Since 2017, violinist Emmanuelle Dauvin plays whilst accompanying herself on the organ pedalboard - recalling the musical technique of Nicolaus Bruhns at the end of the seventeenth century. This is OVNI Baroque : a spectacular yet forgotten musical practice. Alongside soprano Heather Newhouse, she created Cantata a 2 : a concert programme of arias and instrumental pieces, for soprano, violin and bass, by J.S. Bach, presented here in an innovative arrangement. The arias bring a consolidating balance to the sonata trio in which the text unfolds from the vocal line. From the purity of the trio by two, emerges a bounteous expression.
J.S. Bach's first Clavier-ubung - the Partitas - is an important work which holds a particular status: it is the first major publication by a great musician at the height of his maturity - he was 46 - and already a living legend. A large part of the challenge it poses can be found in this contradiction; that a hurdle must give the impression of ease. Art must conceal art itself. My intention was to play them as I would wish to hear them, such as I thought they might be heard: here then is a proposal. And if this proposal incites a desire to delve further, my goal will have been achieved.
This is a recording to bring pleasure. Thirteen Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, taken from the same volume of manuscripts of the Queen of Spain, kept in Venice. Some of these sonatas are very famous, some are rarely played, but all are very beautiful: joyful, poetic, almost always sunny, sometimes melancholic. Brussels based French harpsichordist, Frédérick Haas' passion for the harpsichord started in earlychildhood and he began playing at the age of twelve. He studied the harpsichord, organ and musicology at Paris and Amsterdam, and was enriched by regular contact with important original instruments and the workshops of harpsichord builders and restorers, and at master classes. At the age of 26, he recorded his first solo album, dedicated to the harpsichord suites by J.H. Anglebert.
Frédérick Haas writes: "Couperin is one of the three or four greatest composers to have devoted themselves completely to the harpsichord. He is the greatest poet of all. Returning to Couperin under the protective auspices of the Royaumont Foundation was pure happiness. It is like returning to the beloved places of a blissful childhood - but in the meantime the taste, the discernment has been refined. To play it with the fabulous Hemsch of 1751 seems to me an ever more miraculous experience." Frédérick Haas began playing harpsichord at the age of 12. He was awarded solo diplomas at both the Sweelinck Conservatorium of Amsterdam and the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, in addition to a Musicology degree from the Sorbonne. He is professor of harpsichord at the Royal Conservatorium of Brussels.
At the end of the seventeenth century, Nikolaus Bruhns played the violin, accompanying himself on the organ pedalboard. Germanic music-German or Austrian-for violin from the Baroque period is of an exceptional richness. This is due to the violinists of this vast area being multi-instrumentalists, organists, harpsichordists, kapellmeister, composers: above all, they were great musicians. From Biber to Bach, they explored their instruments in a fundamental and definitive way. For the first time on record, here we find the practice of Nikolaus Bruhns resuscitated. The music appears, in it's purity, the more transparent, the more intense.
Tartini and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, virtuosi, aesthetes and almost philosophers, are two eighteenth century composers of considerable importance. As much admired as respected in their time, they were to open up definitive new paths and were to become precursors of note. Their captivating inventiveness offers us the opportunity to discover in their compositions a wealth of nuance.
Their works represent for us in our time inexhaustible reserves of discoveries to be made and emotions to be relished. Placed within the context of dialogue, Tartini and CPE Bach appear as two poles; their methods, as differing as possible, converging with precision towards the same generous goal... moving us, to the very core.
Valente: Intavolatura Del Cimbalo, Napoli 1576 / Paola Erdas
Hitasura
CD · 1 disc
$20.99Jan 08, 2021
Antonio Valente, blind Neapolitan. This is how the composer, an adopted Neapolitan, signed his name in his fundamental Intavolatura de Cimbalo of 1576, the first book dedicated exclusively to harpsichord and composed with the special and complex musical notation invented by the composer. Celebrated in his time and esteemed throughout the subsequent centuries, Valente has been unfortunately neglected in our time. An author of contrasts, his music transmits both cultured and refined writing, in addition to containing an everyman quality; his exquisite flavor infuses wisdom and affability with enchantment and seduction. On this album recorded on two invaluable instruments from the 16th century, the music of Valente is surrounded by compositions of contemporary Spanish realm composers, recreating the musical ambience of sumptuous Spanish Naples. The program closes with a piece from a musician that best represents the continuation of the Valente's style, glorifying the magnificent and exuberant early baroque: Sir Carlo Gesualdo of Venosa with the Canzon Francese del Principe.
