Fortune My Foe
Fortune My Foe
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Alina Rotaru – harpsichord
Dutch music for harpsichord by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1626)
About the album
Fortune my foe is the first solo CD by harpsichordist Alina Rotaru, featuring harpsichord music by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1626). The recording is a virtuoso and personal exploration of the music of the great Dutch master.
Sweelinck is known to most early music connoisseurs primarily as a composer of organ music. However, historical evidence shows that Sweelinck played the harpsichord as well as the organ. Almost all of his organ works can be easily transposed to the harpsichord. This recording shows that this instrumentation does full justice to the pieces and can even reveal some new sounds and connections.
“Fortune my foe” is not a repertoire recording of Sweelinck's harpsichord music that strives for completeness, but rather an inner journey through the reality of life of this enlightened and cosmopolitan Dutch organist and harpsichordist. The album includes arrangements of Catholic and Protestant chorales, English, Dutch, and German songs, reflecting the cultural diversity that Sweelinck encountered throughout his life.
In addition to works by Sweelinck, the CD also features two works by the composer's contemporaries towards the end: a toccata by Claudio Merulo and, to conclude the album, a fantasia by John Bull, which he composed in response to Sweelinck's death in 1621 based on a fugue theme by the great musician.
Alina Rotaru, who is thoroughly familiar with the cultural diversity of being an artist due to her Romanian ancestry and the years she has spent living in Germany and the Netherlands, creates a realistic, honest, and lively portrait of the composer in her debut album.
Music video
Alina Rotaru plays the "Paduana Lachrimae" from her album on the harpsichord:
Release date:
Catalogue number: CD-16281
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tracklist
Tracklist of "Fortune My Foe"
1 Fantasia Chromatica à 4 SwWV 258 8:20
2 Puer nobis nascitur SwWV 315 2:38
3 Pavana Hispanica SwWV 327 2:17
4 Balleth del granduca SwWV 319 4:31
5 Onder een linde groen SwWV 325 4:55
6 Fortune my foe [Engelse Fortuijn] SwWV 320 2:54
7 Paduana Lachrymae SwWV 328 4:49
8 Ach Gott vom Himmel sieh darein 5:03
9 Mein junges Leben hat ein End’ SwWV 324 5:54
10 Toccata in d 3:00
11 Malle Sijmen SwWV 323 1:17
12 Fantazia op de Fuga van M: Jan Pieters. Fecit Dr. Bull 1621 4:12
booklet text
recording information
press reviews
A revelation ... truly one of my favorite harpsichord CDs, and I have many ! Rotaru's rhythmic and stylistic sense is impeccable. My only complaint: that she hasn't recorded Elizabethan virginal music yet. One can dream, right ?!
I basically got this CD to supplement a Sweelinck program by Robert Wooley on Chandos (which is excellent, by the way). It's OK, and the playing is spirited, but the skimpy progam (only 49 minutes)is somewhat off-putting. Also, according to the best study of Sweelinck's keyboard music, four of the pieces on this program aren't by Sweelinck, but only one is labelled as such on the cover: two are by Sweelinck's pupil Samuel Scheidt and the delightful "Malle Sijmen" is anonymous. That doesn't mean they aren't worth hearing (they are!),but more care should have been taken.
Bon, je craque. Sweelinck joué comme ça, je tombe à terre. Dès les premières mesures du CD, j'ai cessé toutes mes activités, je me suis posé au salon, un bon verre à la main, et j'ai savouré avec un plaisir vorace cet enregistrement (et le whisky qui l'accompagnait). Ceux qui ont l'habitude d'un clavecin rigide, procurez-vous ce CD et vous découvrirez ce que beaucoup d'interprètes vous ont cachés jusqu'à ce jour. Alina Rotaru est LA CLAVECINISTE du XXI° siècle.
Il s'agit du premier enregistrement d'alina rotaru, claveciniste roumaine, excercant surtout en allemagne et ce n'est pas un coup d'essai mais plutôt un coup de maitre tant on sent une assurance, un ton franc, une technique affirmée, une absence de timidité et de repli sur des figures de convenance, une concentration sur la musique, rien que la musique.Ce programme nous propose de suivre les humeurs de Sweelinck au cours d'une journée imaginaire entre chants populaires, ivresse sonore de la virtuosité et des expérimentations chromatiques, la mélancolie noire ou l'introspection métaphysique propre à cette période pendant laquelle l'exploration de la mélancolie des âmes était une sorte de facon de vivre, une facon de survivre à des conditions de vie particulièrement difficiles, où la mort pouvait frapper à n'importe quel moment.Alina Rotaru réussit assez brillamment ce défi dans ce qui reste une des meilleures anthologies Sweelinck au clavecin, même si on percoit ici ou là une volonté un peu trop démonstrative de souligner les articulations et une recherche un peu trop systématique de la plénitude sonore. Des menues réserves qui ne remettent pas en cause la réussite de cet album ni le plaisir qu'on a à écouter ces pièces sur cette copie de Ruckers par Fred Bettenhausen au son pas complètement aussi luthé que celui du Ruckers transpositeur utilisé par Gavin Black ni aussi délicat que celui du virginal Ruckers original de Marco Vitale utilisés dans leurs anthologies respectives.
My only complaint about this disc by Alina Rotaru is that her performance is only 49 minutes long. Technically, she is hugely gifted. And she also plays with great sensitivity and a very good understanding of Sweelinck's highly idiomatic music. Her recording of Froberger's harpsichord music is also excellent and highly recommended.