Westhoff and Walther both trained in Dresden as members of one of the most famous court orchestras in Baroque Europe. Along with Heinrich Biber, these two extraordinary violinist-composers spectacularly extended their instrument's technical capacity while at the same time giving us superb works of pure music, astonishing in their rich variety and beauty.

« Le chromatisme des voix, enrichies, sur l’idée de Pierlot, par toute sorte de violes, est simplement déchirant»
Dorian Astor, Classica, février 2008

Not much is known about Giuseppe Valentini (1680-1746), save that he started his career in Rome and was a composer, violinist, and poet. His music became extremely popular throughout Europe, being published in London, Paris, and Amsterdam. The set of seven Bizzarrie per Camera was first published around 1706, and the title refers to the novel and unexpected features of the music, as well as the indeterminate instrumentation, which leaves the performers to make their own choices.

Van Wassenaer was born into a distinguished family of wealth, power and accomplishment--the House of Wassenaer. His grandfather, Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam, was supreme commander of the confederate Dutch navy, and was killed in battle in 1665 in the Second Anglo-Dutch War; his father, Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam (younger), served as a general of the army in the War of the Spanish Succession, was defeated in 1703 in the Battle of Ekeren, and spent the rest of his career as a diplomat.

Homilius was organist of the Dresden Frauenkirche and composing chorale preludes was one of his main activities. This CD has been expanded to include two cantatas, as well as the only known chamber music by Homilius. The recording is under the direction of the internationally-renowned trumpeter and conductor Ludwig Güttler, who conducts and performs here.

The sonatas of Marco Uccellini, for violin and continuo, represent early manifestations of the virtuoso violin impulse that led to the instrumental masterpieces of the High Baroque. The music on this disc was written between 1645 and 1667, and it elaborates the semi-improvisatory quality of the earliest instrumental sonatas into spectacular, free-rhythmed fantasies of instrumental display. This kind of music takes a specialist well-versed in Baroque playing techniques and ornamentation practices to bring it to life, and veteran Lucy van Dael, accompanied by harpsichordist Bob van Asperen and several other fine players, certainly fills the bill. She plays an Amati violin from 1646 that seems as though it can transport the listener back to the Modena palaces in which this music arose. The historically detailed booklet notes indicate the orientation of this disc toward libraries, specialists, and those with a serious interest in the early Italian Baroque, and it will find a ready audience among these groups and institutions. But the average lover of the violin, or the listener newly immersed in the music of performers who have given Monteverdi his proper level of intensity, may be attracted as well by the flashy free spirit and some of the unusual sonorities of this music. Sample the Sonata decima from the Op. 5 set (track 9), with its long, rhapsodic flights at the very top of the violin's range. The engineers of the Aeolus label have brought out every detail of van Dael's masterful playing. - James Manheim, allmusic.com

Italian composer Carlo Tessarini is something of a cipher, despite his publication of some 40 editions of music between 1721 and 1766, half of which he issued himself. Although he was certainly born before 1700, the earliest reference to Tessarini is not found until 1720 when he is identified as a violinist in the orchestra of St. Mark's in Venice. The last mention of him comes from December 1766, through an advertisement of a concert appearance he made in Arnheim; he is assumed to have died right after that.

The viola da gamba - an instrument emblematic of the repertoire between 1550 and 1750 - came to be threatened by the development of the cello, and the contest between the two became an aesthetic issue, amplified by the quarrels between French and Italian tastes.
Guido Balestracci has chosen to record music by Schaffrath - a composer belonging to the Berlin School that grew up around Frederick II of Prussia. The gamba was still flourishing there in 1750, and Schaffrath created a paradox in writing music prefiguring the Classical style that was intended for so conservative an instrument.
The works of Christoph Schaffrath have never been recorded before. Now he is rediscovered by Guido Balestracci, who proves an ideal defender: the virtuosity and sensuality of his playing are instantly appealing.

Johann Heinrich Schmelzer's Sonatae Unarum Fidium has had its share of fine recordings during the last few years. Romanesca's 1996 account on Harmonia Mundi not only shuffled the six movements but also split them in pairs of three to begin and end Schmelzer's Victori der Christen (the Victory of the Christians over the Turks) Sonata. Last month, the ambitious French label K617 offered another account where the movements again are scrambled and then interspersed with organ works of Schmelzer's contemporary Johann Heinrich Kerll. Holloway's account here is the least freewheeling of the lot in that he plays the sonatas unsplit and in numerical order. All three interpretations use different instrumentation; all three offer their own improvisatory insights into the character of the music; and I'm sure all three would have delighted this eccentric composer immensely. Comparisons, in turn, are superflous.

Despite being one of the lesser known French Baroque masters, Nicolas Clerambault has been quite well served on recordings. This CD is comprised of motets written for the church of St. Sulpice, Paris, where he was the organist from 1715 on. They are all scored for alto, tenor and bass voices with continuo, some adding two obligato parts for violins or flutes.

Johan Helmich Roman (October 26, 1694 - November 20, 1758), sometimes called the "Father of Swedish Music", brought the High Baroque style of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel north, synthesized what he knew of the new style gallant and trends in music making in Paris and Italy, and developed a style all his own. He is responsible for bringing large-scale, public concerts to Sweden, a country somewhat behind the times in those days. He became a violinist with the Swedish Court Orchestra in 1711.

Because the Capella Antiqua Bambergensis is something of a family affair, it's not really surprising that its members should all have a professional background in music: Andreas Spindler works as an instrument maker, Anke as a music teacher (she has also co-operated in establishing the Digital Network for early music in Bavaria), Professor Dr. Wolfgang Spindler teaches music and social work at the University of Bremen and Thomas is the manager of C.A.B. Records. Together with the three remaining musicians Markus Sperlein, Stephan Hänisch and Thomas Zapf, they have made the Capella something of an institution in early music, which has been playing for almost 15 years now. The reason for their success is simple: Instead of "singing the blues", they have been highlighting the more joyful aspects of medieval music - a most welcome change to the scene.

From the moment a baby is born, lullabies are a mother’s indispensable ally in soothing her child for whom everything in the big, wide world in new and frightening. The baby recognizes in the song his mother’s voice, her presence and her expression. The intimacy of the moment creates a space rich in ancestral symbols, in which words and music create a bond of pure emotion and truth. It is in this space that the child experiences his first dialogue, his first story, his first contact with the teachings of tradition, experience and culture, which over time build into an essential part of our collective memory.
Whoever sings a lullaby is moved by a desire to give of their very best, which in itself is an expression of love, and so the child begins to experience the essence of life.
Montserrat Figueras–Nina Nanna artist’s introduction

This CD keeps getting sweeter the more you listen. Recommended. --Robert Levine

Antonio Bertali (was) a musician in the Viennese royal chapel from the 1620s and, from 1649 until his death in 1669, served as kapellmeister in the Viennese court. In Arcana's Antonio Bertali: Prothima Suavissima Parte Seconda, Gunar Letzbor leads the Ars Antiqua Austria -- a group that has notably distinguished itself through recordings such as the superb Challenge Classics issue of Viennese lute concertos by Von Radolt -- though the posthumous 1672 print indicated in the title in its entirety.

In honour of Haydn's bicentenary CPO are delighted to present a rarely recorded work; Haydn's two act singspiel Die Feuersbrunst oder das abgebrannte Haus (The Conflagration or The Burned House). Between the years of 1773 and 1779 Haydn was musical director at the court of Nikolaus Esterházy. In the summer months the Prince moved to his palace in Esterházy (now in Hungary) and commissioned Haydn to write puppet operas to entertain himself, his family and his servants.