This is the third volume of the Froberger Edition, and completes the set. Containing the complete Libro Quarto and the suites XV and XVII, this album showcases these mature works. For this recording, harpsichordist Bob van Asperen performs on a historic French harpsichord of an unknown maker, dating around 1700. The works were recorded in the incredible acoustics of the “sala nobile” of the Villa Medici, Rome. This release includes a 48 page booklet in which Bob van Asperen comments on works recently ascribed to Froberger.

"People loved him because of his good nature, even if they did not understand his art." Thus wrote Sibylla, Duchess of Württemberg, Froberger's last patron and his "humble forsaken pupil". She places a finger squarely on two fundamental aspects of Froberger's life: his modest and unostentatious character and the extreme subtlety of his music. A pupil of Frescobaldi and exponent of Couperin, Froberger's complete works remained unpublished until 1897 and it is only in the last half-century that more and more keyboard players have started to feel the persuasion of his secret and inward music. The present recording explores some of the music in the earliest of the three surviving Froberger autographs housed in the Austrian National Library, the Libro Secondo of 1649. Colin Tilney is internationally known for his harpsichord, clavichord and fortepiano playing, with many solo recordings on DG (Archive), EMI Electrola, Decca, Hyperion, Dorian, etc. For Music &Arts he earlier recorded Bach's English Suites on an antique Italian harpsichord, the French Suites on clavichord, an album of fugues by Bach and his forerunners, and a Scarlatti disc.

A "seventeenth-century Art of Fugue" -- The seventh volume of the Froberger Edition on Aeolus is perhaps the craziest: a roller-coaster ride through the world of the fugue, performed with virtuosity and the spirit of adventure. Bob van Asperen plays himself here into an absolute frenzy! Froberger's Capriccios show a composer who not only perfectly mastered his métier, but drove his art forward to new heights. Not without reason, the accompanying text (written by the performer) points out many connections to the works of J. S. Bach. With Bob van Asperen, the Edition features an exceptional interpreter who performs these works just as passionately as knowledgeably. Eighteen multi-part Capriccios are to be heard, also including a recently discovered work. As in all the other volumes of the Edition, an important historical instrument is employed: here it is the large Arp Schnitger organ of the Ludgerikirche in Norden (Eastern Friesland, Germany), which with its numerous stops allows the wealth of polyphony to resound.

Froberger’s fantasias and canzonas are amongst his most beautifully crafted yet most neglected works. They survive together with toccatas and partitas in a meticulously written autograph manuscript, the Libro Secondo, dated 19 September 1649. This is the first recording of all 14 works on the clavichord. Froberger was a most important figure in the early baroque period, helping to develop the style of the ‘dance suite’ so well-known from the later hands of Bach, Handel and so many more. The instrument used here is a reconstruction (2009, Andreas Hermet) of a South German clavichord which is in the Berlin Musical Instrument Museum. It is an ideal vehicle for the strongly contrapuntal music of Froberger. The clavichord is a small quiet instrument but does have a wide dynamic range and even variable vibrato – an extremely difficult instrument to master. Terence Charlston is one of the UK’s foremost exponents of early keyboard music both as a soloist on organ, clavichord and harpsichord, and as a chamber musician, having been a member of both the London Baroque and Florilegium. He has initiated many new editions and recordings of early music and has developed an international reputation as one of the leaders of this area of music.

“[These works] embody a diverse range of treat­ment — perhaps the fullest and profoundest compendium of keyboard counterpoint before J.S. Bach. [The clavichord’s] sound and capabilities are remarkably well-suited to Froberger's textures. The playing is exemplary. Each piece is taken on its own terms, grounded in deep and patient understanding of its characteristics. This is very fine playing, beautifully recorded.”
– Adrian Lenthall (Musical Opinion)

“This is good to have, as the clavichord was an important household instrument of the time, and certainly Froberger’s music would have been performed on it. Likewise, Charlton’s execution of these works is quite deft.”
– Bertil van Boer (Fanfare)

Gilbert Rowland is one of Europe’s most senior and accomplished exponents of the harpsichord. Following his critically acclaimed 6-album series of the Harpsichord Suites of Handel for Divine Art, he moved to the Athene imprint which now specializes in baroque music and ‘period’ instruments for his well-received album of Suites by Johann Mattheson and his first volume of Froberger’s Suites. This 2-album set is the second 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)