For a performance of Moli�re's comedy Amphitryon Stockholm Joseph Martin Kraus wrote in 1784 at the special request of the Swedish king Gustav III. During his study trip in Paris an extensive stage music with arias, choirs and ballet interludes. That the wonderful music of the "Swedish Mozart" even without the verses of Moli�re did their effect, prove more contemporary adaptations, of which Johann Friedrich Grentzers is certainly the most successful. Grentzer held initially at the original sequence, but he later gave way from purely musical reasons of the original order. The elegant sound result of this process, some of the pieces require two additional clarinets, shows Grentzers skill and sensitivity in dealing with the work of Kraus, as well as the eight to ten instruments. The Amphion Wind Octet an ensemble for the musical realization, which was recently designated by Bayerischer Rundfunk as the virtuoso elite of the 21st century makes.

Sonatas for Harpsichord by Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757). Ewald Demeyre shows unerring sense of this musical and cultural adventure - in his hands bloom Scarlatti Essercizi to sketches which the Pen of Goya would be worthy of sharpness.

L'harmonie Des Nations: European Music at the Bavarian (Royal) Court performed by Friedericke Stylus Phantasticus Valetti, Pablo Heumann, Johann Kaspar Muffat, Georg Pachelbel, and composed by Johann Pez, Johann Christoph Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco Kerll. The Ensemble Stylus Phantasticus takes its name borrowed from that free, improvisational style, which gave decisive accents of its pioneers Frescobaldi and Froberger to Buxtehude the music of the High Baroque. That began in 1993. Group consists of former students of the Schola Cantorum in Basel together, coming from Argentina, the United States, Germany and England; she wants in his own words "the imagination of the listener wake, touch them and surprise them with freedom and bondage, virtuosity and simplicity, expressiveness and intimacy". High goals that can be reached without doubt on this CD: Sensitive and full temperament wide musicians before their listeners an exciting panorama of the European music in 1700 from, combine the pieces of Italian, French and Southern German provenance to perfect harmony.

Happy moments promises us the title of the CD. It is no coincidence. What so fascinates the pieces Hotteterre is the inner balance of the pieces, all of which are thought nothing of the flute ago. The instrument, which the composer dedicated himself not only as a performer and composer, but also as an author of the first flute school at all and as a luthier. With so much expertise, coupled with inspiration and elegant charm, it certainly remains not only happy "moments".

Bach: Cantatas For The Complete Liturgical Year Vol 7 / Kuijken, La Petite Bande, Et Al Release Date: 10/28/2008, Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach, Performer: Petra Noskaiov�, Jan Van der Crabben, Siri Thornhill, Christoph Gen, Conductor: Sigiswald Kuijke, Orchestra/Ensemble: La Petite Bande, Number of Discs: 1. This is a fine recording, as are the others we have covered in the series so far. Each disc is available in surround-sound DSD, and is gloriously recorded for that medium. We are now getting a lot of choices in this repertoire, and the decisions are getting tougher. This one is certainly worth consideration, and then some. Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

An outstanding period keyboard player from Belgium, Jos van Immerseel has appeared on many noteworthy recordings of Beethoven string sonatas; here he takes center stage on one of the most famous piano sonatas ever written, the "Moonlight" (No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2). Beethoven's original Italian title for the sonata was "Quasi una fantasia" ("almost a fantasy"). He wrote it in 1801 and dedicated it to his pupil, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. It is believed that the two were in love but that she was forbidden by her parents to marry him. Composed just a few years earlier, when the composer was 27 years old, his Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13 was dedicated to his friend, Prince Karl von Lichnowsky. Beethoven approved of the name Grande Sonata Path�tique, given by the work's publisher, who was struck by it's tragic sonorities. Immerseel's program also includes Six Bagatelles, Op. 126, and Andante WoO 57.

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was never a celebrated virtuoso on an instrument, but submitted his skill on the harpsichord well, to succeed as a conductor of the Esterh�zy as a soloist in her concerts. Both harpsichord concertos recorded here probably date from the early days at the Esterh�zy. The CD will be supplemented by an early Divertimento from the 1750s, in the Haydn introduces himself as a young, extremely promising composer. Sigiswald Kuijken and La Petite Bande present us works from a time when Haydn was indeed no European size, but undoubtedly been one with which they had expected. Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

Masques were expensive and spectacular presentations, performed at court by dancers, singers, actors and musicians. Everybody could take part from humble servants to the Lords and Ladies. The expense of mounting these productions was incredible. Stage machinery presented spectacular and breathtaking effects. Costumes were often covered in real gold and sumptuous jewels. SACD Hybrid.

