À Portuguesa Andreas Staier

• William Corbett (1680 - 1748): Concerto No. 7 "Alla Portugesa" in B-Flat Major, Op. 7:
• 1 Concerto No. 7 "Alla Portugesa" in B-Flat Major, Op. 7: I. Allegro 03:09
• 2 Concerto No. 7 "Alla Portugesa" in B-Flat Major, Op. 7: II. Largo e pia[no] 04:16
• 3 Concerto No. 7 "Alla Portugesa" in B-Flat Major, Op. 7: III. Allegro 02:03
• José António Carlos de Seixas (1704 - 1742): Harpsichord Concerto in G Minor:
• 4 Harpsichord Concerto in G Minor: I. Allegro 05:25
• 5 Harpsichord Concerto in G Minor: II. Adagio 02:39
• 6 Harpsichord Concerto in G Minor: III. Allegro assai 06:15
• Domenico Scarlatti (1685 - 1757): Harpsichord Sonata in G Minor, K. 8:
• 7 Harpsichord Sonata in G Minor, K. 8: Allegro 02:33
• Harpsichord Sonata in G Major, K. 13:
• 8 Harpsichord Sonata in G Major, K. 13: Presto 04:09
• Harpsichord Sonata in B Minor, K. 173:
• 9 Harpsichord Sonata in B Minor, K. 173: Allegro 04:44
• José António Carlos de Seixas (1704 - 1742): Harpsichord Concerto in A Major:
• 10 Harpsichord Concerto in A Major: I. Allegro 01:52
• 11 Harpsichord Concerto in A Major: II. Adagio 01:07
• 12 Harpsichord Concerto in A Major: III. Giga. Allegro 02:16
• Charles Avison (1709 - 1770): Concerto grosso No. 5 in D Minor:
• 13 Concerto grosso No. 5 in D Minor: I. Largo 02:44
• 14 Concerto grosso No. 5 in D Minor: II. Allegro 01:40
• 15 Concerto grosso No. 5 in D Minor: III. Andante moderato 01:40
• 16 Concerto grosso No. 5 in D Minor: IV. Allegro 02:02
• Luigi Boccherini (1743 - 1805): Quintet No. 60 in C Major, G. 324 "La Musica Notturna delle strade di Madrid":
• 17 Quintet No. 60 in C Major, G. 324 "La Musica Notturna delle strade di Madrid": I. Ave Maria. Imitando il tocco dell'Ave Maria della Parrochia (transcription for String Orchestra and Harpsichords by Andreas Staier) 01:01
• 18 Quintet No. 60 in C Major, G. 324 "La Musica Notturna delle strade di Madrid": II. Minuetto (transcription for String Orchestra and Harpsichords by Andreas Staier) 02:09
• 19 Quintet No. 60 in C Major, G. 324 "La Musica Notturna delle strade di Madrid": III. Rosario. Largo assai (transcription for String Orchestra and Harpsichords by Andreas Staier) 04:37
• 20 Quintet No. 60 in C Major, G. 324 "La Musica Notturna delle strade di Madrid": IV. Los manolos. Passa Calle. Allegro (transcription for String Orchestra and Harpsichords by Andreas Staier) 02:00
• 21 Quintet No. 60 in C Major, G. 324 "La Musica Notturna delle strade di Madrid": V. Ritirata con variazioni. Tempo di Marcia (transcription for String Orchestra and Harpsichords by Andreas Staier) 06:20
• Total Runtime 01:04:41

Info for À Portuguesa

This musical journey takes its title from one of William Corbett's Bizzarie universali, a set of concertos which, in truth, owe much more to the Italian tradition than to the Iberian peninsula . . .

In the Age of Enlightenment, Portuguese music shared the favours of certain English publishers with its Spanish neighbour; drinking at the inexhaustible source of the Scarlatti sonatas, Charles Avison conceived sumptuous concertos that sound extraordinarily like their contemporary equivalents written at Coimbra by Seixas.

