PEETER CORNET: Keyboard music – James Johnstone, harpsichord
and organ, with The Cardinall’s Musick directed by Andrew Carwood –
Gaudeamus CD GAU 335 ****:
A Flemish contemporary of Sweelinck, Peeter Cornet (ca. 1560-1626)
belongs to a group of composers rediscovered in the 1980s in Poland
when an important manuscript collection of 17th century keyboard music
that had been evacuated from Berlin surfaced. It is from this
manuscript that the greater part of the output of Cornet is
known.
and organ, with The Cardinall’s Musick directed by Andrew Carwood –
Gaudeamus CD GAU 335 ****:
A Flemish contemporary of Sweelinck, Peeter Cornet (ca. 1560-1626)
belongs to a group of composers rediscovered in the 1980s in Poland
when an important manuscript collection of 17th century keyboard music
that had been evacuated from Berlin surfaced. It is from this
manuscript that the greater part of the output of Cornet is
known.
Playing on the Lodewyk Theeews harpsichord (London, 1579) and the
magnificent Severijn organ in Sint Martinuskerk in the Dutch town of
Cuijk (built around 1650 and restored in 1992), Johnstone, who teaches
early keyboards at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and at
Trinity College of Music in London, plays with beautiful articulation
and offers a coherent vision of the composer’s output, both religious
and secular. Although the music is highly specialized, it is well
worth seeking out for the clarity of thought and the beauty of the
crystal clear sound of these first recordings.
– Laurence Vittes
