A prevailing feature of music of the 16th century and earlier was a split between the deployment of voices and instruments: occasionally replacing each other, or used in alternation - a more concerted effort in writing dedicated instrumental music with increasing degrees of complexity and virtuosity was taking place. The penchant for writing stories about love in it's many forms continued, finding a new home in the developing operatic works as well as the ever-popular madrigal genre, as composers continued to find ways to describe the joy, grief, despair and ecstasy of the human experience of love. Cupid's Ground Bass is a celebration of these developing musical aesthetics of early 17th century Italy, focusing particularly on the composers' language of love in all it's forms.

Masterpieces of Baroque piano literature, in critically acclaimed recordings by pianists with a fine sensibility for the 18th century. Recordings made between 2005 and 2023; new booklet essay; an ideal budget introduction to the world of the Baroque keyboard, full of elegant dances and virtuoso playing. This survey of Baroque composers ranges from the high-point of 18th-century keyboard writing, the Goldberg Variations of Bach, to little known gems such as the sonatas by Espona, Galuppi and Giustini. It places the three great masters of the Baroque - Bach, Handel and Rameau - in the context of their influential predecessor, Sweelinck, and then those composers such as Galuppi and Espona who write in a new, galant style which overlaps with the Classicism of Mozart. Some of the artists on these recordings are still in their 20s, having grown up with a culture of historically informed performance practice which they then bring to their handling of a modern piano. Others, such as Yuan Sheng and Wolfram-Schmitt Leonardy, have been playing these pieces for many decades, and bring to them a career's worth of experience in teasing out the meaning and rhetoric of 18th-century phrasing and harmony on an instrument which none of the composers ever encountered. Handel is represented not by the familiar Eight 'Great' Suites but by an imaginative collection of earlier suites. Scarlatti's fertile invention is generously celebrated with 35 of his sonatas. Bach predominates, naturally, with the Six Partitas and the Italian Concerto as well as the Goldbergs, thus representing the stylistic range of his output. Keyboard styles from all over mainland Europe make an appearance, in the Dutch/Italian nobility of Sweelinck, the Hispanic-Italian flavour of Scarlatti, the French accents of Bach and Handel, and native French of Rameau, and the exuberantly Italian flourishes and proto-operatic gestures of Galuppi and Giustini. There is something here for everyone.

Fantastic worlds - Organ transformations - Bach organ Regensburg The human imagination opens up worlds full of enchanting beauty, threatening dreams, night and sun - and the organ is the ideal companion for this! From Frescobaldi to Saint-Saens, this CD follows capricious and passionately winding paths in "Fantastic worlds". Roman Emilius on the versatile Ahrend organ (2020) of the Trinity Church in Regensburg takes us into the fleeting realm of fantasy. Imagination is a special human gift. Fantasizing about things and making up stories is the basic requirement for all art. The words 'fantasy' and 'fantastic' have positive connotations today, but that wasn't always the case. "Fantastic" in the sense of imagined, invented, without plan or purpose was not reconcilable with the regularity of art. Yet "fantastic worlds" are often responses to the overly ordered, constructed, and lifeless, always focussing on depicting humans with all their mood swings. The organ as an instrument of the church has to transform itself for this because anything too human was to be kept out of the church. That is why this CD is subtitled "Organ transformations". "Stylus phantasticus" was the name given in the 17th century to a style of music that called for boundaries to be crossed and rules to be broken in favour of increasing expressiveness. This goes hand in hand with freedom of presentation. Two masters of this style are Frescobaldi in his toccatas and Buxtehude in his major works. The famous "Air" by Bach is an encore that, at the end of the recording, leaves the reconciliatory word to the namesake of the Ahrend organ in Regensburg's Trinity Church, known as the "Bach organ". Roman Emilius was born in Nuremberg in 1963. He studied church music at the Frankfurt/Main University of Music with Edgar Krapp (organ), Wolfgang Schafer (choral conducting), Irina Edelstein (piano), and Jiri Starek (orchestral conducting). Following the church music exam, he completed the organ graduate degree course (Konzertexamen) and the Diplom degree in orchestral conducting. He was awarded the cultural study award (Kulturforderpreis) of the city of Erlangen in 1988. After one year as an assistant in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, he received a scholarship from the Bavarian Ministry of Culture in 1992 for the "Cite Internationale des Arts" in Paris. In addition to his position as cantor at the Auferstehungskirche (Church of the Resurrection) in Furth, he was the pianist with the ars-nova-ensemble in Nuremberg from 1994 to 1998. In 1997, he became cantor at the Christuskirche (Christ Church) in Munich, where he was subsequently appointed church music director and started to teach choral conducting in the church music ? eld of study at the Munich University of Music. Since 2008, he has been the Protestant city and deanery cantor in Regensburg and director of theRegensburger Kantorei and the Raselius-Chor church choirs. Together with a panel of experts, he designed the Ahrend organ (Bach organ Regensburg) for the Trinity Church in Regensburg, which was inaugurated in 2020.

