Variaciones De Fandango Espagnol: Staier(Cemb)+schornsheim

Among the early music keyboard specialists to emerge in the 1990s, Andreas Staier has distinguished himself with vibrant playing of both harpsichord and fortepiano as well as a vivid historical imagination, enabling him to find lost or forgotten music and bring it to life. The focus of this disc is 18th-century Spain and the fandango dance craze that swept Europe, eventually even finding its way into the operas of Mozart and Gluck.
The Antonio Soler Fandango is one of the late baroque's wildest showstoppers, and Staier masters it with thrilling virtuosity, drive, and dramatic contrasts of registration. Similarly over-the-top is a two-harpsichord arrangement of the Fandango from Luigi Boccherini's Quintet, complete with obligato castanets. The energy level hardly drops for lesser-known pieces such as Felix Lopez 'Variations del Fandango,' which Staier himself discovered in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, or the two works called 'Recercata, Fuga y Sonata' by the short-lived Sebastian de Albero, whose music shows amazing originality and Bach-like complexity.