JACOB FROBERGER: [Vol. 6] Complete Ricercari; Chigi Toccatas – Bob van Asperen, organ – Aeolus multichannel SACD AE-10601, 63:48 [Distr. by Albany] ****:
This is my first encounter with this series by Bob van Asperen of the music of Johann Jacob Froberger (1616-67), a composer who early on converted to Catholicism and studied with the organist of St. Peters in Rome, was beloved during his lifetime and enjoyed no little success. He was known as “a friendly person of a Christian way of life known for his balanced temperament, his good humor and ‘gloriously clever wit’”. Froberger could consort with kings and princes and yet spend hours on end playing cards with the household servants.
This is Volume 6 in the series, devoted to the Ricercar (Latin to search) so-named because it was originally a fantasia-like piece born out of improvisation. Froberger gave it more substance and stricter form, as he would many of the other primarily keyboard forms that he dealt with: fantasia, canzona, capriccio, toccata, and dance suite. Composers well into the late 1700s admired him, and J.S. Bach is effusive in his praise.
This is not a composer with whom I have spent a lot of time, apart from selected items way back in music school, and a few miscellanea since then on records. What a mistake—how can anyone interested in Baroque music pass this up? The pieces are witty and energetic, nicely constructed with some outstanding melodies, and you can be assured that the form as you are hearing it reached the end of its evolution with this composer.
Asperen plays beautifully on the 1664 Hermans organ of Spirito Santo, Pistoia (in the Tuscany region of Italy) one of only two of 82 that have survived by the Dutch builder Willem Hermans, who exercised an important influence in Italy. It is largely in its original condition and its registrations have never been altered! The reed stops especially are colorful and attractive, one of the things that Hermans brought with him from the north. Aeolus has magnificently captured the instrument in wonderful hi-res surround. This will probably not be a first choice for many because of the rather esoteric nature of the program, which sounds more mechanical than musical—I assure you it is not. Well worth taking a chance if you like organ music and the Baroque at all.
— Steven Ritter
