Quicksilver - FANTASTICUS: Extravagant and Virtuosic music from 17th-century Germany
Quicksilver
Released October 2014
The seventeenth century in Germany was a time of incredible upheaval: wars of religion and politics swept the land, bringing famine and plague in their wake and an ongoing state of crisis. The chamber music of the time reflects this fraught, unpredictable cultural climate. Inspired by the experimental works of Italian composers, the virtuosos working in Germany explored the sonata as an abstract form of wordless conversation in music, delighting and astonishing the listener. They described this style as the “stylus Fantasticus,” “instituted to display genius” in the words of mathematician Athanasius Kirchner. Music by Weckmann, Buxtehude, Kerll, Bertali, Schmeltzer, Vierdanck and Oswald.
“The disc’s title is no exaggeration…extravagance and virtuosity…Everyone in Quicksilver commands attention…Fantasticus, indeed.”
– Gramophone
“enthralls the audience…it's truly a good sign that while listening, you forget about the virtuosity involved."
– Österreichische Musikzeitschrift (Austrian Music Journal)
“True avant-garde is only occasionally heard in the Baroque canon… diverse, unique, and exciting…accomplished, and beautiful…real vibrancy and imagination”
– Barry Brenesal, Fanfare Magazine
Purchase Quicksilver's other releases:
New Release! EARLY MODERNS: The (very) First Viennese School