Utwory na płycie:

• Sonata in D TWV 40:1 - Récitatif
• Suite V for cello BWV 1011 - Giga

Johann Schenck:
Sonata VI in a minor, op. 9.6
Sonata V in e minor, op. 9.5

Georg Philipp Telemann:
Sonata in D (TWV 40,1)

Johann Sebastian Bach:
Suite for cello No. 5 in c minor (BWV 1011) (transposed to d minor)

In the renaissance the viola da gamba was almost exclusively used as a consort instrument. The Spanish composer Diego Ortiz (c1510-c1570) was one of the first who composed pieces for solo viol. The 17th century saw an increase in the composition of solo music, for instance by Christopher Simpson in England, Johann Schenck in the Netherlands and André Maugars and Nicolas Hotman in France. Maugars had worked in London in the service of James I. He was one of those players of and composers for the viol who was influenced by the English tradition of viol playing.

The present disc is called 'The Voyage to Germany' as it seeks to document the English influence, through English-born composers who settled at the continent, partly due to the political upheavals in the first half of the 17th century. William Brade exported English consort music to northern Germany, Henry Butler settled in Spain and William Young in Austria. That said, it is not that easy to point out exactly what the English influence might have been. It is probably more the very fact of playing the viol as a solo instrument, comparable to the violin, rather than the English style which inspired someone like Johann Schenck, the only 17th-century composer in the programme.