Composer: Samuel Scheidt
Performer: Musica Fiata
Conductor: Roland Wilson
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: CPO
Catalogue: 7770132
Release: 2005
Size: 331 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Ludi musici
01. Intrada, SSWV 60
02. Paduana imitatio Doulandi, SSWV 91
03. Paduana imitatio Doulandi, SSWV 163
04. Gaillard, SSWV 165
05. Courant imitatio Cour. Franc, SSWV 170
06. Canzon à 5, SSWV 100
07. Canzon à 4, SSWV 173
08. Galliard battaglia, SSWV 59
09. Paduan dolorosa à 4, SSWV 178
10. Paduan dolorosa à 4, SSWV 96
11. Canzon à 3, SSWV 172
12. Echo, SSWV 128
13. Paduan à 4, SSWV 43
14. Galliard à 4, SSWV 97
15. Canzon super allemande à 3, SSWV 173
16. Canzon super Intradam Aethiopicam, SSWV 68
17. Paduan à 4, SSWV 87
18. Paduana Dolorosa à 4, SSWV 42
19. Galliarda, SSWV 62
20. Corrente à 5, SSWV 70
21. Allemande à 4, SSWV 52
22. Canzon à 4, SSWV 175
23. Paduana à 4 Violen, SWV 179
24. Canzon an Wasserflüssen Babylon, SSWV 570
This is primarily a specialist recording, with lots of explanation of how additional works from Samuel Scheidt’s Ludi Musici were reconstructed and added to the single existing volume of pieces that have been favorites of modern brass quintets. The result is a collection of pieces with various kinds of instrumentation (strings, brasses, combinations of the two, and even one for four dulcians) and of various forms (dances, ground-bass structures, serious pavanes, and contrapuntal music). These short works stood near the beginnings of orchestral music in Germany, and the swirl of different forms, clarified by later generations, will be interesting for those immersed in music of the early seventeenth century. The best news is that, unlike many other specialist recordings, this one will be attractive to general listeners. The authentic-instrument ensemble Musica Fiata has an expressive, solemn tone in the shorter pieces and a sort of intimate brilliance in Scheidt’s more virtuosic brass writing, reminiscent of some of the fancier passages in Monteverdi’s Orfeo. A piece entitled simply “Echo,” track 12, is an instrumental showpiece of an unfamiliar type, and Musica Fiata keeps it perfectly under control. If you’re following developments in the field of the early Baroque, you will want this disc; you may also enjoy it if you’ve encountered one or two of Scheidt’s pieces in modern arrangements for brass and want to hear more.
