life, and the posts of organist in the main cathedrals and churches were rated highly. Only the top of the bill was good enough to act as such, for instance at St Mark's in Venice. Given that there were so many cathedrals and churches in Italy, it is not suprising that we only know the most famous masters of the time. The two Gabrielis and Claudio Merulo are among the best-known, who worked as organists at St Mark's. The disc under review includes music by some lesser-known organists: Annibale Padovano was organist alongside Merulo, and Vincenzo Bellavere occupied that post only for nine months, being succeeded by Giovanni Gabrieli after his death. Like the Gabrielis and Merulo they figure on this disc probably to fill the empty space, but they also could put the oeuvre of Giovanni Picchi into its historical context.

Picchi is a composer who is pretty well-known by name, if only because one of his works, a Toccata, is included in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, one of the main collections of keyboard music from the decades around 1600. His music is far less known and not that often performed. If it is, it is mostly as part of recitals or anthologies. To the best of my knowledge, there was no recording of his complete keyboard works on disc. It was Ton Koopman, who early in his career recorded his keyboard music. That was in the vinyl era, and as far as I know, it has never been released on CD, which is a big shame. Therefore, the recording by Simone Stella fills a gap in the discography.

Picchi's career seems to be a story of hit and (mostly) miss. He was born into a family which included several musicians, and was likely a pupil of Giovanni Croce, who from 1603 until his death in 1609 was maestro di cappella at St Mark's in Venice. From that one may conclude that he received an excellent musical education. He also knew many people from the higher echelons of society, which should have been helpful in assuring a musical position of some importance. In the mid-1590s he became organist at the Basilica dei Frari; he held this position until his death. However, attempts to add posts in other churches failed. In 1606 he applied for the post of organist at the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, but it was given to a pupil of Giovanni Gabrieli. In 1612 he attempted to succeed the latter as organist of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, but lost to Giovanni Battista Grillo. In 1623, Grillo died, and Picchi was given his job. Two further applications failed: in 1623 he tried to be appointed first organist, and in 1624 to become second organist at St Mark's. One may wonder why he suffered so many setbacks. There was undoubtedly a stiff competition from many keyboard players who were just as good as Picchi. His failures may also have been due to his character; who knows? It can't be his music, if what has been left is anything to go by.

In 1619 Picchi published his Intavolatura di balli d'arpicordo, a collection of keyboard music entirely based on then common dances. This kind of music seems to have been his speciality, as in 1600 his likeness appeared at the frontispiece of an important dance treatise. The keyboard dances were reprinted in 1621, but three further books of dances which Picchi promised to publish "when I see that this first book proves pleasing to the public", have never appeared (assuming that they have not been lost). It is rather speculative to conclude from this, as Howard Ferguson does in New Grove, that his music was not that well received. It seems that Picchi was well respected and appreciated by his contemporaries.

The printed edition just mentioned includes only nine pieces. In addition, Stella plays the Toccata from the Fitzwilliam Book and five pieces that have been preserved as part of a manuscript which is today in the National Library of Turin. Whereas many keyboard works of the time can be played on either the organ or a strung keyboard instrument (harpsichord or spinet), Picchi mostly composed dances, which require a harpsichord. Only the pass'e mezzi may be suitable to be played on the organ, but I can't remember ever having heard them on such an instrument. All these pieces are technically brilliant works, with lots of passagework. There are also harmonic peculiarities as well as passages with unusual rhythmic patterns.

The other composers included here have become mainly known as organists, as I already mentioned. Here they are presented with harpsichord pieces, although every piece can also be played on the organ. As Claudio Merulo and the Gabrielis are well-known, it may be useful to give here some information about the two unknown quantities.

Annibale Padovano was from Padua, and seems to have a made a name for himself quite quickly, as in 1552 he was appointed organist at St Mark's without any competition. In 1565 he moved to Graz, where he became organist at the court of Archduke Charles II of Austria; one year later he was promoted to 'chief musician' and a few years later as director of music. His keyboard music consists of two printed editions of ricercares and toccatas. Where Vincenzo Bellavere was born, is not known, but his first post was that of organist of a church in Padua. In 1568 he was appointed organist of the Scuola Grande di S Rocco in Venice. In 1584 he returned to Padua, but in 1586 he was appointed organist at St Mark's in Venice, as successor to Andrea Gabrieli. Nine months later he died, at the age of 46.

Whereas Picchi focused on dance forms, the other composers are represented here with more common genres, such as toccata, ricercare and canzon. Pieces based on vocal models were very popular at the time, and Andrea Gabrieli's Canzon francese detta Frais et Galliard is an example of this; the chanson is from the pen of Jacobus Clemens non Papa. Giovanni Gabrieli's Canzon I detta La Spiritata was conceived as a piece for an instrumental ensemble. The well-known theorist and organist Girolamo Diruta made a transcription for keyboard.

