Trabaci

The recorders heyday was the early Baroque period. In fact, until the 18th Century the recorder was known simply as flauto (flute), while the instrument we today call the flute bore the specific name flauto traverso (transverse flute), a confusion in terminology that has often led to compositions addressed to the recorder (flauto) being performed on modern flute. Der Fluyten Lust-Hof by Jacob Van Eyck is the most extensive collection of music for a solo wind instrument by a single composer, and a large portion of this set is devoted to a selection of highlights from this monumental work. Although written for amateur players, the compositions attest to the high standard of musicianship in Utrecht, with technical demands that are challenging even by modern standards. The recorders tonal purity and exceptional blend in ensemble makes it marvelously suited for adaptations of music originally written for other instrumental combinations. Examples from the early Italian repertoire include the Palestrina ricercar, capriccios by Frescobaldi and canzonas by Gabrieli, Merula and Trabaci.

Over the past three or four decades early music has changed from elitist and hardly known to being widely performed and appreciated. With the growing popularity of early music the recorder has emancipated from that rather ill-reputed “instrument to introduce children to music” to a serious musical instrument in its own right. Several highly successful recorder ensembles and soloists are proof of this change.

He was as eminent in composing as in playing extemporanously. Among the musicians who were active in the first half of the seventeenth century, Girolamo Frescobaldi (Ferrara, 1583 – Rome, 1643) stands out not only as an organist whose virtuosity and technical skill were superlative and incomparable, but also as a formidable musician who was able to interpret the artistic stirrings in the musical language of his time and to incorporate them, in an effective and significant way, into his vast production for keyboard instruments.

Few news are available about Antonio Nola. Even research manuals and encyclopedic dictionaries make no mention of the author.According to the news reported by Hanns-Berthold Dietz, Antonio Nola was born in 1642 from Tommaso Nola and Laura Rossa and at the age of 10, in 1652, he became a pupil of Giovanni Salvatore at the Conservatorio dei Turchini in Naples. In 1674 he was regularly in the service of the Oratory of the Gerolamini, an institution in which he remained for a long time, copying much sacred music for the needs of the Oratory and collaborating with many musicians in the service of that institution, from Giovanni Maria Trabaci, Scipione Dentice (nephew of Fabrizio Dentice), Giovanni Maria Sabino and the M. of the royal chapel Filippo Coppola and Erasmo di Bartolo ("Padre Raimo").

Following the recent, essential compendium of great organ music on 50CD (95310), Brilliant Classics turn to a valuable but lesser-known light in the early history of the organ, Giovanni Salvatore. Active in the middle of the 17th century, this Neapolitan musician was greatly esteemed during his lifetime. One contemporary commentator even placed him above Frescobaldi on the grounds that he could compose fine vocal works without confusing their style with organ music.

At the end of a brief but brilliant career - his compositions cover a period of just over six years - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi worte his last two works, the 'Stabat Mater' and the 'Salve Regina' in C minor. Nicola Porpora's 'Salve Regina' for solo voice and instruments, recorded here for the first time, was probably written during the composer's stay in Venice as 'maestro di cappella' of the Ospedale degli Incurabili, from 1726 to 1733, no doubt for one of the young ladies attending the musical establishment.