Beethoven - Complete Piano Concertos & Triple Concerto - Roll/RPO/Shelley
Classical | 3 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 1,2 GB | RS
Recorded: March/Apr./Oct. 1995, C.T.S Studios Wembley/London & Watford Colosseum
Released: 2003 | Label: Membran 221883-371 | TT: 62:13, 68:14, 70:11
Michael Roll - piano | Jean-Jacques Kantorow - violin | Raphael Wallfisch - cello
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra · Howard Shelley

[…] this is a special release by any standards. In no way inferior to the splendid accounts of such renowned Beethovenians as Brendel, Pollini, Barenboim and Perahia, these profoundly musicianly and unobtrusively virtuosic readings have all the spontaneity and daring of the best live concerts. […] Roll - woefully under-represented in the catalogue - is masterly from first note to last. (Jeremy Siepmann, BBC Music Magazine)

Thomas Baltzar - Complete Works for Unaccompanied Violin
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 197 MB
Recorded: Sept. 2006, Princeton, New Jersey | Released: 2007
Label: MSR MS 1224 | TT: 33:57 | RS
Patrick Wood - violin

Thomas Baltzar is a little-known German violinist and composer who is getting a well-deserved airing in this new premiere recording […] This CD represents his complete output of unaccompanied violin music, and is also the first-ever recording of this once-innovative music. What’s so striking about the pieces is their early use of polyphony, […] double-stops and scordatura […] British-Mexican violinist Patrick Wood thoughtfully plays the works. His tone is even, pure, and warm, and his intonation is spot-on. His light, gentle playing adds just the right shimmer to the simple beauty of each short piece. (Strings, July 2008)

Rariora & Marginalia - Rare Fruits Council
Böddecker - [Strungk] - Westhoff - Bovicelli - Muffat - Bertali
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 351 MB
Recorded: March 2001, Brunenthal Abbey, Austria | Released: 2003
Label: Naïve-Astrée E 8840 | TT: 66:26 | RS
The Rare Fruits Council · Manfredo Kraemer

Astrée's sound is first rate, with excellent instrumental detail and realistic spatial orientation. […] Every work offered here is a gem, and Kraemer and his Council are to be commended for rescuing these pieces from undeserved and certainly unwarranted obscurity. Highly recommended. (John Greene, classicstoday.com)

Viola d'amore - Affetti Musicali/Rônez/Mauch
Biber - Huberty - Ganspeck - Ariosti - Ganspeckh
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 309 MB | RS
Recorded: 29 Oct.-1 Nov. 2002, Villa Giulini, Briosco, Italy
Released: 2003 | Label: Winter & Winter 910-096-2 | TT: 52:52
Marianne Rônez, Affetti Musicali, Monika Mauch

This marvelously quirky program of music for viola d’amore with strings and voice is smartly conceived and superbly performed. (Craig Zeichner, Early Music America, Spring 2006)

Tromba Triumphans: Chamber Music with Baroque Trumpet
Poglietti - Schmelzer - Bertali - Pater F. G. - Clamer
Finger - Vejvanovsky - Biber - Reinhardt
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 354 MB | RS
Recorded: 10-13 May 1998, Praemonstratenserabtei, Schlägl, Austria
Released: 1998 | Label: Winter & Winter 250-910-036-2 | TT: 71:40
Paul Plunkett - trumpet | Bell'Arte Salzburg, Annegret Siedel

Plunkett is one of the few artists on the natural trumpet who understand the concept of uneven articulation, so necessary to the performance of music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. [His] style and articulation are the most elegant and artistic this reviewer has heard. (International Trumpet Guild Journal, 24: 4, June 2000)

Bagpipes from Hell - Music for viola da gamba, lyra-viol, lute and ceterone
Marais - Forqueray - Weiss - Simpson - Robinson - Sainte-Colombe - Anon.
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 259 MB | RS
Recorded: 19-22 June 1999, Villa Medici-Giulini, Briosco, Italy
Released: 2000 | Label: Winter & Winter 250-910-050-2 | TT: 57:45
Vittorio Ghielmi - viola da gamba, lyra-viol | Luca Pianca - lute

For starters, there are no bagpipes on this weird and wonderful mix of 17th- and 18th-century music arranged for lute, ceterone, viola da gamba, and lyra viol. But the playing by Vittorio Ghielmi and Luca Pianca (founder of the Giardino Armonico ensemble) on Bagpipes from Hell will have you fooled that something wheezy is at work here. It's an odd mix of dances, including jigs, and folk-inspired numbers […] that somehow blends the droning elements of bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy with the intricate delicacy of baroque composition […] and the playing throughout is intense and exquisitely recorded. (Jason Verlinde)

Biber & Schmelzer - Sonatas - Freiburger Barockorchester Consort
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 386 MB | RS
Recorded: 21-23/11 1994 & 2-5/5 1995, Church Maria Minor, Utrecht, NL
Released: 2009 [1995] | Label: DHM 88697568692 | TT: 74:29
Freiburger Barockorchester Consort

The Freiburg musicians seem to revel in the wonderfully varied sonorities inherent in Biber’s consort textures, responding sympathetically to the composer’s colourfully imaginative tonal palette. The sonatas with trumpet are likely to make instant appeal but it is the more sorrowful utterances of Schmelzer which make a deeper impression on my senses. A fine release. (Nicholas Anderson, Gramophone, July 1996)

Biagio Marini - Curiose invenzioni dall' Opera Ottava - Galatea/Huggett
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 331 MB
Recorded: 30/5-2/6 1998, Chiesa di S. Martino, Bondo, Switzerland
Released: 1998 | Label: Stradivarius STR 11006 | TT: 69:07 | RS
Monica Huggett - baroque violin | Galatea, dir. Paul Beier

