Ensemble Notturna
Forgotten chamber works with oboe from the Court of Prussia
About
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Notturna has a longstanding tie with chamber music from the court of Prussia and has made it their specialty to broaden understanding and appreciation for this unjustly forgotten repertoire.
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In June 2018, the ensemble released a new recording for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (Sony) of previously unrecorded and unedited chamber works from the court of Frederick the Great. The programme features five world premières of trios, quartets and quintets by Graun, Krause and Janitsch.
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The role of the oboe at the court of Prussia has long fallen into obscurity. Overshadowed by the traverso, Frederick the Great’s favourite instrument, a large corpus of chamber music for oboe from Berlin has nonetheless survived and recently come to light, as illustrated by the works on this recording.
Musicians​
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Christopher Palameta, oboe and direction
Jan Van den Borre, traverso
Catherine Martin, violin & viola
Emily Robinson, cello
Brice Sailly, harpsichord
The Whole Note (Canada)
Andrew Scott, January 2019
"Palameta is widely fêted for oboe performances that are suffused with equal amounts of aesthetic beauty and historical rigour [...] Thanks to Palameta, Van den Borre, Martin, Robinson and Sailly, this important and underrepresented music lives on for future audiences."
Early Music Review (Scotland)
D. James Ross, June 2019
"Christopher Palameta is a highly accomplished exponent of the early oboe and plays and directs Notturna with equal assurance and musicality.”
Musica dei Donum (NL)
Johan van Veen, September 2018
"This disc is a model of creative programming. The performances do the repertoire full justice. Palameta produces a clear and penetrating tone, and Catherine Martin is a perfect match. The balance between the two instruments is just right."
BR-Klassik (DE)
Detlef Krenge, September 2018
"Die fünf Musikerinnen und Musiker des Ensembles Notturna spielen auffallend klangschöne Instrumente."
- "The five musicians of Notturna play strikingly beautifully.”