Thurston Dart (clavichord) ‘Clavichord Music’ J.J. Froberger
Recorded mono (despite the indication stereo at the exposed cover) 1961 for Editions de L’Oiseau-Lyre Mono OL 50207
Clavichord built by Thomas Goff

Side one
00:00 Tombeau de M. Blancheroché
Suite X (A minor)
03:29 Allemande
04:50 Courante
05:34 Sarabande
07:16 Gigue

08:31 Lamentation t’or Ferdinand IV
11:00 Capriccio
Suite XIV (G minor)
15:29 Allemande
17:35 Courante?
18:35 Sarabanda?
19:35 Ricercare?

20:55 Allemande from Suite XX

Side two
25:40 Ricercar
29:21 Lamentation for Ferdinand III
Suite XIX (C minor)
32:26 Allemande
34:01 Courante
34:46 Sarabande
36:10 Gigue

37:20 Fantasia
Suite III (G major)
42:27 AlIemande
43:32 Courante
44:31 Sarabande
45:20 Gigue

46:12 Allemande from Suite XXX
Suite VII (E minor)
49:10 Allemande
51:23 Courante
52:04 Sarabande
53:38 Gigue

Bom at Stuttgart on 19 May 1616, Froberger was appointed court organist at Vienna in his twentyfirst year, Shortly afterwards his patron; the music loving emperor Ferdinand IlI, sent him to study with Frescobaldl in Rome, where he stayed for about three years, Upon his retum to Vienna in 1641 he resued his court appointment, but late in 1645 he seems to have been granted leave of absence, and he spent the next eight years travelling extensively. During this period he visited France, the Low Countries, and Germany, making
a great impression by the skill of his playing and the beauty of his compositions. From 1 April 1653 until 30 June 1657 he was court organist in Vienna once again; the last ten years of his life were spent in Austria, England and France, where he died (in a house at Héricourt belonging to the dowager duchess of Württemburg) on 7 May 1667.

Famous throughout all Europe not only during his lifetime but for many decades after his death, Froberger was the Dowland of the keyboard. Like Dowland he seems to have had an introspective meÍancholy tum of mlnd, but he far surpassed the lutenist in contrapuntal skill and in the powerful originality of his musical idiom. He learned much from Frescobaldi, perhaps also from the contemporary French school of harpsichordists led by Chambonnières and Louis Couperin, In his time he exercised great influence on more than a generation of composers, from d’Anglebert to Mattheson and Bach. His music is poetic, personal, expressive and rewarding to play, yet it is little known. I hope this disc may encourage many music-lovers to explore it for themselves.
The autograph copies of his own works preserved in the National Library, Vienna, give no indication whatsoever of the instrument he had in mind for the performance of his music. The Amsterdam editions (1697-98) of his keyboard suites describe them simply as ‘Suittes de clavessin’ as a result they have usually been discussed as though they form part of the development of harpsichord music.
But the Malnz edltions of 1693-96, from which the Amsterdam editions appear to have been derived, define his music as for lovers of harpsichords, organs, clavichords and spinets’. Any experienced player of 17th-century music and 17th-century
keyboard instruments will soon satisfy himself that Froberger’s Suites – perhaps also some of hls more contrapuntal pieces – were in the first instance composed for the clavlchord, an instrument whose special features gave rise during the 17th century to a distinctive style of composition.
For the present disc I have aelected a little anthology of his clavichord pieces, chosen primarily for their beauty, but also to show various aspects of Froberger’s characteristic style. He was apparently the creator of what soon became known as the ‘French Suite’, consisting of an Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue (sometimes expanded by ‘Doubles”)

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