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Gramophone

This is the fourth and final volume of a series devoted to Froberger’s Gilbert Rowland complete Suites, nearly 50 in total over eight CDs recorded over six years. They include the contents of the two autograph manuscripts dedicated to Froberger’s patron, Emperor Ferdinand III, and those ascribed to the composer in other manuscripts (some famous and others less so). A few, finally, are attributed to the composer on various grounds. To judge by those included in this volume (including the one with which Gilbert Rowland rounds off the series, in whose opening I detect faint echoes of Byrd), these attributions are plausible at the very least and worth hearing in any case. Froberger is often referred to as a link between Frescobaldi’s Italy and Bach, but it’s perhaps in the Suites most of all that this historical perspective takes on palpable, audible form (the conclusion of the Gigue of the D minor Suite, FbWV639, being a case in point).

Rowland opts for continuity across the series, recording with the same harpsichord (a modern copy of a 1750 instrument) in the same venue and with the same engineer. In common with the previous volumes, Rowland begins the latest instalment with a Suite whose opening Allemande bears a programmatic or descriptive title; this one is the lament commemorating his being attacked and robbed while on his travels. One is thereby reminded of Froberger’s endearing (and decidedly contemporary) willingness to let his biography intrude into his music. It’s a thoughtful opening gambit on Rowland’s part but even without it, Froberger extracts such variety from these dance forms that one can listen to each CD at one sitting without the ear being jaded in the slightest.

An entire, complex and sympathetic personality is on show, whose assimilation of different musical influences is constantly evident. Rowland is a fluent guide, discreet though not entirely self-effacing (I lost myself down a rabbit hole observing the desynchronisation of hands; the harpsichordist’s bread-and-butter, perhaps, but in Rowland’s hands a pleasure to listen to) and above all, as befits this music, elegant. (The meaning of Froberger’s performance instruction, ‘discretion’, is not entirely clear but one feels that Rowland approaches its spirit.) Add to this a precise and atmospheric sound recording and you have a serious statement about a composer who deserves even wider recognition. After such a monument one really wishes for a postscript from Rowland, including some of the famous stand-alone character pieces (such as the laments on the death of Ferdinand III or the lutenist Blancrocher) that have been recorded before but on which Rowland’s insights would be welcome indeed. 

**Editors Choice September 2025**