Complete Chamber Music by Ton Koopman

Ton Koopman

Complete Chamber Music

Price: € 29.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917289022
Catnr: CC 72890
Release date: 06 August 2021
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917289022

Catalogue number
CC 72890

Release date
06 August 2021

"Dieterich Buxtehude - Opera Omnia, a sensational project of the Dutch label Challenge Classics started in 2005, has helped to place the work of Dietrich Buxtehude, a composer who influenced the consolidation of the counterpoint development of the Baroque, in a privileged place."

Sonograma, 29-9-2021

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

Dieterich Buxtehude’s chamber works today counts among the least known of his compositions. They were already forgotten soon after 1700, and this despite the fact that two third of Buxtehude’s chamber sonatas, unlike any other category in the composers creative output, were published during his lifetime. The publication of sonatas indicates that there was a market for this repertoire in the later 17th century. Moreover, the publication of two sets of such works suggests that the fame of the Lübeck master and the success of the first set must have created the demand for a second. However, the primary reason for these works getting out of fashion by the time of Buxtehude’s death was their unconventional instrumental scoring and, more importantly, the triumphant rise of the modern Italian trio sonata by Corelli, Albinoni, and others in the early 18th century.

Buxtehude’s chamber music repertoire consists of altogether twenty-two works. All of Buxtehude’s chamber works present highly sophisticated compositions that belong among the most attractive and technically most demanding examples of the genre of ensemble sonata, then still in its infancy. They resemble in many ways the six sonatas of the Hortus musicus (Hamburg, 1688) by Buxtehude’s colleague and friend, Johann Adam Reinken, organist at St. Catherine’s Church in Hamburg. But like Reinken’s pieces, they were influenced by Italian models, especially the instrumental sonatas by the Venetian composer Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690), which were circulating widely also in Northern Europe. At the same time, they deeply reflect the improvisational, fanciful, expressive and colorful mannerisms of Buxtehude and his school, which the writer Johann Mattheson in 1739 referred to as “stylus fantasticus”.

Ton Koopman speelt Buxtehude's vergeten kamermuziek
Opera Omnia deel XII is het eerste deel in de serie met kamermuziek van Dieterich (Dietrich, Diderich) Buxtehude, uitgevoerd door Ton Koopman. De kamermuziek van Buxtehude is het minst bekend, maar vormt een klasse apart. Het is geavanceerde en technisch veeleisende muziek van een grote schoonheid. 'Violisten Catherine Manson en David Rabinovich vormen een uitstekend duo in de drie sonates voor twee violen, gamba en basso continuo, waaruit bewonderenswaardig samenspel en interactie blijkt.' Robin Stowell, The Strad.

Buxtehude was een Deens-Duitse organist en door velen bewonderde componist uit de barokperiode. Hij componeerde vocale en instrumentale muziek. Zijn orgelwerken omvatten een aanzienlijk deel van het standaard orgelrepertoire van onze hedendaagse kerkdiensten. Buxtehude wordt beschouwd als de belangrijkste Duitse componist in de periode tussen Heinrich Schütz en Bach. Zijn stijl heeft veel componisten sterk beïnvloed. Hij was één van de grote voorbeelden van Johann Sebastian Bach. Het verhaal gaat dat Bach, toen 20 jaar, in 1705 helemaal naar Lübeck liep - 400 km - om Dieterich Buxtehude daar in de Marienkirche te horen spelen.

Wellicht dat die anekdote Ton Koopman inspireerde tot zijn project Opera Omnia om het gehele bewaard gebleven oeuvre van Buxtehude uit te voeren en op te nemen. Er was hem veel aan gelegen Buxtehude als het brein achter de vocale muziek van Bach te erkennen. Koopman is een van de meest vooraanstaande uitvoerders van oude muziek en voorzittter van het Internationale Buxtehude Gesellschaft.

