Woundrous machine Margret Koell & Ensemble Between The Strings

• George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759): Harp Concerto in B-Flat Major, Op. 4 No. 6, HWV 294:
• 1 Handel: Concerto for harp, lute, lyrichord & other instruments op. 4 no. 6, HWV 294: Andante Allegro 06:06
• 2 Handel: Concerto for harp, lute, lyrichord & other instruments op. 4 no. 7, HWV 295: Larghetto 05:14
• 3 Handel: Concerto for harp, lute, lyrichord & other instruments op. 4 no. 8, HWV 296: Allegro Moderato 02:38
• James Oswald (1711 - 1769): A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes:
• 4 Oswald: A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes: Ty on the Wars 05:41
• George Frideric Handel: Concerto for harp & lute op. 7 no. 1, HWV 306:
• 5 Handel: Concerto for harp & lute op. 7 no. 1, HWV 306: Andante 05:19
• 6 Handel: Concerto for harp & lute op. 7 no. 2, HWV 306: Andante 04:01
• 7 Handel: Concerto for harp & lute op. 7 no. 3, HWV 306: Largo e piano 04:07
• 8 Handel: Concerto for harp & lute op. 7 no. 4, HWV 306: Bourrée Allegro 02:34
• James Oswald: A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes:
• 9 Oswald: A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes: Bonny Christy 03:04
• 10 Oswald: A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes: My Nanio 01:54
• Christof Dienz (b. 1968): flapping its wings – Concertino for triple harp, lyrichord & 5 baroque strings:
• 11 Dienz: flapping its wings – Concertino for triple harp, lyrichord & 5 baroque strings 12:21
• James Oswald: A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes:
• 12 Oswald: A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes: There are few good Fellows when Jamie´s awa´ 03:12
• Total Runtime 56:11

Info for Woundrous machine

Wondrous Machine is the title of an air from Purcell's Odes for St. Cecilia's Day, a hymn of praise to the music of which Cecilia is considered the patron saint, and to the instruments from the flute to the organ, of which she is considered the inventor. Not as an inventor, but as an innovative rediscoverer and ambassador of an equally "wondrous" instrument, namely the historical harp and its "entourage", is Margret Koell. She programmatically places the title "Wondrous Machine" above a project that focuses on the tonal mutability of the triple harp. The programme focuses on George Frideric Handel: the Concerto Op. 7 No. 1 for harp, lute and orchestra is Koell's arrangement of the original concerto for organ and orchestra. The Concerto Op. 4 No. 6 is presented here for the first time in the extremely rarely heard version of 1736 for harp and lyrichord (viola organista) - the latter, a bowed keyboard instrument, is based on sketches by Leonardo da Vinci. With his sketch for another "wondrous machine", the flying machine "ornithopter", da Vinci was once again the inspiration: for the new composition by Christof Dienz, which catapults the triple harp and lyrichord into the present. The programme is rounded off by interspersed Scottish tunes by composer James Oswald.

Margret Koell, triple harp and artistic direction
Slawomir Zubrzycki, lyrichord
Michele Pasotti, lute, theorbo and co-conductor
Between the Strings, ensemble on historical instruments

Margret Köll
Having started with the Tyrolian folk harp, Margret Koell studied the concert harp in Innsbruck, Baltimore and with Helga Storck at the College of Music in Munich, from where she graduated as a teacher and a performer. After further studies on historical harps with Andrew Lawrence-King and Mara Galassi, she took a degree at the Accademia Internazionale della Musica in Milan. Since 2012 she teaches baroque harp at the College of Music Hanns Eisler in Berlin. She was awarded the Austrian Jakob Stainer Prize in 2008.

As principal harpist she has worked with orchestras such as the Munich Symphony Orchestra. Also, she was a member of the folk band Die Knödel and participated in their worldwide tours throughout Europe, the US (e.g. Knitting Factory, New York), Canada, Japan and Mexiko. In this context she has worked, among others, with artists like Meredith Monk, Sainkho Namtchylak and the Kronos Quartett.

As a specialist on the historical harp she plays as a soloist and as a continuo player with various baroque ensembles and orchestras: Il Giardino Armonico, Accademia Bizantina, Europa Galante, the Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, B’Rock and Concerto Köln. She has performed at the Salzburg Festival, in Covent Garden, at the Theater an der Wien, the Operá Garnier Paris, the Bavarian State Opera and the Teatro alla Scala Milan. Her renowned chamber music partners include lutenist Luca Pianca, violinists Enrico Onofri, Dmitry Sinkovsky and Riccardo Minasi, recorder player Stefan Temmingh, viola da gamba player Vittorio Ghielmi and soprano Roberta Invernizzi.

Regularly Margret Koell has participated in CD productions and tours, e.g. with Cecilia Bartoli, Magdalena Kozena, Sonia Prina and Roberta Invernizzi. Her solo CD “L’arpa di Partenope” with early baroque music from Naples was released in 2014 by the label Accent and was awarded with the Diapason d’or. Her second CD “L’arpa Barberini” together with soprano Roberta Invernizzi was published in 2015 also with Accent. In the same year, she played as a soloist with Concerto Köln on their tour to California. A highlight in early 2017 was the opening concert of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg where Margret Koell participated in a duo with countertenor Philippe Jaroussky. Her latest CD “Toys for Two” (Accent 2018) is a duo with lutenist Luca Pianca and features English music for harp and lute, the two symbolic instruments of the British music tradition.

This album contains no booklet.