Luogo e data di registrazione		Lutherse Kerk, Haarlem (Holland) - 15/16 giugno 1989
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Recording Supervision		Wolf Erichson
	Engineer		Stephan Schellmann
	Prima Edizione LP		Nessuna
	Edizione CD		Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (BMG) | LC 0761 | RD 77923 | 1 CD - durata 56' 58" | (p) 1990 | DDD
	Cover Art		Burkhard Tschudi (Burkat Shudi), Gründer der englischen Cembalo/Pianofortefabrik - Gemälde c.1744/45, attr.: Philipp Mercier.
	Note		-

Froberger: Harpsichord works Although many details in the life of Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667) are unclear, and although it seems very likely that a considerable number of his works has been lost, we know for certain that his contemporaries regarded him as the most important German keyboard composer of the 17th century. This opinion even continued to enjoy widespread acceptance well into the 18th century. J .S. Bach, for example, came to know Froberger’s work from manuscript scores, while the historian Adlung wrote in his “Anleitung zu der musikalischen Gelahrtheit“ (Handbook of musical learning, 1758): “The late Bach of Leipzig always held Froberger in high esteem, although he is already somewhat old-fashioned“. Other composers who evidently learnt from Froberger included Handel, Kirnberger and even Mozart. Notwithstanding, it is certainly strange, to say the least, that only two (!) of Froberger’s works were actually published during his lifetime, namely the Hexachord Fantasy, which appeared in Athanasius Kircher’s “Musurgiz Universalis“ (Rome 1650), and one (or more?) work(s) in François Roberday’s “Fugues et Caprices“ of 1660, a volume that also contained works by Frescobaldi. Up to the end of the 17th century, Froberger’s works were known almost without exception from manuscript, and the most important editions were not brought out until the 1690s by Bourgeat in Mainz (1693) and by Roger et Morrier in Amsterdam (1697). From this we can conclude that Froberger was considered to be ’modern’ even thirty years after his death. In fact, the composer’s own attitude to the publication of his works may well have played its part. The Duchess Sibylla of Württemberg, who had her residence in Héricourt in the county of Montbéliard, and was a close friend of Froberger’s, had to promise him “not to give anyone any of my music..., for many people wouldn’t know how to treat it, and would thus spoil it“. In the Duchess’s opinion, a harpsichordist would only be able to pick up Froberger’s personal “à discrétion“ style of playing by learning “grif vor grif“, i.e. putting one finger in front of another, as Froberger himself had done. The importance of Froberger’s contribution to the development of musical style is evident from the interest that the musical public took in his works in the 17th and 18th centuries. For Froberger was not only the first German composer to concentrate to an equal degree on both the harpsichord and the organ; he was also the most cosmopolitan figure among the harpsichordists of his time. These two facts had a fundamental influence on his musical style. A contributing factor to the international richness of his music was the thorough training he underwent in the Stuttgart court orchestra under the direction of his father, the Hofkapellmeister Basilius Froberger. His father introduced him to the music of Josquin Desprez as well as to that of contemporary German, English and Italian composers such as Lechner, Böddecker, Morell, Franchini and Marini. After Froberger’s appointment c. 1637 as court organist to Emperor Ferdinand III in Vienna, he spent four years studying with the famous organist Girolamo Frescobaldi in Rome, where he met Carissimi, Kircher and Michelangelo Rossi. The influence these composers had on him is reflected in his 23 toccatas, 14 ricercares, 6 canzonas, 7 fantasias and 18 capricci. In stylistic terms, Froberger was also influenced by the Dresden organist Matthias Weckmann as a result of musical competitions organised between them (from 1641 to 1648). Thanks to his friendship with Weckmann, Froberger also came into contact with the North German organ school, while his travels in France (including a visit to Paris in 1652) brought him into contact with the lutenists Denis Gaultier, Gallot, Blancrocher and with Louis Couperin, uncle of FranÖois. There can be no doubt that these encounters left their mark on Froberger’s thirty keyboard suites, e.g. the typical style brisé (literally, broken style) in his allemandes, and his fondness for programmatic titles, such as “Tombeau faict à Paris sur la mort de Monsieur Blancrocher“. This work and the two “Lamentations“ are among Froberger’s most touching works: they express deep personal suffering in a melancholy combination of C minor and F minor, full of bitter dissonances. Clemens Romijn Translation: Clive R. Williams