This recording from 2009, directed by gambist Philippe Pierlot, features BWV 131, 182, and 4. I became interested in this ensemble afte purchasing a well-performed CD of Couperin (Apotheoses), and then seeing they are…
The Freiburger Barockorchester has recorded four concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach: BWV 1043, 1042, 1041, and 1064R.
The Helsinki Baroque Orchestra offer a first installment of Bach harpsichord concertos, in their first volume. Included are: I'd never heard of the Helsinki band before, nor its soloist and conductor, Aapo Häkkinen.
The French baroque composer Jacques Aubert first came to my attention through a recording by Collegium Musicum 90 on Chandos. That earlier recording included his 5th suite for orchestra, the 4-violin concertos op. 17 no.
The name Oberlinger wasn't first caught my attention with this CD of baroque recorder concertos. It was the guest conductor, of course, Reinhard Goebel.
I wager that Mystery Sonatas were Biber's high point as a composer. Since the Biber revival beginning in the 1990s by the likes of Andrew Manze and his Romanesca brought this composer to our collective conscience, we've…
Ensemble Caprice performs Bach's Brandenburg Concerti under the direction of Matthias Maute on the Analekta label. Did I need another collection of Brandenburg Concertos? Probably not.
CordArte performs music by Becker, Strungk, Reincken, Buxtehude, Förster, and Theile for strings and continuo in their album, Musicalische Frühlingsfrüchte.
This collection pairs several sonatas by Buxtehude (BuxWV 271, 266, 159, 269) with two sonatas from Reinken's Hortus Musicus collection) by Ensemble La Rêveuse.
Rameau is known to have taken-up the writing of entertainment music late in life; this music for the stage, either for opera or ballet, hasn't always enjoyed the success of Jean-Philippe's music for the keyboard in…
François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau were perhaps, together, the high priests of the late French baroque. As harpsichordist/composers, they each found outlets for composition beyond the keyboard.
"Œuvres pour clavecin" is how the album is titled; the recording really is more of a feature of an original instrument, constructed in 1716.
Barocks Welttheater is an odd title, perhaps, for an album. But it speaks both to the variety of styles in Johann Schmelzer's music for small string ensemble, and also the theatrical nature, which the Freiburg…
Inspired by a Savall YouTube video featuring French music with the Concert des Nations, I thought I needed some more Savall in my digital library.
I got to hear Musica ad Rhenum live one year at the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music in London. I'd already known Wentz with his performances with Musica Antiqua Köln; in person he did not disappoint, his telltale…
Arion is Canadian ensemble that has invited a number of well-known Baroque specialists to lead them from time to time. In this recording featuring "flutes" in works by Georg Philip Telemann, gambist Jaap ter Linden leads.
Nicola Matteis was an Italian violinist and composer active primarily in the second half of the 17th century, best known for his influential career in England.
Ensemble Sonnerie under Monica Huggett records four (of the five) Bach orchestral suites on Avie. Seemingly now, in 2009-2010, recording engineers have finally found their place, and can record music pristinely.
This recording features a historically-informed approach from Dombrecht, Ponseele, and Friends. This release came out on Accent in 1999.
Jean-Philippe Rameau is known today most likely as a French opera composer in the late-Baroque, but his most well-known pieces to many may be his collection of pieces for the keyboard.
This is the second in a series by Modo Antiquo exploring newly-found works by Don Antonio Vivaldi. Conductor Sardelli is in a unique position of knowing Vivaldi's oeuvre, having been put in charge of the Ryom catalog.
If you recall, this June I reviewed the second of the recordings by Hélène Schmitt of Bach's solo sonatas and partitas for violin.
The AAM records the opus 7 collection of organ concertos by George Frederick Handel on Harmonia Mundi, including HWV 485, 264, and 442, and the concerto in F, BWV 295 "The Cuckoo & The Nightingale," with soloist and…
Modo Antiquo, an Italian ensemble led by the seemingly creative and colorful Federico Maria Sardelli (flauto), has recorded in this release, the first of "New Discoveries"—compositions by Antonio Vivaldi.
I Turchini under Antonio Florio performs cello concertos by Leonardo Leo , Nicola Fiorenza, Giuseppe de Majo, and the cellist, Giovanni Sollima on Glossa.
Amandine Beyer and L'Assemblée des Honnestes Curiuex have recorded works by Jean-Féry Rebel (Tombeau de Monsieur Lully, Sonate 5, Sonate L'Apollon, Sonate 6, Sonate La Pallas and Sonate 11 (B-flat major).
This volume of Gardiner's Bach Cantata Pilgimage takes the EBS to Dresden and Sherborne to record. I have not been actively reviewing my purchases of Bach Kantaten because there are already so many good resources…
Back in August of 2005 I did a brief review of this recording by Le Concert des Nations. Jordi Savall and Les Concert des Nations record Couperin's Concerts Royaux.
This isn't a particular review about one recording, but rather a discussion of a few. I should start by re-telling how I came to find Biber and later, his Rosenkranz-Sonaten also known as the "Mystery Sonatas." It was…
One thing I admire about groups like Ars Antiqua Austria and the record companies that publish their recordings (in this case, Challenge Classics) is the exploration (and dissemination) of new material.
Vivaldi's two most famous published collections are his op. 3, L'estro Armonico and op. 8, Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'inventioni.
Johann Friedrich Fasch was roughly contemporaneous with Johann Sebastian Bach. This recording features several works by the composer, including his D-major trumpet concerto, C-minor bassoon concerto with oboes, the…
Sergio Azzolini performs concertos by Don Antonio Vivaldi on bassoon with L'aura Soave Cremona. As part of the on going Vivaldi editions by Naïve of music found in the library of Turin, this is the second installment of…
Bach's Mass in B minor has always been an enigma; it was one of the least approachable works by Bach for me. Big works are hard to digest, as more than one person can tell you: take, for instance, Bach's St.
John Holloway, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, and Jane Gower perform soprano sonatas by Dario Castello and Giovanni Battista Fontana on ECM New Series.
Vivaldi: Concerti per violino, volume 4: L'imperatore by Riccardo Minasi and Il Pomo d'Oro Riccardo Minasi's last two solo albums have contained the fare of what we might deem "standard" baroque composers: Corelli and…
The first thing you hear, especially if you're listening with headphones, is not Schmitt's violin. It's her breathing.
The music of Philipp Heinrich Erlebach was new to me, and that's one of the reasons I had picked it up. I had seen Rodolfo Richter perform as part of the Academy of Ancient Music several years back under Richard Egarr…
Once Zig-Zag bundled Blandine Rannou's collection of Bach's French suites, English suites, and toccatas together, it was a sure-bet purchase.
Akademie für Alte Musik—Berlin (Akamus) has published a new recording, celebrating the 300-year anniversary of the birth of Frederick the Great with music by J.