with Dorothee Mields, The Gentleman’s Band & La Folia Barockorchester
(SONY/dhm, Nov. 2015).
Birds in baroque music are the theme of the CD of Stefan Temmingh with soprano Dorothee Mields, his baroque ensemble „The Gentleman’s Band” and string players of La Folia Barockorchester. For this recording Stefan Temmingh was awarded the ECHO Klassik Award 2016 as Instrumentalist of the Year (flute).
This recording is very close to the hearts of both soloists: Dorothee Mields loves birds and Stefan Temmingh’s home country South Africa is famous for its colourful bird species. In baroque music, birds were a very popular topic, too – and there is lots of repertoire from Handel’s Sweet Bird to Vivaldi’s Gardellino, but also from composers such as Couperin, Fedeli, Rameau, Keiser, Torri etc.
On the CD one can hear many different birds such as the nightingale, the goldfinch, the cuckoo, chickens, doves and several others – sometimes virtuosic and exuberant, sometimes witty and excited, but also intimate and touching. Of course, this project is about more than just reproducing bird sounds: Very often love and spring are the more or less obvious topics. Also, for centuries, people have associated specific emotions with certain birds and every species has its own symbolism, e.g. the nightingale stands for the beauty of love, and the cuckoo for betrayal.
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