Frescobaldi: Toccata per Elevazione

In the 30th anniversary year of Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard is more active than ever. Following his arrival at Glossa in 2007 he is alternating projects of 'straight' medieval music such as the recent L'Arbre de Jessé, with his involvement in new forms of musical expression such as Vox Nostra Resonet. Motets Croisés belongs precisely to the more adventurous aspect of Vellard's art: here he collaborates with Jean-Pierre Leguay, titular organist at Notre-Dame de Paris, and also a notable improviser on the organ. Motets by Monteverdi and Schütz are interspersed with instrumental pieces by Frescobaldi plus compositions from Leguay himself, conjuring up a fascinating sound tapestry, in which the clear and radiant voice of Vellard and dazzling organ interventions from Leguay are vividly highlighted.

Apart from one other recording, this CD of eight organs from Malta and Gozo, is the most comprehensive selection of instruments on the Islands. Novenko chooses a programme of varying music to suit and to illustrate these beautiful and sweet toned organs in a programme of nearly 77 minutes duration. Included is the small but effective instrument in Mosta Dom with its 15 second echo and Mdina, the islands only cathedral. This is a unique organ tour which will appeal to collectors and organ buffs.

An acknowledged expert in the field of early keyboard instruments and music, Douglas Hollick was the first Organ Scholar at Hull University, studying with Peter Hurford. He subsequently studied in Paris with Marie-Claire Alain, and in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt. He has played widely in the UK and abroad, and teaches in Cambridge and at the Birmingham Conservatoire.

With an international reputation, and with many accolades from critics and scholars alike, Douglas Hollick was awarded a year 2000 Churchill Fellowship to visit North Germany and Denmark to research the organs and other keyboard instruments from the period of Buxtehude and the young J S Bach. Endlessly curious about the little known music of the 17th and 18th centuries, he has recorded music of the enigmatic French composer Christophe Moyreau (see Riverrun RVRCD 60), a CD entitled ‘Buxtehude, master and pupil’ (RVRCD 67) which places the great North German master in the context of some of his teachers and pupils, and a programme of music from the period of the French Revolution for harpsichord, square piano and organ (RVRCD 71).

Douglas Hollick made harpsichords professionally for some fifteen years up to 1990, and has also had some experience in organ building and early piano restoration. It is a 1986 harpsichord of his, based on Ruckers, which is used on this recording.