Marcin Świątkiewicz

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.

I decided to cultivate the tradition of recording Goldberg Variations. This 20th-century ritual resulted in hundreds or thousands of interpretations performed on various instruments and recorded on various labels. Believers collect recordings of this lengthy masterpiece.

Musical works of genius are sometimes approached as museum exhibits, and the controversies concerning interpretative freedom can even be more fierce than Scheibe’s famous polemic with Bach’s advocate Birnbaum. Full of respect for the Composer’s artistic ideas as I am, I try to understand his music in the context of a time when improvisation was universally practised. The wealth, complexity and refinement of the notation make this task more difficult, but important clues are provided by the study of versions that usually differ in these very aspects, namely – texture and ornamentation.

Biber's Mystery (or Rosary) Sonatas were originally written to be played during Mass in Salzburg. Set to be recorded in early 2015 and released shortly after by Channel Classics, Rachel will tour a programme of half of the sonatas through 2014/2015 and 2015/2016. Depicting the main stories in the life of Christ, the sonatas are extremely evocative and could be performed in a sacred space using the Stations of the Cross, and/ or include suitable lighting to enhance the performance.

After winning the Instrumental category in the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2014 for Guardian Angel, Rachel and her record label Channel Classics are back with a new CD, Perla Barocca. Including works by Frescobaldi, Gabrieli, Pandolfi & Fontana amongst others, this beautiful collection of masterpieces showcases sublime examples of the early Italian Baroque. Some composers dominate the repertory; others have left behind only a handful of works. Here, they come together to convey the diverse musical landscape of such an excitingly rich and creative era, Perla Barocca.

Rachel Podger has been recording and performing Bach's music for violin to critical acclaim for over two decades. In 2015 she became the tenth (and first female) recipient of the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize. On this release she leads her own ensemble, Brecon Baroque, in JS Bach's monumental Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge). Bach's The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, broken off at the end by the composer's death, was written out in open score, with no indication of instrumentation. This has given rise over the years to a variety of instrumental realizations, with keyboard performances being the most common, but string orchestra, or wind versions, and so forth, are also often essayed.

Rachel Podger has been recording and performing Bach's music for violin to critical acclaim for over two decades. In 2015 she became the tenth (and first female) recipient of the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize. On this release she leads her own ensemble, Brecon Baroque, in Bach's monumental Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge). The recording is presented in Channel Classics's signature stunning DSD sound.

Rachel Podger has been recording and performing Bach's music for violin to critical acclaim for over two decades. In 2015 she became the tenth (and first female) recipient of the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize. On this release she leads her own ensemble, Brecon Baroque, in Bach's monumental Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge). The recording is presented in Channel Classics's signature stunning DSD sound.

After the volumes dedicated to Vivaldi's great instrumental cycles, La Stravaganza (2004), La Cetra (2012) and L’Estro armonico (2015), English violinist Rachel Podger continues her work with her Brecon Baroque ensemble to bring out this version of the Four Seasons, which is rounded off with three violin concertos. A passionate fan of the music of Vivaldi and Biber, Rachel Podger, who studied in Germany, demonstrates through her performances just how much the Red Priest's music (and her herself, following Biber) can cloak itself in the mysterious and bizarre, to the point that Vivaldi appears here as a distant descendant of the mannerists from the late Renaissance and early Baroque period. This is a particularly interesting and successful take.

Pamela Thorby, one of today's most boldly stylish and charismatic recorder players, makes every shapely line count. Telemann's legacy of recorder music is among the richest of the age, and here Pamela Thorby, utilizing a comprehensive arsenal of recorders in all shapes and sizes, explores the warmth and conviviality of Telemann's writing, as well as the easy beauty of his melodies: the ‘queen of the recorder' indeed.