American Record Guide

Rowland plays 12 suites with all repeats. This is advertised as “Volume 1”. Judging from the thoroughness of his previous recording projects, there are three more volumes to come. It makes a favourable impression overall. When he finishes the series it should be a reliable reference set. There are about 40 suites, some recently authenticated.

There are small points where I disagree with Rowland’s musical choices. In the Mayerin suite and a few other pieces, his improvised ornamentation is odd where it goes outside the diatonic scale. I noticed some of this in his Handel suites, too. It’s mildly irritating that most of his trills are the same speed, regardless of the character of the music – they could have been more expressive with wider variation among and in them.

He adds some uncomfortable bass notes that spoil the magical effect at the end of the piece about infant King Ferdinand IV. The piece is supposed to run up to the top the keyboard with a slow and unsupported scale, and a drawing in the manuscript illustrates this as an ascent into the heavenly clouds.

In Froberger’s suites, Rowland makes the controversial (but widely accepted) choice to turn the notation of dotted figures into the sound of triplets. This sometimes requires extensive changes to Froberger’s written text, as if the composer wasn’t able to write down what he really wanted. It sounds OK, but many other performers make these pieces sound gopod with the herky-jerky rhythms as notated. **

The unspecified mild temperament sounds like Vallotti’s. It fits the geniality of Rowland’s interpretation. I am more pleased with this set than I was with his Mattheson or Handel.

—Bradley Lehman