Suonatori

The opening Overture (Suite) in A minor is one of Telemann's most ambitious concerted works, running to seven distinct dance movements in 30 minutes. The rhythmic shifts in the "Air à l'Italien" are pretty abrupt and really catch your attention. Of the three concertos, the Double Concerto in A minor for flauto dolce and viola da gamba is a standout, owing to its occasionally explosive gestures and knotty emotionalism. All of these works have been recorded numerous times, but most commonly on the standard transverse flute, but only the F major concerto was originally written for flute, and many versions of the Overture in A minor show signs of having been somewhat condensed.

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.

Noi non ci saremo, Vol. 1 is the first volume of a double collection of the Italian musical group Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti, published in 2001.

Linea Gotica è il secondo album in studio del Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti, pubblicato nel 1996. «Linea Gotica è un disco di chitarre elettrificate, perché questo è il suono del nostro tempo, per quanto detestabile possa essere questo suono e questo tempo.»(Giovanni Lindo Ferretti). L'album è presente nella classifica dei 100 dischi italiani più belli di sempre secondo Rolling Stone Italia alla posizione numero 8.

The acclaimed Polish period band Arte dei Suonatori perform eight of Vivaldi’s concertos a Quattro. Their version of Handel’s 12 Concerto grossi Op. 6 was awarded ‘Orchestral Choice of the Month’ in BBC Music Magazine, alongside further critical acclaim from the international music press. As well as being a major composer in the formation of the solo concerto, he also was the leading exponent of the older concerto a quattro – music in four parts, with several players to a part. His works in this genre are notable not only for their beauty, but also for their experimental character and for providing the most important examples of fugal writing in Vivaldi’s instrumental music.

A new collection of Telemann overtures or overture-suites might not seem a notable development on the face of it, but this one from the Polish historical-instrument group Arte dei Suonatori under Martin Gester breaks new ground. The subtitle "ouvertures pittoresques" doesn't quite cover what's happening. There is a pair of French suites in the classic manner, with an overture and dances. The first one, the Ouverture in D major, TWV 55:D15, has an unusually jocular movement titled "Harlequinade," but is otherwise unremarkable. The final Ouverture, jointes d'une suite tragi-comique in D major, TWV 55:D22, whose title shows how Telemann conceived of the overture and the suite as distinct components, has such novelties as a movement called "L'hypocondre" and another called "Le Petit Maître." But the rest of the pieces are even more unusual; they're not just "pittoresques," but downright exotic.

These performances are very authentic, which essentially means misconceived from the start, and often downright unmusical. Using teeny tiny forces (only seven violins), and inaptly named Arte dei Suonatori, they lack just that: the art of making a pleasing sound. The loudest thing here is the continuo, consisting of harpsichord, organ, theorbo, and archlute. Its prominence and enthusiastic improvisational flourishes on what ought to be very subsidiary harmonic support destroy Handel’s balance of tone and wreck the interplay between concertino and tutti. Frankly, the whole approach is so stupid and unstylish that it’s very hard to believe that anyone could associate this kind of playing with “historically informed performance”. It’s like wearing all of your internal organs on the outside of your body, and just about as pleasant.