"I have no hesitation in recommending the present Carpe Diem CD as the ideal place to start one’s exploration of Sweelinck’s harpsichord music ...Alina Rotaru is a young Romanian harpsichordist who currently resides in Bremen, Germany. On the booklet cover her photograph shows a rather serious-looking young lady—perhaps the cares of the world are weighing down heavily on her. She can rest assured, however, that with playing as accomplished as this, she has a brilliant career ahead for her. Her keyboard work in the Fantasia chromatica is amazing. She starts out slowly and deliberately and then builds to a spectacular finish; the sweeping thirty-second note runs in the concluding section will take your breath away. The Ballet del granduca, often heard on organ recitals, is likewise given the grand treatment. Every tune is gauged perfectly, including the one that gives the CD its title, Fortune My Foe... The music of this era contains many fascinating cross references and borrowings, nowhere more apparent than in the pieces that Rotaru has so aptly selected for this program. Rotaru succeeds in this repertoire where others fail thanks to a rock-steady rhythmic pulse and honest, self-effacing musicianship. Although it’s often difficult to put a finger on it, her style is exactly right. I never got the feeling, for example, that she plays this music because it’s historically “important”; she plays it because she believes in it. The music comes through with all its brilliance and structural complexity intact, high praise indeed for any performer. Urgently reccomnded."

C Brodersen  - Fanfare Magazine - May/June 2011

"Rotaru has an accomplished, rather active, even flashy style of playing, heard in the crisp repeated notes, dotted groupings, and divisions of Mein junges Leben hat ein End’, for example. While this disc is not an easy one to recommend except for fans of the harpsichord, it is no surprise to learn that it has been nominated for the 2011 MIDEM “International Classical Music Award” in the Early Music category.”

C. T. Downey  - Ionarts - January 2011
 

"...Sweelinck’s keyboard oeuvre is well represented here in a program that includes contrapuntal pieces, variations on secular songs, and religious music. Rotaru is a nimble and expressive player."

Banjamin Katz - American Record Guide - 1 May 2011