La Gamba

"You will want this delightful program on your shelf, and it will be worth listening to over and over again. [...] Ortiz's music brings a pronounced Latino flavor to the program and makes for a lot of enjoyable listening. A great many "strumming" instruments are used: guitar, harp, and theorbo, as well as harpsichord. All of this contributes energy and makes the music very listenable." --American Record Guide, March/April 2012

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Forqueray: Pieces de Viole avec la Basse Continuë

Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray represent the two leading figures from the world of the French viola da gamba with – in the opinion of a contemporary in Hubert Le Blanc – the former playing like an angel and the latter like a devil. And fiendishly difficult to play, of course, are many of the pieces brought together in the volume prepared by Jean-Baptiste Forqueray (“le fils”) in 1747, two years after the death of his father, and drawn from sketches and memories. These Pièces de viole avec la basse continuë, dedicated to Princess Henriette of France (the younger of Louis XV’s twin daughters), serve as a final and grand homage to an instrument, which after seventy years of an absolute rule was by that time starting to cede territory to the cello...

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