Search - Siegfried Pank, Academy of Ancient Music :: Viola Da Gamba Concertata

Thank you, Herr Pank

Matyas Becvarov | Salisbury, NC United States | 07/16/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This recording would exite a musicologist of 18th century German music in Prussia: the concerti for viola da gamba by Pfeiffer and Graun are an obscurantist's dream. Setting aside historical considerations, however, what we have here is a superb recording of some absolutely wonderful music. The sound of both gamba and orchestra is the aural equivalent of fine silk trailed across bare skin. The concerto attributed to Pfeiffer has very sweet melodies to tug at the heartstrings; the concerto by Graun is marvelously inventive and plays the solo gamba off the orchestra with a rhythmic verve sure to set your foot tapping. Pank uses a gamba by Hoffmann (Leipzig, 1693) with a dark, throaty, and very full sound. The continuo playing by harpsichordist Christine Schornsheim is energetic enough to keep your ear tuned to what goes on beneath the solo and orchestral lines. For aficionados of viol music, this disc is a no-brainer: get it. It recommends itself, however, to anyone fond of 18th century music and interested in an excellent recording of some works that deserve to be heard, again and again."