
One of the performances on this CD by Pamela Ruiter Feenstra, is, IMO, a "great" bit of Froberger playing. It is the D minor Toccata, FbWV 102. I say this because of two things: the intense feeling and the complex voicing. That's how I came to find the CD - while comparing versions of this Toccata. There are other interesting ones - Mortensen, Vartolo - but Ruiter Feenstra's made me see what I like about Froberger's Italianate music. Her grasp of the toccatas is, generally, a high point of her art in this CD.
JJK's Toccatas and contrapuntal pieces are less dramatic and flamboyant than Frescobaldi's, and Pamela Ruiter Feenstra is completely in her element in the relatively reflective musical idiom. She tends to choose, correctly in my view, slowish tempos, which creates an air of introspection, and lets the listener appreciate the gestures in the music.
She has an acute feeling for the dialogue of the counterpoint: voices are in complex dramatic relation with each other, a sort of conversation or dance of voices. It is nothing short of astonishing - only Asperen comes close to playing like this, but maybe not so much in Froberger, where he seems to have other preoccupations. This gives her style of playing a unique sort of élan.
The instrument, Zentis, is well recorded and very beautiful. Italian harpsichords are surely right in most of the music on this CD (there is a suite, though in fact I don't enjoy what she does there very much.)