The 'Juvenilia' programme centres around the early works of Johann Sebastian Bach. While much attention is given to his later works, his youthful keyboard compositions remain vastly underappreciated, being seldom performed and even more seldom recorded. Despite this, they exhibit a richness of inventiveness, youthful spirit and experimentation, while simultaneously foreshadowing the compositional hallmarks of his mature style. This album contains early compositions by Bach as well as pieces by Dietrich Buxtehude, Johann Adam Reincken and Georg B�hm, who had a significant impact on Bach's artistic development and musical identity. The programme is rounded off by two anonymous and never-before-recorded pieces from the Andreas Bach Buch.

Klaus Mertens had long been wanting to record the ‘Geistliche Lieder’ by Johann Sebastian Bach from Schemelli’s Musicalisches Gesangbuch (1736). Ton Koopman had been looking for the right program to showcase the beautiful Teschemacher chamber organ in Oosterland and realised it would actually be an ideal match with the program his friend Klaus Mertens had in mind. So in early 2023 Mertens and Koopman spent some (rather cold but) inspired days in Oosterland to record this selection of 24 songs, interspersed with six organ works.

Reissue. Originally released in 2014. The audio clip below associated with this release is from the original issuance of this title. - ArkivMusic

An account that reflects the latest information and researches on 'period instruments' practice. A 'one to a part' standard - for both voices and instruments.

The Christmas Oratorio is actually not an ‘oratorio’ in the mold of, for instance, Bach’s Ascension Oratorio or Handel’s Messiah. It is a series of 6 separate cantatas, collectively relating the story from Christmas through to Twelfth Night. Bach wrote the work in Leipzig in 1734 and 1735 for Christmas Day (I), Boxing day (II), the third day of Christmas (III), New Year (IV), the Sunday after New Year (V), and Twelfth Night (VI).

As with the Passions, the texts here are drawn from three sources: (1) the evangelical texts (primarily Luke and Matthew) intoned by the Evangelist (tenor) as recitatives, (2) chorales from the Lutheran tradition and (3) free texts for arias and some choral passages, written by the poet Picander.

Johann Sebastian Bach took the opportunity to enhance the previously mediocre inventory of string instruments in Leipzig's two main churches in 1729 by purchasing four violins, two violas and two cellos from the workshop of Johann Christian Hoffmann (Leipzig 1683-1750). Three of these eight instruments, two violins and a viola, are still owned by the Thomaskirche. They could only be admired in a display case for decades, but here they can be heard in a recording for the first time. The Art of Fugue is framed by Bach's first and last Leipzig chorale arrangements, recorded on the Hildebrandt organ in Stormthal near Leipzig, which Bach had examined and inaugurated. Hearing these emblematic works on instruments that the Cantor himself had played is an extraordinary experience that provides direct historical testimony to the sound world of Johann Sebastian Bach.

With the present programme we want to explore the history of the German Lied throughout a period spanning some 800 years, from that first light of dawn represented by the earliest music scored with modern notation - courtly love songs by Walther von der Vogelweide (1170-1230) and Oswald von Wolkenstein (1377-1445) - down to such present-day emissaries of the Lied tradition as Aribert Reimann and Wolfgang Rihm. In between we find: J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Hensel, Wolf, Berg, and Eisler.