These are unquestionably some of the finest early violin sonatas (and what were at the time closely related forms), and this is an interpretation of magnificent stature. (Todd M. McComb, medieval.org, 2001)

Biagio Marini - Opus 8: Con Curiose & Moderne Inventioni 1629 - CordArte
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 429 MB
Recorded: 9-12/12 2003, Reitstadel, Neumarkt/Oberpfalz, Germany
Released: 2004 | Label: Raumklang RK 2306 | TT: 76:51 | RS
CordArte (Daniel Deuter, Margret Baumgartl - violin, Heike Johanna Lindner - viola da gamba,
Andreas Arend - chitarrone, Johanna Seitz - harp, Adrian Rovatkay - dulcian, Detlef Reimers -
sackbut, Markus Märkl - harpsichord)

This is a delightful disc […] The playing here is brillant, with perfect understanding of the music." (Early Music Review, 2005)

John Garth - Six Concertos for Violincello - Avison Ensemble/Tunnicliffe
Classical | 2 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 536 MB | RS
Recorded: 10-13 Dec. 2006, Picture Gallery, Paxton House, Berwick upon Tweed
Released: 2007 | Label: Divine Art dda25059 | TT: 43:33, 50:36
Richard Tunnicliffe - cello | The Avison Ensemble, dir. Pavlo Beznosiuk

It is probably only experts in the history of British music who will prick up their ears at the name John Garth (1721-1810), and even among those experts only those who have specialized in the 18th century. The organist, from Durham in northern England, enjoyed greater popularity during his life than his friend, the nowadays better known Charles Avison (1709-1770), under whom Garth is presumed to have studied. […] Even though all the concertos follow the fast-slow-fast three movement sequence typical of the 18th century, the pieces show influences not only of the Italian Concerto Grosso style, but also touches reminiscent of the gallant style of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach […] (Aron Sayed, klassik.com)

Girolamo Frescobaldi - Secular Madrigals - Modo Antiquo/Bettina Hoffmann
Frescobaldi Edition, Vol. 6: Il Primo Libro dei Madrigali a cinque voci (1608)
Classical | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 205 MB | RS
Recorded: 13-15/4 2008, Oratorio San Francesco Poverino, Florence
Released: 2009 | Label: Brilliant 93793 | TT: 41:56
Modo Antiquo, dir. Bettina Hoffmann

Volume 6 of this path-breaking series, the first to record every extant work by Girolamo Frescobaldi, focuses on the secular madrigals. These works - he wrote one book, and evidently hoped to write more - are no less innovatory than the keyboard works that so impressed and influenced J. S. Bach. […] The nineteen madrigals with which Frescobaldi introduced himself have an admirable clarity of formal design that gives each line its due weight in terms of duration and emotion, and a transparent counterpoint that favours delicacy over density as a stylistic means, homophonic and polyphonic sections being cleverly alternated. It is pleasing to see the respect that Frescobaldi pays to the texts: the words are set to graceful melodic phrases, and never obscured by excessive counterpoint, but interpreted literally with immediate attention to meaning. (brilliantclassics.com)

Girolamo Frescobaldi - Second Book of Toccatas - Roberto Loreggian
Frescobaldi Edition, Vol. 5: Il Secondo Libro di Tocccate, Canzone &c. (1637)
Classical, Baroque | 2 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 792 MB | RS
Recorded: 2-3/11 2008, Villa Beatrice d'Este, Baone (harpsichord)
& 5/11 2008, Chiesa di S. Barbara, Mantova (choir & organ)
Released: 2009 | Label: Brilliant 93794 | TT: 60:18, 67:31
Roberto Loreggian - harpsichord, organ | Schola Gregoriana 'Scriptoria'
Dom Nicola M. Bellinazzo (dir.)

The Second Book [of toccatas] was composed 12 years after the first, in 1627, when Frescobaldi was at the height of his creative powers and indeed his prestige: he was organist at the then-largest church in the world, the Roman Basilica of St Peter. (brilliantclassics.com)

Johann Theile - Secular Arias & Canzonettas 1667 - Les Amis de Philippe
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 361 MB | RS
Recorded: 19-21 June 2003, Sendesaal Radio Bremen
Released: 2005 | Label: cpo 777002 | TT: 76:10
Schirin Partowi - canto | Werner Buchin - alto | Henning Kaiser - tenore
Matthias Vieweg - basso | Les Amis de Philippe, Ludger Rémy

The performances are unflaggingly first-rate. All four singers command period style with notable ease, and with their lithe and flexible voices imbue the songs with ornamental grace and character. The instrumentalists of Les Amis [de] Philippe make a substantial contribution here with richly textured, contoured playing. (Steven Plank, operatoday.com)

Baroque Virtuoso Music: The Art of South-German Violin Music - Bell'Arte Salzburg
Muffat - Capricornus - Kindermann - Finger - Böddecker
Mayr - Schwartzkopff - Molitor - Baal - Biber
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 354 MB | RS
Recorded: 10/2000, Stadthalle Braunschweig, Germany
Released: 12/2003 | Label: ram 50310 | TT: 66:56
Bell'Arte Salzburg (Annegret Siedel - violin | Michael Spengler -
viola da gamba | Zvi Meniker - harpsichord, organ | Margit Schultheiß -
harp, organ | Michael Freimuth - theorbo)

In der hochvirtuosen musikalischen Interpretation Annegret Siedels entsteht ein eindrucksvolles Bild der süddeutschen Virtuosenkultur. Reizvoll dabei die unterschiedlichen Charaktere der drei verwendeten zeitgenössischen Violinen, die sich aber alle gut mit der farbigen Continuo-besetzung aus Viola da gamba, Cembalo/Orgel, Harfe und Theorbe mischen. (Marc Strümper, Concerto 6/2004)