Frans Bruggen

Inaugurated in 1958, Das Alte Werk quickly gained a reputation for historically informed, high-quality recordings. As the field of early music spread wider and wider and new paths were constantly broken, the imprint rapidly became the touchstone by which other labels were judged, not least for its epoch-making complete recording of Bach's sacred cantatas. Originally recorded and released in the middle 1960s, this newly-reissued 4CD, groundbreaking set of Telemann's Musique de Table (Tafelmusik) features the late Franz Bruggen and the Concerto Amsterdam.

Jean-Philippe Rameau's opéra-ballet Les Indes Galantes premiered in Paris in 1735 but was not a critical success, so the composer prepared a revised version that included an additional act. The five suites the composer extracted are derived from the prologue and four acts, and the brief movements include orchestral arrangements of vocal numbers as well as instrumental pieces. The work displays Rameau's flair for creating evocative and compelling music for the wide variety of the opéra-ballet's dramatic situations, as well as his ear for imaginative orchestration. Familiarity with the plot is not required for appreciating the charms of these colorful miniatures.

The best period instrument recording of Mendelssohn Symphonies 3,4,5 and Overtures " the Hebrides" and "Calm sea and Prosperous Voyage". Bruggen's tempos are moderate and textures are very clear: you can hear individual voices in the orchestra not obvious in many recordings. The Orchestra of the 18th Century play with a full sound and are never scrawny. Orchestra of the 18th Century's horns, clarinet, and flutes were very well played in these live recordings from 1990, 1994, 1995, and 1996.

The disc features new recordings of the Chopin concertos performed on period instruments, documenting two outstanding artistic moments in the festival Chopin and his Europe. Dang Thai Son, winner of the Tenth Fryderyk Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, is accompanied by Frans Brüggen’s Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century—a legendary ensemble restoring to music its authentic sound.

The Concerto in E minor was recorded during a concert held on 8 September 2005 in the Concert Hall of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw,

The Concerto in F minor was recorded during a concert held on 31 August 2006 at the Grand Theatre – National Opera.

Traditionalists may rue the day, but the historical performance movement has come to Chopin, and it's clear it has a lot to offer in this release by Argentine pianist Nelson Goerner and the veteran Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century under Frans Brüggen. Goerner plays an 1849 Erard instrument, some 20 years younger than the music of the youthful Chopin that's on the program, but arguably representative of a sound ideal he would have had in his head.

Founded in 1981, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century consists of approximately fifty-five musicians from all over the world. The orchestra is specialised in the music of that era and the musicians play on period instruments or copies of them. This spectacular rendition of Beethoven’s „Symphony No. 3“, live recorded at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, has won them international acclaim. Beethoven originally dedicated the „Eroica“ (1804) to Napoleon, who at the time was re-drawing the map of Europe as comprehensively as this epic symphony was to re-define the architecture of music. It was only belatedly that the composer realised that ‘heroes’ with absolute political power easily turn into tyrants and tore up the dedication.

"…a performance full of character and joy. It bristles with energy without adopting extreme tempos; period instrument sonorities refresh even that over-exposed Wedding March."

— BBC Music Magazine

Over time this recording becomes progressively more and more alive and beautiful. In my opinion, this recording by Hoeprich is a document -which at the time was unique and original- of his deep knowledge of Mozart's music.

These dozen sonatas fully constitute one-sixth of Corelli's published output and strongly influenced the form of the violin sonata in the early decades of the eighteenth century. The collection is in many ways a condensation of Corelli's four earlier volumes of trio sonatas; here are solo sonatas (front-and-center violin, accompanied by a continuo section of at least a keyboard and usually cello or gamba, sometimes with the addition of theorbo or some other member of the lute family), with the works divided between six church sonatas (sonate da chiesa, the format of Corelli's Opp. 1 and 3 trio sonatas) and five chamber sonatas (sonate da camera, in the manner of Opp. 2 and 4).