There is no doubting that Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was an important man. He was one of the prime figures in the formulation of keyboard style in the years around 1600‚ bringing together some of the idiomatic developments of the English virginalists (some of whom‚ such as Peter Philips and John Bull‚ he knew personally after their exile to Flanders) with some of that old northern European rigour‚ and then passing the mix on through his pupils to the German organists‚ which ultimately of course means Bach. The good news is that his keyboard works can be very enjoyable too. His virtuoso variation sets have long been popular‚ in particular the exuberant Onder een linde groen and the beautiful Mein junges Leben hat ein End’‚ while other works have received deserved regular outings‚ including the brooding and implacable Fantasia chromatica. Serious attempts to survey his output of toccatas‚ fantasias‚ variations‚ psalms and hymn settings have‚ however‚ been conspicuous by their absence‚ which makes it all the more strange that this sizeable selection was not issued in the UK when it was recorded in 1981‚ a time possibly more receptive to such worthy­looking projects than today. Anyway‚ here it is now‚ attractively presented if with rather skimpy booklet­notes. Ton Koopman uses a total of eight different instruments: three virginals‚ three harpsichords and two organs‚ all but one an original and some of them sounding like it. Whether Koopman himself is the same instrument today as he was 20 years ago is open to question. While there is the usual crisp precision and clarity‚ he shows little of the florid exuberance and endearing dottiness we have come to know; instead‚ he appears intent on knuckling under and giving Sweelinck due and sober reverence. With some of the pieces lasting as long as 12 or 13 minutes without much change of texture it can seem like somewhat dry bread‚ especially as pieces played on the same instrument tend to be grouped together rather than mixed up with the others. But it is good to see Sweelinck receiving such serious attention‚ even if this set will probably end up being of primarily archival value.