After living in Amsterdam for nearly thirty years, Englishman Richard Egarr thought it was time to pay tribute to the city's most famous composer. Surprisingly, Egarr had never ventured to Sweelinck - at least not on his many CD releases. With this CD, however, he takes revenge very successfully. Egarr simply made a selection of his favorite works by Sweelinck. However, the result is also a beautifully
… varied whole. Relatively abstract works such as the chromatic fantasy and the fantasy on 'ut re mi fa sol la' go together with variations on then well-known songs such as Mein Junges Leben Hat Ein End. The harpsichord (a copy of an instrument by the builder Ruckers) sounds wonderful here and Egarr plays it compellingly. For example, listen to the famous chromatic fantasy that Egarr performs with verve and fire. And notice the thrilling effect of the tuning, which makes some passages sound downright bizarre! (From, for example 01'45 ”) Egarr himself writes that he wants to convince the listener of 'the glorious nature of this rich and wonderful music'. He has more than succeeded in that. (TC)more
