Chaconne in D Minor

Johann Pachelbel is remembered today for his Canon in D major, but he was an outstandingly successful organist and composer whose musical legacy is in fact quite broad and varied. Of his keyboard pieces the Hexachordum Apollinis is regarded as the pinnacle of his oeuvre and was a work to which Pachelbel himself attached great importance. Consisting of six arias with variations, the collection brings together the influence of several schools of music, all filtered through the composer’s refined tastes and superlative technical skill. The splendid Chaconne anticipates Bach and is one of Pachelbel’s best-known keyboard pieces.

During his lifetime, Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706) was best known as an organ composer. He wrote more than two hundred pieces for the instrument, both liturgical and secular, and explored most of the genres that existed at the time. He is considered to be the apex of the 17th century’s south German organ school and generally one of the most important composers of the middle Baroque.

Originating as a sexy South American dance, the chaconne crossed the Atlantic to sixteenth-century Spain, where it acquired a reputation as a dangerous pleasure. Constructed on repeating ground basses, the form’s sinuous flexibility articulated two facets of the modernist urge to self-expression: the boisterous delights of turning the world upside down and the sweet sadness of melancholy introspection.

Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen’s debut for the Yellow Label is entitled simply MARI and is set for international release on May 31 via Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company. Recorded with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and conductor Jonathan Stockhammer, the album explores the contradictions of contemporary life – the fact that, despite the excitement of city life and the convenience of instant communication and express travel, many of us still feel a need to ground ourselves in the peace and quiet of the natural world. Mari herself was born in rural Norway and goes back to the family farm as often as her schedule allows. She was keen, therefore, to choose a selection of music echoing the conflicting pulls on our time and energy.

Within the framework of his complete Brahms cycle, Geoffroy Couteau presents an original programme focusing on the trio Brahms formed with Robert and Clara Schumann, and on their relationship with Joseph Joachim. All these personalities lie at the heart of the conception of both the Concerto in D minor and the transcription of Bach’s Chaconne; two works that also reveal their shared devotion to Bach.

Bach on the piano raises no eyebrows, but it’s still quite rare for harpsichord music by other Baroque composers, particularly French ones, to be updated in that manner. However, Pavel Kolesnikov’s collection of Louis Couperin is totally convincing, with a modern piano bringing out different colors and an infinite range of shades and tones. These dance movements are wonderfully light on their feet, elegant, and vivacious, but emotionally rich as well. Kolesnikov has chosen his own order of movements to create a program of range and variety, but one unified by his vivid sense of poetry and magic.