- Description
- Specifications
Official release on November the 1st. Special subscription price !
Benefit of our launch promotion : this new release plus a CD among a selection from our catalog for 25€
Free Shipment for European Union, United Kingdom and Switzerland.
Product details :
Artists : Catherine Zimmer, pianoforte Merlin, 1784
Program : works by Johann Christian Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Karl Friedrich Abel, Joseph Haydn, John Hook, Maria Hesther Park, Ludwig Wenzel Lachnith et John Stanley
Access to the digital booklet.
|
John Hook Sonate Opus LIV n°1 Rondo-Allegretto |
||
|
Karl Friedrich Abel Sonate Op 2 n°4 - Andante |
Overview :
The composers Johann-Christian Bach and Karl Friedrich Abel set up the Bach-Abel Society in London in 1765, offering subscriptions to a series of concerts which were much sought-after by members of high society. At these concerts, the two composers performed or conducted their own works, along with others by their contemporaries. They would often come up with transcriptions so that operatic or orchestral works could be heard performed by small instrumental ensembles.
This programme has been designed to be the kind of thing that the two composers might have come up with if they were familiar with this innovative instrument - although we do not know for certain whether or not this was the case. True to the spirit of exploration and innovation of the Bach-Abel concerts, it portrays the instrument in transcriptions of orchestral works or sonatas with flute or violin accompaniment. We also present the solo pianoforte, with its moving ability to produce different timbres, along with the organ which then sounds like a consort of flutes.
Note about the instrument: this production is the first recording of a historic instrument known as “the Merlin”. It dates from 1784, was built by John Joseph Merlin and the brothers John and William Gray and is an organised square pianoforte - a member of the claviorganum family which includes harpsichords, spinets or pianofortes combined with an organ. Zumpe began making the first British square pianofortes in the second half of the eighteenth century, allowing sounds to be modulated from loud to soft, in order to cater to the latest trends of the day, although there were some people who complained that they lacked intensity in comparison to the harpsichord. The idea of combining the instrument with an organ so as to enhance the timbre and offer a longer sustain made its first appearance in Europe. In France, for instance, the composer Claude Bénigne Balbastre, working with the organ maker François-Henri Clicquot, designed an instrument called the organised pianoforte, which was a positive organ onto which a square pianoforte was placed.
