Kerll: Complete Harpsichord and Organ Music Matteo Messori

• Johann Kaspar Kerll (1627 - 1693): Toccata:
• 1 Toccata Prima 04:27
• 2 Toccata Seconda 04:15
• 3 Toccata Terza 05:12
• 4 Toccata Quarta 04:21
• 5 Toccata Quinta 04:12
• 6 Toccata Sesta 03:54
• 7 Toccata Settima 03:08
• 8 Toccata Ottava 04:24
• Canzone:
• 9 Canzone Prima 03:26
• 10 Canzone Seconda 04:27
• 11 Canzone Terza 04:05
• 12 Canzone Quarta 03:45
• 13 Canzone Quinta 03:11
• 14 Canzone Sesta 05:12
• 15 Ciaccona 02:45
• Passacaglia:
• 16 Passacaglia 06:34
• Capriccio Sopra Il Cucu:
• 17 Capriccio Sopra Il Cucu 03:03
• Battaglia:
• 18 Battaglia 09:50
• Suite in D Major:
• 19 Suite in D Major: I. Allamande 02:34
• 20 Suite in D Major: II. Courante 01:14
• 21 Suite in D Major: III. Sarabande 01:17
• 22 Suite in D Major: IV. Gigue 02:07
• Suite in F Major:
• 23 Suite in F Major: I. Allamande 02:48
• 24 Suite in F Major: II. Courante 01:03
• 25 Suite in F Major: III. Sarabande 01:23
• 26 Suite in F Major: IV. Gigue 01:29
• Suite in A Minor:
• 27 Suite in A Minor: I. Allamande - Partita 04:40
• 28 Suite in A Minor: II. Courante - Partita 02:14
• 29 Suite in A Minor: III. Sarabande - Partita 02:17
• Suite in G Major:
• 30 Suite in G Major: I. Allamande - Partita 04:51
• 31 Suite in G Major: II. Courante - Partita 02:54
• 32 Suite in G Major: III. Sarabande - Partita 03:02
• Rycercata in Cylindrum Phonotacticum Transferenda:
• 33 Rycercata in Cylindrum Phonotacticum Transferenda 03:19
• Modulatio Organica:
• 34 Modulatio Organica: I. Magnificat Primi Toni 07:16
• 35 Modulatio Organica: II. Magnificat Secundi Toni 07:33
• 36 Modulatio Organica: III. Magnificat Tertii Toni 06:34
• 37 Modulatio Organica: IV. Magnificat Quarti Toni 07:06
• 38 Modulatio Organica: V. Magnificat Quinti Toni 06:21
• 39 Modulatio Organica: Vi. Magnificat Sexti Toni 07:04
• 40 Modulatio Organica: VII. Magnificat Septimi Toni 06:48
• 41 Modulatio Organica: VIII. Magnificat Octavi Toni 06:32
• Total Runtime 02:52:37

Info for Kerll: Complete Harpsichord and Organ Music

The first complete collection on record of the keyboard works by an organ virtuoso of 17th-century Austria and a notable forerunner of J.S. Bach.

The sacred vocal music of Johann Caspar Kerll (1627-1693) has attracted its fair share of attention, with recent recordings devoted to his Masses and the Requiem he composed in 1669 while still a court musician in his home city of Munich. However, during his lifetime Kerll was known above all as a superb organist. Having composed a Mass for the coronation of Leopold I in 1658, he was furnished with the subject for an improvisation by none other than emperor himself, and Kerll’s astonishing invention became the stuff of legend, being recalled in 1740 by the theorist Johann Mattheson, in an age long before the testamentary value of recordings.

Kerll’s original compositions retain the freshness and vitality of his performances, as later composers recognised. Handel adapted the entire fourth Canzona for the chorus ‘Egypt was glad when they departed’ in for Israel in Egypt and used part of the cheeky Capriccio Sopra il Cucu in the second movement of an organ concerto. His masterpiece is the Modulatio organica, which contains some of the finest contrapuntal writing for organ before J.S. Bach. It was composed in 1679 in response to the plague of Vienna, which claimed thousands of victims including the composer’s wife; with eight sets of organ versets to be played in alternation with sung verses of the Magnificat, Kerll assembled a work whose comprehensive mastery of technique anticipates The Well-Tempered Clavier.

Receiving its first complete recording, the Modulatio organica occupies the last CD of this invaluable guide to the landscape of Austro-German music in the generations before Bach.

