Geminiani: Concerti Grossi Op. 7

‘For some years now we have been interested in the experiments of composers on the frontiers of Baroque musical language. The music of the sons of Bach and especially of Carl Philipp Emanuel has already come to fascinate us, and we had the same urge to discover and let ourselves be surprised when we decided to tackle Geminiani. To immerse ourselves in his op.7 was an exciting process, questioning our experience of Baroque music and rousing the enthusiasm of all the musicians of Café Zimmermann.’ (Celine Frisch, harpsichord)
‘“WHAT?!” was the first stunned reaction of the musicians after reading through Geminiani’s Concertos op.7. A composition that is invariably controversial, at once surprising and familiar. Then it was a new discovery with each concerto, with different textures and styles from one movement to the other. This music led us along unexpected paths from the church to the theatre, from Italy to France, from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth.’ (Pablo Valetti, violin)
‘Geminiani’s music reflects my state of mind, one foot in the seventeenth century and the other in the eighteenth. The rhetoric and architecture it employs are still compatible with the Baroque. But the choice and exploration of emotions are already very new, similar to the way we feel today. This state of inner contradiction was probably not always understood by Geminiani’s contemporaries, but it is exactly what we look for and admire nowadays.’ (Petr Skalka, cello)
 ‘What a wonderful surprise it was to study and record Geminiani’s op.7! In this strangely little-played set of concertos, I discovered an infinite variety of forms and colours, totally unpredictable every time, from one concerto to another and even from one movement to another.’(Patricia Gagnon, viola)