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Bach 53°32’46.0”N 9°59’42.4”E • Halubek

This release continues the “Bach Organ Landscapes” series, which documents Bach’s organ works on historically significant instruments. The title’s map coordinates place us at St.

Bach: Christ lag in Todesbanden • Ensemble Correspondances

Bach’s early cantatas have attracted consistently strong recordings, perhaps because they’re inherently accessible. Of the three works here—BWV 4, 106, and 131—BWV 4 has always been a favorite of mine.

Sonates Oubliées – Charles de la Ferté

The composer Charles-François Grégoire de la Ferté (1666-1746) is a name I’m betting you’re not familiar with; the sonatas recorded here were just discovered in 2022.

Telemann: Complete Violin Concertos, opus 9

I have collected a number of recordings that belong to CPO’s Telemann collection; like the Vivaldi effort on Naïve Classics, the Telemann recordings have featured different ensembles.

Orfeo son io • L’Arpeggiata

Orpheus, from Greek mythology, became a symbol of art’s power, love’s devotion, and the fragility of trust and doubt.

Baroque Anatomy: The Eye • Accademia Bizantina

The cover demands attention. At first glance, I read it as “The 5th Eye,” but Accademia Bizantina are off to record all six Brandenburg Concertos—each volume pairing one concerto with other works chosen to highlight a…

Pez: A collection featuring two genres – Duplex Genius

This collection by Johann Christoph Pez (1664-1716) is a collection of string pieces adopting both the French and Italian styles. The collection nicely fits onto one CD, with twelve sonatas in all.

Louis Couperin Complete Works • Rondeau et al.

Erato artist Jean Rondeau—yes, that French guy with the hair—returns with a major new release. If you’re new to him, three earlier albums illustrate his strengths: Across these, he lingers where the music invites…

Spiegelungen • NeoBarock

As they are perhaps now well-known to do, NeoBarock on this album are prepared to present a piece—in this case Bach’s Musical Offering, BWV 1079—alongside fodder that “doesn’t belong.” The juxtaposition of old and new…

Scarlatti: Christmas Music • Prandi

This release under the direction of Giulio Prandi, featuring soprano Carlotta Colombo, features four pieces by Alessandro Scarlatti and a mass by Giovanni Giorgi, music performed by Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

Purcell & Blow at Versailles

Le Poème Harmonique, under Vincent Dumestre, brings together John Blow’s Welcome Every Guest and Purcell’s Hail, Bright Cecilia! Z. 328 in a program that feels both festive and revealing.

Libro primo • Lislevand

In this album from lutenist Rolf Lislevand comes a recital of pieces from the early 17th century, picked from the first published editions of the composers assembled: Kapsberger, Foscarini, Ortiz.

Gelosia! Italian Cantatas • Jaroussky

This generous recital from Philippe Jaroussky, accompanied by his Artaserse, presents two world premieres, works by Galuppi and Porpora, alongside works by Alessandro Scarlatti, G.F. Handel, and Antonio Vivaldi.

Roman: To the Northern Star • Flauguissimo

The Swedish composer Johan Helmich Roman has been covered here before among the reviews; in this case we come back to his writing for flute, played here by Yu-Wei Hu, student of two famous baroque specialists, Rachel…

Bach’s Horns • Solomon’s Knot

This live recording is programmed around famous works by Bach that feature horns. Horns during Bach’s time were not yet keyed, like the modern “French horn.” I’d been interested in playing the French horn, incidentally…

Bach from Italy * Amandine Beyer

The theme of this new album from Gli Incogniti is hardly unexplored. Many have traced Bach’s engagement with Italian music—especially the concertos popular in his time.

Pandolfi Mealli: Sonatas Opp. 3 & 4 • Conrad

Hélène Galatea Conrad, violin; Amandine Lesne, gamba; Dana Howe, theorbo; Adrien Pièce, keyboards Gallo CD-1722 This new recording ambitiously gathers both of Pandolfi Mealli’s surviving collections, Opp.

La flûte de Monsieur Buffardin • Schelb

This album features a variety of baroque music for flute, here performed by Leonard Schelb. I didn’t have access to the booklet, but I’d assume here that the instrument used is either an original of a flute by the…

Monteverdi: Sesto Libro • RossoPorpora

I became familiar with Monteverdi by way of my formal education in music in college; as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I had a professor whose specialty was Monteverdi. He got a lot of airtime, so to speak, in our classes.

Solitude • Reginald Mobley

This album is a type of crossover production, one that stylistically was cohesive enough to work, combining voice, lute or guitar, and either bass or gamba.

Songs of Passion • Jupiter

This new release featuring Thomas Dunford and Lea Desandre features music by Dowland and Purcell—obviously sung numbers but also a variety of instrumental numbers to round things out.

Vivaldi – La Gloria e Imeneo • Abchordis

This 54 minute CD features one of Vivaldi’s surviving serenades, a type of dramatic cantata that was written for two voices, called La Gloria e Himeneo RV 687.

London circa 1760 • La Rêveuse

This album presents a recital, offering us a variety of compositions to help us understand what was fashionable in the world of art music after the death of George Frederick Handel. The composers represented include C.F.

WTC 1: Esfahani and Guglielmi

Before we even audition these two recordings, the liner notes of each tell us a lot about the approach each musician has taken to the performance of these works.

Mozart’s String Quintets • Spunicunifait

Mozart’s quintets are for a quartet texture with an extra viola (not piano); the first one is scored for a “basso” as the lowest instrument, although in this performance by Spunicunifait, the instrumentarium stays the…

Telemann: Fantasias for violle

This collection—Telemann’s fantasias for viola da gamba—presents, as Sara Ruiz, the soloist here attests, a unique opportunity. To approach an interpretation that isn’t clouded by historical performances. How?

J.S. Bach & Sons Flute Sonatas • Shibata

This new release on Channel Classics features works by each of Bach’s eldest sons and rounds the recital with BWV 1032, an arrangement of the Siliciano from BWV 1031, and an arrangement of the lute suite, BWV 997, for…

Ferrari: Sonatas, op. 3

The promotional notes for this album say that Ferrari was well-known as an eighteenth century violinist/composer, but this is my first listen to his works.

Bach: Die Kunst der Fuga • Halubek & Il Gusto Barocco

Newly released on Berlin Classics is a recording of Bach’s Art of the Fugue BWV 1080, an interesting album, for it opens on solo harpsichord, but is then joined by other instruments to present Bach’s ultimate essay on…

The Purcell Academy • Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian

My composition teacher in college told me about a trip he’d taken to London; his opera was being performed and he’d had the occasion to have tea with someone in Henry Purcell’s home.

Locatelli Introduttioni Teatrali • Europa Galante

Locatelli’s “Theatrical introductions” are six in number, akin, perhaps, to some of Vivaldi’s “concertos for strings,” that would be used as instrumental content for operas.

Hellendaal: Cambridge Sonatas

My recent journey to the United Kingdom included a day in Cambridge, where I walked right past the Fitzwilliam Museum, which I could now kick myself for!—as the manuscript from this album is housed there!

Just Biber • Podger, Brecon Baroque

I have no doubt that the title of this album is a cheeky nod to the Canadian singer Justin Bieber. After choosing the handle ‘biberfan’ in the late 1990s in college, I was often bemused by the attraction I’d received by…

Corelli • Concerti Grossi, op 6. nos. 1-6

I grew up with Trevor Pinnock’s recording of Corelli’s concerti grossi on Archiv Production. These are the epitome of the concerto grosso, wherein a full ensemble has solo passages that emerge from among the ranks of an…

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