Previously unreleased broadcast recordings capture Thomas Jensen in Baroque and Classical-era repertoire new to his discography. Jensen makes a stylish Mozartian in these rhythmically sprung and cultivated concert performances, given by the DRSO in Copenhagen and on tour. They are joined by the Danish violinist Tutter Givskov for one of Mozart’s earliest masterpieces, the Violin Concerto No. 3 K216.

This album is a story of family and friendship. Positioned between homage to a father figure and modernity, the viola da gamba sonatas of Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian Bach are a revealing element in the history of the Bach family and its ties of friendship with two families of virtuoso instrumentalists, the Abels and the Hesses, who had already inspired the work of Johann Sebastian. Carl Philipp Emanuel was active in Berlin, encouraged by the presence of the violist Ludwig Christian Hesse and the enthusiasm of his patron Frederick the Great ("When I am not reading, I am writing, and when I am not writing, I am playing the viol" wrote his nephew, the future Friedrich Wilhelm II). The friendship between Carl Friedrich Abel and Johann Christian gave rise to the latter's sonatas in London. This Arcana release is not only a continuation of Guido Balestracci's recording of J.S. Bach’s viola da gamba sonatas that was awarded a CHOC by Le Monde de la Musique, but is also a celebration of one of the greatest families in the history of music. Guido Balestracci, together here with keyboard player Paolo Corsi, presents another instalment of his long-term project with the l'Amoroso ensemble: the re-evaluation of the viola da gamba and the other members of its family, with a special focus on the lesser-known post-baroque repertoire. His programmes of music for viol by Schaffrath, Haydn's Divertimenti for baryton, and a Schubertiade based on the arpeggione all bear witness to this.

The STUMM family stands alongside Schnitger and Silbermann as one of Germany’s most famous organ-building dynasties. It was founded by Johann Michael Stumm. He and five generations of his descendants built some 400 organs between Cologne and Karlsruhe, Luxemburg and Amorbach – a tradition unique in the history of German organ building. The oldest surviving organ by Johann Michael Stumm, in the Lutheran church in Rhaunen, dates from 1723. The latest findings show that it was built as early as 1715 – with Johann Michael working alongside his instructor Otto Reinhard Metzenius. The last instrument from the Sulzbach workshop was built for Niederhosenbach in 1895. The sixth generation of the organ-building dynasty includes Gustav Stumm, who had his last workshop in Kirn in the Rhineland-Palatinate. That was where he built the organ for the Catholic church in Rhaunen in 1893. He died in 1906, his final work for Traisen left unfinished.

Capriccio continues to celebrate its 40th anniversary with this retrospective of some of the greatest instrumental recordings in its catalog. The keyboard mavens: Ton Koopman in Bach-Senior, the great Christine Schornsheim in Bach-Sons Concertos, and Tzimon Barto, the muscular master of the soft touch, in Brahms. Wind-aces Burkhard Glaetzner (oboe), Eckart Haupt (flute), and Reinhold Friedrich (trumpet) playing baroque and classical period masters. The trusty Petersen Quartet and the inquisitive Linos Ensemble, who have always been an essential element of the repertoire exploration that soon became Capriccio’s hallmark, and the arch-musician Tabea Zimmermann and Vladimir Spivakov representing true highlights among the high strings. A generous and tasty synopsis of what this plucky label is about!

Since the beginning of Capriccio's catalog, the sacred repertoire has held a very special place among the label's recordings. Started with the most famous boys' choirs in the former German Democratic Republic (such as the Dresden Boys' Choir and Thomanerchor Leipzig), continued with boys' choirs in the West (including the Vienna Boys' Choir, Tölz Boys' Choir, and Regensburger Domspatzen), and up to artists like the Rheinische Kantorei with Hermann Max, top-tier ensembles have filled the gaps in recording history. Here, long-silent cantatas and oratorios by Zelenka, Hasse, Telemann, and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach appear having been revived by Capriccio. This 40th Anniversary Box includes several remastered versions of long-out of print records, as well as a representative selection of niche- and standard repertoire productions.

REVIEW:

It must not have been easy to select which music to include in this commemorative package for the 40th anniversary of the Capriccio label, but the truth is that the more than 10 hours of music that they offer us is exquisite and an excellent example of the trajectory of this record label...which has always opted for the opening of new territories.

Let's highlight the obvious: the ten albums are dedicated to religious music mostly performed by groups of German origin, such as Das Kleine Konzert and La Stagione. They offer works by authors who are consecrated today, but were not always so much when Capriccio bet on them, as in the cases of C.P.E. Bach and Telemann.

The care of the sound recording (from the first minute of the beautiful first disc with Monteverdi's Vespers) makes it possible to distinguish all the flourishes of this music, either with its melodic ornaments, or with its intricate contrapuntal textures, such as in Bach's Motets, given by a boys' choir, the Rostocker Motettenchor. And it also has a section dedicated to 19th century music, with Schubert's Hymns, Brahms's German Requiem, and music by Saint-Saëns and Mendelssohn. All recorded between 1983 and 2002, this music is a living testimony of the good work of this still-active label. Long live Capriccio!

-- Ritmo

The Italian pianist Filippo Gorini took advantage of the world health crisis to immerse himself in The Art of Fugue, Johann Sebastian Bach’s unfinished mystical masterpiece: ‘The view that it should be seen solely as a theoretical marvel is misguided: as the counterpoints and canons evolve in formal complexity, so does their emotional tension, until the heartbreaking mystery of the unfinished Fuga XIV’, says the young pianist, winner of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust prize in 2020, whose first two albums for Alpha have been very well received (Diapason d’Or, 5 Stars in BBC Music Magazine etc.). In parallel with the release of the disc, Filippo Gorini will launch a website (www.TheArtOfFugueExplored.com), with a documentary series featuring conversations with personalities, films about Bach’s work and more. The young pianist has even gone so far as to write poems and haikus about the work: ‘We pray in trepidation, / When the blessed night is here...’

Joseph Martin Kraus, also named as the "Swedish Mozart", has been many years a shadowy existence in music history. Gluck and even Joseph Haydn saw "a real genius" in his virtuosic and nearly early-romantic works. His position as composer at the Swedish court under Gustav III made it possible to have a fixed income and a blithe creativity. This new release gives us an overall musical impression of his compositions in all genres: Beginning with the incidental music to Amphitryon, the high virtuosic Italian Cantatas, his Symphonies from different life periods, till the early String Quartets- it is clear that Gluck and Haydn were not mistaken in their assessment of his skill and prowess.

Although Johann Christian Bach and the violin virtuoso Carl Friedrich Abel lived together in a kind of bachelor living community in London until the marriage of Bach, Bach’s Œuvre for the gamba is surprisingly small. Through the discovery of an old manuscript it was confirmed for the quartets op. 8 what Thomas Fritzsch and others had already assumed: in the first version of the quartets the viola voice was played by Abel on the viola da gamba. Together with other excellent musicians, Fritzsch shows us how the charming quartets in their original version must have sounded. Thomas Fritzsch was born in Zwickau and grew up in the midst of a lively tradition of Saxon church and house music. He received his first cello lesson at the conservatory in his hometown. After studying cello and viola da gamba at the Leipziger Musikhochschule, he began a freelance activity as a specialist for the music of the 17th and 18th centuries. Today he is regarded as one of the world’s most sought-after gambists.