Salon Violet - Hertel & Benda: Im Salon von Sarah Levy - Kammermusik fur Viola - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Along with the Etudes and en blanc et noir of 1915, Claude Debussy's three sonatas constitute the last will and testament of the composer, who died in Paris on March 25, 1918. It's not due to being the final works in Debussy's chronology that confer this privilege on them so much as the fact that they perfectly manifest the composer's ideal of French music as distinguished by Inchclarity, elegance, simple and natural declamation which seeks, above all, to please.Inch How could one better describe these masterpieces? Along with these sonatas, the musicians on this album have included two Rhapsodies, the Danses sacree et profane, as well as the haunting flute solo Syrinx.

A precursor in this field as in so many others, Telemann gave the viola it's very first masterpieces, immediately establishing it as a solo instrument in it's own right. Alongside Sabine Fehlandt and the musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Antoine Tamestit pays splendid tribute to this pioneering music, which blends melodic charm and contrapuntal rigor into an organic whole.

The music of Arcangelo CORELLI (1653-1713) had an explosive impact on all European musical circles. As both composer and violin virtuoso, CORELLI's reputation and fame was immense. In this regard, there is no lack of important sources bearing witness to a genuine enthusiasm for his music, which was welcomed as a revelation, an illumination, a pure and refined distillation of the traditional language of the Baroque sonata and Italian style. It is not difficult to imagine how the compositions of CORELLI would have circulated all over Europe, being performed, listened to, copied, and also transcribed. Among musicians, there was a veritable legion of composers influenced by CORELLI's models. This phenomenon is one of the reasons for the existence of a transcription for bass viola da gamba and continuo of CORELLI's opus 5, originally composed for violin and continuo. The manuscript used for the present recording contains all 12 sonatas and can be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It is of anonymous authorship, most likely originating in the German-speaking world. The transcription was probably made on the basis of a copy of the original edition for violin printed in Rome in 1700, the only autograph edition.