Johann Sebastian Bach composed his most renowned organ works — the Toccatas, the Fantasia in G minor and the Passacaglia in C minor — in Weimar, in the stylus fantasticus so beloved of his Northern German masters Buxtehude and Reinken. Bach here follows in his predecessors’ footsteps in all of these large-scale works: the freely inventive writing in the preludes is linked to the rigor of the fugal construction and so brings them to a majestic conclusion.

François Devienne (1759-1803), sometimes nicknamed the ‘French Mozart’, was equaled famed for his talents as a flautist and a bassoonist. He was one of the first professors at the Paris Conservatoire, established in the early years of the Republic. Devienne devoted a large proportion of his compositions, in several different forms, to the two instruments of which he was a virtuoso exponent. The programme presents several of his trios, which combine the violin and the cello with the two wind instruments in turn. These works possess all the charm of the galant aesthetic that developed in the late eighteenth century, along with a certain penchant for virtuosity.

After devoting an album to sonatas by Giuseppe Tartini, for this anniversary year of the illustrious Paduan virtuoso, Evgeny Sviridov offers us a recording of violin concertos. This is his first collaboration with Millenium Orchestra, the ensemble founded by Leonardo Garcia Alarcon in the framework of CAVEMA in Namur. Most of the concertos selected come from manuscript copies made in eighteenth century Germany, where Tartini’s reputation was very high. Evgeny Sviridov has found in these scores cadenzas and ornaments which are very probably in the hand of Johann Georg Pisendel, the great virtuoso violinist of the Dresden court, a friend (and interpreter) of Johann Sebastian Bach! Following a practice that was becoming increasingly common in Germany at that time, one of the concertos has two horn parts in addition to the strings. Of the 130 or so surviving violin concertos, Evgeny Sviridov has selected five.

This recording, whose title is here embodied in an instrumental version by Georg Böhm of the renowned chorale Vater unser, brings together sacred works and Lutheran cantatas for the alto voice. The concertante role allotted to the instruments is particularly important in these works and contributes to their deeply expressive character; these works were heavily influenced by Italian styles of the period. All of the instrumental works are closely linked to sacred music, the majority of them being constructed around chorale melodies. The violinist Stéphanie de Failly founded Clematis in 2001 with the intention of concentrating on the lesser-known repertoire of the 17th century. The ensemble performs extensively from the Italian repertoire of the period as well as French and German works, although with a particular interest in the forgotten works of such composers from the Low Countries of the time as Nicolaus à Kempis, Carolus Hacquart and Giuseppe Zamponi. Clematis also made a performing version and gave the first performance in modern times of Zamponi’s opera Ulisse nell isola di Circe; the opera had first been given in Brussels in 1650. The French counter-tenor, Paulin Bündgen, graduated from the Lyons Conservatoire (CNSM) and went on to study with Marie-Claude Vallin, Dominique Vellard and Isabelle Eschenbrenner. He has appeared at many festivals, and is comfortable on the opera stage as well. He also has an affinity for contemporary music.

Giovanni Felice Sances published his collections of cantade in Venice around 1640. Their music-poetic, lively, rhythmic and sensual-is placed at the service of a rich palette of amorous sentiments: innocence, desire, seduction, jealousy and despair all make their appearance. Sances also left us a number of ‘amorous dialogues’, miniature operas depicting Ruggiero and Angelica (who, to safeguard her virginity, makes herself invisible and flees the doughty knight who has just saved her from a monster’s clutches) and the naughty frolics of Tirsi and Filli, who want at all costs to ‘die’ together. In about 10 years, Scherzi Musicali has become one of the brightest stars in the early music cosmos, and is renowned for its dynamic interpretations of seventeenth and eighteenth century repertoire which its musicians explore with insatiable appetite and zeal. Whether uncovering lost gems of a forgotten musical heritage or revisiting staples of the baroque repertoire, the musicians of Scherzi Musicali apply the same exacting approach to all of the works they interpret, using philological research and reflection to guide them in their never-ending quest for the most accurate and historical performance style.

The city of Antwerp could well have shared the title of European capital of music with Venice during the 16th century. Whilst there was a great amount of sacred and secular music performed in the city, Antwerp’s manufacturers of harpsichord and virginals, the Ruckers family in particular, boasted a vast number of clients throughout Europe. The city’s music printers and publishers, led by Tielman Susato and Pierre Phalèse, also enjoyed an international reputation. La Caccia has drawn upon works published by them to compile this programme that displays the richness and the variety of music in Antwerp during the Renaissance.

Although the first violin virtuosos came mainly from Cremona, Brescia or Mantua, it was Venice that swiftly emerged as the principal centre for the development of instrumental music. Moreover, it was there that most collections of this music were printed all through the seventeenth century. It is curious to note that all these virtuosos obviously enjoyed sharing their success with their colleagues: for, alongside works for one or two violins and continuo, almost all the composer-violinists gathered together on this disc conceived sonate, canzone or sinfonie for ensembles of three or four violins. In addition, these compositions often make use of bichoral or echo effects. All this was happening as part of the discovery of that nascent virtuosity so characteristic of the Baroque period, as a result of which instrumentalists devised many new effects, such as the use of double stopping, and drew attention to their artistry with virtuoso runs akin to the extravagant language of the toccata.

