 Natif de Stuttgart, Johann Jakob Froberger est l’un des compositeurs les plus influents des prémices du baroque allemand. Grand voyageur, il parcoure l’Europe et y puise de nombreuses influences pour nourrir et enrichir son propre style. Musicien le plus cosmopolite de la période baroque, il est en contact direct avec tous les milieux musicaux de son époque, et se confronte directement aux plus importantes traditions nationales, l’Espagne mis à part. Même si son œuvre propose un important corpus de musique vocale, il se fait surtout connaître pour la richesse de sa musique pour clavier : l’orgue, et surtout le clavecin. Avec son style libre, fantaisiste et d’une grande expressivité, on le considère comme l’instigateur de la Suite de danse baroque dans sa forme actuelle. Artiste d’une grande sensibilité, il invente la musique à programme, de nombreuses pièces initiales de ses suites évoquant dans leur écriture ou leur titre sa vie personnelle et ses états d’âme. Acclamé par la critique internationale pour ses remarquables enregistrements Buxtehude ou Reincken, l’organiste italien Simone Stella poursuit à travers ce coffret son exploration des compositeurs antérieurs à Bach. Il se révèle être le parfait guide de cette musique dense et généreuse. A highly musical family was a promising start for Johann Jacob Froberger (1616– 1667), one of the most influential composers to emerge in northern Germany in this period. Born in Stuttgart, his father held the prominent position of Hofkapellmeister at the Stuttgart Hofkapelle (or court chapel) – a place that attracted musicians from across Europe. Little wonder, then, that Froberger’s music shows influences from Italy, France and England, as musicians from all these countries were active there. Froberger had unfettered access to his father’s extensive musical library, another source of immense inspiration. In his music, we can see these sources brought to life: toccatas in the style of Frescobaldi and Michelangelo Rossi, featuring passages of free improvisation alternated with rigorous counterpoint; more conservative canzonas and capriccios, written as variation sets in several sections and containing faster rhythmic figurations than those found in his ricercars or fantasias; suites (called partitas), fascinating examples of some of the earliest suites that we have. In this way, Froberger imitates the composer Chambonnières, but unlike his French counterpart he creates a continuity between the separate dances by keeping them in the same key. Froberger’s keyboard works can be performed on any keyboard instrument. As well as a harpsichord, this release features four different organs from around Italy, all from the Baroque period, including the Onofrio Zeffirini da Cortona organ in Florence. Keyboardist Simone Stella, an ‘unfailingly intelligent and revealing guide’ (BBC Music Magazine), whose recordings have been described as ‘thoroughly imaginative and engaging’ by Fanfare, has already released several CDs with Brilliant, to great acclaim. He has consistently strived to shine a light on German composers of this period, including Böhm, Reincken and Walther.
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