Despite worldwide financial doom and gloom (especially here, on the fringes of the Eurozone), there still seems to be a voracious appetite for “new” baroque music – and, thankfully, there is still *lots* of it out there, awaiting re-discovery.
I’ve rather neglected my blog for the past few months – mostly because I’ve been obliged to completely re-write www.primalamusica.com – and it was only because I received an email saying someone was following it that made me think, “oh well, I’d best write something…”
As far as musical anniversaries go, 2012 is John Stanley’s year, and I hope there will be LOTS of performances of his very fine music. Sadly not much has survived in readily accessible form. Over the course of the year, I will be producing editions of his Op. X concertos (for keyboard, two violins and continuo) in conjunction with Tempesta di Mare‘s Richard Stone. Typical of the man, he has actual programmed such radically unfamiliar music in the Philadelphia group’s concert season – it’s a little too far for me to travel, but I will definitely be there in spirit (and hopefully I’ll get to see a video of the event…)
Of course, 2012 is also an anniversary year for Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, and if I thought anyone would perform / record them, I would be editing his works, too…
Other projects on the go include the surviving works from two complete cycles of church cantatas by the Darmstadt Kapellmeister, Christoph Graupner, for which the ever-resourceful Kim Clow has put together an impressive array of editors, lending their support to the project. There are a LOT of cantatas involved, so let’s hope that German church choirs take up the challenge to perform some of them. The two cycles selected are those for 1712-13 and 1740-41. There is much fine music for choir and soloists.
I am hoping that Cosimo Stawiarski and myself will complete the Geist Edition in 2012, and similarly that the Pohle Edition (in conjunction with Gottfried Gille and Juliane Peetz) will reach completion. My brief but thoroughly enjoyable trip to Copenhagen last November proved that Geist more than ably stands beside Buxtehude, who is something of a deity on Danish soil. More performances of Pohle and Geist can only help spread their popularity.
Actually, the first concert I heard in Copenhagen included music by other obscure cantatas, and NONE of their work seemed second rate – the was a particularly beautiful psalm setting by Kaspar Förster the Elder.
I am currently helping Gwen Toth in her preparations for two concert programmes in February, built around Johann Rosenmüller’s music – the first of sonatas and music with solo voices, the second of larger settings with strings and brass: an rich feast for the ears!
As the website re-write nears completion, you can look forward to new release blogs at regular intervals again.
Any requests gladly received and considered!
