We are now in the year 2022: as chance would have it, this album’s release coincides with the 300th anniversary of the first volume of the Well-Tempered Clavier. Our lifestyle has changed in many ways over the past three centuries. We travel at much greater speed; we develop an increasing number of technologies and digital means of communication. Trained specialists are responsible for every area of our lives. But have we truly made progress? Excessive global travel, as we know, has an alarming impact on climate. While many areas of our life become digital, communication is made simpler but ultimately only leads to mental lethargy, social isolation, and emotional impoverishment. Specialists turn out to be one-track minds who accumulate isolated bits of knowledge – indeed, as ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus remarked, “knowing many things doesn’t teach insight.” Insight thus not only requires for us to have knowledge, but also for us to broaden our horizons. And that is exactly what is so fascinating about the Well-Tempered Clavier.

Johann Wilhelm Hertel is one of the
lesser-known composers of the late
baroque and early classical era. Born in
Eisenach in 1727, as a young man he
travelled to the north of Germany with
his father, who was a viola da gamba
virtuoso engaged as a Kapellmeister at
the court of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Already
as a young man Johann Wilhelm showed
a remarkable talent for music. He
excelled on the harpsichord and violin,
but his father wanted him to additionally
study law. However, a trip to Berlin and
contact with Berlin court musicians Carl
Philipp Emanuel Bach and Franz Benda
pushed the young Johann Wilhelm to
devote his life primarily to music. In
particular he studied the harpsichord with
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the violin with
Franz Benda and composition with Karl
Heinrich Graun. He spent his life in the
service of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz and
-Schwerin courts, and he was also music
director in Stralsund. It was during this time
that he had many opportunities to meet
authorities from both the musical and
scientific worlds.
His oboes concertos are exemplary
compositions of these times. The autographs,
which are preserved in the Library of the
Royal Conservatoire of Brussels (Sig. No. B-Bc5562 and B-Bc-5563), together contain 10
oboe concertos in various keys. Nine of them
are collected (and numbered by librarians) in
Sig. No. B-Bc-5562 ,and one is separately
placed as B-Bc-5563. As there is no catalogue
of Hertel’s works, the numbers given for the
concertos are taken from the manuscript Sig.
No. B-Bc-5562. Some of the pieces are dated
1749 (Concertos Nos. 3 and 9) and others
1756 (Concerto No.2). All the concertos were
prepared for this recording by Katarzyna
Pilipiuk, copying with a focus on accuracy;
only minor mistakes were corrected so as to
give the most faithful transmission of the
composer’s ideas. The material is very clear,
with all the pieces noted by the composer in
score form. All of them have signs of stylistic
inspiration from the works of Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bach, in particular Concerto No.5,
which is an excellent work in the
Empfindsamer Stil.
Other information:
● Recorded March 2023 in Kraków, Poland
● Pilipiuk plays a Baroque oboe by Randall
Cook (2019), after Jonathan Bradbury (c.1720)
● Booklet in English contains liner notes by the
artist, and biographies of her and of the
ensemble

The Catalan cellist Pablo Casals (1876-1973) was first to bring to wider notice the works that open this set, J.S. Bach's solo cello suites. Thereafter we hear his celebrated partnership with Horszowski in Beethoven and the groundbreaking piano trio formed with Thibaud and Cortot in Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn. From the symphonic repertoire come the concertos by Dvořák (with George Szell) and Elgar (Adrian Boult). Finally, an enchanting disc of encores and - with Casals's own street-band or cobla - seven examples of the sardana, the national dance of the great artist's beloved homeland.