This new CD presents world premiere recordings of Christlieb Siegmund Binder's quatros and trios for 18th century chamber ensemble.
"I first came into contact with the music of Christlieb Siegmund Binder during the years that I assisted Reinhard Goebel at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, when he generously showed me a copy of the Quatro in F major that he had written out himself. The genre "quartet with obbligato keyboard" has always been one of my favourite areas of research, although it was later to turn out that Binder's Quatros are not in fact keyboard quartets.
I began to research Binder in depth and very quickly discovered a lead that would set me on the right path to finding an appropriate type of instrument for his music. A pantaleon is a dulcimer about three metres long and strung with wound gut strings. The pantaleon was played with wooden mallets or sticks which could be covered with leather or other materials such as felt to achieve the required timbre. The wooden mallets functioned as a kind of hammer mechanism, only without keys, and allowed the player to create previously undreamed-of dynamics and resonance.
During a conversation with the instrument maker Kerstin Schwarz in Autumn 2020 I learned that she had just completed a copy of a clavecin roial based on an instrument by Johann Gottlob Wagner (1741-1789). This was truly uncharted territory. Once we had set up the instrument and I played the first notes, it was immediately clear that this was the right instrument for recording Binder's music on this CD. The clavecin roial suited Binder's music perfectly, both geographically and historically. It is said that a tangent piano preserves the qualities of a harpsichord, a fortepiano and a clavichord; the clavecin roial combines all of these and there is also a hint of the cimbalom or psaltery in its sound.
In brief, not only does the music recorded here makes the most sense being played on the clavecin roial, but Binder's music has also made both me personally and us as an ensemble into better musicians." - Ricardo Magnus, founder of Ensemble Klangschmelze.
