Hebenstreit’s Bach La Gioia Armonica

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1019 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer):
• 1 Bach: Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1019 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): I. Allegro 04:03
• 2 Bach: Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1019 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): II. Largo 01:55
• Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1019 (Arr. for Organ by Jürgen Banholzer):
• 3 Bach: Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1019 (Arr. for Organ by Jürgen Banholzer): III. Allegro 05:09
• Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1019 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer):
• 4 Bach: Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1019 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): IV. Adagio 03:15
• 5 Bach: Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1019 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): V. Allegro 03:59
• Violin Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1023 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer):
• 6 Bach: Violin Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1023 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): I. [...] 01:47
• 7 Bach: Violin Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1023 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): II. Adagio ma non tanto 02:41
• 8 Bach: Violin Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1023 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): III. Allemande 04:26
• 9 Bach: Violin Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1023 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): IV. Gigue 03:14
• Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009:
• 10 Bach: Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009: IV. Sarabande (Arr. for Dulcimer by Margit Übellacker) 03:29
• Violin Partita No.3 in E Major, BWV 1006:
• 11 Bach: Violin Partita No.3 in E Major, BWV 1006: I. Preludio (Arr. for Dulcimer by Margit Übellacker) 04:49
• Violin Sonata in A Major, BWV 1015 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer):
• 12 Bach: Violin Sonata in A Major, BWV 1015 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): I. [Dolce] 03:00
• 13 Bach: Violin Sonata in A Major, BWV 1015 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): II. Allegro assai 03:40
• 14 Bach: Violin Sonata in A Major, BWV 1015 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): III. Andante un poco 02:57
• 15 Bach: Violin Sonata in A Major, BWV 1015 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): IV. Presto 05:22
• Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007:
• 16 Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prelude (Arr. for Dulcimer by Margit Übellacker) 03:06
• Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1021 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer):
• 17 Bach: Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1021 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): I. Adagio 03:49
• 18 Bach: Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1021 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): II. Vivace 01:15
• 19 Bach: Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1021 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): III. Largo 02:18
• 20 Bach: Violin Sonata in G Major, BWV 1021 (Arr. for Dulcimer and Organ by Margit Übellacker and Jürgen Banholzer): IV. Presto 01:46
• Total Runtime 01:06:00

Info for Hebenstreit’s Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was certainly familiar with the Pantaleon – a large hammered dulcimer with a wide range and full chromatic scale. Bach’s contemporary Pantaleon Hebenstreit had developed the instrument, through which he gained international renown and became one of the best-paid Dresden court musicians. The instrument enjoyed great popularity in the 18th century and was an important precursor of the fortepiano, its younger brother. Bach may have heard Hebenstreit with his Pantaleon himself, as he knew several court musicians of the Dresden orchestra personally and also performed with some of them. Whilst we cannot know if they had met in reality, our imagination has nonetheless been much exercised. What would Bach have put on his famous colleague's music stand? Very little music written for the Pantaleon has survived, although the instrument’s use in the court orchestras of Vienna and Dresden suggests that works for the harpsichord and for the violin in particular could have served for arrangements and improvisations. It is hard to imagine that Bach would have objected to a virtuoso like Hebenstreit adapting his violin sonatas for the Pantaleon…

La Gioia Armonica

La Gioia Armonica
The ensemble LA GIOIA ARMONICA was founded by the Austrian dulcimer player Margit Übellacker and the German organist and singer Jürgen Banholzer. A main focus of the ensemble’s work is the exploration of the baroque repertoire for the dulcimer, and in particular for the italian salterio and for the legendary pantaleon. The size of the ensemble ranges from the dulcimer-organ duo to larger formations, in which musicians specialising in early music performance practice join forces to produce lively and fresh performances of unknown or rarely performed works of the 17th and 18th centuries.

In April 2017 the third CD of the ensemble was released by cpo: Conserva me Domine with countertenor Terry Wey, whom the Süddeutsche Zeitung lately called a discovery long overdue and who was rated one of the best of his Fach by Fono Forum. It features two psalms by Benedetto Marcello as well as vocal and instrumental works with obligato salterio by Giambattista Martini, Antonio Sacchini and Melchiorre Chiesa. Margit Übellacker plays these on a copy of an eighteenth century Italian salterio. Critics called this CD „a musically satisfying disc which opens new horizons" (MusicWeb International), „a very fine disc for curious ears“ (www.clicmusique.com) which „demonstrates that there is still much interesting music to discover“ (American Record Guide).

The ensemble’s first CD (Antonio Caldara: Cantate, Sonate ed Arie, released by RAMÉE) was greeted enthusiastically by the press and received various prizes (Pizzicato Supersonic Award, Goldberg: 5 Ètoiles, Prelude Classical Award 2006 for the best debut CD). LA GIOIA ARMONICA has since been invited to give concerts in Germany and abroad, e.g. at Ton Koopman's Festival Itinéraire Baroque, at the Händelfestspiele in Halle, the Bachfestival Dordrecht, the Festival de Musique Ancienne in Leytron, the Early Music Festival in Timisoara, Bagnacavallo Classica, the Mitteldeutsche Heinrich-Schütz-Tage, the Organfestival Fugato in Bad Homburg, OrgelPlus in Bottrop as well as for concert series of the Museum of Musical Instruments in Berlin and the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Mainz.

The ensemble's second CD (Johann Georg Reutter: Portus Felicitatis, released by RAMÉE in cooperation with Radio Bremen) appeared in 2013 and features motets and arias for the pantaleon by one of the most successful composers of music for the church and for the opera at the Viennese court around 1750. "The album which at last rehabilitates Reutter with doubled rarities has a title that is brilliantly chosen: Portus Felicitatis is really a haven of bliss for all lovers of classical music off the beaten track of mainstream." (Dirk Kruse, Bayrischer Rundfunk) George Pratt called the CD "wonderfully revelatory" (BBC Music Magazine).

Booklet for Hebenstreit’s Bach