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Hurlebusch: Harpsichord Music on CD

Suites, fugues, toccatas and variations by a well-travelled contemporary of JS Bach, in a new recording by an Italian harpsichordist with an impressive catalogue of Baroque rarities on Brilliant Classics.

The music of Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch (1691-1765) has featured on a few enterprising collections of Baroque-era rarities, but this is the first-ever album to be entirely dedicated to the art of a composer whose style successfully mirrors his cosmopolitan outlook. Having received initial tuition from both his father Heinrich - another organist/composer - and from a pupil of Buxtehude, Hurlebusch left his birthplace of Braunschweig and embarked on a journey around Europe that, for the first half of his career, took him to Hambiurg, Tuscany, Venice, Stockholm and many points in between. On a stay in Leipzig, he met Bach and his sons; CPE mentioned Hurlebusch in dispatches as an excellent keyboard virtuoso.

Finally, in 1742, Hurlebusch settled in Amsterdam, as organist of the famous Oude Kerk. On his travels, Hurlebusch had become familiar with diverse Italian styles such as the work of Corelli and Vivaldi, but he also remained open to more recent developments such as the galant style of the 1730s and 1740s. Published in Hamburg in around 1735, the volume of harpsichord music recorded here by Fernando de Luca is an expanded reprint of a collection published two years earlier as the composer's Op.1. It has never been recorded complete, but it discloses a wealth of invention in an outward-looking, extrovert style which must have suited Hurlebusch's gifts as a performer: this is music designed to make an impression.

The volume opens with an extensive set of variations on a minuet. There are five suites of dances - allemandes, courantes, sarabandes, minuets and gigues, such as we find in Bach's solo-instrumental suites - and several freestanding fugues and toccatas.

Fernando de Luca has recorded extensively for Brilliant Classics, including recent volumes dedicated to Jean-Jacques Beauvarlet-Charpentier (96774), Pierre-Thomas Dufour (96771) and Pierre-Claude Foucquet (96772).

- Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch (1691-1765) was born in Braunschweig (Germany) and died in Amsterdam. He received his first education from his father Heinrich Lorenz Hurlebusch, an organist and composer. One of his teachers was Buxtehude's pupil Johann Anton Coberg. As a keyboard virtuoso but also as a conductor, he devoted much time to tour through Europe, settling for relatively short periods in Hamburg, Vienna, Venice, Rome and Stockholm. During his 10 year stay in Hamburg he met Johann Sebastian Bach and his children in Leipzig. Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, the second born, mentioned him as an excellent keyboard virtuoso. In 1742 he definitively settled in Amsterdam, having obtained the position of organist at the Oude Kerk, the oldest in the city, an office which had been held in the past by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and which he occupied until his death. He became one of the protagonists of Amsterdam's musical life and in 1743 he was granted Dutch citizenship. Due to his cosmopolitan background, Hurlebusch was familiar with many Italian musical styles (Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi), but he also remained open to more recent developments such as the Galant style of the 1730s and 1740s.

- This new recording presents the two-part "Compositioni musicali per il cembalo, 1735" here recorded integrally by Fernando de Luca, consisting of five suites, five fugues, two toccatas and some variations, showing the composer at ease with the forms in use at the time and mixing French and Italian styles seamlessly.

- Played on a French harpsichord after Blanchet (1754) built by C. Caponi (1985) by Fernando de Luca, one of Italy's foremost harpsichord players. He recorded to great critical acclaim the complete keyboard works by Graupner, Jollage, Dufour and Moyreau, published by Brilliant Classics. His recording of works by Jollage received 5 stars in the French Diapason.