Quicksilver
Released June 2011

The seventeenth century was a transformative moment in our Western cultural history.   The world became modern: new technologies were emerging, our modern economic system was developing, the earth was no longer at the center of the universe. Among the cultural revolutions was one in music. Composers consciously began to create a nuove musiche or stile moderno of dramatic oppositions and vivid emotions. Their new invention was the sonata: a pure instrumental work, a piece simply meant to be “sounded,” with no agenda but the imagination of the composer . This “new music” is virtuosic, experimental, unexpected, and deeply moving: the closest we come to wordless rhetoric. Music by Castello, Fontana, Merula, Marini, Neri and Cima.

“There is a real physicality to this ensemble’s recorded performance, one that made me want to see them perform live…this is a terrific disc.”
– Early Music (Oxford Journal)

“technically expert, flexible in phrasing, and stylish in ornamentation, fully aware of this music’s rich sense of theater”
– Dan Sperrin, Fanfare Magazine

“Breakthrough of the Year could wind up going to Quicksilver’s breathtaking recital of the 17th century string music repertoire known as Stile Moderno. Written by increasingly less obscure composers…this music for strings, sackbut, lute and other plucked things ranges from ‘strange and extravagant trio sonatas to the spectacle ensemble music of the High Baroque,’ Quicksilver is pretty spectacular itself….Parents, it’s more okay than ever to raise your children to play the dulcian and theorbo.”
– Laurence Vittes, Huffington Post

Purchase Quicksilver’s other releases:

New Release! EARLY MODERNS: The (very) First Viennese School

FANTASTICUS: Extravagant and Virtuosic music from 17th-century Germany