La gran maestría de Genoveva Galvez, especialista en el repertorio para clave de músicos españoles, en un disco magnifico e interesante, muy difícil de encontrar actualmente.
Genoveva Gálvez es considerada como la responsable del resurgimiento del estudio del clave en España. Su amplia carrera fonográfica incluye más de una docena de discos, en los que ha interpretado a diversos y variados autores, como Johann Sebastian Bach y Domenico Scarlatti.

Talented concert soloist Milena Frigé presents the toccatas of Scarlatti on the Tamburini Organ of Chiesa di Santa Bernardetta in Milan, and a Granziera Harpsichord modelled after a 1703 Grimbaldi instrument, representative of the instruments for which Scarlatti composed these works.

This landmark set gathers all seven volumes of Pieter-Jan Belder’s exhaustive exploration of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book in recordings spanning the current decade.

This is our fourth CD containing compositions by Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) that were chiefly meant for the harpsichord and performed on it. The project stemmed, in a natural, almost parallel fashion, from the programme for the study and publication of the vast corpus of manuscript sources (no less than 25) of Alessandro Scarlatti’s pieces for keyboard instruments that was started by us more than ten years ago: the publication of his Opera Omnia per strumento a tastiera by the publisher Ut Orpheus Edizioni of Bologna (edited by Andrea Macinanti and Francesco Tasini) began in 2000 and was completed in 2012 with the printing of the sixth and last volume.

Johann Jacob Froberger war einer der bekanntesten und zugleich rätselhaftesten Musiker des 17. Jahrhunderts. 1616 in Stuttgart geboren und 1667 im Dienst der verwitweten Herzogin Sybilla aus der Mömpelgarder Nebenlinie des Hauses Württemberg gestorben, bilden sich in seinem Schaffen alle wichtigen Formen, Satzkonzepte und Ausdrucksideale seiner Epoche ab. Froberger fasziniert gerade in der heutigen Zeit, da alles »Europäische« wieder einmal auf dem Prüfstand steht.

Establishing a telling and plausibly individual post-Gouldian solution to the Goldbergs has unsurprisingly come more from the likes of pianists Angela Hewitt and Murray Perahia than a generation of harpsichordists, a view reinforced when one revisits the studied hauteur of Gustav Leonhardt’s pioneering 1964 recording (Teldec, 3/96 – nla). Amongst others, we have since recognised Pierre Hantaï’s decorous 1992 Gramophone Award-winning account for Opus 111, and yet even such a vital and alluring account as this has barely impacted on the ‘mainstream’ consciousness of the work’s interpretative possibilities. For all the technical differences between the piano and harpsichord which have contributed to such divergent lines of enquiry, this remarkable set of 30 Variations badly needs a harpsichord performance which projects the various layers of meaning and characterisation in a cohesive whole and, crucially, which makes the harpsichord sound warm, generous and palatable over 70 minutes.

La grande lezione di Alessandro Scarlatti, un tempo oscurati notevolmente dalla considerazione unilaterale dell’imponente corpus sonatistico del figlio Domenico, si espandono – direttamente o indirettamente – sulla produzione tastieristica dei coetanei Gaetano Greco (Grieco; 1657ca-1728) e Francesco Mancini (1672-1737); e ancora, la sua azione si ravviva e acquista un significato pieno se messa a confronto con il successivo cembalismo virtuosistico di Francesco Durante e di Leonardo Leo.

Christoph Graupner was born Kirchberg, Saxony. Due to an unfortunate combination of circumstances his work has fallen into almost total oblivion, yet he was one of the most important composers of his time. He spent nearly 50 years of his life at the Court of Darmstadt, as Hoffkapellmeister. Among his friends and admirers were the composers Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Mattheson, and Johann Friedrich Fasch, who was also his pupil. Thanks to his studies in Leipzig, from childhood on Graupner was in contact with musical contemporaries, including Johann Schelle and Johann Kuhnau, predecessors of Johann Sebastian Bach at the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas church).

An original and prestigious concept: the harpsichord music by the 4 prominent members of the Couperin Dynasty! The Couperin Dynasty, a renowned family of French composers, spanned several generations and played a pivotal role in the development of Baroque music during the 17th and 18th centuries. This musical lineage, centered around the Parisian court, produced a remarkable array of composers, the most prominent of whom were François Couperin, his nephew Armand-Louis Couperin, Louis Couperin and Gervais-François Couperin.

AEOLUS presents the second volume of the Louis Couperin Edition with Bob van Asperen. The recording was made on the 1681 Vaudry harpsichord in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and is currently the only audio document available of this famous instrument. The SACD contains harpsichord suites composed by Louis Couperin, who lived in Paris in the 17th century. Among the pieces is the famous "Tombeau de Mr Blancrocher".

Recentemente si è rivalutata l”importanza di Alessandro anche come vero fondatore dell”importante «scuola tastieristica napoletana», della grande tradizione di una città, Napoli, «considerata come la capitale dell”armonia, la sorgente da cui si sono irradiati, in ogni altra parte d”Europa, il genio, il gusto e la cultura» (CHARLES BURNEY, The Present State of Music in France and Italy, London 1771).

The music of Louis Couperin has never had quite the celebrity of that of his uncle François or of the other famous French keyboard composers of the eighteenth century. The harpsichord works here date from around 1650. They were thus contemporary with reign Mazarin, the courtier and prime minister who really ruled France, at least until the rebellion known as the Fronde curbed the power of the court. The lush booklet does an excellent job of placing Couperin against his cultural background, and really the disc is worth purchasing for the lavish illustrations of the period French harpsichord used (the small picture of the Greek god Pan above the keyboard is reproduced at full size inside, and it's fabulous).

On this sixth volume of Alessandro Scarlatti's opera omnia for keyboard, once again the star is the eighteenth century Italian Anonymous Ferrarese harpsichord owned by Francesco Tasini. Toccatas, Arpeggi, Introduzioni, and even the famous 'Folly of Spain', are contained in this volume featuring the brilliant and rich harmonics of the precious historical instrument. Extremely interesting is the interpretation by Francesco Tasini - a master of the period performance practice - that succeeds in giving us a perfect understanding of the correct approach to the compositions by Alessandro Scarlatti, true founder of the Neapolitan keyboard School.

After the English Suites, the French Suites and the Toccatas, which received unanimous critical acclaim, Blandine Rannou returns to Bach with a recording of the Goldberg Variations, played on a French harpsichord by Anthony Sidey. Bach’s original title translates as “Keyboard exercise, consisting of an ARIA with diverse variations for harpsichord with two manuals. Composed for connoisseurs, for the refreshment of their spirits… ” This feast of harpsichord music, beautifully played, is indeed just that: a refreshment – and a delight – for the spirits!