While Dandrieu’s early harpsichord pieces were written in the shadow of 17th-century composers, the three books published between 1724 and 1735 demonstrate a radically new direction for the composer. Such a shift can be attributed to changing tastes: harpsichord music as early as the last decade of the previous century shows a gradual distancing from many techniques that were primarily associated with the lute. Dandrieu, like most musicians, probably spent much of his earlier life as a teacher and would have been well aware of the abilities and tastes of those for whom the suites were written. They retain a naïve simplicity that is often lacking elsewhere. Nothing is too complicated: ornamentation is straightforward, textures tend towards two-part writing, and figuration always falls comfortably under the hand.

The Premier livre finishes with what Dandrieu refers to as ‘a suite in its own right’ of ten tableaux: Les Charactères de la Guerre. It demonstrates Dandrieu’s propensity to revise earlier and possibly popular works to suit new media. The tableaux follow a tradition among composers for depicting battle scenes. The tradition continued in France until late into the 18th century with Claude-Bénigne Balbastre’s 1792 appeal to the revolutionaries in Marche des Marseillois.

The most boldly original and innovative of Johann Sebastian Bach's composer-sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel did not have to wait long, unlike his father, for public recognition. His music continued to be held in high esteem after his death, with composers such as Mozart and Mendelssohn making detailed studies of his style. Even Brahms took to editing a number of C.P.E. Bach's works.

Emanuel composed in almost every genre except opera, but keyboard music is without doubt the most consistent thread running throughout his career, with more than 300 works written for this medium alone. Spread over five CDs, this release is dedicated to the six groups of pieces together described as 'für Kenner und Liebhaber' ('for connoisseur and amateur'), his most ambitious publishing venture ever. The collections show a marked difference in style compared to many of his other compositions for keyboard that were strictly leveled at the popular, amateur-intended market: in addition to examples of the rondo, a form then in vogue, we encounter audacious sequences of modulations, an ever-increasing amount of motivic treatment and such styles as the free fantasy -- where Emanuel is at his most modern, the music here often containing no bar lines and demonstrating capriciousness of character through its constant switches between extremely fast passagework, uncertainty of direction and calmness.

Written for clavichord and harpsichord, these adventurous, highly engaging works are here performed with aplomb by Dutch keyboardist and period performance expert Pieter-Jan Belder. Belder has made many recordings for Brilliant Classics over the years; regarding his recent study of Domenico Scarlatti's Sonatas (93546), Fanfare magazine commented, '...his playing is never less than alive, fresh sounding, and thoroughly engaged in the music's acrobatics and gymnastics...very strongly recommended.'

Other information:
- New recording (2012--2013) played on fortepiano and clavichord.
- Contains notes on the music and an artist biography.
- Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the most famous son of the great Johann Sebastian, created his own individual style, in which freedom of expression was the keyword. This substantial collection of keyboard works, "Für Kenner und Liebhaber"(for connoisseur and amateur) contains some of his most audacious compositions, in which frequent and abrupt mood changes, improvisatory and declamatory passages without bar lines and wildly digressing modulations are the stylistic landmarks.
- Pieter Jan Belder is one of the most respected and esteemed keyboard players of today. His immense discography for Brilliant Classics bears witness of a highly skilled and communicative musician, with a deep and innate understanding of the style and performance practice of the Baroque and Classical Period.
- A perfect preparation of the C.P.E. Bach year 2014!

The keyboard sonatas of C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788) bear hallmarks of a composer who lived through a significant moment in musical history: he composed his works during the transition from the Baroque to the Classical period. These works are musical landmarks that epitomize the style and values of an era. The Preussische and Werttembergische Sonatas, collected together on this new 3-disc set, exemplify Bach's celebrated style of composition, and reveal the impact of the period's stylistic influences.

