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David Chung, Keyboard music from France and the Low Countries, Early Music, Volume 42, Issue 1, February 2014, Pages 147–150, https://doi.org/10.1093/em/cas094
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This group of CDs testifies not only to the raising of performance standards and advances in scholarship in recent years, but also to the high level of craftsmanship among makers and restorers of historical keyboard instruments. Seven of the CDs are exclusively dedicated to relatively well-known French repertory, and one to more obscure repertory of Flemish and Dutch origin. Without exception, great efforts have been made to link the instruments to the musical and aesthetic qualities of the music. Taken as a whole, the discs reviewed here demonstrate a healthy, multifarious approach to interpreting a multifaceted solo and chamber keyboard repertory that spans some 150 years.
Terence Charlston presents the première recording of some 30 pieces in La Chasse Royale: Keyboard manuscript of Antoine Selosse (Deux-Elles dxl1143, rec 2009, 92′). The manuscript in question, rediscovered by Peter Leech in 2004, belonged to ‘Padre Antonio Mason, alias Seloss’, probably Antoine Selosse (1621–87), a Jesuit professional musician who was active in Saint-Omer from 1659 until his death. Although the music was intended primarily for domestic and liturgical use, the source offers a plethora of information on the transmission of English and continental keyboard music, and has concrete links to Hogwood m1471 and several other manuscripts. John Bull’s famous The King’s Hunt is among the few pieces that can be positively identified. Very probably, Selosse was personally responsible, either as composer or arranger, for many anonymous works, such as the Variations on the popular tune ‘La Folia’ (disc 1, no.1). In this recording, three instruments have been discerningly chosen to cover the wide diversity of keyboard styles. Karin Richter’s copy of the Donat double-fretted clavichord is a perfect match for the two allemandes designated as being ‘fitt for the manicorde’ in the Hogwood manuscript (disc 2). The historical organ of St Botolph’s, Aldgate, restored by Goetze and Gwynn in 2006 to its 1744 specification, does justice to eleven works in the liturgical or organ style, including several toccatas and chaconnes and one Bergamasca (an older dance variation of Italian origin that was closely connected to lute and guitar repertory). The remaining 20 pieces were recorded on Andrew Garlick’s fine replica of the 1624 Ioannes Ruckers harpsichord (Unterlinden Museum, Colmar). Liner notes by Leech and Charleston offer insight into the historical background and stylistic matters, and information on the source, the edition and the instruments used in the recording. This set stands out as an illustrious model for the fusion of exemplary scholarship and impeccable musicianship.