Ton Koopman beginnt mit der nun vorliegenden 12. Folge seiner Buxtehude-Gesamteinspielung die Reihe mit Aufnahmen aller Kammermusikwerke. Dieterich Buxtehudes Kammermusik zählt heute zum am wenigsten bekannten Teil seines Schaffens. Die vorliegende CD enthält die handschriftlich überlieferten Sonaten. Ihre Besetzung variiert (im Gegensatz zu den gedruckten). Unter ihnen finden sich drei vierstimmige Werke für zwei Violinen, Viola da gamba und Basso continuo. Auch formal sind sie uneinheitlicher als die gedruckten. Möglicherweise war das der Grund, warum man sie nicht für die Veröffentlichung in einem Band geeignet hielt.

Artist(s)

Ton Koopman

Ton Koopman was born in Zwolle in 1944. After a classical education he studied organ, harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam and was awarded the Prix d'Excellence for both instruments. From the beginning of his musical studies he was fascinated by authentic instruments and a performance style based on sound scholarship and in 1969, at the age of 25, he created his first Baroque orchestra. In 1979 he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra followed by the Amsterdam Baroque Choir in 1992.
Koopman's extensive and impressive activities as a soloist, accompanist and conductor have been recorded on a large number of LPs and CDs for labels like Erato, Teldec, Sony, Philips and DG, besides his own record label “Antoine Marchand”, distributed by Challenge Records.
Over the course of a forty-five-year career Ton Koopman has appeared in the most important concert halls and festivals of the five continents. As an organist he has performed on the most prestigious historical instruments of Europe, and as a harpsichord player and conductor of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir he has been a regular guest at venues which include the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Philharmonie in Munich, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York and leading concert halls in Vienna, London, Berlin, Brussels, Madrid, Rome, Salzburg, Tokyo and Osaka.
Between 1994 and 2004 Ton Koopman has been engaged in a unique project, conducting and recording all the existing Cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, a massive undertaking for which he has been awarded the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis "Echo Klassik", the BBC Award 2008, the Prix Hector Berlioz, has been nominated for the Grammy Award (USA) and the Gramophone Award (UK). In 2000 Ton Koopman has received an Honorary Degree from the Utrecht University for his academic work on the Bach Cantatas and Passions and has been awarded both the prestigious Silver Phonograph Prize and the VSCD Classical Music Award. In 2006 he has received the « Bach-Medaille » from the City of Leipzig. Recently Ton Koopman has embarked on another main project: the recording of the whole works by Dietrich Buxtehude, one of the great inspirer of the young J.S. Bach. The recording will be accomplished in 2010 with the release of 30 CDs. Ton Koopman is President of the “International Dieterich Buxtehude Society”. Ton Koopman is very active as a guest conductor and he has collaborated with many prominent orchestras in Europe, USA and Japan. He has been Principal Conductor of the Netherland Radio Chamber Orchestra and has collaborated with the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, DSO Berlin, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Cleveland Orchestra, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and Wiener Symphoniker. In the following season he will work on new programmes with the New York Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Orchestra RAI in Turin, Stockholm Philharmonic, Tonhalle in Zurich. After the great success of his tour at the beginning of 2008, Ton Koopman has been nominated Artist in Residence at the Cleveland Orchestra for three consecutive years starting in 2011. Ton Koopman publishes regularly and for a number of years he has been engaged in editing the complete Händel Organ Concertos for Breitkopf & Härtel. Recently he has published Händel’s Messiah and Buxtehude‘s Das Jüngeste Gericht for Carus. Ton Koopman leads the class of harpsichord at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, is Professor at the University of Leiden and is a Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Ton Koopman is artistic director of the French Festival “Itinéraire Baroque”.