The term violoncello was particularly fluid in the early 18th century: it referred to a wide range of bowed stringed instruments of different sizes and shapes, generally with four or five strings; some of these instruments were held between the knees and others were supported by the arm. So when Bach's wife, Anna Magdalena, wrote Suites � Violoncello Solo senza Basso (Suites for Solo Cello without Bass) on the title page of her manuscript copy, we cannot be entirely sure what type of instrument she was referring to. It is said that Bach himself played both the violin and the viola exceptionally well, and it is quite possible that he originally composed the suites for his own use and played them on a violoncello piccolo held on the arm, using viola fingerings. It is, however, also possible that he composed these works for other virtuosi known to him, these including Gregor Christoph Eylenstein, concertmaster of the Weimar court orchestra, and the Leipzig violinist Carl Gotthelf Gerlach. While being excellent violinists, they were also known as experts on the cello and viola d'amore. These considerations-and the observation that certain suites seem particularly well suited to specific instruments-inspired Ronan Kernoa to record the six suites on six different instruments.

Orlando Gibbons was a genius. We can probably all agree that this term is massively anachronistic. However, justified, I think, in order to establish his music on the same elevated niveau as Purcell or Beethoven or Schubert. While it is difficult to make such analogies when his music is still relatively rarely performed by comparison with these more illustrious names, but Gibbons' fecundity of imagination, his masterly handling of his material, his emotional depth and maturity, the exquisite turns of phrase, his harmonic assurance, his contrapuntal ease and mastery - all this puts him in the first rank of composers - Richard Boothby. "My Days is a ritualised memory piece about Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) written for two ensembles whose recordings informed so much of my musical development. I feel like I spend half of my life trying to trick string players to play like Fretwork, and vocalists to sing like the Hilliard Ensemble, so it was with enormous pleasure that I composed this piece." - Nico Muhly

Innumerable transcriptions of Bach’s music were made in the 19th and 20th centuries, and many of them bear the signatures of both well-known and lesser-known composers. Among the former are Bruno G. Seidhofler’s notable piano 4-hands version of The Art of Fugue (1937) and the splendid transcription of the Orgel-Büchlein by Bernhard Friedrich Richter (1902) that is featured on this recording. The artists’ approach here – in an advanced vein of historically informed performance – takes inspiration from well-established Bach performance practice and then filters that through two specific media: the chosen instrument of an early 20th-century upright piano and the set of performance indications scrupulously laid down by Richter, which range from tempo indications assigned to each chorale and numerous (yet not too intrusive) agogic signs, to the octave doubling he often added in the soprano and/or bass.

From the mid-seventeenth century onwards, the overture became an orchestral piece intended to precede a large-scale dramatic work. This recording brings together twelve overtures from Mozart’s operas. They foreshadow the action, sometimes stylistically, sometimes by quoting themes that will appear later, to create a dramatic impression before we even see anything on stage – think of the memorable overtures to Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte.

The twelve overtures brought together here cover 21 years of Mozart’s career: from Mithridate, composed when he was just 14, which testifies to the young composer’s familiarity with the galant style then in vogue, to La Clemenza di Tito (1791), the high point of his work in the opera seria genre that was to disappear with him, not forgetting masterpieces such as Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte.

The Kölner Akademie, playing on period instruments, and its conductor Michael Alexander Willens demonstrate Mozart’s unrivalled ability to capture the audience’s attention with these brilliant overtures, some of which are among his most famous works, both on stage and in concert.

REVIEW:

The interpretations are very fresh, the playing virtuosic. The historical instruments provide a clear, crisp, and transparent sound, which is reproduced by the sound engineers with good spatiality and balance, with a clean and beautifully present bass.

-- Pizzicato

A 50 years old birthday hommage to one of today leading composers: Lera Auerbach. The disc is focused on two Piano Trios in world premiere recordings. The monumental Third Piano Trio is dedicated to the Delta Trio. Delta Trio were already much acclaimed for their first recording on Challenge Classics. Gramophone on their previous CC 72901 called Origin: With its superb sound and perceptive notes, the present release can be warmly recommended.

