Rebirth of cembal d’amour: Concert of the music by David Kellner

The concert consists of the music by German born composer David Kellner (1670-1748). Kellner has strong cultural ties with both Estonia and Sweden.

The music played in the concert is from Kellner’s “Auserlesene Lauten-Stücke” (1747), the only music left by the composer. As Kellner was mainly a keyboard player, some resources imply that the music also existed in the keyboard version. The duo Kerikmäe/Eller has arranged the piece and performs it on clavichord, arpanetta, psaltery and chromatic kannel. The arrangements are based on the style of Kellner’s successful basso continuo treatise Treulicher Unterricht im General-Baß (1732).

The Clavichord played at the concert is a historical copy of the now lost, one of a kind , clavichord Cembal d’amour from 1721, which was created by the outstanding German instrument maker J.H. Silbermann as a special order for the Kellner family.

David Kellner’s music is magnificent and represents a melting pot of various influences taken from his early musical education in Germany, passion towards French style, youth in Livonian surroundings, serving in the Great Northern War, as well as his experiences living inside Swedish musical culture. Kellner’s music is surprising in harmony, yet sensitive and touching. Ranging between virtuosic furious passages to intimate moments.

Kellner’s music, which is at this moment mainly known only among lute and guitar players, deserves to be brought to wider audiences as a real hidden treasure of the Nordic baroque.