Thank God It's Frescobaldi

Douglas Mews plays Frescobaldi on an Italian Virginal. J. S. Bach owned copies of Frescobaldi’s keyboard works, written a century earlier, and admired them greatly. Frescobaldi was the hot-blooded organist of St Peter’s in Rome, whose keyboard style ranged from quixotic to hypnotic. An Italian virginal will show off his inventiveness in the glorious acoustic of the chancel at St Paul’s Cathedral in Molesworth St, Wellington.

Programme:
Toccata Seconda (Second Book of Toccatas, Partitas etc 1627)
Aria detta la Frescobalda (Second Book of Toccatas 1637)
Toccata Prima (Second Book of Toccatas, Partitas etc 1627)
Balletto - Corrente del Balletto - Passacagli (First Book of Toccatas, Partitas etc 1615/1616)
Toccata Ottava (First Book of Toccatas 1637)
Cento Partite sopra Passacagli (First Book of Toccatas 1637

Frescobaldi was famous in Italy as organist at St Peter’s in Rome, but his fame as a composer spread throughout Europe. Composers such as Pachelbel, Purcell and J. S. Bach were greatly influenced by Frescobaldi’s compositions. Bach owned his Fiori Musicali and performed it at Weimar in 1714. His toccatas, with their fantasy and contrasts gave inspiration for the Stylus Fantasticus in 17th century North Germany. His most famous pupil was J. J. Froberger, Vienna Court organist, and in fact, after Frescobaldi’s death, keyboard-playing in Italy (where the harpsichord had been born) was to be unremarkable until Domenico Scarlatti’s time.

The Virginal used in today’s performance is a copy of a typical Italian instrument made by the late Waldo Granwal from a Zuckermann kit, kindly loaned by Waldo’s daughter, Imogen, a cellist/violist now living in Wellington.

Douglas Mews is a freelance Wellington musician specialising in performance on historic keyboard instruments. He is organist at St Teresa’s Church Karori and Artist Teacher at the NZSM. He studied at Auckland University with Anthony Jennings and then at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague with Bob van Asperen. As a chamber musician playing harpsichord and piano, he works with various ensembles, including The Night Watch, Hammers and Horsehair, The Amici Ensemble and Camerata. As an organist he has taken part in the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival and the Early Music Festival in Bolzano, Italy.