Schuchauer, Guzinger, Pezold, Ganspeck etc

Schuchauer: Trio für 2 Violen d'Amore & Bass continuo
Guzinger: Suite A-Dur für Viola d'Amore & Bc
Pezold: Partita A-Dur für Viola d'Amore solo
Ganspeck: Ouvertüre A-Dur für 2 Violen d'Amore & Bc
Anonymus: Trios D-Dur & A-Dur für 2 Violen d'Amore & Bc

Anne Schumann & Klaus Voigt (Viola d'Amore),
Alison McGillivray (cello) Petra Burmann (theorbo, baroque guitar) Sebastian Knebel (harpsichord)

Genuin GEN 10183

See and hear YouTube preview

2010 has been a great year for dedicated recordings of early instruments, fortepianos, basset clarinet, sackbut and much else. To cap them all, here is a great celebration of the unique beauties of the viola d'amore, which fell out of favour s. 1800 and almost disappeared "to hang in silence in museum cases".

Those here are brought back to life on seven tuned strings each, with seven vibrating sympathetic strings below them, producing resonances of great beauty, the effect enhanced with two of the instruments.

The music here by little known composers, researched by Anne Schumann, is delectable from start to finish; listen first to the solo partita of Pezold and you will be unable to resist this special disc, which combines scholarship with exquisite musicianship.

If you need further persuasion, see and hear these two enthusiasts "excite sympathetic mutual vibration" between their instruments on their YouTube introduction to the Genuin release, recorded at the Kloster Michaelstein in Sachsen-Anhalt, a former Cistercian monastery now the home of the "Michaelstein Abbey Music Institute for Performance".