Mitis

Caro Mitis has chosen an intriguing and amusing title for a disc of Antonio Rosetti as performed by Russian period instrument group Pratum Integrum Orchestra: Bohemian Mutineer. Its front cover is emblazoned with an old etching of a gigantic fish that would certainly stir up mutiny if it swam up to a vessel filled with nervous sailors.

With its ciaconna bass, Hammerschmidt’s sacred concerto Nun danket alle Gott perfectly exemplifies the programme of this recording devoted to the influences of the Italian Baroque on the works of seventeenth-century Lutheran composers. The vast majority of the repertory gathered here comes once again from the exceptionally rich library assembled at the end of the seventeenth century by Gustav Düben, organist of the German Church in Stockholm. His collection contains the only known copy of a Confitebor tibi Domine by Claudio Monteverdi. Other composers such as Bernhard and Rosenmüller had very close links with Italy and were among those who helped to disseminate Italian practices in the German-speaking lands.

Old Russian recordings of Bach can impress with their sheer sensuality even if you feel they're not terribly idiomatic, and something similar happens here with this Russian release. Russia's Caro Mitis label has plunged into the audiophile market in a big way and has generally delivered clear, spatially balanced recordings that are satisfying to experience, right down to the label's juicy-fruit logo. In oboist Alexei Utkin they have found an ideal collaborator. His music-making is, in a word, gorgeous.

Very interesting as a companion to Fischer's Parnassus harpsichord series. A few of the sections are very similar to the Parnassus pieces, but different of course. Also an excellent view of the musicologic and fundamental compositional theory and style that led directly to JS Bach's work in the next few decades, and on which JS Bach based or patterned his works in part. Excellent performance.

Active in Venice and Padua at the beginning of the 15th century, Johannes Ciconia was undoubtedly the most important composer of this transitional period. Born in Liège and trained in the principles of the French and Italian Ars Nova, he played a considerable role in the musical development that led little by little towards the Renaissance.