Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)
Canzona Prima
Cento Partite sopra Passacagli
Toccata Prima
Hinno Ave Maris Stella
Aria detto Balletto

Dieterich Buxtehude (1637–1707)
Canzona en do, BuxWV 166
Prélude en sol, BuxWV 163
Suite en la, BuxWV 243
Aria en la, BuxWV 249
Toccata en sol, BuxWV 165

Luca Guglielmi, orgue, clavecin

Voici encore une belle réussite de l’excellent label CPO, éditeur allemand spécialisé sur des créneaux peu explorés. Quelle bonne idée d’avoir réuni dans un même récital très varié alternant clavecin et orgue deux maîtres du clavier baroque, l’exubérant Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) et l’architectural Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) ! Les « cent » variations sur une passacaille (clavecin) révèlent toute la spontanéité latine et la fantaisie débridée de l’italien, alors que le prélude en sol mineur (clavecin) et la toccata en sol majeur (orgue) démontrent l’art du compositeur allemand pour contenir et organiser sa féconde imagination. Dans les deux cas des musiques généreuses donnant tout leur sens au mot « baroque ». Et qui soulignent également l’aspect transmission si fort dans l’art musical, Frescobaldi ayant influencé Buxtehude qui a marqué Bach qui a imprégné Mozart, Beethoven etc... Ce CD complète celui consacré par le même Luca Guglielmi à Bernardo Pasquini, exact contemporain de Buxtehude (voir Clic’Mag mai 2014). Un interprète inspiré, des instruments aux riches sonorités servis par une très belle prise de son concourent au plaisir de ce CD exceptionnel. Livret trilingue allemand/anglais/italien. (Benoît Desouches)

Luca Guglielmi is not only a conductor and composer but also an outstanding harpsichordist and organist, and on this cpo release featuring selected works for organ and harpsichord by Frescobaldi and Buxtehude he convincingly displays to us his capabilities as a soloist. Ever since 1993 Guglielmi has been active as a soloist on the harpsichord, organ, fortepiano, and clavichord as well as an ensemble director – along with his many other activities at home and abroad. Moreover, he is an enthusiastic teacher of harpsichord, organ, and orchestra who bases his instruction exclusively on historical documents. He himself has lent verbal expression to the artistic greatness of the two significant composers featured here : "Girolamo Frescobaldi and Dieterich Buxtehude are two figures of absolute significance in the field of the history of Western music. The first, a native of Ferrara but active principally in Rome, was the greatest organist and harpsichordist of his times, the inventor of so many playing styles (Luigi Battiferri), the genial innovator of forms, and the supreme master of the art of variation in a period during which thematicism had not yet established itself so much and maximum control of the musical material was provided by its skillful alternation and juxtaposition. In the same way, Buxtehude was a consummate keyboard artist and the director of St. Mary’s Church in Lübeck, sensitive to the new developments of Italian provenance, and an enthusiastic supporter of the celebrated synthesis formed by the Italian, French, and German styles that would bear its best fruits in the Baroque Europe of Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi".