First recording of this special collection of very early chamber music. Several pieces are world first recordings. Beautiful acoustics of a church of the time when the music was composed. Very diversified instrumental settings. Use of some nstruments that are nearly unknown today.

Fear and trembling are never, but never presented in a single, monotonous tone color! Our characters often go through an
emotional rollercoaster: from deepest despair to sorrow and anger, from flight to fight, from love and longing to sheer insanity. Truly, a painters box full of affects, inviting composers to go wild with musical expression. “Scenes of Horror” is a baroque cabinet of grotesqueries featuring music by Georg Friedrich Handel, Attilio Ariosti, Antonio Vivaldi and Carl Heinrich Graun.

Barbara Heindlmeier & La Ninfea spend a day as a gentleman in baroque London “Gentleman for a Day” is la Ninfea’s second production with Perfect Noise, this time with founding member and renowned recorder player Barbara Heindlmeier as the soloist, also known for her excitingly innovative concepts.

When thinking of a true London gentleman, the first thing that comes to mind are top hats and courteous behaviour, elegance and elevated status. Recorder, too? But of course! Well, the fine gentleman didn’t (yet) have a top hat around 1700, but of course it was excellent manners to have a recorder in your pocket for you to, for example, serenade the lady you adored at any given moment - a welcome occasion for Barbara Heindlmeier and her colleagues to be “Gentleman for a Day”. Everything is included: from getting up in the morning to going for a walk, visiting the royal court and going to the opera, to the obligatory five o’clock tea and preparing for the said serenade.

An exciting and busy day plotted out with music by composers such as G.F. Handel, H. Purcell, M. Locke and J. Playford. The Bremen baroque ensemble La Ninfea stands for the highest artistic standards. They have since made a name for themselves with creative, cross-genre concert formats. This baroque ensemble with a varying line-up is completely dedicated to the art of baroque ornamenation and improvisation. Their own contributions such as the divisions on ‘Strawberries and Cream’ or ‘John come kiss me now’ underline the richness of colour, emotional density and fast-moving contrasts so inherent to this repertoire.

In September 2020 Florian Berner travelled to Tuscany. Playing in the local church, and initially just for himself, he recorded the first three of Bach’s six suites for solo cello. By early 2023 he completed the cycle in Köthen, where Bach was Capellmeister from 1717-1722. The two separate experiences captured performances of unique intuition and power.

Samuel Pepys (1633 - 1703) pondered the difference between dreaming and waking in his personal diary, which the Secretary of State of the Royal Navy and passionate amateur musician kept during the years 1660 -1669. He played the lute and noted 1668, that he had begun to learn the recorder. This disc is a collection of musical treasures between dream immersion and joie de vivre from the multinational melting pot of baroque London.

They played from towers and plazas, in town halls and churches, on feast days and to sound the alarm; they played for kings and landed gentry, for church dignitaries and diplomatic envoys, but also for the entertainment of the common people: the musicians of the alta capella or wind band, active throughout Europe between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. Many of these musicians, who were often organized in guilds and paid by the ruling council of their cities, were masters of not just one instrument, but many, playing at the highest level of quality and with astounding virtuosity. In Spain, they were called ministriles, and we aim to present their magnificent music- particularly from the “Siglo de Oro” or Golden Age of Spain between 1550 and 1600- on this album in all its varied aspects and as many different contexts as possible.

The journey of this album started in Karlsruhe where Fruzsina Hara and Antonio Faillaci were studying in the class of Prof. Reinhold Friedrich and started playing the baroque trumpet with Dr. Edward H. Tarr. During these years they not only became good friends but also developed a mutual musical appreciation. Later Fruzsina became an internationally renowned professional baroque trumpet soloist who also performs with different ensembles and Antonio, also a modern and baroque trumpet soloist became professor at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italia in Lugano, Switzerland. Bologna (then the Papal States, now Italy), as one of the chief musical centers of the Italian peninsula, has maintained a practically uninterrupted outstanding tradition of music. Kremsier, a town in central Moravia (now Kromeriz, Check Republic), was the residence of the bishops of Olomouc from the 13th century onwards. Bishop Karl II von Lichtenstein – Castelcorno rebuilt the city and the palace after the war which brought the most brilliant period of time in the history of Kremsier. The bishop not only rebuilt the residence and the town but also maintained a well-equipped court orchestra. Its leader was the trumpeter and composer Pavel Vejvanovsky. Join us on this journey from Bologna to Kromeriz!

On his debut album, the young pianist Corbyn Beisner indulges in the complexity, mysticism and passion of major piano works by Franz Liszt. Since his performing debut in 2006 playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, op. 37, Corbin Beisner (born 1988) has been active as a classical pianist throughout Europe and the United States. Notable performances have included recitals at the Conservatoire Liceu in Barcelona, Spain, the Liszt Saal at the Accademia d’Ungheria in Rome, Italy, All-Liszt recitals throughout Switzerland, including a recital in the famous “Le Troi Roi” hotel in Basel, numerous concerts in Budapest, Hungary, and performances at the Liszt Summer Piano Festival at Schloss Schillingsfürst in Schillingsfürst, Germany.In the United States, he has been invited to perform by Chopin societies in Connecticut, Texas, the Chopin Foundation in Florida, and the American Liszt Society.