Virtuoso clavier music from the German lands is presented by the young Swiss artist Tizian Naef on his debut album. With his self-made copy of a historical instrument quasi grown together, Tizian has recorded virtuoso music by Dietrich Buxtehude, Georg Böhm and Georg Muffat. All of these works are clavier music that points the way to Johann Sebastian Bach. This release is an album that convinces not only with deeply felt music but also with the "rounded", singing sound of the harpsichord.

Mid-16th century: Catholic Church music is threatened by a pandemic. All too worldly, artificial things had crept into sacred chanting to such an extent that the famous Council of Trent even wanted to reduce singing in the mass to the monophonic Gregorian chant again. As the Fama tells us, Palestrina saved polyphonic church music from this crisis with his Missa Papae Marcelli. In a live recording, beauty farm sings this legendary work, which raises complex questions of interpretation and juxtaposes the mass with well- known hymns in the chorale. frabernardo dedicates the album to Bruno Turner, who once set standards in early music with the ensemble Pro Cantione Antiqua, for his 90th birthday.

The famous British Library in London owes one of its musical treasures to an English tennis player: A manuscript - probably written on the continent - with violin music around 1680 from faraway Vienna. Virtuoso sonatas by and from the circle of the devil's violinist Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. Veronika Skuplik, "prima donna" in the baroque violin firmament, has worked out some of these musical stories with virtuosity and incomparable sensitivity. Without going with the zeitgeisty fashion of lush continuo, she is accompanied by Jörg Jacobi on the historic organ of the Laurentiuskirche in Langwarden.

This is The Sound and the Fury's second album with masses by Johannes Ockeghem. The composer develops his art from the contrast between different modes as well as the contrapuntal combination of identical melodies. Despite the complicated compositional techniques used, the overwhelmingly emotional experience of Ockeghem's music continues to fascinate even after 500 years. The Sound and the Fury was founded in 2005. An Anglo-German vocal group convening in Brixen and Vienna, the ensemble specializes entirely in performance of renaissance polyphony of the Franco-Flemish school.

Epochs and styles merge when Marco and Guido sing about heart and pain. With his instinctive genius for language, acting talent and stage presence, Marco heightens the emphasis so that even those uninitiated in Italian are literally bathed in the feeling of understanding everything. Those who know only spaghetti, insalata mista or perhaps ti amo will realize that this untranslatable recitar cantando is indelible throughout the centuries—even millennia. The journey through the centuries, live recorded in concerts, breaks down the boundaries between classical and popular music and presents the music as if it had been written for Accordone.

Little is known about the Franco-Flemish composer Matthæus Pipelare (c. 1450–1515). However, he was honored later in the 16th century, long after his death, as an outstanding composer. His few conserved works, all vocal, both sacred and secular, speak to a composer who almost reached the ranks of the finest composers of his age. The ensemble ‘The Sound and the Fury’, specialists in this literature, introduces, for the first time, four of his masses.

At the center of this production are three of the most extended chorale fantasias of the North German Baroque, which superbly showcase the richness of sound of the Schnitger organ in Stade. Reincken's fantasies have survived only through the enthusiasm of the young Johann Sebastian Bach, who improvised on the same chorale for half an hour during a personal meeting with the aged master - years after he had made a copy of the latter's fantasy on An Wasserflüssen Babylon. In addition, organ works by Buxtehude and vocal works by Tunder will be heard.

“Then Somis appeared on the scene. He was possessed of the finest and most majestic bow stroke in Europe. He overcame limits which foiled others and avoided the pitfalls into which others fell […] A single bow stroke lasted so long that the mere remembrance of it causes one to hold one’s breath; it seemed like a taut silk thread which, in order to preserve the purity of tone, was festooned with silver and filigree gold mixed with diamonds, rubies, garnets and above all pearls. One saw them appearing from his fingertips” (Hubert le Blanc, 1740) Little has been heard of Giovanni Battista Somis the composer and his works have failed to reappear in the concert hall even after several decades of historically informed performance practice. This state of affairs is even more surprising given the high musical quality of his works. Together with Johannes Hammerle, Wolfram Schurig plays several pieces of Somis and adapts them for the musical duo of flauto and cembalo.

