Colin Booth plays two harpsichords he built, both of two manuals. The smaller one is brass-strung and based on the simple one-manual instrument built by Christian Vater of Hannover in 1738 (collected in the German National Museum, Nuremburg); the larger is a copy of the iron-strung harpsichord of 1681 by Antoine Vaudry, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Hamburg-born Johann Mattheson (1681-1764) was a friend of Handel, opera singer, composer, secretary to the English ambassador to Hamburg, prolific writer of books on music, and well assimilated in society. Few of his compositions were published, and many of his music manuscripts were destroyed in World War II; but the twelve suites subtitled Harmony's Monument were published in England and Germany in 1714. The 12 suites comprise a total of 69 pieces and about 2-1/2 hours of music. Thus, they are recorded here as a 2-CD set:

Suite no. 6 in E flat major

Suite no. 12 in F minor

The music is original, tuneful, and inventive; it says much for its quality that each of the twelve suites uses fresh ideas and is clearly differentiated from the others… The suites should certainly be better known.