I dream of forever being able to build programmes and recordings, as I do here, out of a pure desire to play. These mischievous, naive desires for play and musical pleasure are the only things that drive me. In this new album devoted to J.S. Bach, I explore a wide variety of works, each telling it's own story, which could be arranged in different ways or listened to separately. The aim of this new album, my first solo work devoted to Johann Sebastian Bach, is simple but so important to me: to delight the ears and, may I hope, the heart, with a few pieces that I place in the pantheon of the Kantor and that have been with me for a long time, recorded here on a magnificent harpsichord by Philippe Humeau. And a new adventure with Ramee - an invaluable label if there ever was one - is just beginning! Bertrand Cuiller

This album traces pianist Alexandra Dariescu's journey through discovery, memory, and celebration, uniting masterworks with neglected gems and world premieres. Mozart's radiant Rondo in D major, K. 382, opens the programme, paired with Emmy Sch�fer Klein's long-forgotten Child's Dream and James Lee III's newly composed Humble Birth. Music by Clara Schumann, Nadia Boulanger, Florence Price, Amy Beach, Germaine Tailleferre, Leokadiya Kashperova, and others highlights the voices of women across centuries. Interwoven are personal favourites-Bach/Siloti's Prelude in E minor, Villa-Lobos's sparkling O polichinelo-alongside youthful treasures by Carl Filtsch and Tudor Ciortea. Together, they form a vivid portrait of music as dream, memory, and renewal.

Son of the better-known Georg Muffat, Gottlieb was also hawked around the courts of Europe by his father as a boy wonder of music, anticipating the course of Mozart's early years under the self-interested care of Leopold. However, when at home, Gottlieb Muffat grew up in Vienna under the careful tutelage of Johann Joseph Fux, master of music at the Hofkapelle, a relationship which deepened once Georg died in 1704, when Gottlieb was just 14 years old. In due course Fux pulled strings to get his talented pupil an official post, and this album of keyboard partitas offers ample proof that his faith in Gottlieb Muffat was justified. Their date is uncertain: during his lifetime, only two collections of his music were published, and after 1739 he seems to have broken off composition, focusing his energies on performing and teaching at the Hofkapelle. Listeners familiar with the keyboard partitas by JS Bach will find a certain degree of common ground in the elegant sequence of French-style dances which are headed by a more exploratory Prelude. Muffat's counterpoint may not be so rigorous, but his ear for a well-turned melody offers satisfying reward in it's own right. The use of French, English and even Spanish titles to individual movements underlines the imaginative and fanciful qualities of the collection: see for example Postillon in the Suite in F major; Coquette in the Suite in A major; a Hornpipe in the Suite in D minor and the Intrada to the Suite in F. As well as enthusiastically received albums of Pasquini, Gabrieli, Vivaldi and above all Frescobaldi, Roberto Loreggian has previously recorded the 1739 collection of Componimenti Musicali to which this new recording forms a sequel. Of his collection of Partitas by Telemann, Fanfare commented: 'Without seeming driven, his playing is lively and well-articulated, and he is always sensitive to Telemann's stylistic variety, whether it is tending, at any given moment, to the courtly or to the common.'

Rheinberger's chamber music work bears witness to his deep roots in the classical tradition, particularly in composers such as Mendelssohn and Brahms. His compositions are characterised by clear formal structures, melodic elegance and harmonic richness.

The distinguished Japanese composer, Toshio Hosokawa, has been honoured with numerous awards as well as a steady stream of commissions and acclaimed performances. As with many of Hosokawa's concertos, Ceremony sees the flute soloist as a 'person' and the orchestra as the 'universe and nature' - the flautist's breath echoing like the winds of nature and becoming a song that awakens the spirits. A complimentary work to Hosokawa's The Raven (Naxos 8.573724), Futari Shizuka - The Maiden from the Sea is a single-act opera, the ancient tragic tale of which resonates with the fate of refugees around the world today.

Three instruments, three emblematic works, and three excellent soloists! With Sophie Gent on violin, Frank Theuns on traverso and Bertrand Cuiller on harpsichord, Les Muffatti offer a fresh interpretation of Bach's Triple Concerto, the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto and the Orchestral Suite in B minor. They provide a variety of orchestral textures, appropriate to the more soloistic style in the Brandenburg Concerto, and the alternating ripieno-tutti settings in the Triple Concerto and the Suite.

