Harpsichord Concertos & Symphonies [CD], Marcin Swiatkiewicz, CD

Shortly after the end of the Thirty Years' War, the Protestant Friedenskirche (Church of Peace) was erected in the Silesian town of Schweidnitz (Swidnica). It is for the most natural of reasons that Marcin Swiatkiewicz and Arte dei Suonatori chose this remarkable building as the recording venue for the present production: Johann Gottlieb Janitsch, composer of the four works heard here, was born in the town when the magnificent half-timbered structure was already half a century old. As Swiatkiewicz suggests, he may well have absorbed lasting impressions from it's genius loci-impressions that accompanied him throughout his later life. After receiving his first musical training there, Janitsch went on to study law in Frankfurt an der Oder. He subsequently entered the service of the Prussian minister of war and later joined the court of Crown Prince Frederick in Rheinsberg. There, he was permitted to present regular concerts with his own ensemble for a civic audience-an innovative step whose success was surely due in no small measure to the refined galant and empfindsam style that characterizes the music heard here.