Search - Musical Antiqua Koln, Goebel :: Musica Baltica

Beautiful, haunting "lost" music

Ralph H. Peters | Washington, D.C. area | 12/12/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was my disc of the year for 2000--the CD from any category that I chose to play most often. This music doesn't offer grand drama or gorgeous lushness (William Christie's recording of Haendel's "Alcina," with the dream cast of Fleming, Graham and Dessay, would win in that category), but its leanness and "budget" of instruments, the careful choices composers made to suit the capabilities of small, half-impoverished courts, and the evocative, subtle, dreamscape melodies buoyed by northern "Protestant" counterpoints and harmonies (a long bridge from Luther toward Bach), all add up to a collection of very-well-played music that may be appreciated on its own apart from its history or geography of origin, but which, for me, calls up the cold coasts of the Baltic, where the winds come down with a tang of icy brine and batter the red brick churches, and a lost world of thought and feeling re-forming in the threadbare decades after the awful years of the Thirty Years' War. The disc won me from the opening notes, a graceful, quietly-heartrending version of the old folk tune "Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen," of which Bach reportedly said he would have given everything he ever wrote to have written that one melody--and he used it in a number of his works (listeners will recognize it as a motif that appears, subtly varied, in both of Bach's great passions). This music is as clear as light, and indescribably lovely. I am by no means obsessed by the baroque, much of which is ultimately formulaic (elevator music for an age without elevators), but this early baroque collection is, to me, glorious listening. It is music of peace from a turbulent world. Listen to it on a gray day, and you'll find an inner brightness. Five stars, and more."

Cold austerity !

François Beaudoin | Québec, Canada (where we speak french...) | 03/05/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I am still wondering what was the purpose of The Great Goebel in recording this music. First, we have to endure ten minutes of the most annoying pieces Musica Antiqua Koln have ever recorded. Even the viola da gamba sound like clear violins. And then, the noisy trompete of Albrici ring brutally the bell in a flamboyant and majestic sonata ! Than again, an episode of cold darkness. We have to wait for the sonatas of Becker and especially the sonata of Meder to open our eyes. The latter is remarkable. A crescendo full of diversity and surprises ! This sonata is so attractive and so powerfull! A masterpiece to dicover. The musicians are phenomenal ! The sound is deep and rich. An other Cd of Goebel that let me perplexeed ! Too perplexed !
On the whole, I was deceived. Too disoriented and dark. Trully you'll find cold darkness there.
Be prudent ! It'chilly but well done."