Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The flute occupies an important place amongst all the instruments celebrated by Vivaldi, il prete rosso, in his concerti. All evidence points to the instrument concerned being the recorder, given that it was still extremely popular in Italy at that time. The single publication of concerti that Vivaldi did not compose for the violin (opus X) was marked by him as being for the flute, as were the Concerti da Camera, in which the instrument rivals the violin, oboe and bassoon in virtuosity. Performing the recorder parts on this new release is Frederic de Roos. Frédéric de Roos is the recorder professor at the Royal Conservatorium of Brussels of which he has also been the director since 2003. After obtaining a university degree in musicology, he focused his studies on the recorder repertoire of the 18th century. He regularly presents conferences and seminars on the language of the baroque and gives courses and master classes both in Belgium and abroad.

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 rigour of the fugal construction and so brings them to a majestic conclusion. This recording includes all of these magnificent masterpieces. Bernard Foccroulle was born in Liège (Belgium) in 1953. He began his international career as an organist in the mid-70s, playing a wide range of repertoire from Renaissance to Contemporary Music. His discography as a soloist includes more than forty CDs. He has won awards including the Diapason d’Or for his recording of Dietrich Buxtehude’s complete organ works for the Ricercar label, as well as for the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach, which he recorded on beautifully preserved historic instruments.

Classical Music

The greater part of the CD is taken up by the Noels pour les Instruments that Charpentier set for instrumental ensemble and organ. Ricecar's interpretation of this work is based on the original manuscript and respects the marked instrumentation as well as Charpentier's own specifications for organ registrations. They also recorded the original versions of the above-mentioned Christmas carols, complete with their many verses as they appeared in French collections published at the beginning of the 18th century. This recording of Christmas music can be enjoyed throughout the year!

In 1535 Sylvestro Ganassi published in Venice the first treatise developing the technique of the art of ornamentation at an unprecedented level of rhythmic complexity and virtuosity. Playing the recorder, the instrument to which Ganassi devoted his work, Denis Raisin Dadre applies the rules of the treatise to the repertoire that Ganassi practiced, frottole and, above all, the madrigals of Philippe Verdelot. With the ornaments, the music proves to be a living art that practices a constant rhythmic shift, the exuberant virtuosity of improvisations and a 'swing' that would be typical of jazz in the 20th century.

Classical Music

Classical Music

For this second part of his anthology of seventeenth-century German harpsichord music, Yoann Moulin takes as his starting point the famous competition organized when Weckmann and Froberger met at the court of Dresden. It was in the 1650s that the influences of the French style were grafted onto models drawn from Italian music. The compositions of this period appear to us in their infinite variety, as illustrated here by the notion of stylus luxurians. Yoann Moulin began his apprenticeship in music with Robert Weddle at the Ma�trise de Caen. There he discovered the harpsichord and studied with Bibiane Lapointe and Thierry Maeder, and after a stint at the Villecroze academy with Ilton Wjuniski he continued his studies at the Conservatoire National Sup�rieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris in the classes of Olivier Baumont, Kenneth Weiss and Blandine Rannou. At the same time, he discovered the clavichord thanks to �tienne Baillot.

Classical Music

When Claudio Monteverdi arrived at the court of Mantua, he was initially engaged as a viol player. This is an aspect of his musical personality that is too often forgotten. Yet his brother Giulio Cesare reminds us in a letter that his improvisations on the viol alla bastarda were remarkable. At the time of his arrival, instrumental music played an important role at the court, which was dominated by the personalities of several musicians, chief among them the violinist Salomone Rossi. This programme illustrates the richness of the instrumental repertory at the Mantua court with the compositions of this virtuoso. But Monteverdi too was a master in the domain of instrumental music, which he handled with exceptional skill, as may be heard in the ballets of L’Orfeo, in the Ballo delle ingrate and in certain madrigals, such as Tempro la cetra, where the concertante role of instruments is fundamental. This evocation of music in Mantua at the time of Monteverdi also includes the irresistible Ballo di Mantova, a popular song that went through countless instrumental arrangements.

"Gioseffo Zamponi's Ulisse was the first opera to be staged in the Southern Netherlands. Composed in the new Venetian style, it made use of clearly defined character types. The opera blends the recitar cantando style with arias and also alternates theatricality with episodes charged with emotion. Such a large-scale project required enormous forces, all led by Leonardo Garcia Alarcón. The singers of the Capella Mediterranea form a perfect cast of soloists for the opera. A CD that simply must be heard! "

On March 23, 1783, an important concert took place in Vienna, playing a considerable role for Mozart’s reputation in the imperial capital, where he had resided since 1781. It is obvious that Mozart wanted to be herad in both what he had composed prior to his move to Vienna, as well as I his more recent works. From the Salzburg repertoire, he borrowed the ‘Haffner’ Symphony. To this he added the long concertant movement for wind instruments from the ‘Posthorn’ Serenade. Here we also find two piano concertos, one from Salzburg and one which was composed likely for this specific occasion. Several arias are also included from his earlier operas. The Millenium Orchestra with Jodie Devos and Sebastian Wienand have painstakingly recorded this release to mimic this historic concert, so that the listener can rediscover this monumental night as if they were there.