While the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto was composed during Bach's time in Köthen and can be regarded as the first piano concerto ever written, the other two works date from his later years in Leipzig. In these works, Bach exploits the full range of compositional possibilities he had acquired during his lifetime; the highly individual combination of contrapuntal artistry and heightened expressiveness already points to the works composed in the last years of his life.

Les Muffatti have been one of the leading artists on the Ramée label from its beginnings; this, their tenth album for Ramée, also marks the label’s 20th anniversary.

It's been a long time coming for this second part of Johann Sebastian Bach's partitas played by Evgeni Koroliov. The Steinway D grand piano from the first volume is now permanently installed in a beautiful church in Wernigerode. The recordings of Partitas 3 and 5 were made there. Other issues also delayed progress, including the relocation of TACET's premises. And finally, we're all not getting any younger. Who could say otherwise? This takes it's toll in the form of slower work. Only a few things are timeless, and that includes the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The way in which Evgeni Koroliov immerses himself in this 'eternal' music, elevating it to a timeless presence, as if it were created in this very moment, changes my perception of time. I absorb it's flow. I agree with it's passing

Ukrainian American folklorist and singer Nadia Tarnawsky leads the women of Cappella Romana with special guest folklorists from Ukraine, Inna Kovtun and Hanna Tishchenko, to perform this unique offering of Ukrainian wedding songs. The songs sung in preparation for the wedding employ the vocal techniques of village singers, while the chants and choral works sung during the wedding ceremony itself reflect the sublime style more prevalent in church singing. From the engagement through the crowning of the young couple, the rituals of a traditional Ukrainian wedding are accompanied by songs. Traditionally performed by the women belonging to the families of the young couple, these songs help bring forth good health, prosperity, and many children. These songs were collected by Nadia Tarnawsky in Ukrainian villages, often from women over 80 years old, before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The instrumentalist, composer, and publisher Tielman Susato (c. 1510/15 – after 1570) was one of the most illustrious figures in the musical life of Renaissance Antwerp. He founded the first music publishing house to use movable type in the Low Countries in 1543. Music printing had mainly been based in Italy, France, and Germany until Susato set up his press in Antwerp. He was one of the first to publish works by Orlando di Lasso, the most renowned composer of the late Renaissance. Susato was also an accomplished composer who wrote and published several books of masses and motets in the typical imitative polyphonic style of the time. He was well connected in the highest circles of the city and the country, often dedicating his publications to prominent citizens or rulers. The Utopia Ensemble here presents a florilegium of works composed and/or published by this dazzling figure of Renaissance vocal music.

The yamato word for mirror, kagami, can be read as “kami (divinity) surrounding ga (self)”: if you look in a mirror, what you see is your own self surrounded by divinity. Kaori Uemura has called her tale Kagami, because she believes that music reflects the inner depths of the self in the same way as a mirror. Mirrors were used in art as a reflection of what is, and as an allegory of truth and wisdom, a means of knowing yourself as you are. This recording is also a tribute to the Baroque composers who saw music not only as a mirror of divine creation, but equally as a means of expressing human emotions through musical figures which could produce specific affects.

The Eastern Orthodox understanding of repentance doesn’t dwell on morose sorrow for past transgressions. Instead it focuses on deliverance and optimism: repentance, from the Greek metánoia, is a change of mind, a fundamentally positive redirection. This recording presents Arvo Pärt’s Orthodox choral works for the first time as a service (or office) of supplication (Greek paráklesis, Slavonic molében). The office is built around the singing of a Byzantine poem called a kanon, on this occasion three odes from Pärt’s monumental Kanon Pokajanen (Kanon of Repentance).

Compositions by Pärt likewise comprise the other elements of this office: a Gospel reading marks the center of the service (The Woman with the Alabaster Box) completed by psalmody, Orthodox hymns, and fervent prayers. Pärt’s transcendent “Prayer after the Kanon” eventually gives way to silence, to the prayer of the heart. Cappella Romana transforms hearts and minds through encounters with the sacred musical inheritance of the Christian East and West, bringing to life these ancient and diverse traditions, especially of Byzantium, and their interactions with other cultures. Cappella Romana is devoted to the stewardship of this precious jewel of world culture. Arvo Pärt: Odes of Repentance is Cappella Romana’s 31st release.

