Klasyczne arie Monteverdiego solo i w duecie, w wykonaniu m.in.. Emmy Kirkby, Evelyn Tubb i Anthony'ego Roole'a.
Debiut płytowy zespołu The Odyssean Ensemble poświęcony jest muzyce sakralnej renesansowego angielskiego kompozytora Williama Byrda. Zespół specjalizuje się w muzyce angielskiej XVI wieku. Muzycy uważają, że był to jeden z najbardziej znaczących okresów w historii muzyki.
By departing in virtually every respect from the conventional model of the baroque trio sonata, Bach’s six Sonatas for harpsichord and violin let both instruments participate equally in the unfolding of the thematic-motivic material. They establish a genuine dialog between the two performers as Well and, thereby, actually pave the way for the classic duo sonata. The dialog between these two top musicians is equel and enchanting and the intimate nature of this recording draws the listener immediately in the music. Bach’s violin sonatas, more properly called Sonatas for harpsichord and violin, represent a closed set of six works and resemble in this way a number of similar instrumental work groups consisting of half a dozen pieces of the same kind. Take for example the six Sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin, the six suites for cello solo, the six English Suites, or the six Brandenburg Concertos—to mention only a few. The concept Bach pursues in these work groups, however, does not aim at a cycle in the sense of a specific sequence in which the pieces are to be performed; it rather follows the principle of systematically exploring the manifold musical possibilities that can be realized in one and the same category of composition. Hence, the single works happen to form a whole, that is, a more or less closed set. If published it would constitute an “opus”, as Bach called the printed edition of his six keyboard partitas of 1731. The most important feature of Bach’s violin Sonatas consisted in their innovative scoring, an absolute novelty at the time of their origin and in Many Ways the prototype, on which the classical violin-piano sonata of a Mozart and Beethoven would be based. Even though the traditional Elements of the Baroque trio sonata For Two treble instruments and basso continuo can still be found in a number of movements or sections of movements where the violin and the right hand of the harpsichord form a duo structure over a bass fundament, the prevailing texture of the harpsichord part transcends the trio convention. In the six Sonatas BWV 1014-19, the composer Bach single-handedly created a transformation of the genre of violin sonata.
Tracklista:
Msza oraz inne kompozycje kościelne skomponowane przez czeskiego kompozytora działającego na dworze królów saskich w Dreźnie - Jana Dismasa Zelenkę. Wykonawcy to zespół Musica Florea pod dyrekcją Marka Štryncla.
Msza Jana Sebastiana Bacha będąca oryginalną wersją wielkiej mszy h-moll. Msza na płycie była podstawa do skomponowania bardziej znanej wersji. Utwór w wykonaniou zespołu wokalno-instrumentalnego Pygmalion.
French composer Robert de Visée (c. 1655-1732) was known as a theorbo and guitar player. Around 1680, de Visée became a chamber musician for Louis XIV. The theorbo pieces for this recording are taken from the Saizenay manuscript compiled in 1699 by the French amateur lutenist Jean Etienne Vaudry, Seigneur de Saizenay. Not much is known today about Jean-Baptiste Barrière (1707-1747), an exceptional early 18th century French cellist and composer. Published between 1733 and 1739, Barrière’s sonatas for the cello and continuo are innovative and represent a significant technical challenge for the player. As a specialist in a variety of early plucked instruments, Esteban La Rotta has extensive experience with the repertoire of late middle ages as well as with the early Baroque Italian and French repertoire for solo theorbo. Active in the Montreal early music scene, Baroque cellist and viola da gamba player Jivko Georgiev belongs to the new generation of musicians who specialize in the historically-informed performance of music from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Viola da gamba player, Margaret Little has been invited to play with many early music groups in Montreal and abroad as a gambist and baroque violist and has toured in many countries. Canadian harpsichordist Katelyn Clark is a leading specialist in the performance of historical repertoire and experimental music for early keyboards.
Wybór pieśni Jana Sebastiana Bacha zawierający najpiękniejsze z jego dzieł. Tutaj, pieśni zwykle wykonywane przez głos męski – śpiewa alcistka Catherine King z towarzyszeniem Norweskiej. Cześć z tych kompozycji, jak się przypuszcza, Bach pisał z myślą o swojej żonie – Annie Magdalenie – również znakomitej alcistce.
Kantaty Jana Sebastiana Bacha w wykonaniu zespołów z Lipska, które są bezpośrednimi spadkobiercami wielkiej tradycji niemieckiej muzyki barokowej. Są to zespoły Thomanerchor Leipzig i Sächsisches Barockorchester pod dyrekcją kantora kościoła Św. Tomasza w Lipsku Gottholda Schwarza. Soliści to Julia Sophie Wagner -sopran, Stefan Kahle - alt, Wolframm Lattke - tenor i Tobias Berndt - bas.
To niezwykłe zestawienie mszy Orladno di Lasso, w której partie wokalne przejmowane są przez organy z kompozycjami współczesnych kompozytorów. Mimo kontrastowych zestawień całość jest wyjątkowo jednolita.