BERLIN FOCUS
Chamber music and concertos
Finding revelations in the "empfindsam" Style
For this multiannual project Ensemble Diderot puts the spotlight on the cosmopolitan German capital. As always, the four creative musicians wander far from the beaten track and want to draw a new picture of a musical landscape we all thought we knew, finding revelations in the so-called “empfindsam” style and exploring Berlin’s connection with Paris. The focus, as at the inception in Berlin of the modern concert open to all, is on rediscovering forgotten treasures and the pure enjoyment of listening.
Several recordings, a multi-media project and numerous concert programmes reflect the splendour and elegance of the Berlin School and allow the French ensemble to show itself once again as a passionate innovator and storyteller.
Ensemble Diderot at the Brandenburg Gate
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The Berlin Album
Ensemble Diderot
“The Berlin Album”, the fourth volume in our cities series features a programme of trio sonatas, including the first recording of Graun’s Sanguineus and Melancholicus. The album has been met with universal critical acclaim and received the International Classical Music Award in the category “Baroque instrumental”.
C.F.C. Fasch
Philippe Grisvard
Ensemble Diderot’s keyboard player Philippe Grisvard explores Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch, the harpsichordist at the Prussian court next to CPE Bach on a new solo album of world-premiere recordings that make it possible to rediscover an original and visionary composer, neglected by musicians and underestimated by musicologists.
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Concert programmes
Berlin-Paris
Trio Sonatas
Johann Philipp Kirnberger
Trio sonata in D Minor
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Jean-Marie Leclair
Trio sonata in A Major, op. 4, no. 6
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Johann Gottlieb Graun
Trio in G Major „Melancholicus & Sanguineus“
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Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
Trio sonata in E Minor op. 2, no. 1
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Jean-Pierre Guignon
Duo „Les Sauvages et la Furstemberg“
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Johann Gottlieb Goldberg
Trio sonata in C Major (BWV 1037)
Berlin-Dresden
Concertos
Johann Gottlieb Goldberg
Sonata a quattro in C Minor
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Johann Georg Pisendel
Violin concerto
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Johann Gottlieb Graun
Harpsichord concerto
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Johann Wilhelm Hertel
Cello concerto
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Johann Gottlieb Janitsch
Quadro in D Major
Future plans
2022 will see a recording with Johannes Pramsohler and Philippe Grisvard in which Bach’s cycle of Six Sonatas for harpsichord and violin BWV 1014-1019 is broken up and juxtaposed with sonatas from Berlin contemporaries such as CPE Bach, Schaffrath and Graun. A triple CD packed with 15 sonatas, including 5 world premiere recordings is due for release in Spring and the programme will be touring Europe throughout the ‘22 and ’23 seasons, including the Leipzig Bachfest.
Bach & Entourage 2
Cello concertos
Also in 2022, Ensemble Diderot cellist Gulrim Choï releases an album of cello concertos by north German composers connected to Berlin. Together we undertook
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Harpsichord concertos
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