Today begins the collaboration between Guido Ivessich, creator of this site, and Benedek Csalog, baroque flautist specialized in the performance of Quantz’s music (and not only).
Benedek Csalog and The Quantz Project
Benedek Csalog, an internationally acclaimed Hungarian baroque flute player, belongs among Europe’s distinguished specialists in historical performance practice. A graduate of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, where he studied with Barthold Kuijken, he won first prizes at major early music competitions, including Musica Antiqua Bruges and the National Flute Association Baroque Flute Artist Competition in Orlando, Florida.
As a soloist and chamber musician, he has appeared at many of Europe’s leading early music festivals and has worked with some of the most iconic figures of the early music scene. His discography includes recordings for labels such as Hungaroton, Ramée, BIS, Raumklang and Brilliant Classics.
In 2017, Benedek Csalog founded The Quantz Project, a long-term artistic and scholarly initiative dedicated to the works of Johann Joachim Quantz. The project’s central aim is to record Quantz’s complete surviving oeuvre — more than 650 compositions — and to make this remarkable repertoire more widely known to performers, scholars and listeners.
The project website (https://the-quantz-project.com/) brings together recordings, historical manuscript sources, links to modern editions, and other materials related to Quantz’s music. Since most of Quantz’s works survive in high-quality contemporary manuscript copies, many of them held at the Berlin State Library, the project also serves as a valuable resource for musicians seeking direct access to the original sources.
A major new chapter began when the Dutch label Brilliant Classics (https://www.brilliantclassics.com/) joined the project and undertook the publication of a substantial part of the repertoire, including around 200 flute sonatas, on CD and digital platforms. The first volume of the series has already been released, with further albums to follow (https://www.brilliantclassics.com/articles/q/quantz-complete-flute-sonatas-volume-1/).
The Quantz Project and Armonia Antiqua (https://armoniaantiqua.org/) share a common commitment to making Quantz’s music more accessible. While The Quantz Project focuses on recordings, sources and documentation, Armonia Antiqua provides complete and carefully prepared modern editions of Quantz’s works, offering performers an essential practical gateway into this rich and still insufficiently explored repertoire.
Together, these initiatives contribute to a renewed appreciation of Quantz not only as a central figure of eighteenth-century flute culture, but also as a composer whose music deserves a far more prominent place in today’s early music world.
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