This cosmopolitan program by the Duo Coloquintes revolves around an emblematic figure of 17th-century keyboard music: the mysterious Johann Jacob Froberger (1616-1667), one of whose peculiarities was to travel throughout Europe on behalf of Emperor Ferdinand III, a friend and patron with whom he spent a large part of his life in Vienna.
Froberger's work was not published during his lifetime, but numerous manuscripts contain fragments of it, helping us to trace his international career: The Bauyn manuscript (c.1660, Paris), for example, brings together works by Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), Froberger and Louis Couperin (1626-1661), in which there are obvious stylistic similarities. Froberger's genius enabled him to assimilate the different languages of his time: while Frescobaldi taught him the art of the Toccata during his stay in Rome, it was the broken style of the French lutenists and the art of the unmeasured prelude à la Louis Couperin that he integrated during his visits to Paris.
Although he wrote almost exclusively for solo keyboard, there is some evidence that his music was played on other instruments: Fantaisie VIII was published in its original form in London in the Fantazias for altus and bassus by the English organist Richard Mico (c.1590-c.1661), a collection surely intended for the viola da gamba family.
