Con Discrezione

 

Works by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber,
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Johann Jakob Froberger,
and Dietrich Buxtehude

In his treatise Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739), Johann Mattheson
writes: “A musician must understand emotions in order to evoke them.”
This thought captures the very essence of Baroque music performance,
in which music is not merely an art of technical virtuosity, but above all an
art of communicating emotions. The musician is above all a sensitive orator,
capable of modulating nuances with delicacy, of playing con discrezione
– with discretion, restraint, and precision – in order to touch the listener
in the depths of their being.