Classical Music

World-premiere recordings of chamber-music collections by an overlooked master of the French Baroque. With two previous collections for Brilliant Classics - the Premier livre de pi�ces d'orgue on 2CDs and Trois Livres de Pieces de Clavecin on 4CDs - Pieter-Jan Belder has become the pre-eminent modern exponent of Jean-Francois Dandrieu, as reflected by the enthusiastic welcome in Fanfare for the organ volume: 'The playing here... is simply terrific. [Belder] has completely absorbed the French Baroque idiom as a native musical tongue and speaks it with absolute fluency... For anyone who loves the organ repertoire of the French Baroque, this is an essential purchase; highly recommended.' In this latest collection, Belder invites the listener to delve further into the output of this Parisian musician, who left behind precious few examples of his art on his death in 1739, but who won the admiration of both fellow musicians and royal patrons, most notably Louis XV. Published as Opus 1 in 1705 and Opus 2 around five years later, these collections of trio sonatas and violin sonatas represent a thorough and skilful assimilation of 'modern' Italian grammar - and most notably the influence of Corelli - into French gesture and style. Opus 1 represents a remarkably mature and purposeful integration of styles: at just 23, Dandrieu confidently asserts a distinct voice by seamlessly integrating the expressive nuances of the French harpsichord school into this Italian framework. Dandrieu's Op.2 sonatas do not merely reflect Italian influence; they actively transform it: in their formal clarity and expressive depth they embody both the elegance of Versailles and the vitality of Rome. To complete this volume, Pieter-Jan Belder plays three books of harpsichord pieces from Dandrieu's accomplished youth: most of them very brief dances, no more than a minute long, deftly sketching an idea for the equal enjoyment of performer and listener. Like the chamber music sets, these have never been recorded complete before, and the set as a whole advances our appreciation for Dandrieu as a major figure of the French Baroque.

V 11: COMPLETE SONATAS, K 476-

The complete recording of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is a highly prestigious project of unprecedented scope and importance. The high quality of the music and the excellent performances by Pieter-Jan Belder make it a landmark of historical importance. It is the most famous, extensive and important collection of keyboard music from the English Elizabethan and Jacobean Era. Lodged in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge it contains more than 300 works for the virginal, written by Bull, Byrd, Tomkins and many others. This set contains works by some famous and some less well known composer: Thomas Tallis, Thomas Morley, John Munday, Thomas Tomkins, Ferdinando Richardson and a fine line up of Anonymous composers. The repertoire consists of a wide variety of dance forms such as Pavan, Galliarda, Fantasia, and instrumental arrangements of popular songs or madrigals. Pieter Jan Belder is one of the world’s foremost keyboard players, with an astonishing number of recordings to his name.

Now into its seventh volume, Pieter-Jan Belder’s series continues to uncover more works from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. In this volume he turns his attention to the works of father and son Giles and Richard Farnaby, William Byrd, and selected anonymous works. The book and its manuscripts provide us with an insight into Elizabethan and early Jacobean socio-cultural life. After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536 by Henry VIII followed by Mary Tudor’s blood-soaked crackdown, it was clear that being a Protestant in Tudor England was risky business. Once Queen Elizabeth took the throne in 1558, she established a moderate form of Protestantism and halted the campaign of religious persecution. But the damage was already done, and many composers decided to steer clear of religion altogether and focus their efforts on secular music. The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is a vital record of such works. Compiled in the late 1700s, the book today resides in a dedicated museum in Cambridge. The first section of this release surveys Giles Farnaby’s musical output. Bony Sweet Robin is a setting of a popular Renaissance tune and Sir Walter Raleigh once in a letter to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester wrote that Dudley was in the Queen’s favor, describing him as ‘her Sweet Robin’. This graceful arrangement is Continental in its nature and similar to the Italian madrigal, with a conjunct and cantabile melody line and through-composed structure. As for Richard Farnaby, the four pieces recorded here are all that survives of his output. Nobodyes jig is his best-known work; a playful dance which requires a skilled performer to successfully execute the fast-paced polyphonic music. The final part features works by Byrd as well as anonymous works including almans, pavans, and keyboard arrangements of lute pieces and popular ballads.