Bach: Cantatas Bwv 67, 85, 12 / Kuijken, La Petite Bande, Bach, J.S. / La Petite Bande, Release Date: 07/27/2010, Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach, Performer: Jan Van der Crabben, Conductor: Sigiswald Kuijken, Orchestra/Ensemble: La Petite Band, Number of Discs: 1. Sigiswald Kuijken continues his series of cantatas for the liturgical year with music for the three Sundays after Easter. The most familiar, composed for Weimar, is BWV 12, with it's haunting sinfonia for oboe and strings, and the opening chorus, which formed the basis for the Crucifixus of the B-Minor Mass. Cantata 67 is typically atypical for Bach-seven movements, symmetrical laid out: chorus, aria, recitative, chorale, recitative, aria, and chorale. The second aria is a dramatic scene in which the bass soloist represents the voice of Jesus and the chorus the voices of the faithful. Cantata 85 has no opening chorus; each of the four soloists has an aria before the work concludes with a simple chorale.

Solo pour la fl�te traversi�re reads the title on the sole surviving manuscript copy of Johann Sebastian Bach's A minor flute Partita BWV 1013. The use of the French language might be no coincidence: in Germany, in the first decades of the 18th century, the transverse flute was considered a French specialty. The instrument had been developed - one could even say reinvented - at the French court in the last quarter of the 17th century. It found entrance into the famous Versailles court orchestra under J.B. Lully and was regularly played in private chamber music performances for the King, Louis XIV, himself. Soon it also gained popularity in England, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. This album contains a diverse selection of 18th-century pieces for solo flute played by Barthold Kuijken who is considered to be one of the greatest flutists of our time. The performance of the Bach's A minor Partita is a reference for all flutists, and the arrangement of Vivaldi's "Spring" from "The Four Seasons" by famous philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau is just plain astonishing.

Giovanni Battista Ferrandini (ca.1710-1791) was already almost 12 years at the Munich court, where he was initially as an oboist employment. Until 1737 he should ascend to the director of chamber music and the electoral council. Ferrandini established at the Munich Court not only in his operas to modern Italian taste Pergolesischer embossing, but also impressed by his idiosyncratic melodic and his pronounced sense of tone.

Bach: Cantatas, BWV 179, 35, 164 & 17 (2007) Dominik W�rner (baritone), Ewald Demeyere (organ), Gerlinde S�mann (soprano), Jan Kobow (tenor), La Petite Bande, Petra Noskaiova (alto), Sigiswald Kuijken (conductor). Thankfully, Sigiswald Kuijken doesn't feel the overwhelming urge to record every extant sacred cantata by J. S. Bach. That project would have consumed years of his life - and at best only equaled the achievements of other, earlier explorers. By choosing to record only enough cantatas to span a single liturgical year of Sundays plus the major holy days, Kuijken has restricted the number of discs to 20, reduced the number of performers to one singer to a part, and exponentially increased the musical intensity. Volume five, this volume, includes the four cantatas for the 11th through 14th Sundays after Trinity: Siehe zu, dass deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei, BWV 179; Geist und Seele wird verwirret, BWV 35; I hr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet, BWV 164; and Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich, BWV 17. As with any four Bach cantatas, these are all very different from one another.

For some years now, the South African recorder player Stefan Temmingh and the German soprano and early music specialist Dorothee Mields have been forming a successful artistic team. Especially their second CD, entitled "Birds" from 2015, has attracted worldwide attention. Now the two exceptional artists are focusing on the composer Georg Philipp Telemann who was one of the most famous composers of his time and wrote an incredible number of works in a wide variety of styles and genres. His collection "Harmonischer Gottesdienst" contains enchanting sacred cantatas for soprano with obbligato recorder, three of which are presented on this CD. Stefan Temmingh combines the cantatas with three virtuoso recorder sonatas from Telemann's oeuvre.

Reina de la Noche: Songs from Latin America, Lilliana Rodriguez lends her melodic voice to accompany Raphaella Smits on an 8 string guitar fashioned by John Gilbert and Jorge Cardoso also on guitar to bring South American poetry, sensual and melancholic power from the Queen of the Night to the listener at the same time. Composers include Jorge Cardoso, Ariel Ramirez, and Sergio Assad.

The ‘History of the Joyous and Victorious Resurrection of Our Only Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ’, composed by Heinrich Schütz in 1623, is regarded as the first oratorio in the German language. When Schütz had taken up his functions at the Dresden court in 1617, it was the tradition to sing the “Resurrection History” of his predecessor Scandello at Easter. The new Kapellmeister gave several performances of this work before deciding to compose a new work on the same text. The Thirty Years War had broken out in 1618, plunging Germany into a long period of tragedy. It was in this context that Schütz was to compose his most luminous works, those most imbued with faith, and those which most clearly echo the experience he had acquired in Italy, which had already been completely conquered by the modern style. The Resurrection History, like no other work of Schütz, is packed with feats of harmonic derring-do – frequent use of augmented chords and surprising chord progressions juxtaposing distant keys after the manner of the stile concitato invented by Monteverdi, to mention only the most striking.