Musical Offering / Aston Magna, Michael Behringer
The Aston Magna Group consist of a group of regular performers at the American music festival of the same name, and its members do not seem to be fixed. John Gibbons, fortepiano, has recorded the Mozart’s concertos with the 18th Century Orchestra conducted by Frans Brüggen. Flutist Christopher Kruger is a flutist with the Boston Baroque. On this CD, he plays everything from the the three-voice and six-voice ricercare to the canon and the basso continuo of the trio sonatas, all on fortepiano. The choice of this instrument was not a mistake, but rather, it may have been right., since it is said that Bach played the fortepiano in front of King Friedrich the Great during his visit to Potsdam, which motivated the composition of “Musical Offering”.
The other CD features Michael Behringer’s fortepiano and harpsichord, Karl Kaiser’s flute, Gottfried von der Goltz’s violin, and Ekkehard Weber’s viola da gamba. In this CD, fortepiano is used only for the three-voice ricercare and the trio sonata.