Classical Music

The only complete available recording of a landmark in Elizabethan keyboard music. With a huge catalogue of Brilliant Classics recordings to his credit, Pieter-Jan Belder has won particular praise for his ambitious project to record the complete Fitzwilliam Virginal Book), a treasury of English keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean era. Now he focuses his attention on the greatest English composer of that age, with a volume dedicated to William Byrd, and to his largest single collection of music for the keyboard.

My Ladye Nevells Booke embraces the most popular genres of its day. Its contents are typical fare for English Renaissance composers: dances, variation sets, marches, contrapuntal fantasies and programmatic pieces, and the repertory comes from a period beginning in the mid 1560s. Byrd makes each of these genres his own with consummate ingenuity; the variety and the beauty of the collection as a whole rewards players and listeners alike. The CD booklet contains an extensive essay on My Ladye Nevells Booke by Jon Baxendale, who is co-editor of the latest edition of the score.

Piano concertos from Beethoven to Brahms to Busoni and beyond are all indebted to the example of Bach in his Fifth Brandenburg Concerto, and its liberation of the harpsichord from continuo support to virtuoso soloist, in both the spectacular first-movement cadenza and the one-against-many dramatic narrative which marks a revolutionary break with the concerto-grosso model of collegiate co-operation. Bach wrote the six Brandenburgs in his early 30s, while the majority of the works here were either written or compiled once he had moved to Leipzig in 1723. Taking charge of the music at a popular café, he adapted cantata movements and earlier concertos for other instruments, producing seven intricately worked pieces which traverse an expressive range from the high drama of the D minor BWV1052, to the equable dialogue of the D major BWV1054 (a reworking of the E major Violin Concerto) to the tightly wound pathos of the F minor BWV1056. As both a harpsichordist and music director, Pieter-Jan Belder has been recording Bach’s music for more than two decades with Brilliant Classics and the period-instrument Musica Amphion ensemble which he founded in the tradition of distinguished Dutch early-music groups such as Frans Bruggen’s Orchestra of the 18th Century. He and his colleagues play together with a tightly knit sympathy borne of long familiarity and a comprehensive grasp of Bach’s output across every field of his music. Filling out the album to well over two and a half hours of music is the A minor Concerto BWV1044 scored for the same combination of flute, violin and keyboard soloists as the Fifth Brandenburg, and in which the keyboard also takes the starring role, though with certain features which suggest it was either put together late in Bach’s life or possibly by one of his pupils or sons.

Over a career spanning more than 30 years, the Dutch harpsichordist and conductor Pieter-Jan Belder has become renowned as a Bach interpreter with his surveys in concert and on record of the keyboard and orchestral masterpieces such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Brandenburg Concertos and no fewer than three recordings of the Goldberg Variations. On this new album, recorded in 2020 and 2021 on a modern Titus Crijnen copy of a Ruckers model, Pieter-Jan Belder turns to the overlooked corners of Bach’s early writing for the harpsichord. These include standalone fugues, fantasias and suites based on themes by contemporary composers such as Reincken and Albinoni. Nevertheless, there is no sense of routine or technical exercise about them. The pieces here are almost all extrovert, playing to the strengths of the young Bach as a performer as well as composer, and already demonstrating that confidence which would go on to mark his mature compositions.

An appreciation of French flair is discernible in the F minor Suite BWV823 and elsewhere, but the dominant influence is the keyboard writing of Girolamo Frescobaldi, whose toccatas and canzonas were studied by Bach from an early age. The better-known pieces here include the sober and songful Aria variata BWV989 with its courtly French theme, and the E flat Prelude, Fugue and Allegro originally written for lute, but which also finds a happy home on the harpsichord. The most famous but also most uncharacteristic piece is the mysterious Capriccio ‘on the departure of a beloved brother’ which appears to be a work of Bach’s late teenage years, though no definite corroborative proof of its commission or purpose has yet come to light. Rather, it seems unique in Bach’s output as a humorous parody of styles and emotions.