This constant exchange between Iberian chamber music and the eighteenth-century orchestra culminates in an orchestral arrangement of Boccherini's famous Musica notturna, presented by Andreas Staier in total complicity with the Baroque orchestra of the Casa da Música de Porto.

Andreas Staier, harpsichord, direction
Orquestra barocca Casa da Música
Laurence Cummings, conductor

Andreas Staier
studied piano and gained his Baccalaureate in Göttingen, then went to Hanover where he studied piano, harpsichord and chamber music at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik. It was whilst playing with the Hanover Conservatory Baroque Orchestra that Staier became acquainted with the harpsichord, and it was the discovery of the English repertoire, originally written for the virginal, that sparked him into deciding to study this instrument. He attended master-classes by Gustav Leonhardt and completed his studies at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam with Ton Koopman where he graduated with distinction after two years.

In the early 1980s Staier was harpsichordist with Musica Antiqua Köln with whom he toured throughout Europe, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. During this period he also concentrated on the study of the fortepiano.

A teaching post at the Schola Cantorum in Basle, Switzerland was combined with a performing career as soloist on the harpsichord and fortepiano, during which Staier appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, Suntory Hall in Japan and the Philharmonie in Berlin. He also appears regularly with the Freiburger Barockorchester, Concerto Köln, the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and the Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin. Staier is also in demand as an accompanist, and he works regularly with cellist Anner Bylsma and tenor Christoph Prégardien. He also appears at many of the best-known music festivals including La Roque d’Anthéron in France, the Montreux Festival in Switzerland and the Schleswig-Holstein in Germany.

Staier is one of the best fortepianists of the day. His performances are always interesting, and never sound dull, dry or boring in a musicological way. He does not try to educate the public into hearing how Mozart’s or Schubert’s music would have sounded to the composers, but by playing the music with taste, style and panache on perfectly regulated instruments, puts forward a case as good as any to hear these works on an alternative to the modern grand piano. One clue to his style may be found in an interview from July 1997 where he said, ‘When you hear recordings and piano rolls of Leschetizky or Moriz Rosenthal playing Liszt or Chopin they sound as if they’re composing the music themselves, playing with a kind of freedom, especially rhythmic freedom, which has nothing to do with a lack of respect, but gives a real insight into the music’s inner function…Unlike so many modern pianists, who sound as if they’re taking musical dictation, these older pianists play in musical gestures rather than individual notes. For me their playing is far more “authentic” than the mechanical interpretations you often hear today.’

Staier has recorded for BMG, and from 1995 to 2002 was under exclusive contract to Teldec Classics; after that he has recorded for Harmonia Mundi. For BMG, highlights include three volumes of selected sonatas and variations by Haydn recorded on an excellent-sounding instrument that is a 1982 copy of 1792 fortepiano. On the harpsichord Staier has recorded two volumes of sonatas by Scarlatti and there is a disc of works by C.P.E. Bach where he plays both harpsichord and fortepiano. For Teldec Staier has recorded piano concertos by Mozart, Salieri, Mendelssohn and John Field. Highlights of the solo recordings include a disc of music by William Byrd entitled John come kiss me now, Schubert’s last three piano sonatas on an original fortepiano from 1825, and lieder by Krufft, Lachner, Beethoven and Schubert with Christoph Prégardien. Of the Schubert sonatas Stephen Johnson wrote in The Gramophone, ‘As a final judgement, I’d say that this is the most impressive fortepiano recording I’ve heard. And that goes for the sound quality too.’ Staier’s recording of Schubert’s Die Winterreise with Christoph Prégardien also received glowing reviews. Alan Blyth found himself to be ‘…under the spell of this new version, finding it the most convincing of all, allied as it is to a finely balanced recording by West German Radio…’. After complimenting Prégardien, Blyth wrote, ‘Staier is just as revelatory…you have the sense of performers who have lived together with the cycle and conceived a unified, thought-through vision.’ Another solo disc titled Variaciones del fandango Español contains eighteenth century works Staier has unearthed in various libraries. For Harmonia Mundi Staier has recently recorded solo works by Mozart and some of Haydn’s concertos with the Freiburger Barockorchester.

Booklet for À Portuguesa