Johann Jakob Froberger (1616 - 1667) - Tombeau sur la mort de Monsieur Blancheroche Johann Jakob Froberger - Suite XII: Lamento sopra la dolorosa Perdita della real Maesta di Fernando IV Ré di Romani / Gigue / Courante / Sarabande Élisabeth Jaquet De La Guerre (1665 - 1729) - Suite III in A minor: Prelude / Allemande / Courante / Sarabande / Gigue / Chaconne Johann Sebastian Bach - Aria variata alla maniera italiana BWV 989
Dubbed ‘the Frederic Chopin of the harpsichord’, Johann Jacob Froberger (1616–1667) was one of the most cosmopolitan and interesting musicians of his time. His music often depicts severe life experiences. He valued solitude, whilst at the same time showing an almost contemptuous lack of interest in career or fame. More than 400 years after he was born, Froberger’s life as well as his music are subjects of countless speculations.
Élisabeth Jaquet de La Guerre was one of the few established and acclaimed female composers of her time, who was born into a musicians' family and later married a musician herself. She enjoyed a solid musical education from an early age and was given by her family a fair chance to thrive in the world just as much as her brothers. Élisabeth became a musician of the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King.
Johann Sebastian Bach’s excellence and flawlessness are the result of profoundness – of understanding, work, emotion, intellect and technical skills, attributes which he wore since his early days. Aria variata is one of his earliest works for harpsichord – in which the teenager Bach already masters the skills of the Song Variations, and is an example of Bach’s inner maturity and complexity.
Alina Rotaru studied piano and choral conducting at the music academy in her hometown of Bucharest. After moving to Germany, she studied harpsichord with Siegbert Rampe and Wolfgang Kostujak at the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen, with Bob van Asperen at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and with Carsten Lohff and Detlef Bratschke at the University of the Arts Bremen. She is an active soloist and ensemble player, and also in charge of various orchestral, opera, and sacred music projects of the German Early and Late Baroque as an artistic director. As a soloist, she has performed across most of Europe, as well as in Japan, South America and USA. She teaches at the University of the Arts in Bremen. Her solo recordings of harpsichord works by J.P. Sweelinck, J.J. Froberger, and English virginalists have earned excellent reviews in the music press and amongst her peers. Together with viol player Darius Stabinskas, Alina is the co-founder of the ensemble MORGAINE, which focuses on the music of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. For the research of organ manuscripts from the Polish-Lithuanian-Commonwealth, Alina Rotaru received in 2019 a scholarship from the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. In 2020 she initiated the “Sigismundus Lauxmin International Harpsichord Contest”, so far the only contest of its kind in the Baltic States, which focuses on early repertoire and especially on music Polish and Lithuanian heritage.
