Following their critically acclaimed recording of Johann Gottfried Müthel’s keyboard concertos (BIS-2179), Polish ensemble Arte dei Suonatori and Marcin Świątkiewicz, who conducts from his instrument, perform the six Hamburg symphonies by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach interspersed with solo fantasias for keyboard. The music of C.P.E. Bach has always been a source of fascination for the listener with its great variety of atmospheres, captivating melodic ideas, irresistible contrasts, surprising interweaving of voices, eccentric harmonies, and extreme dynamic transitions.

Many important Baroque composers and their music found their way to Denmark – thanks not least to the music-loving King Frederik IV. This CD presents a unique musical panorama of the King's court music and combines concertos by Christoph Graupner, Johann Adolph Scheibe and Johann Gottlieb Graun with newly discovered dance music for the King’s daughter, Princess Charlotte Amalie, reconstructed for this world premiere recording by Danish recorder virtuoso Bolette Roed and the Polish Baroque ensemble Arte dei Suonatori.

On disait de Johann Schobert dans les années 1760 à Paris, qu’il était le claveciniste le plus à la mode, recherché dans les salons pour son caractère brillant, virtuose et étrange. Ses œuvres sont faites d’un style tout neuf, qui paraît étrange, à la fois profond et brillant. Il excellait dans l’évocation d’atmosphères poétiques rares, tantôt sombres, tantôt viriles et décidées, souvent rêveuses et nostalgiques.

Throughout a long and extremely productive career, Georg Philipp Telemann harboured a great affection for the overture-suite, consisting of a French overture followed by a number of dances and character movements. Tempering the rigid model inherited from the French tradition with his own rich powers of invention and playfulness, he remained true to the form long after it had gone out of fashion.

In Holland in the 1720s the transverse flute enjoyed considerable popularity among amateur musicians. Aware of that keen interest, the publisher Michel Le Cene decided in 1729 to present his customers with the very first collection of concertos for flute and orchestra. Vivaldi responded to his request by refurbishing several older works. Only one of them was already in the modern concerto form: the Concerto in F major for recorder and strings. Another four pieces were hybrid in form and still close to chamber works. The predominant role of the recorder or flute in those four concertos made them ideal for adaptation.

The performances on this lovely album of vocal and instrumental music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier make it a recording that should delight the composer's fans and anyone who loves the music of the Baroque. Listeners should be warned that the packaging and even the composer's titles create expectations of music of a very different character from what is actually presented. The three Leçons de Ténèbres of the title, scored for bass and chamber orchestra, refer to baleful texts taken from the Lamentations of Jeremiah describing the fall and abasement of Jerusalem, and were written for services on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of Holy Week, the darkest days in the Christian liturgical calendar.

Johann Joachim Quantz, in his handbook for transverse flute written in 1752, wrote of the composer Georg Philipp Telemann: “I wish to especially recommend Telemann’s trios written in the French style, many of which he had already fashioned thirty or more years ago.” Georg Philipp Telemann not only gained the admiration of Quantz, but his pieces are still frequently performed and recorded today. For this album, his Concerto di camera in G minor, Double Concertos in A minor and E minor, and Suite in A minor have been recorded. Performing these timeless works are three outstanding period instrumentalists, Bolette Roed, Reiko Ichise, and Alexis Kossenko.

It is a familiar fact that Antonio Vivaldi was a prime mover in the creation of the solo concerto, but what is less well known is that he also was the leading exponent of the older concerto a quattro – music in four parts, with several players to a part, intended for what we nowadays would call a string orchestra with continuo. As Vivaldi expert Michael Talbot explains in his informative liner notes, these works are notable not only for their beauty, but also for their experimental character and for providing the most important examples of fugal writing in Vivaldi’s instrumental music. It is not known when Vivaldi started to write them, but most of the almost fifty concertos probably originate from the 1720s and 1730s. .

The opening Overture (Suite) in A minor is one of Telemann's most ambitious concerted works, running to seven distinct dance movements in 30 minutes. The rhythmic shifts in the "Air à l'Italien" are pretty abrupt and really catch your attention. Of the three concertos, the Double Concerto in A minor for flauto dolce and viola da gamba is a standout, owing to its occasionally explosive gestures and knotty emotionalism. All of these works have been recorded numerous times, but most commonly on the standard transverse flute, but only the F major concerto was originally written for flute, and many versions of the Overture in A minor show signs of having been somewhat condensed.

Dan Laurin has made a name for himself as an intrepid musician who never hesitates to venture into uncharted territory, as testified by his numerous recordings of contemporary recorder works, as well as by his monumental achievement in recording the complete (10 hours!) 17th century Der Fluyten Lust-hof by Jacob van Eyck. As he now turns to one of the most recorded works in Western music, his approach is as fresh and original as ever. With the aid of the highly praised Polish ensemble Arte dei Suonatori, Laurin gives us Vivaldi’s humming insects, pounding summer rain and drunken village revels in a way we’ve never before heard them.

Johann Forkel, the biographer of J.S. Bach, numbered Müthel among the most remarkable of Bach’s pupils. Another of the great chroniclers of 18th century music, Charles Burney, described Müthel's works as 'so full of novelty, taste, grace, and contrivance, that I should not hesitate to rank them among the greatest productions of the present age.’ In Müthel's five concertos for keyboard and strings we nevertheless meet a distinctly individual composer, displaying sophisticated rhythms and harmonic playfulness. Presenting them on this set of two CDs, the young Polish harpsichordist Marcin Świątkiewicz makes his début on BIS. He is supported by his compatriots in the acclaimed period band Arte dei Suonatori, who clearly relish the often intricate and always eventful orchestral parts.

For the 300th anniversary of C. P. E. Bach’s birth, Alpha proposes discovering the work of one of the Cantor’s sons from an original angle: that of the Alexis Kossenko’s flute.
In this boxed set, Alpha has brought together the complete Flute Concertos as well as the marvellous Trio Sonatas, masterpieces that allow for discovering Carl Philipp Emanuel’s close connection with the traverso, and also perceiving Alexis Kossenko’s strong ties with this brilliant composer.