Johann Caspar Kerll (1627-1693)
Complete Organ Works
Vol I: Toccaten I–VIII (Ed. John O’Donnell)
34 pages • ISMN: 979-0-012-18121-7 • Softbound
Doblinger DM 1203
Johann Caspar Kerll was born 1617 in Adorf in the far south of Saxony. Son of an organist, he was sent to Vienna in his early teens to study with the Court Kapellmeister, Giovanni Valentini. He was soon noticed in Court circles and when he was about 20 years-old was sent to Brussels by the Hapsburg governor of the Spanish Netherlands as organist for the new palace. Over the next 10 years, he combined his Brussels post with musical travels, including studying in Italy with Carissimi where he probably met Froberger and might have studied with him. He also spent time back in Vienna, in Dresden, and Moravia, eventually becoming Court Kapellmeister in Dresden in 1656. He returned to Vienna in 1674, where he might have been a teacher of Pachelbel, then deputy organist at the Stephensdom. He is one of those unfortunate composers many of whose works have been lost, including eleven operas. He is best known now for his keyboard music, and this first volume of his organ works, consisting of 8 Toccatas, demonstrates why. Continue reading
Based on the Stylus Phantasticus that influenced so much music during the 17th century, this CD explores its use over different musical forms, notably music for keyboard and the violin sonata, examples of the latter coming from Biber, Fontana. Pandlfi-Mealli, and Schmelzer. Each of the sonatas is paired with a piece from the keyboard repertoire, often reinterpreted by the addition of the other instruments. So we hear a Tunder organ Praeludium played on violin and archlute, and part of Bruhns’s substantial choral 
Andrew Benson-Wilson : Early Music Reviews + 