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Catherine Manson (violin)

Catherine Manson enjoys a versatile performing career specializing in period performance as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. She was appointed as leader of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 2006 As first violinist of the classical London Haydn Quartet she has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and London’s Wigmore Hall. The quartet’s series of recordings of the Haydn quartets on the Hyperion label has met with high critical acclaim internationally. Together with Ton Koopman she has recorded all the Buxtehude chamber music. She has appeared frequently as a chamber musician together with such artists as Trevor Pinnock, Anner Bylsma, Malcolm Bilson, Steven Isserlis and Michael Chance, and has also recorded for Hyperion, Dorian, Glossa, ASV...

Catherine Manson enjoys a versatile performing career specializing in period performance as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. She was appointed as leader of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 2006 As first violinist of the classical London Haydn Quartet she has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and London’s Wigmore Hall. The quartet’s series of recordings of the Haydn quartets on the Hyperion label has met with high critical acclaim internationally.
Together with Ton Koopman she has recorded all the Buxtehude chamber music. She has appeared frequently as a chamber musician together with such artists as Trevor Pinnock, Anner Bylsma, Malcolm Bilson, Steven Isserlis and Michael Chance, and has also recorded for Hyperion, Dorian, Glossa, ASV and Teldec, in addition to many radio recordings and broadcasts worldwide.
She is regularly invited to appear as a guest leader by ensembles including Smithsonian Chamber Players and Santa Fe Pro Musica in the USA, Collegium Vocale, Il Gardellino and Ensemble Explorations in Belgium and the new London-based ensemble Arcangelo.
Teaching has always been an important part of her musical life; in 2001 she co-founded and now directs MusicWorks, a chamber music course for young musicians. In addition to giving classes and seminars at King’s College and the Royal Academy of Music, she has taught at the Baroque Performance Institute in Oberlin College, USA and the Domaine Forget chamber music courses in Canada. On the London Haydn Quartet's recent tour to the USA she gave masterclasses at the Juilliard School and at Yale University. She is on the faculty of the Granada International Festival’s 'Musical Interpretation' course for students interested in further study of period instrument playing.

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Mike Fentross (lute)

Conductor/lutenist Mike Fentross has largely earned his credits as an early music specialist. He is working all over Europe as a conductor, soloist and basso continuo player and he is professor of lute and basso continuo at the Royal Conservatory The Hague. In 2006 he founded the baroque orchestra La Sfera Armoniosa. Mike Fentross conducted in many festivals and concerthalls like the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. the Festival van Vlaanderen, Festival d’Ambronay, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Paradiso Amsterdam, Monteverdi Festival Cremona, Festival de Musica Portico de Zamora, Festival Musica Antiqua Brugge, Vantaa Early Music Festival, Bayreuth Barock and Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht. For two times he had the honour to conduct in the presence of Queen Beatrix of Holland. In...

Mike Fentross conducted in many festivals and concerthalls like the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. the Festival van Vlaanderen, Festival d’Ambronay, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Paradiso Amsterdam, Monteverdi Festival Cremona, Festival de Musica Portico de Zamora, Festival Musica Antiqua Brugge, Vantaa Early Music Festival, Bayreuth Barock and Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht. For two times

he had the honour to conduct in the presence of Queen Beatrix of Holland. In 1988 Mike Fentross graduated at the Royal Conservatory The Hague where he studied with lute pionier Toyohiko Satoh. In 1994 he won the Van Wassenaer Competition in Amsterdam with violinist Helene Schmitt. He played chamber music with musicians as Yo Yo Ma, Ton Koopman, Janine Jansen, Marion Verbruggen, Sonia Prina, Maria Bajo, Wilbert Hazelzet, Bruce Dickey, Lucy van Dael, Andrew Lawrence King, Philippe Jarousski, Eduardo Lopez Banzo, Skip Sempe and Gerard Lesne. Mike has recorded more than 75 cd’s.

