Search - The Hanoverian Ensemble, Kent Tritle (organ) :: A Treasury of German Baroque Music: JS Bach, Buxtehude, Fasch, Lubeck, Quantz, Pachelbel and Telemann (Period Instruments; Fritts Organ, Vassar)

In selecting the music for this recording, our great interest was to choose works which would provide an hour or so of pleasurable listening. While many classical recordings are encyclopedic, consisting of one genre by a single composer, this one is notably different, consisting of a variety of works by seven different composers. The selection is also based upon the instrumentation of our chamber group, including the versatility of Kent Tritle as both an organist and harpsichordist. The inclusion of a number of solo organ works was also influenced by the fact that the hall in which we record Mary Anna Fox Martel Recital Hall in Skinner Hall of Music at Vassar College happens to have a superb tracker organ by Paul Fritts, the design of which is based upon historic German Baroque models. We also have chosen to include two of the handful of existing chamber works which combine the transverse flute (Querflöte) with the recorder (Blockflöte). In this recording chamber works alternate with solo organ works. All of the chamber works involve wind-blown flute-type instruments. The organ, too, is a wind-blown instrument, the source of the wind coming from a set of bellows rather than the lungs of a wind player. Listeners will therefore be able to compare the organ s wide variety of tonal effects and power with the nuanced expressive palette of the transverse flutes and recorders. THE HANOVERIAN ENSEMBLE is a group of distinguished musicians who specialize in historical performance on period instruments. The repertoire features the great music of the Baroque and Classical eras, performed with an expertise garnered from many decades of concert and recording experience. Programs involve from four to ten players, depending upon the repertoire. The ensemble s name evokes the time of the Hanoverian kings of England.Kent Tritle, organ and harpsichord, is music director of the Oratorio Society of New York and Musica Sacra. He is organist of the New York Philharmonic, Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music and a faculty member of the Juilliard School of Music. He is also Director of Music Ministries at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in New York, where he also presents the highly-acclaimed series Sacred Music in a Sacred Space.ABOUT THE ORGAN - The organ heard on this recording was made by Paul Fritts & Company of Tacoma, Washington, in 2002 for Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. It is the 23rd organ which Fritts has created and is called his Opus 23. It is tuned to a temperament called Kellner, named for the late Herbert Anton Kellner who published this temperament in 1980. It is believed that this is close to the temperament to which Bach himself tuned his instruments.