This collection was first compiled in 1970 or so from recordings dating as far back as 1961. The set, now remastered and issued on cd, includes performances by three generations of harpsichordists, with Gustav Leonhardt providing the central focus. Leonhardt includes (in BWV 1060, 1062 and 1065) his former teacher from the Schola Cantorum in Basle, Eduard Mueller (the student modestly playing second harpsichord to his mentor in 1060 and 1065) while his own first-generation students Anneke Uittenbosch and Alan Curtis join him for BWV 1061, 1063-1065.

If the Alpha label had done nothing more than return Gustav Leonhardt to the studio, it would still be one of the best contemporary classical record companies. That everything else about its releases – the sound, the liner notes, even the reproductions on the covers – is as good or better than what any other classical company manages is only icing on the cake. Leonhardt has been one of the finest harpsichordists in the world for more than 40 years, and his recordings of the repertoire from Frescobaldi to Bach have been the standards against which all other recordings have been judged. But Leonhardt had made no recordings for most of the last decade, and listeners began to wonder if he ever would again. Now, with his fourth release for Alpha, listeners can finally relax, confident in the knowledge that Leonhardt has indeed returned. This 2005 disc of keyboard music by Byrd finds Leonhardt at the top of his form. As always, his technique is secure, and nothing in Byrd's virtuoso writing is beyond him. And, as always, his musicianship is assured, and nothing in Byrd's sensitive music is beyond him.

Leonhardt gives a deeply felt, reverent and contemplative performance of the St Matthew Passion. It is beautifully played and sung; introspective yet intense, understated yet profound. This is a version completely lacking in flashy, extravagant gestures but it does rather strip the piece down to its so-deep soul.

Gustav Leonhardt began recording Bach's secular cantatas on Philips in 1990 after completing the sacred cantatas cycle with Harnoncourt. Those Philips discs were well received but are now hard to find, either on CD or as downloads, so I was thrilled to discover that Leonhardt, now 80, just recorded another pair of Bach's secular cantatas.

Le violoniste Sigiswald Kuijken, issu d'une grande famille de musiciens, a déjà prouvé son talent dans de nombreux répertoires (Bach, Telemann, Haendel…). Le claveciniste Gustav Leonhardt, lui aussi spécialisé dans la musique baroque, a fait preuve chez DHM d'une remarquable cohésion dans la qualité de ses enregistrements. Les retrouver ensemble est donc un réel plaisir. Ce programme français dévoile les mille richesses de la musique à Versailles. Un régal pour tous les amateurs.

In the Telemann mountains, much of the topography remains terra incognita because most of Telemann's music remains an undiscovered country. But whatever future generations of hardy musicologists may uncover, it is unlikely that Telemann's Nouveaux Quatuors en Six Suites published in Paris in 1738 will be displaced as among his output's highest peaks.

The cosmopolitan composer and harpsichordist Johann Jacob Froberger (1616-67) was born in Stuttgart. He spent much of his professional life at the court of Vienna but traveled widely to Italy, France, England, and the Netherlands. In his keyboard compositions, he acknowledged the divergent styles of his European contemporaries while forging a highly personal and musically powerful synthesis. Serving the Viennese Hofkapelle from 1634 until 1645, he was granted a stipend from the Italophile Emperor Ferdinand III to travel to Italy and supplement his musical training by studying with Girolamo Frescobaldi. He studied in Rome from late 1637 until 1641 and made a second trip to Rome, Florence, and Mantua before 1649. An extensive period of travel from 1649 to 1653 probably included trips to Paris (where he met Chambonnières and Louis Couperin), the Spanish Netherlands, and England.

In January 2012, the nestor of early music in the Netherlands died: Gustav Leonhardt. Together with Harnoncourt he belonged to the pioneers of authentic performance practice. Leonhardt was a gentleman at the keyboard. His aristocratic mastery of the French harpsichordists alone, with all those complex decorations and declamations, was unrivaled. And yet he regarded Bach as the greatest composer ever. 'His music is incredibly versatile, interesting, intelligent. (…) What is the secret? If only we would know that! ', According to Gustav Leonhardt in an interview with the Reformatorisch Dagblad. This reissue, undoubtedly inspired by the publicity surrounding Leonhard's death, includes performances by Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Die Kunst Der Fuge and the Goldberg Variationen.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) was a German musician and composer; and the second of five sons of Johann Sebastian Bach and his frist wife, Maria Barbara Bach. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Classical style, composing in the Rococo and Classical periods.

Le Jugement de Midas (The Judgement of Midas) is a French comédie mêlée d'ariettes (a kind of opéra comique), in three acts by André Grétry dedicated to . It was first performed, with amateur singers, on 28 March 1778 in the private little theatre set up by Madame de Montesson in the apartments of her secret husband Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans at the Palais-Royal in Paris. Libretto is by the Irish playwright Thomas Hales (also known by the French name Thomas d'Hèle) with additional contributions by Louis Anseaume. It was based on the burlesque opera Midas (1760) by Kane O'Hara. The public premiere at the Comédie-Italienne took place on 27 June 1778.

The catalog may contain more ebullient, elaborately ornamented versions of Bach’s Partitas and English Suites, yet Gustav Leonhardt’s knowing mastery offers its own rewards. His subtle deployment of agogics to compensate for the harpsichord’s lack of dynamics markedly contrasts to the choppy, discontinuous phrasing we often hear in the name of authenticity. What’s more, the relaxed lilt of Leonhardt’s basic tempos constantly reflects the music’s dance origins.

Kuhnau’s six Biblical Sonatas are among the most fascinating keyboard curiosities of the baroque. Johann Kuhnau (1660-1722), Bach’s immediate predecessor as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, was a versatile composer, performer and polymath who produced fine works in a wide range of formats. These Biblical Sonatas were written as domestic programme music to illustrate - indeed, to describe - the following Old Testament stories: the Battle between David and Goliath; Saul Cured by David through Music; Jacob’s Marriage; Hezekiah’s Restoration to Health; Gideon, Deliverer of Israel; and Jacob’s Death and Burial.

This Sony-made 30CD classical music collection covers almost all classical music, from the early Baroque period represented by Bach to the schools of classical music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms represent romantic, national and even modern musical schools led by Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, etc. representative, everything wonderful and vivid.

This 2 CD-set presents two aspects of Purcell's music: religious music and instrumental music. Let's start by the first CD. It includes magnificent anthems for the Church for soloists, choir, and orchestra. The first track to open the CD, "Rejoice in the Lord alway", is probably one of Purcell's most famous anthem. The beautiful introduction (sometimes known as the Bell Anthem) prepares the entry of the two countertenors who expose the melody, intoned by the choir later. As with Purcell's style, the music is always refined. The soloists are all top-notch here, and the choir (King's College of Cambridge) is, as always, magnificent. It is really nice to hear the soprano part sung by boys, as I think it gives another dimension to Purcell's music.