Andriessen / Willi - Harpsichord Recital: Willi - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Byrd's heyday precisely coincided with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. She came to the throne on the death of Mary Tudor, in 1558; Byrd was then not yet twenty. And her long reign ended forty-five years later, in 1603. Byrd was thus the Elizabethan composer par excellence, occupying the same role as his younger contemporary Shakespeare played in the theatre. Though he spent his whole life in the service of the Anglican Church, Byrd was born and remained a Roman Catholic. His prestige must have been considerable, for the Queen continued to protect him and he was never harassed during the religious disputes that shook the country. When he became organist of Lincoln Cathedral in 1563, barely into his twenties, his professional qualities were recognized by a salary considerably higher than was customary. Byrd very quickly established himself as an outstanding personality, thanks to his performing skill on keyboard instruments, his burgeoning reputation as a composer and his charisma with both colleagues and pupils. Many of these pieces are derived from dance steps. Among them are the pavans, followed by their galliards, a genre that flourished throughout the Renaissance.

Music has a long history of cultural cross-pollination, where artists draw inspiration from various traditions leading to the evolution of rich and diverse musical genres. Conrad Herwig's current offering is just such a recording. The Latin Side of McCoy Tyner is the latest installment in a critically-acclaimed series that started in 1996 with The Latin Side of John Coltrane. It's the work of a musically gifted, bilingual artist, a master trombonist who grew up admiring jazz's greatest practitioners but, at the same time, cutting his Latin Jazz teeth with legends such as Mario Bauza, Tito Puente, Paquito D'Rivera and others. On the gig here with Herwig, giving the recording and, by extension, the entire InchLatin Side of...Inch project his personal seal of approval, is the great pianist and composer, Eddie Palmieri. Palmieri is surrounded by some of the most respected names in Jazz / Latin Jazz, including Craig Handy, Bill O'Connell, Alex Norris, Robby Ameen and others, all playing imaginative and challenging arrangements by O'Connell and their fearless leader. Here, Conrad Herwig goes directly to the very core of Tyner's compositions and imbues them with the vibrant essence of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean traditions.

This recording provides a comparison of the keyboard music of two composers born in Naples whose careers took them beyond national borders. Francesco Araja was born in 1709 and became capellmeister and court composer to Tsarina Anna in St. Petersburg; Ferdinando Pellegrini whose birth probably dates back to 1715, lived and worked in Lyon, London and Parisa. While Araja's life and musical production are essentially tied to the theatre, he achieved fame through sacred music. The turning point in Araja's career came with an offer from the Neapolitan violinist Pietro Mira to work in St. Petersburg as a court musician. He was also named choirmaster upon his arrival in Russia, a position he held for many years. His musical production, apart from the operas and cantatas he composed for the Russian court, consists of an oratorio and a collection of Capricci for the harpsichord. The latter, featured on this recording, are extremely free compositions with a varied character, sometimes brilliantly virtuosic. In the absence of well-defined musical form, they consist rather of a series of episodes, or tableaux, with the common thread being the compositional skill through which Araja demonstrates his deep knowledge of the instrument and it's performing technique. Details on Pellegrini's life are scarce. After his birth in Naples there are traces of a relocation to Rome, where the records of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia document his enrolment in 1743. After Rome, Pellegrini moved to France. Further testimony places Pellegrini in Paris (until 1762) in the serviace of Alexandre Le Riche de la PouplinieÌre. La PouplinieÌre's brother-in-law, the Abbeì de Mondran, wrote of Pellegrini as Incha true demon at the keyboardInch. Pellegrini composed a series of sonatas for solo harpsichord. The style is galant, characterized by elegant phrasing, melodic invention and repetitive accompaniment