IDAGIO | Johann Heinrich Rolle: Sinfonias - Harpsichord Concertos 761203563425

Featuring

Michael Alexander Willens
Michael Borgstede
Kölner Akademie
Johann Heinrich Rolle

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Instruments

At the Berlin court and across northern and central Germany, the cembalo (harpsichord) was the preferred solo instrument for orchestral ensembles, despite the court owning fortepianos.

Critical Reception

During his lifetime, Rolle was immensely popular, with one contemporary calling him 'the nation's favorite composer,' but he was largely forgotten by 1825.

Composer Biography

Rolle studied law at the University of Leipzig, a common path for aspiring musicians, and may have played in Johann Sebastian Bach's Collegium Musicum.

Compositional Technique

Rolle's concerti for cembalo and string orchestra were modeled after works composed by Berlin court cembalists like Christoph Schaffrath, who wrote 69 such concerti.

Compositional Technique

Rolle's symphonies are three-movement works with succinct openings, following Italian models popularized in Berlin by Johann Gottlieb Graun, a celebrated violin virtuoso.

Composer Biography

Rolle was a violinist and violist in the court orchestra of King Frederick II in Berlin, a center of musical avant-garde at the time.

Composer Biography

Johann Heinrich Rolle, the composer featured on this album, was born in 1716 and showed musical talent early, reportedly composing sacred works at 13 and becoming an organist at 14.