He studied conducting with Stefan Pas. As conductor he debuted in 1999 with La Dafne from Marco da Gagliano in a production of the New Opera Academie in Amsterdam. In 2006 he conducted in the presence of Queen Beatrix the modern world premiere from the opera l’Ipermestra from Cavalli in a prestigeous jubilee production from the Utrecht Early Music Festival and in 2008 he conducted a second unearthed Cavalli opera La Rosinda in a production from the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci Potsdam. In 2009 he conducted for the first time in the big hall from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and in the same year he was musical director in the production Granida performed in the presence of Queen Beatrix. About his debut as conductor from the Dutch Chamber Choir in 2010 in the Concertgebouw the press wrote: Conductor Mike Fentross rivalled Caravaggio with the score of the Maria Vespers. His first time conducting the Nederlands Kamerkoor was a resounding success.

Mike doesn’t only conduct Early Music, in 2004 he conducted Pierrot Lunaire from Arnold Schoenberg. The press wrote: There was great enthusiasm for Mike Fentross as conductor of a double bill consisting of Monteverdi’s Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire. Mike Fentross gave a performance of Pierrot lunaire that ‘appeared to come from another planet’.

In 2012 Mike made his Austrian debut in the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt with great success in a program with coloratura soprano Simone Kermes and in the same year he conducted the pre jubilee concert for the Concertgebouw in a program with solo violinist Lucy van Dael and singers Henk Neven and Andreas Scholl. In 2013 he conducted the Fairy Queen with his orchestra and the Netherlands Chamberchoir.

Since 2013 he is regularly conducting the baroque orchestra and choir of the Royal Conservatory. In 2014 he was invited by Paradiso Orchestra to conduct Beethovens Eroica. In 2016 he conducted the Netherlands Chamber Choir in a Bach, Faure program live broadcast on national radio.

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David Rabinovich (violin)

Jonathan Manson (viola)

Christine Sticher (violone)

Composer(s)

Dieterich Buxtehude

Among the general public, Dieterich Buxtehude is mostly known due to the admiration Johann Sebastian Bach had for his organ and composing skills, for which Bach traveled to the North German city of Lübeck to stay with him for four months, no less. This says quite something about the quality of Buxtehude's performance, but even more so about the influence it had on Bach and all composers after him. Yet, nowadays Buxtehude's music does not need Bach to survive, as a matter of fact it is extraordinarily beautiful just by itself! Buxtehude was originally Danish, but he spent most of him life in Lübeck. His so-called 'Abendmusik', which was a series of evening concerts outside of the liturgy, grew famous. In the works he wrote for these occasions, his enormous fantasy and creative freedom truly shows. As an organ player, Buxtehude was widely famous. If you would listen to his Organ Preludes, you would quickly know why. Buxtehude manages to combine an unprecedented virtuosity with a large variety of styles and techniques. No wonder Bach traveled all that way to see him!

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Press

Dieterich Buxtehude - Opera Omnia, a sensational project of the Dutch label Challenge Classics started in 2005, has helped to place the work of Dietrich Buxtehude, a composer who influenced the consolidation of the counterpoint development of the Baroque, in a privileged place.
Sonograma, 29-9-2021

Although the musical fabric privileges, as is usually the case, the acute parts, these scores do not allow the use of supporting actors, in fact Ton Koopman, the harpsichord and the organ, surrounds himself with a masterful ensemble that is able to run passing at any moment - as at the inlet of a movement as well as at the intersection of a counterpoint - the flamboyant witness of an eternal relay.
Classic Voice, 20-1-2022

Ostinato figures in passacaglia passages create opportunities for improvisation, which the musicians execute beautifully.
American Record Guide, 15-12-2021

The exhaustive work by Ton Koopman will be recorded in the annals of the history of phonography, leaving us a quality legacy difficult to match, with some really excellent performances.
Ritmo, 01-12-2021

...with high quality of performance and production there can hardly be any argument about these recordings being very fine indeed. (...) If you missed these recordings the first time around, grab them now in their box-set form for just a few pounds more than only one of the original volumes.
Musicweb International, 06-10-2021