Baltzar: Prelude

”Division-Musick“ is a term used by Christopher Simpson during the 17th century to describe a typically English improvisatory style of diminution. Musicians generally used short bass melodies called grounds as the basis for intricate and virtuoso diminutions, beginning with simple and slow melodies over a bass melody, and ending with very fast and virtuosic diminutions after a varying number of repetitions of the melody.

Both singers and instrumentalists practiced this art of diminution, but the preferred instrument for divisions was the so-called ”division viol“.

This CD aims to give some audible insight into English virtuosity in the Baroque era.

Jaap Schröder needs no introduction with around 150 recordings to his credit, and covering numerous labels including Decca, Philips, Teldec and Harmonia Mundi. This recording focusing on music from the 17th Century is beautifully drawn together and performed on a baroque violin.

Stylus Phantasticus is a style of opposites: freely flowing expressive melodies in which garish dissonances can charge the order of Baroque forms with extreme tension, opening up fascinating worlds of sound that one would hardly expect in the North German Baroque. Ornamentation and phrasing with great momentum are demanded here and that is where this ensemble is in its element.