Höör Barock, Dan Laurin – Johann Helmich Roman: Golovinmusiken, BeRI 1 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:21:53 minutes | 1,48 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
In 1728, the recently appointed court Kapellmeister Johan Helmich Roman was approached by Count Golovin, the Russian ambassador in Stockholm. Golovin was organizing a celebration of the recent coronation in Moscow of Tsar Peter II, and naturally wanted music to add to the festivities. His six years in London – where he made the acquaintance of Handel among others – and subsequent experience as assistant court Kapellmeister, made Roman the obvious choice for the count. The result was Golovinmusiken (The Golovin Music), an autograph score consisting of 45 movements of varying lengths. These are the facts as we know them, and everything else is conjecture: Roman’s manuscript lacks vital instructions regarding instrumentation, dynamics or tempi, and although the first three movements are in four parts, the rest are in three parts or (in a few cases) two. When a performing edition was being prepared in the 1980s, the editors came to the conclusion that the material was in fact incomplete, and a second violin part was added. It was also deemed that the order of the movements was probably not the one in which they would have been performed. The edition in question formed the basis for a partial recording of the work, comprising 22 movements. 290 years after Count Golovin’s feast, as Dan Laurin and his colleagues in Höör Barock recorded the complete work, their approach was a different one. Making use of a total of 18 different instruments – from sopranino recorder and oboe da caccia to bassoon, strings and baroque guitar – and featuring highly imaginative continuo playing from Anna Paradiso at the harpsichord, their performance sounds as full and varied as one might wish for, without any added parts. Laurin’s performing version also follows the order of Roman’s score, creating a number of smaller suites out of this greater whole that a wider audience now can enjoy for the very first time.
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Ensemble Lundabarock, Höör Barock, Ensemble Altapunta & Fredrik Malmberg – Monteverdi: L’Orfeo, SV 318 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:45:13 minutes | 1,85 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) is often described as the first opera. The composer himself used another term for his work, however: “favola in musica”, a musical tale.
Taking this as their point of departure, the performers on the present recording place the emphasis on the libretto’s direct narrative, and how the music alone is used to express emotions, a music which underpins the plot and the text word for word. To quote the liner notes: “To modern ears the musical heritage of L’Orfeo is more to be found in the Lieder tradition than in the grand opera of the nineteenth century”. The tale told by Monteverdi and the members of the three ensembles which bring his score to life, is that of Orpheus, the poet and musician who travels to the Underworld in order to persuade Hades to let his beloved Eurydice return to the living.
Höör Barock & Emelie Roos – Baroque Concertos with Recorder – Treasures from Swedish collections (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:16 minutes | 1,37 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos Sweden – Proprius Records
The Swedish virtuoso recorder player Emelie Roos is a multifaceted musician. Having grown up with folk music, violin, recorder and singing, Emelie is today active as a soloist, chamber musician, pedagog and producer. Emelie has played together with the leading Baroque orchestras and ensembles of Sweden. She has been engaged as a soloist with both symphony orchestra and string orchestra, and as a theater musician in theater and opera house. As artistic director of Höör Barock, Emelie has, together with lutenist Dohyo Sol, managed to create an international centre of Early Music in their small hometown.
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