Austral Harmony - Harmonische Freude: Works for Baroque Oboe, Trumpet & Chamber Organ (2015)

Harmonische Freude features chamber music by Johann Sebastian Bach and his extended circle, played on authentic period instruments by Austral Harmony. Taking its name from an early collection of Australian poetry, the Australian ensemble, specialists in eighteenth-century music, presents innovatively designed programmes and promote less familiar repertoire. This is its first recording on Chandos. Using the sustained tone of a small pipe organ alongside baroque oboe and trumpet, the musicians create an impression of intimacy and pleasing variety of sonority. Inspiration comes from the organ preludes in Kauffmann's collection Harmonische Seelenlustmusikalischer Gönner und Freunde, which specifies the use of an oboe placed so as to give the impression that it is an organ stop. This type of musical form enjoyed a transient existence in central Germany during the mid-eighteenth century. Kauffmann's pupil Tag then illustrated the emerging Empfindsamkeit ('expressive' style) that ushered in the musical ideals of the classical era.

Krebs and Homilius were amongst the pupils of Bach, and aspired to perpetuate the tradition of their great teacher who had employed Lutheran chorales exhaustively throughout his choral and organ works; both produced chorale adaptations which included oboe and trumpet.