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4 of 21 tracks have a preview · 10 works · 53:36

Sonata in C Major, Op. 9: No. 2, WK 87Carl Friedrich Abel 3 movements4:44
1. 1 i. Vivace 2:14
2. 2 ii. Adagio 1:32
3. 3 iii. Minuetto :58
4 Fantasia (Vivace) for Harpsichord in F Major, TWV 33:5 Georg Philipp Telemann 4:26
Sonata in A Minor, TWV 41:a6Georg Philipp Telemann 4 movements10:23
1. 5 i. Largo 2:58
2. 6 ii. Allegro 2:16
3. 7 iii. Suave 2:38
4. 8 iv. Allegro 2:31
9 Fantasia after Telemann Anthony Abouhamad Allegro–Affettuoso–Allegro 4:15
10 Les pleurs Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe 1:51
Suite in G Minor/MajorLouis de Caix d'Hervelois 3 movements7:28
1. 11 L'Agreable 2:26
2. 12 La Fanatique 2:32
3. 13 Allemande 2:30
14 Les Silvains Majesteusment, sans lenteur François Couperin 5:44
Suite in G MajorMarin Marais 3 movements6:40
1. 15 i. Saillie du Jardin 1:11
2. 16 ii. Rondeau le Troilleur 3:50
3. 17 iii. Le petit badinage 1:39
18 Chaconne La Buisson Antoine Forqueray 5:23
19 The Acceptance Troy Russell 2:42

Exquisite Harmonies brings together acclaimed viola da gambist Jennifer Eriksson and harpsichordist Anthony Abouhamad in a richly expressive collection of French and German Baroque repertoire. Featuring works by Sainte-Colombe, Marin Marais, Antoine Forqueray, Georg Philipp Telemann and Carl Friedrich Abel, the album also includes contemporary Australian works by Abouhamad and Biripi and Gamillaroi composer Troy Russell. Beautifully performed and recorded, Exquisite Harmonies celebrates the enduring richness of early music alongside a distinctive contemporary Australian perspective.

In the artist’s words

Anthony and I have worked together for many years and often discussed a duo project. We eventually developed a program that highlighted some of the best-known baroque era composers for the viola da gamba interspersed with harpsichord solos.

As a centrepiece I assembled a Grande Suite featuring music by several French masters, which serves as a kind of French baroque smorgasbord. I hope these gentlemen forgive me from the grave! The links between them are noteworthy. Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, who famously added the seventh string to the viola da gamba, taught the young Marin Marais. Forqueray’s fearsome virtuosity was said to have exceeded that of the celebrated Marais, whose career he overlapped with. Both men attracted the attention of, and employment by, the music and dance-loving monarch, Louis XIV. A contemporary commentator, Hubert Le Blanc, wrote that Marais played like an angel, and Forqueray like the devil!

François Couperin needs no introduction to music lovers. Although best known for his splendid harpsichord pieces, he also wrote for the viola da gamba as did Abel and Telemann who are of Germanic rather than French extraction. Again, the links are fascinating. Abel was taught as a schoolboy by J.S. Bach, later founding a music promotion business in London with his son, J.C. Bach.

The outliers in the mix are Anthony’s improvised Fantasia in the style of Telemann, and The Acceptance by Biripi and Gamillaroi musician and composer, Troy Russell. I asked Troy to write The Acceptance as a kind of musical acknowledgement of country. It gently reminds us that First Nations’ artists preceded European musicians on this continent by dozens of millennia.

— Jennifer Eriksson

The Fantasia after Telemann is my attempt to imitate the compositional model that Telemann presents in his Three Dozen Fantasias. Following Telemann’s model, my fantasia uses da capo form to explore and contrast melodic ideas. I was able to develop these ideas – as products of the imagination – by using my knowledge of eighteenth-century counterpoint and harmony to improvise the fantasia at the harpsichord. This process helped me to better understand the idea that eighteenth-century compositions are simply written records of a composer’s improvisations. It is interesting to reflect on this concept and consider the sheer number of improvisations (thousands, if not millions) that eighteenth-century musical masters left unrecorded. Moreover, however, I believe that by practising improvisation and composition we may come closer to experiencing the intimacy and immediacy that eighteenth-century music has to offer.

— Anthony Abouhamad

Artists

The Marais Project

ensemble

The Marais Project is a celebration of music for the viola da gamba inspired by Marin Marais, the great French virtuoso viola da gamba performer and composer. Formed by Jennifer Eriksson in 2000, the ensemble’s original aim was to perform the complete viola da gamba works of Marais – a monumental task which is more than 85% complete.

Jennifer Eriksson

viola da gamba

Jennifer Eriksson completed her initial musical studies at the Sydney Conservatorium before moving to the Netherlands for three years of viola da gamba tuition with Jaap ter Linden at Rotterdam Conservatorium.

Anthony Abouhamad

harpsichord

Anthony Abouhamad is a harpsichordist, continuo organist and composer. His work centres on French and German baroque repertoire and newly written pieces for early instruments.

Tommie Andersson

composer

Tommie Andersson was born in Sweden and has been based in Sydney since 1984. He is regarded as Australia's leading specialist in lutes and early guitars, and as a continuo player and soloist across the early-music repertoire.

François Couperin

composer

François Couperin (1668–1733) was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist, known as Couperin le Grand. Organist to Louis XIV and to Saint-Gervais in Paris, he remains the supreme French master of the harpsichord.

Marin Marais

composer

Marin Marais (1656–1728) was a French composer and master of the viola da gamba. His five books of Pièces de viole remain the summit of the French baroque viol repertoire.

Georg Philipp Telemann

composer

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught, he became a composer against his family's wishes and ranked among the leading German musicians of his age.

Carl Friedrich Abel

composer

Carl Friedrich Abel left a substantial body of chamber music and works for the viola da gamba, written in the early Classical style. His gamba sonatas and solos form a lasting part of that instrument's repertoire.

Louis de Caix d'Hervelois

composer

Louis de Caix d'Hervelois wrote almost exclusively for the viola da gamba: tuneful French dance suites whose graceful melodies, ornamentation and rhythmic lift make them among the most idiomatic music for the instrument.

Antoine Forqueray

composer

Antoine Forqueray wrote fiercely demanding music for the viola da gamba, dramatic and brash beside the sweeter style of Marin Marais. Only thirty-two pieces survive, many known today as harpsichord character pieces.