While the life of Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) is well documented, the same cannot be said of Leonhard Frischmuth (ca. 1725-1764), whose name is unknown to many. Frischmuth is best known today for having transcribed and published six of Tartini's violin concertos for piano. Frischmuth came from the Thuringian village of Gräfenroda near Gotha, where he studied organ with Johann Christoph Keller, who himself was a pupil at the Thomasschule in Leipzig during J. S. Bach's tenure. Frischmuth probably traveled to Amsterdam around 1750, where he became a pupil of Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch, the organist of the Oude Kerk. On July 26, 1763, Frischmuth was appointed organist of the Nieuwezijdskapel, the only known position he held, and he died after serving in this position for only 15 months.

His Tartini transcriptions were published by the Dutch printer Arnoldus Olofsen as opus 4 in a collection of concertos 'accommodati per il cembalo' (adapted to the harpsichord) and were, as usual, playable on other keyboard instruments such as the organ. Holland was 'ground zero' for the growing interest in organ transcriptions of Italian instrumental concertos in the early 18th century, starting with the blind organist Jan Jacob de Graaf (1672-1738), who performed his own transcriptions of concertos by various composers at concerts he gave on the organ of the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam.

The decision to record these concertos on a historic Italian instrument built around 1745-50 by the Dalmatian organ builder Pietro Nachini (1694-1769), whom Tartini probably knew personally, can only enhance these pieces, as Tartini would undoubtedly have been familiar with its sound characteristics: In the Basilica del Santo in Padua, Tartini had four organs at his disposal, some of which had been reconstructed by Nachini in the years 1743-49.

Further information:
- Recorded in May 2024 in Castelferretti, Ancona, Italy
- The booklet in English contains liner notes by the organist, a description of the organ with disposition and a profile of the artist
- Italian liner notes available at brilliantclassics. com

- Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) was a virtuoso violinist, composer, theorist and teacher, a spider in the international cultural web at a time when Italy was the center of the musical world. His violin school, the "School of Nations", attracted musicians from all over Europe.

- Tartini wrote 125 concertos for his own instrument, the violin, attractive and melodious works full of bold harmonies and with brilliant solo parts that communicate freely with individual voices in the orchestra. These violin concertos were so famous and popular in their day that the organist and composer Leonard Frischmuth (1721-1764) made organ transcriptions of six of them. Frischmuth, of German origin, was a pupil at the Thomasschule in Leipzig from 1726 to 1734, during the tenure of Johann Sebastian Bach (later he was organist in Amsterdam).

- Recorded on the historic Pietro Nachini organ from 1750 in the church of Sant'Andrea Apostolo in Castelferretti, Ancona, Italy.

- The organist Luca Scandali is one of Italy's most important scholars and keyboard players. He has recorded the complete organ works of C. P.E. Bach (nominated for the German Record Critics' Award), Galuppi, Pasquini and Pellegrini & Padovano for Brilliant Classics.