Olga Martynova – Harpsichord Gems, Vol. 5 – Bach, J.S. – English Suites (2009)
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The French word ‘suite’ was quickly adopted throughout the European continent. The primary meaning (‘set, sequence’) has been preserved in widely diverse contexts – in ceremonial or court vocabulary (a group of attendants accompanying an important personage), and as an architectural term (an enfilade or series of rooms). But perhaps the word gained most currency in the world of music. As we know, the suite is a favoured cyclical form of baroque instrumental music, representing a series of dance-based pieces that are complementary in the type of movement and unified by a single key (and initially, by the common melodic source).
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Olga Martynova – Harpsichord Gems, Vol. 4 – Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Harpsichord, But Were Afraid to Ask (2007)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 01:00:57 minutes | 2,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet | © Caro Mitis
Nowadays many performers want to play music written for piano on the harpsichord. I began my conversation with Olga Martynova by asking what first gave her the idea. It all began a few years ago. I was curious to know how music written for another instrument would sound when played on the harpsichord. I knew that Shostakovich and Prokofiev had been played on the harpsichord but had never listened to any recordings, maybe as a conscious decision. True, I have heard contemporary music written for harpsichord, but I find it sometimes even harder to play than other compositions that were never originally intended for the instrument.
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Olga Martynova – Harpsichord Gems, Vol. 3 – Fischer, J.C.F. – Musicalisches Blumen-Buschlein (2006)
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He was considered to be one of the best harpsichordists of his time and he was famous for making well known and spread- ing the art of ornamentation in Germany as well as a perfect per- forming style on this instrument.
That is the estimation Ernst Ludwig Gerber gave in his Historisch-biographisches Lexicon der Tonkünstler to Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (1656–1746), a composer and Kapellmeister to the Baden court.
His talent was rated extraordinarily high by his contempo- raries; Mauritius Vogt in the Conclave thesauri magnae artis musicae (published in Prague, 1719) called him ‘the most per- fect composer of our era’ (‘nostri aevi componista absolutis- simus’). It is known that J. S. Bach kept copies of Fischer’s com- positions and that this music was a source of inspiration for him. Modern research regards Fischer as a great composer of key- board music, on a par with Froberger and Bach. Furthermore, he is written about as a musician who in German speaking countries was able to elucidate the peculiarities of the French style.
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Olga Martynova – Harpsichord Gems, Vol. 2 – The Great Transcriptions (2005)
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When we speak about music, baroque means more than the age of figured bass and stile concertato. Today, as never before, there is a growing awareness that it is also the era of transcriptions and arrangements, which are just as indicative of the face of the age as are any innovations in the sphere of musical composition.
In those far off times, the public’s attitude to their favorite works of art was quite different to what it is today. It would never occur to anyone then to jealously guard from interference — as if it were sacred — each note of a generally recognized masterpiece. If a composition was popular it should be played as often as possible, in different transcriptions and arrangements. No musician would miss the opportunity of re-arranging a work, that had caught the public’s fancy, for different players: for the leading court soloists, for his friends and pupils, or even for musicians who were quite unknown to him — professionals and wealthy amateurs (willing to spend a fair sum of money on the acquisition of sheet music for a piece they liked). And even the duties of court music director or leader of a church choir were inconceivable without the constant re-working of their own pieces — for yet another holiday or some other ceremonial occasion.
Olga Martynova – Harpsichord Gems, Vol. 1 – Bach, J.C. – Clavier Sonatas (2005)
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Supposedly Johann Sebastian Bach was a strict father who used a quotation from the poet Gellert to describe his youngest offspring: ‘He will go far guided by his stupidity!’ Even if the story is true, the elder Bach was undoubtedly speaking in jest: his youngest son was his favourite. And he certainly did go far. Incidentally, he lost his father when he was only 15, and few people have learned wisdom by that age.
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