REVIEWS:

In this album, the stars, the galaxies, all the wonders of a distant universe seem to touch us through the medium of sound. Whether or not one is knowledgeable about Eastern sacred music, this is an album of supreme artistry to cherish, heed, and enjoy.

Under the direction of Alexander Lingas, Cappella Romana’s Odes of Repentance is a selection of Arvo Pärt’s Orthodox works woven into a service of public and private prayers of supplication and renewal. While Pärt is widely identified with works having an Eastern spiritual flavor, his pedagogical background derives from Western classical music and the musical traditions of the Roman Catholic church. However, since his conversion to Orthodoxy some 50 years ago, the public has come to associate Pärt with music as inspired by Eastern Christianity.

Odes consists of 12 spellbinding tracks which give voice to the human yearning to be cleansed of past mistakes and to make positive changes in one’s future life. As the excellent booklet notes in Church Slavonic and English tell us, these prayers are less an expression of sorrow than they are an affirmation of rebirth. This renascence is expressed eloquently through Pärt’s music in an imaginative flow of melodies, modal harmonies, unexpected twists and turns, and the composer’s unique tintinnabuli technique.

What I found most absorbing in this recording was the variety of musical utterances, the splendid multiplicity of sounds, rhythms and tremors. Something new is lurking around the corner of every measure, sometimes as puzzling as our own contemplated destinies.

The album begins with an Ode from the Triodion and two Slavic Psalms (Psalm 131, “Lord, my heart is not haughty” King James Version [KJV] and the Doxology Psalm 116). The Ode is the first of three in this recording from the Triodion, a liturgical book used in the Eastern Church during Lent. Seven selections from the Kanon of Repentance shine at the heart of the album.

These tracks could not be more different. Slow staccato notes tiptoe under a silvery upper register in the third track while an almost Western sensibility shapes the sound of the fourth (did I hear a touch of Mahler?). The swinging rhythms and unexpected pauses of Kanon Ode 9 remind us that “we aren’t in Kansas anymore”, but, rather, in a world that sometimes stretches far beyond the Western orientation of many listeners.

The album also includes a sung “reading” from the Gospel of Matthew, “The Woman with the Alabaster Box” (“There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.” KJV). Pärt’s music floats effortlessly from the ensemble and melts into the next selection, scattered with little discords.

This is Cappella Romana’s 31st album. While the group specializes in the sacred music of the Christian East and West, it is known largely for its stewardship of the music of Byzantium and the works of Arvo Pärt. Those of us raised in Western cultural traditions have missed much if we have ignored or been deprived of the legacy of Eastern sacred music, old or new. There is a core of authenticity in Pärt’s work that has endeared it, even in his lifetime, to millions around the world.

-- ConcertoNet

Dandrieu’s Premier Livre de Pièces d’Orgue was printed a year after the composer died in 1738. It contains six suites of pieces in differing church tones; each followed by six versets suitable for performance under the canticle Magnificat. While the Magnificat verses have a logical sequence; the other movements in the suites are somewhat haphazardly planned. Even setting aside the Pascal hymn in the Premier Suite; the remaining pieces have no apparent order; perhaps reflecting a desire to make the publication as generally useful as possible. The first suite’s two fugues are the only cantus firmus pieces in the collection and are based on the hymn Ave Maris Stella and the Pascal proclamation Exultet coelum laudibus (CD 1: 3 and 4). Like the remaining fugues; which are independent; the style is serious: each is marked Majestueusement [sic] and follows the prescriptions of several composers’ prefaces from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. While no fugues from this epoch are as carefully crafted as those of the Rouennais organist Jehan Titelouze (Paris; 1623 and 1626); their placing within organised organ masses and hymns; often as the second verset of a Kyrie; Gloria or hymn; demonstrates an underlying association between genre and rhetoric. We see similar associations with the opening movements of each Magnificat set; but they work on two levels. They are austere and reserved solely for a plein jeu combination of stops: foundation stops from 16 feet to both mixtures but without reeds. According to André Raison they are to be played solemnly with absolute finger legato. A second rhetorical association is the link between registration and text. It has been mentioned that fugues were often used as the second verse of hymns and in mass sections; and a similar association between a plein jeu and the first Kyrie; Gloria or Sanctus; or the first verse of a psalm or canticle exists in nearly every organ composer’s publication until late into the 18th century. This is not by accident since associating sounds and text would help guide congregants – many of whom were neither literate nor conversant with Latin – through the complexities of the ceremony. Indeed; such an association is well within the ceremonials’ inclusive philosophies. Several commentators associate plein jeu pieces with Titelouze; and while the registration provides a link with the north European school of organ playing; particularly of such composers from Flanders and the Spanish Netherlands as Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck; other genres are decidedly more French. Thus; we have bourrées (e.g.; Duo; Magnificat V; CD2: 15); menuets (e.g.; Basse de Cromorne; Magnificat III; CD1: 33); gavottes (e.g.; Trio; Magnificat V; CD2: 16); gigues (Magnificat IV; CD2: 5); Italianate gigas (Duo; Magnificat III; CD1: 26) and; as mentioned previously; rustic dances in the guise of musettes. It is not only dance forms that permeate French organ music; since we also see the influence of the air de cour in the tender récits (e.g.; Magnificat III; CD1: 33); concerted viol music in the two Tierce en Taille pieces (Suites IV and V) and even Lullyan ouvertures; which form the basis of the offertoires. These are exclusively reserved for grands jeux combinations that juxtapose concertante and ripieno sections using combinations of reeds; cornets and foundation stops that mimic the grand orchestral writing popular with Parisian apparatchiks of the opera.

Bach's Cello Suites are his only works for solo cello but are central to the repertoire and remain unequalled in their expressive musical depth. Dor Gidon Amran, the virtuoso mandolinist who has recorded his own unique arrangement of Paganini's 24 Caprices on Dynamic (CDS8038), has now arranged Cello Suites Nos. 1-3 for the mandocello. This is a baritone instrument of the mandolin family, but much larger than a mandolin, whose strings are tuned exactly like those of the cello. Being played with a plectrum, the mandocello belongs to a very different sound world to the cello, offering a unique perspective on these great works.

Diversions is delighted to present the January 2026 release of Bach Lute Suites for Alto Guitar, from the Finnish guitarist Vesa Lassila. Even today, it's unclear whether Bach's Lute Suites were written for a lute-harpsichord, or even a harp. While the works have been recorded many times on the modern guitar, in Water Through Ice, guitarist Vesa Lassila presents his own arrangements for the the alto guitar. Lassila states, "With a little imagination, one can easily view the alto guitar as the modern instrument version of the baroque alto lute." The alto guitar on the recording features an instrument created by Finnish luthier Keijo Krelin in 2009, and provides a rich and powerful bass register alongside a light descant and clear voice, bridging the gap between modern sounds and historic authenticity. Water through Ice also includes arrangements for alto guitar of two Suites Bach originally composed for solo violin, but which were later transcribed or arranged by him for lute-harpsichord. "As a musician, the possibilities of the alto guitar opened a wider range of bass lines, meaning that unlike when performing Bach on the modern guitar," says Lassila, "one doesn't have to reduce the rich voice in the lower register but can instead employ the full two octaves as were written for the lute. The shorter scale of the fretboard allows for more open solutions in the fingerings and articulations in order to better bring out Bach's glorious counterpoint." These beautiful, intricate and technically demanding works continue to inspire musicians today because of their exceptional quality. Lassila traces Bach's well-planned musical narrations throughout the Suites to bring forth a poetic, musical journey, that "moves as water runs through ice, with musical diversions adding to the harmonious journey." Vesa Lassila is a Finnish guitarist who grew up in the city of Ylivieska. He began to play guitar at the age of twelve and little later began to take lessons with Jorma Styng. Lassila studied classical guitar in Helsinki and Oulu Conservatory with guidance from Timo Korhonen, Ismo Eskelinen and Ilkka Virta, also with Jan Olof Ericsson in Pite� Music Hogskola in Sweden. He has taken part in masterclasses held by Oscar Ghiglia, Jukka Savijoki and Roberto Aussel. Lassila works as a guitar professor at the Institute of Music in Ylivieska, in northern Finland.

