Musica Alta Ripa

A 2 CD set of World premiere recordings of music by Johann Gottfried Müthel (1728-1788).

Works include a concerto for 2 bassoons, sonatas for flutes and double harpsichord. Müthel was music director for the city of Riga. Enraged at the increasing levels of traffic noise, he declared that concerts should only be performed in the winter months so that the snow would muffle the clattering of the coaches on the pavements. Musica Alta Ripa have recorded for MDG for over 15 years and all of their releases have received international critical acclaim.

Musica Alta Ripa offers their tribute to their favourite composer, Jean-Marie Leclair. The music marks a marriage of the French formal influences of the 18th century, but shows the Italian influence of its time. His piece for two violins without bass shows a breathtaking mastery of extended double-stopping passages.

Critics have applauded the ensemble’s purity of sound, its controlled sensuality, and the profundity of its music-making: since Jörg Breiding took over the direction of the Knabenchor Hannover (Hanover Boys Choir) ten years ago, he has expanded the choir’s comprehensive repertoire with works by less-known composers. Excerpts from previously published CDs and from so-far unpublished recordings present a musical portrait spanning five epochs of European choral music.

The five Psalms of the Vespers are framed by antiphons chosen especially for this performance. The idiomatic sound of a boys’ choir and boy soloists, also available to Monteverdi in Venice, makes the present liverecording even more unique and establishes its unmistakable character and authenticity.

MDG and Musica Alta Ripa have worked on a number of musical projects including a Telemann cycle and a live recording of Gotino Steffani’s opera Orlando Generoso (MDG3091566). Numerous recording prizes such as the Diapason d’or, Cannes Classical Award, Echo Klassik have encouraged further discoveries.

Musica Alta Ripa pays homage to the great George Frideric Handel on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of his death. Johanna Koslowsky sings with elegance and fine tone on this beautiful re-issue from MDG.

Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727-1756) is supposed to have been something of an oddball. Some regarded him as being depressive; he himself had a pathological loathing for his own works, some of which he destroyed, terming them "poor trifles for ladies”. This release proves the composer wrong! These are the well crafted compositions of a master. For more than 20 years the ensemble Musica Alta Ripa has set the standard in the performance of early music. The recordings of the trio sonatas and quartet for two violins, viola, and basso continuo are premiere recordings