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.

In 2023 Brilliant Classics released a 9CD box of the complete keyboard music by William Byrd, marking the tercentenary of the composer's death. The set was welcomed as a monumental achievement, and a worthy sequel to Davitt Moroney's pioneering achievement on Hyperion: 'Those who enjoyed Belder's forthright and imaginatively ornamented Byrd performances in his complete Fitzwilliam Virginal Book survey will know what to expect,' wrote Jed Distler in Classics Today. 'He favors less agogic manipulation and more conservative rhythmic continuity compared to Hyperion's Davitt Moroney. However, a palpable sense of controlled freedom informs Belder's subtle placement of cadences and phrase endings and his flexibly articulated ornaments.' Extracted from that critically acclaimed set, the present album presents all the pieces recorded bv Pieter-Jan Belder on the at the Albert Kiespenning organ of the Grote Kerk in Wijk bij Duurstede. The degree to which any of these pieces was written 'for organ' may remain open to question, when they could be performed, with allowance for some imaginative liberties, on any keyboard instrument, and indeed many contemporary pianists have revived Byrd's music for a new generation of listeners. Whether experienced on a Steinway or a spinet, Byrd is the first great composer for the keyboard, even when producing instrumental versions of choral anthems. Belder includes several such pieces here, which find a natural home 'in church' rather than the domestic setting of the harpsichord. Two versions of Salvator Mundi are effectively forerunners of chorale preludes; likewise three versions of Clarifica me. Several voluntaries lie no less idiomatically on the organ despite their highly florid writing, while the assorted preludes or fantasias and their companion fugues also deserve to be regarded alongside notable pre-Bachian models by Frescobaldi and Buxtehude. According to Early Music Review: 'As for performance, Belder's strength is in allowing Byrd to speak through the music rather than inflicting an interpretative regime upon the music... It remains wholeheartedly to welcome and recommend this fine discographical achievement.'

With this exemplary set, Brilliant Classics has formed a vivid picture of the composer Dietrich Buxtehude across the most important sectors of his output, drawing on a rich back catalogue crowned with new recordings. More than half of the set is devoted to the ambitious, monumental recording cycle of the complete keyboard music on 10 CDs undertaken by organist-harpsichordist and label stalwart Simone Stella in 2010-11. This pride of place for the solo keyboard is natural considering Buxtehude's own prodigious gifts as a performer on the instruments - and it is this repertoire, through it's ease of dissemination, that exerted his compositional influence most widely on the generations to come, which included the great J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel, born almost 50 years later. But his works in vocal idioms were equally ground-breaking. For this, Brilliant have licensed important sets from 1996 and 2000 of cantatas for small and larger forces originally issued on the Dacapo label, of Buxtehude's native Denmark, featuring the great Emma Kirkby and Danish bass Johan Reuter, as well as a 2002 Canadian recording of cantatas for one, two and three soloists from Naxos. Brilliant Classics supplement these treasures with a vocal gem in their own catalogue: Buxtehude's great cycle of seven cantatas, Membra Jesu nostri, in a 2021 recording by Groningen's Luthers Bach Ensemble. Finally, the chamber music is offered in a new release from Amsterdam-based ensemble Fantasticus, recorded in 2023 and comprising the Trio Sonatas Opp. 1 & 2, with an addendum of sonatas in manuscript, on 3 CDs. Other information: - Recordings date from 1996-2023 - 32-page booklet in English contains extensive liner notes by Simone Stella (keyboard music), Tymen Jan Bronda (Membra Jesu nostri), Jon Baxendale (chamber music), Kerala Snyder (vocal music) and Kevin Mallon (sacred cantatas) - Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637-1707) was a Danish-German composer and organist. He is recognized for bridging Renaissance and Baroque musical traditions, influencing composers such as J.S. Bach and George Frideric Handel. - Born in either Helsingborg, Sweden, or Helsingor, Denmark (the exact location remains uncertain), Buxtehude spent much of his career in Lubeck, Germany, where he served as organist at the Marienkirche (St. Mary's Church) from 1668 until his death. - As a composer, Buxtehude is recognized for his organ works, including preludes, fugues, and chorale variations. His music blends intricate counterpoint with an expressive, almost improvisational character, making him one of the most significant figures in early Baroque music. His Abendmusiken concerts, held in Lubeck, became famous throughout Europe, attracting musicians from far and wide, including a young Johann Sebastian Bach, who famously walked over 250 miles to study with him. - Buxtehude composed a wide variety of vocal and instrumental works, including cantatas, sonatas, and oratorios. His sacred music, marked by it's spiritual depth and complex textures, remains a significant part of the Baroque choral repertoire. - This comprehensive collection contains the complete organ music, harpsichord music, chamber music, and a variety of choral works, among which the famous and moving "Membra Jesu Nostri". - Excellent performances by keyboard player Simone Stella, Peter-Jan Belder and his ensemble, the Luthers Bach Ensemble.