Concept of the album

‘(ré)inventions à deux pianos’ is a complete recomposition for two pianos of J.S. Bach's 15 two-part inventions by Luxembourgish pianist Chiahu ‘Chia-Chia’ Lee, arranged for her duo with Yulia Vershinina-Mukhopadhyay. It's a personal rewriting of Bach's work from the original score in the style of classical music fused with pop, minimalism and smooth jazz. The name of the album is derived from the French title of Bach’s work ‘inventions à deux voix’. Rediscover Bach’s famous work through the lens of this crossover composition which can appeal to connoisseurs and amateurs alike.

About the artists

The piano duo Vershinina/Lee (Yulia Vershinina-Mukhopadhyay & Chiahu ‘Chia-Chia’ Lee) began their collaboration with Rheinberger’s arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for two pianos, which they have performed in various concert halls in the UK and Luxembourg, including the Philharmonie in 2019, cementing their mutual fascination with Bach’s music.

The pianists met during their studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and their enduring friendship has set the ground for an exciting musical partnership. The idea of ‘variation’ has since been a red thread throughout their projects and led both women to constantly seek inspiration outside the conventional repertoire for two pianos. In fact, the duo has made it their aspiration to spread the word about lesser-known music and even write and arrange their own music.

In their recent Actart Concert at Luxembourg Conservatoire Yulia and Chia-Chia focused on works composed in the last 20 years by contemporary women composers.

As a boy, Francesco Cavalli was a member of San Marco Basilica's Chapel, then directed by Claudio Monteverdi, from whom he probably received tuition. In time Cavalli's fame as an operatic composer spread across Europe and he succeeded Monteverdi in San Marco to reach the apex of success in Venice. He also wrote sacred music, published in two great printed collections. The first collection, published in 1656, contains his Missa a 8 voci Concertata, an imposing and magnificent work of exceptional complexity for eight soloists, two four-voiced choirs and many instrumentalists. In this recording it is performed in the context of an All Saints' Day liturgy by Ensemble Locatelli, directed by Cavalli scholar, Bruno Gini.

This recital offers a fine mix of Bach's organ works, at larger and smaller scales, on the renowned historical instrument made by Alsatian organ builder Johann Andreas Silbermann of Strasbourg, a master of French baroque organ construction. It follows in a distinguished line of recordings of Bach made in the extraordinary acoustic of the Arlesheim Cathedral, by such luminaries as Walter Kraft, Karl Richter and Lionel Rogg. Situated just outside the city of Basel, the village of Arlesheim grew up around it's Cathedral, which was the church of the displaced cathedral chapter of the Diocese of Basel from 1679 to 1792. The first three years of this tenure saw the Bishop build not only the cathedral, but also a complete town centre with houses for the advisors and the administration of the See, using architect Franz Demess. A total refurbishment and enlargement of the Cathedral was begun in 1759, culminating in the installation of the Silbermann organ two years later. The organ builder was included in the renovation's planning from the start, such that modifications to the Cathedral's architecture were made with a view to enhancing the nave's musical acoustics. The instrument was restored by Metzler in 1959-62 and then again in 2005 by Gaston Kern. It is an example of the fusion of French and German organ building styles. Other information: - Recorded July 2012 in Arlesheim (Switzerland) - Booklet in English contains liner notes by the organist, a description of the organ with stop list, and a profile of the artist - This 2-CD set presents organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach, played on the Silbermann organ in the Dom of Arlesheim. - This organ in the Dom of Arlesheim is a masterpiece of Baroque organ building, built by Johann Andreas Silbermann in 1761. Located in the Arlesheim Cathedral (Dom) near Basel, Switzerland, it is one of the finest examples of Silbermann's work and one of the most historically significant organs in Europe. The organ is known for it's rich tonal qualities, combining both French and German influences, typical of Silbermann's style. It's elaborate case, decorated with gold leaf and intricate carvings, complements the interior of the Dom, enhancing the spiritual atmosphere during services and concerts. Despite restorations over the centuries, the organ retains much of it's original pipework and mechanical structure, ensuring an authentic sound. - The program includes favorite organ works, including the famous Toccata & Fugue BWV565, 3 Concerto transcriptions by Vivaldi, the Trio Sonata BWV 530 and several Choralvorspiele. - Played by Italian master organist Ivan Ronda, internationally acclaimed by guest appearances in such venues as Westminster Abbey and King's College Cambridge.