Since it's founding in Freiburg in 1958, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi has been one of the most important and ambitious labels for period performances. Over decades, globally-acclaimed recordings were created with outstanding musicians. The limited edition "Deutsche Harmonia Mundi: 100 Great Recordings" contains 100 outstanding DHM recordings with some of the most important and best artists in their field: Nuria Rial, Dorothee Mields, Al Ayre Espanol, Hille Perl, Concentus Musicus Wien, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the Freiburger Barockorchester, Skip Sempé, Capriccio Stravagante, La Petite Bande, Gustav Leonhardt, Andrew Lawrence-King, Frieder Bernius, the Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, Thomas Hengelbrock and many others.
With a capaciously-filled boxset of a dozen CDs made up of attractive individual programmes and entitled The Spanish Guitar, Glossa reintroduces the superb playing of José Miguel Moreno. And with recordings from 1991-2004 which still sound fresh and vivid today. A new essay and all the sung texts are included in the physical booklet that completes this limited-edition set.
After years of playing the various Folias by Diego Ortiz, Antonio de Cabezón, Antonio Martín y Coll, Arcangelo Corelli and Marin Marais, it became clear to us that there were certain links between the origin and evolution of the important art of musical improvisation and variation and the viola da gamba, or bass viol, itself. In fact, it is no mere coincidence that, throughout the 16th century, and in places as different as France (Adrian Le Roy, 1551), Italy (Vicenzo Ruffo, 1564) and Germany (Matthäus Waissel, 1573), we find references in the various manuscripts and printed documents to the term “gamba”, used as a synonym for “Folia”.
This is a tremendously enjoyable disc of music for viola da gamba and continuo ensemble. It consists mainly of music by Diego Ortiz and Christopher Simpson, with one piece each from Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray, so it spans the best part of two centuries from about 1550 to about 1750. It's a terrific programme and exceptionally well played.
Ostinato is an anthology which brings together the most representative works of the art of improvisation and of a musical form based on a unique concept of the basso, which is repeated sequentially throughout the compositions.
Cela commence comme un livre de bord à la date du 4 septembre 1952. Bernard Moitessier est parti de Singapour depuis 85 jours. L'homme et le bateau ont fusionné en une unique entité au milieu de l'océan Indien, dans la mousson et son enfer de vents contraires. Car le marin est littéralement tombé amoureux de cette magnifique jonque du golfe de Siam "aux formes pleines et robustes, fleurant bon l'huile de bois, avec sa pièce d'étrave jaillissant de l'avant pour en prolonger gracieusement la forte tonture, montrant à la fois le ciel et l'horizon…"