Matteo Messori precedes it on CD1 with the 11 toccatas and 6 canzonas, which build on the legacy of Frescobaldi and his pupil Froberger to test the player’s skill and imagination to the utmost. The main works on CD2 are a set of four brief keyboard suites which Matteo Messori plays on a pair of historically apt harpsichords. For the organ works such as the Modulatio Organica, his chosen instrument is the colourful organ built by Johann Ignaz Egedacher in 1732 for the Pfarrkirche Mariä Himmelfahrt of Vornbach am Inn in Germany.

Bach: Clavierübung III (92769): ‘A convincing performance… presented with elegance, style and thoughtful expression... Technically speaking the recording is absolutely perfect… In anticipation of Matteo Messori's next recording projects (Bach's Art of Fugue and Kerll's opera omnia), we highly recommend this set to our readers.’ (Organ Compendium)

Johann Caspar Kerll (1627-1693) was born in Saxony, where his father was a Lutheran organist. His musical talent was discovered at an early age and he went to Vienna to study with Giovanni Valentini, the court Kapellmeister. After serving as an organist at the court of the Archbishop of Brussels he went to Rome, to study the works of the great Italians. Here he met Froberger and Carissimi, from whom he learned the new Italian vocal and instrumental styles. Ultimately he settled at the court in Munich, where he stayed till his death, a famous composer, performer and teacher. Kerll’s complete keyboard works include Toccatas, Suites and instrumental settings of the Magnificat, both for harpsichord and organ. The Toccatas are clearly modelled on those by Frescobaldi, but make even greater demand on the technical ability and virtuosity of the performer, in their rapid scales and instrumental brilliance in free passages, whereas the harmonic language often is coloured by unusual chromatism.

Matteo Messori is one of the leading Baroque keyboard players of Europe; his previous recordings for Brilliant Classics (Kunst der Fuge, BC 94061 and Clavierübung, BC 94201) have been awarded 5 star reviews in international classical magazines (Fono Forum: “…entered the top league of European Bach interpreters”). His Schütz edition (BC 94361) is a recorded landmark for that still neglected master.

The extensive scholarly written liner notes in the booklet are by the artist himself.

Matteo Messori, harpsichord, organ

Matteo Messori
Hailed in November 2011 by the German magazine FonoForum as "entering into the Champions League of the international Bach interpreters" Matteo Messori was born in Bologna where he studied Organ and Counterpoint, graduating cum laude. He studied Harpsichord with Sergio Vartolo at the Conservatories of Mantua and Venice, graduating again cum laude.

In addition, he studied Musicology at the University of his native city.

He is active as both a harpsichord, organ and clavichord soloist and conductor in Italy, Europe and America, and also works with various chamber ensembles.

As means of exploring the musical and cultural relationship between the Italian penisula and the northern musical world in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, Messori founded the ensemble "Cappella Augustana", which he is conducting in the first complete recording of Heinrich Schütz' works for Brilliant Classics (Vols. 1-4, 19 CDs).

He also directed, for the Swedish label Mvsica Rediviva, the first sound tribute wholly dedicated to the sacred music by the Kapellmeister in Dresden and organist at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Vincenzo Albrici (1631-1690/96).

He has recorded the third part of the Clavierübung by Johann Sebastian Bach ("5 de Diapason", March 2008), the Schübler Chorales, 8 great Preludes and Fugues and the Canonical Variations on five historical central German organs.

He recorded Die Kunst der Fuge, Musikalisches Opfer and the fragmentary Triple Fugue BWV 1080/19 by J. S. Bach, as a soloist on three several harpsichords (also in Central German style, with 16' stop), as well as a leader of the ensemble "Cappella Augustana". He has also recorded for the first time the complete keyboard works by Luzzasco Luzzaschi. Forthcoming the complete keyboard music by Johann Caspar Kerll as harpsichord and organ soloist and as a clavichordist the Inventions & Sinfoniae by Bach.

He regularly conducts orchestras and ensembles in Europe (a.o. Capella Cracoviensis, State Chamber Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus, the first Italian stage performance of the Händel oratorio La Bellezza ravveduta with Cappella Augustana).

Recently he has performed as harpsichord soloist, conductor at the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philhamornia where he gave also a Bach organ recital. As harpsichordist he has performed with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Daniel Harding at the Vienna Konzerthaus.

In the Bach-Jahrbuch 2010 he has published a study of the 16' harpsichord with pedal harpsichord built by Zacharias Hildebrandt for the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig.

He teaches organ at the Genoa Conservatory and harpsichord at the Bergamo Conservatory.

Booklet for Kerll: Complete Harpsichord and Organ Music