Dienz & Handel & Zubrzycki - Woundrous Machine (CD)

Wondrous Machine - this is the title of an air from Purcell's Odes for St. Cecilia's Day, a hymn of praise to the music of which Cecilia is considered the patron saint, and to the instruments from the flute to the organ, of which she is considered the inventor. Not as an inventor, but as an innovative rediscoverer and ambassador of an equally "wondrous" instrument, namely the historical harp and it's "entourage", is Margret Koell. She programmatically places the title "Wondrous Machine" above a project that present the mutability of the triple harp. The programme focuses on George Frideric Handel: the Concerto Op. 7 No. 1 for harp, lute and orchestra is Koell's arrangement of the original concerto for organ and orchestra. The Concerto Op. 4 No. 6 is presented here for the first time in the extremely rarely heard version from 1736 for harp and lyrichord (viola organista) - the latter, a bowed keyboard instrument, is based on sketches by Leonardo da Vinci. With his sketch for another "wondrous machine", the flying machine "Ornithopter", da Vinci was once again the inspiration: for the new composition by Christof Dienz, which catapults the triple harp and lyrichord into the present. The programme is rounded off by interspersed Scottish tunes by the composer James Oswald.