David Kellner: Phantasia

Glossa is delighted to announce the release of ‘Phantasia’, devoted to Baroque lute music by David Kellner, played by wizard of the guitar, lute and vihuela, José Miguel Moreno. For this long-awaited return album Moreno alights upon music close to his heart, the music of a composer whose traces have been mostly obliterated due to him having been caught up in war-torn Northern Europe at the start of the 18th century.

Born in Leipzig, Kellner (c.1670-1748) moved around the old Swedish Empire, settling eventually in Stockholm as an organist and carillonneur, but not until he had “spent the best years of his youth at war”, as a military man in the Great Northern War for a decade. There is some doubt as to how Kellner came to be the composer of the XVI Auserlesene Lauten-Stücke, published as late as 1747, and some have been ascribed to Sylvius Leopold Weiss, but these virtuosic and engaging pieces are ideally suited to the mastery of José Miguel Moreno. Moreno’s instrument-making skills have also been called into play for this recording, which includes Sarabandes, Gavottes, Chaconnes, a Campanella (he plays the carillon) and Phantasies. For this recording Moreno built an 11-course lute, the instrument called for by David Kellner.