New recordings which have the field almost to themselves in an overlooked corner of Buxtehude's output. 'One of the world's most prolific harpsichordists' (Gramophone), Pieter-Jan Belder now leads this comprehensive and often revelatory survey of the surviving chamber music by Dieterich Buxtehude. Comprising eight musicians active on the Dutch early-music scene, Ensemble Fantasticus presents the only complete set of this music on record, making it an essential acquisition for all Baroque-music enthusiasts, further enhanced by detailed notes on both composer and works by Jon Baxendale. Buxtehude became the Cantor of the Marienkirche in Lubeck in 1668, at the age of 31. This would be his last church post. Bach undertook his famous journey by foot to Lubeck in 1705 - 37 years later - indicating the longevity of Buxtehude's career. His duties required him to focus on writing music for the church, and only latterly did he turn to chamber music (much in the way that Bach did during his last decade). The seven sonatas of Op.1 were published in 1694, and Op.2 appeared two years later; these collections represent the only known examples of his music printed during his lifetime. Buxtehude seems to have regarded the two collections as a unity, which emerges from study of their instrumentation and key structure. Seven might also be significant since it represents the number of notes in the diatonic scale and is also a number steeped in mysticism and symbolism. It also symbolises the humours of the seven planets, which Buxtehude is reputed to have described musically when encountering the astronomical clock at the Marienkirche. Considered together, the 14 sonatas (all scored for one or two solo instruments plus continuo, with strings in mind) open up an unparalleled universe of rhetorical expression that never fails to surprise or move the listener. The collection also includes unpublished pieces which round out our grasp of Buxtehude as an instrumental composer: a further 10 sonatas, not easy to date within the composer's career, but full of striking ideas such as the ground-bass passacaglia underpinning an A minor Trio Sonata. - Dietrich Buxtehude (c.1637-1707) was a Danish-German composer and organist. He is recognized for bridging Renaissance and Baroque musical traditions, influencing composers such as J.S. Bach and George Frideric Handel. - Born in either Helsingborg, Sweden, or Helsingor, Denmark (the exact location remains uncertain), Buxtehude spent much of his career in Lubeck, Germany, where he served as organist at the Marienkirche (St. Mary's Church) from 1668 until his death. - Buxtehude's style blends intricate counterpoint with an expressive, almost improvisational character, making him one of the most significant figures in early Baroque music. - This new recording presents Buxtehude's complete chamber music output, consisting of two books of Sonatas and several miscellaneous Sonatas. The Sonatas are for one or two violins, viola da gamba and harpsichord. - Played by Ensemble Fantasticus, featuring (among others) violinist Rie Kimura and harpsichordist Pieter-Jan Belder.