Graupner: Orchestral Suites Finnish Baroque Orchestra & Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen

• 1 I. Ouverture 06:16
• 2 II. Air en Gavotte 02:18
• 3 III. Hornepipe 02:28
• 4 IV. Air en Sarabande 03:27
• 5 V. Air en Polonaise 01:27
• 6 VI. Air en Menuet 04:53
• 7 I. Overture 05:17
• 8 II. Air 01:50
• 9 III. Tempo di Sarabande 05:10
• 10 IV. Tempo di Bourree I-II 02:54
• 11 V. Air: Largo 05:25
• 12 VI. Menuet I-II 04:42
• 13 I. Overture 06:50
• 14 II. Air 04:57
• 15 III. Sarabande 03:41
• 16 IV. Menuet 07:25
• 17 V. Marche 01:34
• 18 VI. Chaconne 05:26
• Total Runtime 01:16:00

Info for Graupner: Orchestral Suites

Music historians of our time invariably describe the early 18th century as the era of Johann Sebastian Bach. But if one were to have asked German musicians living at the time, they might well have described it as the era of Georg Philipp Telemann. The distinguished music encyclopedia published by Johann Gottfried Walther - J.S. Bach's cousin, as it happens - in 1732 devotes four times more space to the fashionable maestro of Hamburg than to the humble Thomaskantor.

Graupner's total surviving output comprises some 2,000 separate works, including ten operas, a hundred symphonies, a thousand cantatas, 85 orchestral suites and 44 concertos. A significant part of his orchestral output consists of concertos and suites with diverse, sometimes very curious instruments in the solo ensembles.

Among the rarer solo instruments he favoured were the flûte d'amour, a flute pitched a third lower than the normal transverse flute, and the viola d'amore, an instrument roughly the same size and shape as a viola but with resonating free strings in addition to the (usually) seven strings played with the bow. Combining the traverso and hunting horn in the same concerto, or the viola d'amore and the chalumeau, was extremely exceptional for the period.

What is significant in Graupner's music is his exceptional command of melody and harmony, which do not really resemble those of any of his contemporaries.

“It's with a dignified detachment - yet every technical competence - that Kaakinen-Pilch presents this music. Neither Graupner nor his music needs to 'shout'...This CD certainly demonstrates that Graupner possesses more than his fair share of originality, ingenuity and freshness.” (International MusicWeb)

“The performances by the Finnish Baroque Orchestra are exemplary, the mood benign and unhurried to match the music, and every player of every unusually featured instrument...calmly taking their opportunity to make a colourful contribution while remaining firmly part of the team.” (Gramophone)

Finnish Baroque Orchestra Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch, conductor

Petra Aminoff, flute
Tindaro Capuano, chalumeau
Asko Heiskanen, chalumeau
Krzysztof Stencel, baroque horn
Jani Sunnarborg, bassoon

Recorded at the Siuntio church, 20–22 May 2013
Executive Producer: Reijo Kiilunen
Recording Producer: Seppo Siirala
Recording and Mastering: Enno Mäemets – Editroom Oy

No biography found.

Booklet for Graupner: Orchestral Suites