Stylus Fantasticus & the Art Variation

If you were to set up a pantheon of musical history, Girolamo Frescobaldi as likely (1583-1643) entitled without doubt one of the most prominent places. The recording of the Italian harpsichordist and organist Luca Guglielmi illustrates very clearly two very distinctive aspects of musical aesthetics Frescobaldi: on the one hand, the free form models in which is revealed the seemingly inexhaustible ingenuity of the composer, on the other hand the art of counterpoint, thematic and metric-rhythmic variation, as they can be found in his partitas suites, dances and Capricci for keyboard instruments. In his mature period (from about 1624) to Frescobaldi's main focus of variation and it's various aspects appears to have turned. His special preference was given to the mixing of different forms and modes of composition, where he constantly explores new ways of combining. For his recording Guglielmi uses the excellent copy of an anonymous Italian harpsichord from the 17th century and was built in 1750 by Giacomo Filippo Landesio organ of the Church Parish in Piedmont Luserna San Giovanni.