Born in Leuze (Hainaut) around 1430, Johannes Martini was initially active in Konstanz, then in Milan and Ferrara, where he died on 23 October 1497. Closely connected with the d’Este family, he was paid in 1479 for the production of a large volume of vocal music for the ducal chapel of Ferrara. He is also the key contributor to the Casanatense Chansonnier, which was compiled for the marriage of Isabella d’Este to Gianfrancesco II Gonzaga in 1490. Thanks to these collections, we can for the first time present a glimpse of the immense output (motets, psalms, mass movements, chansons, instrumental chansons) of one of the most refined composers of the generation before Josquin’s.

Careful examination of the manuscript sources of the harpsichord pieces of the ancestors of Francois Couperin ‘Le Grand’ reveals that nowhere are these compositions indisputably attributed to one of the three brothers Louis, Francois and Charles, born in Chaumes-en-Brie in 1626, 1630 and 1638. In these sources, the signatures mention an enigmatic ‘Monsieur Couperin’. The question of the authorship of all these compositions thus remains open. What is certain is that, for various reasons, Louis, who died in 1661, cannot under any circumstances be the composer of all the pieces in the corpus generally attributed to him. Which pieces can be restored to Charles and perhaps Francois, who died in 1679 and 1701 respectively? It is this riddle, worthy of a detective story, that this recording attempts to solve...

Marin Marais published his Quatrième Livre de Pièces de Viole two years after the death of Louis XIV, establishing himself as the undisputed master of the genre and providing pieces not only for musicians who had achieved some skill on the viol but also for the most virtuoso players. Here Marais reshaped the classical forms, altering the traditional sequence for the suites and making an increasing use of character pieces. The sometimes whimsical imagery and the new freedom of form that these pieces contain reach their peak in the astonishing Suitte d'un goût étranger; these thirty or so pieces employ as yet unheard-of keys and offer a multitude of characters and representations that can tend towards the exotic. Breaking further new ground, and somewhat influenced by the Italian trio, Marais ended the Quatrième Livre with two suites for three viols, a genre he claimed to be new to France.

Whether it was called Krummhorn in German, storto in Italian or tournebout in French, this was an instrument whose performing life was limited to the Renaissance. After having carried out a great deal of research on the adjustment and tuning of these instruments, the musicians of Syntagma Amici have now turned their attention to its repertoire. They now shed light on several compositions for these instruments, having chosen pieces that suited the instruments best from German, Low Countries and Italian sources. This recording provides a touch of folly for all those who are devoted to this ephemeral instrument: its swan song was a Padouana by J.H. Schein that was published in 1617.

Here is the start of a great adventure: the complete recording of the five books of pieces de viole of Marin Marais. The First Book, published in 1686, cnotains a dozen suites, two of which are scored for two bass viols and continuo. It also features a very moving Tombeau for 'Monsieur Meliton', probably one of Marais's teachers, and a set of variations on a theme given to the composer by an 'estranger', which foreshadows one of the principal compositions of his Second Book, the Couplets des Folies d'Espagne.

In 1994, the Ricercar label released a boxed set bringing together nearly all the works of Guillaume Lekeu (1870-94), the prodigious Belgian composer who died at the tender of 24. + An admirer of Beethoven and Wagner, disciple of Franck and protégé of Ysaÿe, Lekeu had, in his last compositions, opened a new way that was neither French nor Germanic. + It is to this journey that this new edition invites you, starting with the earliest works, written by Lekeu at age 15, to the masterpieces of 1893. + On this occasion, Jérôme Lejeune has completely revised and expanded the introductory text, which proposes a chronological analysis of the works. + Listening to the compositions in this order helps toward understanding the way Lekeu's talent developed, and the quotations from his abundant correspondence give an even better idea of the state of mind of this fascinating young man.

Whilst Italian composers had taken up the 'modern' form of the sonata and adapted it to the violin at the beginning of the 17th century, French composers remained faithful to the principles of polyphonic music with their fantaisies that were still intended for ensembles of viols; the role of the violin in France at that time was still limited to providing music for dancing. Such knowledge of polyphony was demanded not only from composers of vocal music but also from organists, one of whom was Louis Couperin and who was also dessus de viole de la chambre du Roi. Our recording comes to a fitting conclusion with the last French work to be written for ensemble of viols: Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Concert à quatre parties de violes.

The first notes of the descending chromatic theme break the silence and it seems as if time has stopped. The listener is drawn into the world of John Dowland, the greatest lutenist of all, in a journey through multiple shades of melancholy and lucent hope. Never before had the lute sounded as expressive and colorful as in these masterful Fancies, as dynamic as in these sparkling dances: Renaissance lute music here reached its summit. Bor Zuljan explores these qualities in his debut solo recording, breathing new life into Dowland's masterpieces. Bor Zuljan (1987) is active in different musical genres and projects and searches for a synthesis of contemporary and early music, different world music traditions, jazz and improvisation. He plays guitars, different kinds of lutes, vihuela, oud, tar and other early and traditional plucked-strings instruments. The search for the connection between sound, image and word led him to collaborate in different interdisciplinary projects. He is performing regularly as soloist and with ensembles, such as Le Concert Brisé, Geneva Camerata, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Contrechamps, Vortex, in duo with Dusan Bogdanovic, as well as with his ensemble La Lyra. His projects have been presented in festivals such as the Laus Polyphoniae in Antwerpen, Oude Muziek in Utrecht, Mousiké in Bari, Festival Radovljica in Slovenia and many others. He also performed in China, Algeria, Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, Denmark and in Croatia.