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PART I
Germany
Bach
Bach: Part 1 Keyboard WorksBach’s keyboard works demand the highest technical abilities and deepest understanding from performers. The famous Goldberg Variations, The Well-Tempered Clavier, and other works, such as the beloved Toccata and Fugue in D Minor are only some of the treasures in this package.
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Bach: Part 2 Vocal WorksThis package of vocal compositions contains some of Bach’s most beloved works, including famous cantatas, the St. Matthew and St. John Passions, the Christmas Oratorio and his great Mass in B Minor. These works rank among the supreme compositions of the Baroque period and remain ever-popular today.
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Bach: Part 3 Orchestral & Instrumental WorksEnjoy some of Bach’s best loved orchestral works, such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the orchestral suites, the Third of which contains the famous ‘Air on a G String’. The sonatas and partitas for solo violin and the suites for solo cello rank among the greatest and most sophisticated works for these instruments. Beside these outstanding compositions the famous Musical Offering, lovely violin and oboe concertos and some wonderful chamber music complete this sublime package.
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Italy
Italian Masterpieces and Rarities Part 1Discover some of the finest compositions of the Italian Baroque.Arcangelo Corelli was a famous violinist and only composed instrumental works that were highly influential on Baroque composers across Europe. His Concerti Grossi were highly acclaimed during his lifetime and remain popular masterworks that still delight listeners today. Girolamo Frescobaldi, a keyboard virtuoso and composer, is regarded as the founder of an appealing and virtuosic new style of Italian instrumental composition. Frescobaldi enriched the formal strictness of the Renaissance with the more expressive style characteristic of Baroque music. During his lifetime, Michelangelo Rossi was a famous violinist and opera composer, but today he is mostly known for his keyboard works. While showing the influence of Frescobaldi and Gesualdo, they are highly individual and regarded as gems of Baroque keyboard music. Also included are beautiful vocal works by Alessandro Scarlatti, a pioneer of the Baroque cantata and oratorio. In addition, delightful rarities by Giovanni Maria Trabaci, the famous violin virtuoso Francesco Maria Veracini, the Bolognese composer Tommaso Antonio Vitali, the versatile early Baroque composer Adriano Banchieri, as well as sacred works by Orazio Benvelo and Giacomo Carissimi, arias and an opera by Francesco Cavalli make this package a fascinating mixture of vocal and instrumental Baroque music.
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VivaldiAntonio Vivaldi’s fascinating and daring concertos entitled L’Estro armonico (The Inspiration of Harmony) mark the beginning of a new concerto style in Baroque music. A renowned violin virtuoso and composer, his music was enormously popular across Europe, the famous ‘Four Seasons’ in particular. High spirited virtuosity and sheer beauty are juxtaposed in the hundreds of concertos that poured from his pen. An equal vivacity and prayerfulness, highly dramatic and rich in contrast, can be heard in his sacred music.
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France
Boismortier, Clérambault, Couperin & MaraisIn France, the flute was a very popular and highly regarded instrument in the early 18th century. Joseph Bodin de Boismortier ranked among the most successful flautists and composers of his day. Beside his masterful compositions for this instrument, he also wrote beautiful vocal and ballet music. Louis-Nicolas Clérambault’s works reflect influences of the Italian style. He masterfully merged French and Italian elements, and is regarded as the master of the French cantata, which in his hands came to resemble a mini opera. Louis and François Couperin are both famous for their harpsichord compositions. Louis was one of the founders of the French harpsichord school. His nephew François, often referred to as Le Grand to mark his major position in French music, became court organist and composer to Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King’. The vitality and expressiveness of his works with their enchanting melodies and inventive harmonies are still admired today. Marin Marais studied with Lully and composed more than 650 pieces which he grouped into suites for viol, the instrument with which he is most closely associated. They contain spirited dance movements and beguilingly beautiful music.
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England
Paisible, Purcell & BoyceHenry Purcell was an extremely versatile composer who wrote sacred and stage works as well as music for courtly and private entertainment. He assimilated important tendencies from French and Italian music into a fresh new English Baroque style, gaining the nickname ‘Orpheus Britannicus’ for his astonishing talent. William Boyce’s eight delightful symphonies are his most famous works. They unite elements of the French overture with the Italian sinfonia within a musical style that was already developing from the high Baroque into the more galant mood of Rococo elegance. French by birth, James Paisible spent the major part of his life in London where he mainly composed pieces for theatre plays. He was an acclaimed oboist and player of the traverse flute.
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The Netherlands & Belgium
During the Baroque, organ music played a significant role in Amsterdam. The churches of the city were important institutions for both religious and civic reasons, and therefore the organists occupied prestigious positions and were highly appreciated. Anthoni van Noordt ranked among the leading organists in the second half of the 17th century.
Unico Willem van Wassenaer, a Dutch count, published his works anonymously and it was only 200 years after his death that he was revealed as the creator of works falsely attributed to other composers. While Italian influences were at work in Wassenaer’s Concerti Armonici, they are nonetheless composed in a very personal and often mercurial fashion.
Joseph-Hector Fiocco is regarded as the most important Flemish composer of the first half of the 18th century. He united various traditions and tendencies, including French operatic and instrumental music and Italian works.
*Special offer available from September 30 to November 3, 2009 only.
PART II (COMING SOON in November!)
Germany
Buxtehude
Telemann German Rarities |
Italy
Italian Masterpieces and Rarities Part 2 |
France
French Rarities
Charpentier, Lully & Rameau |
England
Handel Part 1 Handel Part 2 |
South America |
| Bach | • | Beethoven | • | Handel | • | Mozart | • | Tchaikovsky | • | Vivaldi |