I am still hoping that one day Koopman's recording may become available on CD. However, Simone Stella is a worthy alternative. His interpretation is not fundamentally different from Koopman's, as far as I can remember the latter. The pecularities of Picchi's music come off to the full here, with the help of the splendid harpsichord Stella plays: a copy of an instrument by Carlo Grimaldi. His articulation is excellent, as is his sense of rhythm, which is essential in these dances. The remaining items are played just as well.

This recording of Giovanni Picchi's oeuvre is as good as one may wish.

--MusicWeb International (Johan van Veen)

Mikolaj Górecki, Giya Kancheli, Arvo Pärt, and Finnish composers such as Rautavaara and Sallinen have shown that contemporary music can be immediately appealing and emotionally moving, that tonality has not at all said everything. Milan Mihajlovic definitely has his place on this list of prominent contemporary composers, and it is high time for him to receive due recognition from us in the West. Born in Belgrade, he began teaching in the field of music theory in the music department at the University of Belgrade in 1975, holding positions ranging from assistant to full professor. In 1998 he also began teaching in the field of composition. He was able to bring about a very successful internal musical dialogue between the discourse of the “Polish school” and the classicizing style in 1983 in his Notturni for String Quartet and Wind Quintet, in which richly interrelated nocturnal sound pictures are boldly combined with hidden quotations. Mihajlovic executed this feat through the practical use of avant-garde and classical compositional techniques rooted in the vertical structures of the “Scriabin mode.” This musical concept for deriving the formal perfection of clear linear construction and skilled instrumentation from a personal expressive world characterizes all the works written by Mihajlovic since the mid-1980s. The thematic design is often reduced to little core elements – often over ostinato layers and pedal points – from which the motifs and lines of the musical world are created. The composer inspects his masterful compositional technique by “thematizing the thematic procedure,” – in other words: by producing his foundational materials on the basis of a small number of intervals. These core elements, which he employs in manifold and always original ways, are omnipresent in the flow of his music. So much for theory – this music is an absolute listening must!

‘A splendid recording by a fine artist’: Choir and Organ magazine on Daniele Boccaccio’s organ version of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (95157) – the first ever such project. Now Boccaccio travels back several generations, to Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621). This Italian-trained. Amsterdam-based organist/composer/teacher is the real father of the North German school, including not only the Bach family but also Scheidt and Buxtehude. All these composers were aware of and decisively influenced by Sweelinck.

Sweelinck's extant keyboard output comprises some seventy pieces. The precise instrument for which each of the pieces was written cannot always be determined with certainty. While the chorale settings most likely were intended for the organ and the secular song variations for harpsichord or virginal, Sweelinck's fantasias and toccatas (over thirty in number) may well have been played on whatever keyboard instrument was at hand. Boccaccio has paid careful attention to the details of old fingering techniques; the resultant variety in phrasing and articulation gives new life to figurations that with a more modern legato approach can seem plain. As his own booklet note explains, he has also taken considered decisions about when discreet ornamentation can enhance the music's impact and when to let Sweelinck's notes speak for themselves. Particularly in the fantasias, he captures some of the freshness with which Sweelinck's music must have struck its first listeners.

He has chosen three different instruments for the organ performances: the Arp Schnitger organ (1678) in the Johanneskirche, Oederquart; a Fritz Scherer organ (1612/13) in the Marienkirche, Lemgo; and an instrument of unknown manufacture from around 1550 in the Andreaskirche, Ostönnen. The harpsichord is a modern copy of a 1679 model by the Flemish maker Jan Couchet. A project long in the making, this set will command the attention of all early- and Baroque-music lovers.

Born in Verona in 1715, Daniel del Barba grew up, lived and worked there as a composer, violinist, singer and librettist until retiring in 1791; he died in the city a decade later. When his collection of 12 violin sonatas was composed and published isn’t certain: probably the late 1740s. By then he had become known as a composer for both the stage and the church. These sonatas remain among the few surviving examples of instrumental music in his output, but they tell us that del Barba was a master of his art in the north Italian school of violin writing. The absence of counterpoint and of brilliant virtuoso effects distinguishes these sonatas from Vivaldi and his Venetian contemporaries. The supple melodic ideas, decorative lyric lines, and late Baroque formal designs belong instead to the gentler stile galante, and in particular to the influential style of Giuseppe Tartini, who may have acted as a mentor to del Barba.

Audiences at the time enjoyed the tunefulness of del Barba’s music, its harmonic clarity and sentimental charm. Almost three centuries on, contemporary listeners may readily respond likewise, thanks to the revival of interest in his music led by Brilliant Classics. An album of Dal Barba’s Requiem (96189) and other sacred music was released late in 2022; this collection of the first six violin sonatas features several distinguished interpreters of Italian early music, led by the violinist Valerio Losito, who has made several critically acclaimed albums for the label.