Jörg Juretzka

Il Gusto Barocco approaches Johann Sebastian Bach's suites and concertos from a contemporary and at the same time historically informed perspective. On their new album "Suite & Concertos", Jörg Halubek and the early music specialists of Il Gusto Barocco take a look at Bach's activities in the Zimmermann coffee house in Leipzig. They are not reconstructing an actual programme, but testing how the spirit of the musical gatherings in the circle of family, relatives and students can be transferred to our modern times. "We want to take a more modern look at Bach, who today is mainly seen as a strict church composer. For us, it's about the communicative side turned towards people," says ensemble leader and harpsichordist Jörg Halubek.

With the complete recording of Bach's organ works on various instruments, Jörg Halubek's "Bach Organ Landscapes" project paints a panorama of organ landscapes and organ building traditions. Since 2020, he has portrayed nine different locations and their unique organs on six double albums to date. With a careful eye for the unique cultural heritage of the instruments of the Bach regions, he is in search of the original Bach sound.

The large-scale Bach Organ Landscapes project featuring J.S. Bach’s entire organ oeuvre recorded on a range of instruments aims to provide an overview of organ-playing and organ-building traditions that were key to Bach’s composing. With a keen eye to the unique cultural organ legacy of the places associated with Bach, Halubek has placed Bach’s original sound at the heart of his project. The recordings are accompanied by digital material that offer an almost tactile access to the great composer’s sound universe. This Album features the legendary Silbermann organ in Freiberg near Dresden.

The large-scale Bach Organ Landscapes project featuring J.S. Bach’s entire organ oeuvre recorded on a range of instruments aims to provide an overview of organ-playing and organ-building traditions that were key to Bach’s composing. With a keen eye to the unique cultural organ legacy of the places associated with Bach, Halubek has placed Bach’s original sound at the heart of his project. The recordings are accompanied by digital material that offer an almost tactile access to the great composer’s sound universe. This Album features famous organs of north Germany. Firstly, the organ by Friedrich Stellwagen in Lübeck. Secondly, the organ made by Christoph Treutmann in Grauhof near Goslar.

These classic performances belong in the collection of anyone who cares about Debussy's piano music. Certain creators and re-creators become synonymous. Beethoven and Schnabel, Chopin and Rubinstein at once spring to mind. Yet in the entire history of performance I doubt whether there has ever existed a more subtle or golden thread than that between Debussy and Demus. French jibes about the reduction of Debussy’s clarity to a charming but essentially decorative opalescence are little more than the bitter fruit of envy, of an exclusivity, that finds an Austrian pianist’s supreme mastery of their greatest composer’s elusive heart and idiom hard to stomach.

The 17th century Austrian composer and organist Alessandro Poglietti could not complain about favoritisms during his lifetime. Thus, the Austrian Emperor raised him to the peerage, while the Pope made him Knight of the Golden Spur. His end, however, was sad. During the siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683, Poglietti was murdered by the Tartars, while his vast number of children were taken away. Pogletti is especially important for his keyboard music. His 12 ricercares form an important link in the 'development' of the instrumental polyphony between Frescobaldi and Bach.

The Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 1046–1051, original title: Six Concerts à plusieurs instruments) are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721 (though probably composed earlier). They are widely regarded as some of the best orchestral compositions of the Baroque era.

With the major project "Bach Organ Landscapes" and the recording of all of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ works, the German conductor, harpsichordist and organist Jörg Halubek invites you on a comprehensive journey to historical organ builders who shaped Johann Sebastian Bach. "The further you look back into music history, the more regional developments can be discovered," says the artist. “These connections between instrument and organ work characterize the so-called organ landscapes”. The third and fourth albums of the ten-part series are about 'Hamburg' and 'Lüneburg & Altenbruch'.