Nicolas Gombert’s compositions, all vocal, are for ensembles of up to twelve parts. • His contrapuntal language is based on that of Josquin, but increasingly complex. • Imitation is used even more consistently than did Josquin, and Gombert’s vocal textures are often densely packed, with individual lines characterized by an avoidance of rests. • A substantial number of his compositions survive, including ten masses, over 160 motets, 60 secular chansons, and a set of eight Magnificats (one in each mode). • The motets on this recording, for 4–6 voices, offer fine representations of Gombert’s musical style.

The countertenor Matthias Lucht first studied viola at the Musikhochschule in Mannheim. At the same time he studied singing with Gerd Türk. A DAAD scholarship then helped him to continue his studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Howard Crook and Udo Reinemann. At the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel he was able to deepen his knowledge of historical performance practice with Andreas Scholl. In the meantime he has become a sought-after soloist and ensemble singer. On his latest release he presents, together with Jürgen Banholzer (harpsichord & organ), works by Bartolomeo Barberino, who was also a falsettist.

“Alexander’s Feast or The Power of Musick. An ode wrote in honour of St. Cecilia” dates from 1736, a time when Handel was attempting to counter the dwindling interest in his Italian operas with oratorios in English. Indeed this work, which resembles an oratorio, found immediate popularity and was quickly counted alongside “Messiah” among his best-loved compositions. Only “Acis and Galatea” and “Messiah” were performed more frequently than “Alexander’s Feast” during Handel’s lifetime. This high-profile recording features the singers Miriam Feuersinger, Danial Johannsen and Matthias Helm, together with the Kammerchor Feldkirch and Concerto Stella Matutina under Benjamin Lack.

Masses by the mysterious Nicolas Gombert are among the rarities in the record catalog. This is very astonishing, since his polyphonic voice fabrics are among the best that the 16th century has to offer. Legendary in his lifetime, Nicolas' music is often undiscovered today. Thus, beauty farm is able to present two first recordings (motet "Beati omnes" and Missa Philomena praevia) on this album in addition to the well-known Missa Media Vita. Beauty Farm interprets the music, which has been reedited especially for fra bernardo, with the usual fresh sound, which melts together from the free, individual design of the individual voices to an impressive whole.

Johannes M. Bogner dedicates himself here to the famous Préludes non mesuré by Louis Couperin. These unrhythmic pieces represent the zenith of free playing on the keyboard instrument in the 17th century. Their enigmatic notation requires accomplished, but above all inspired, performers. In his recording, the musician used a copy of a harpsichord by Vincent Tibaut, which uses bird feathers as keels. Johannes Maria Bogner, born in Linz, is an Austrian classical harpsichordist and harpsichord teacher. Johannes Maria Bogner studied with Liselotte Brändle, Kenneth Gilbert and Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, USA, with Arthur Haas. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has performed with Camerata Salzburg, Musica Antiqua Köln and Les Musiciens de Louvre throughout Europe, the United States, Canada and Israel. Bogner has also been harpsichordist of L'Orfeo Baroque Orchestra for 20 years - since its foundation - with whom he plays around the world.

The vocal ensemble Beauty Farm was founded in 2014 and is made up of members of top international ensembles such as the Huelgas Ensemble, Vox Luminis, Collegium Vocale Gent or Graindelavoix. The singers do not intend a homogeneous beautiful sound in their interpretations, but a colorful sound rather through characteristic drawing of the individual voices. Their second album is also dedicated to motets by Nicolas Gombert, a grand master of the Franco-Flemish polyphony. They have selected seventeen of his masterpieces, some of which are receiving their first recording here. Hermann Finck described this music perfectly in 1556 when he said “He avoids pauses, and his work is rich with full harmonies and imitative counterpoint.”

Robert de Visée (c.1650/60-1732) is one of the most important representatives of the French lute school. His music is characterized by a natural beauty that immediately captivates. It is no accident that he had the privilege of playing at the Coucher (the ceremonial reception before the bed rest of Louis XIV). To listen to Johannes Ötzbrugger is indeed a truly royal pleasure. The present release presents a collection of his works for theorbo, performed by Johannes Otzbrugger. The Austrian lutenist Johannes Ötzbrugger began playing the guitar in early childhood. As a teenager he got to know the lute - an encounter that gave him access to an even more intimate sound sphere. After graduating from school, he studied musicology at the Leopold Franzens University in Innsbruck. From 2009 to 2016 he studied historical lute instruments with Rolf Lislevand at the State University of Music in Trossingen. As a soloist and with his Ensemble 392, he regularly releases recordings on the fra bernardo label. He is particularly interested in figured bass on the baroque guitar and the French solo repertoire for theorbo.