Hurv KRCD-40: Hinrich Philip Johnsen (1716-1779) Harpsichord sonatas:
Mayumi Kamata

Hinrich Philip Johnsen came to Stockholm at the age of about 26, as a harpsichordist in the court orchestra which Duke Adolf Fredrik of Holstein-Gottorp brought with him when he was elected Crown Prince of Sweden in 1743. From 1745 to his death he was was organist in St. Clare’s parish (Klara församling) in Stockholm, and was teacher of Queen Lovisa Ulrika.

The harpsichord sonatas which have been collected on this recording can be seen as giving a good picture of the musical style between the baroque and the classical which Johnsen represented.

The three-movement sonata in A minor was printed i Nuremberg in 1757 by the publisher J. U. Haffner in a collection of VI Sonates pour le clavecin d’autant de plus célèbres compositeurs ('Six harpsichord sonatas by the most celebrated composers').

The six one-movement sonatas - gratifying to the player with their almost virtuoso character - remind us of Domenico Scarlatti's sonatas, also in one movement, which we know Johnsen knew well. These sonatas have survived in a beautiful autographed fair copy, and it is reasonable to suppose that they were written at about the same time as the 24 Oder of 1754, in which publication subscribers were invited to expect a set of keyboard sonatas.

Mayumi Kamata was born in Japan. Having qualified as a piano teacher she moved to Europe to develop her areas of special interest, Baroque music and the harpsichord. In 1980 she began to study the harpsichord with Anneke Uittenbosch and Ton Koopman at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam. She was awarded her soloist diploma in 1985.

Mayumi Kamata has lived in Stockholm since 1985 and gives concerts as a harpsichord soloist and chamber musician. From 1992 she has also been a teacher of harpsichord and a repetiteur at the Royal Conservatoire of Music in Stockholm.