Mayfair Organ Concerts
St George’s, Hanover Square
Tuesday 2 July 2024, 1.10pm

Two German Anniversaries: 1624 & 1674
Samuel Scheidt and Matthais Weckmann
Andrew Benson-Wilson

This concert celebrates the 400th and 350th anniversaries of two of the most important German composers of the early 17th century, The publication in 1624 of Samual Scheidt’s seminal three-volume Tabulatura nova and the death in 1674 of Matthias Weckmann.

Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) was born in Halle and was one of the most distinguished pupils of Sweelinck in Amsterdam before returning to Halle as Court organist to the Margrave of Brandenburg. After the Thirty Years War, get became the musical director of Halle’s three principal churches. His 1624 three-volume Tabulatura nova is a monumental collection of sacred and secular sets of variations, fantasias, toccatas, fugues and pieces for the Lutheran Mass and Office.

Matthias Weckmann (c1616-1674) trained in Dresden with Schütz and in Hamburg with Jacob Praetorius (another Sweelinck pupil). After some time in Denmark, and following a well-documented competition, he became organist at Hamburg’s Jakobkirche. His music combines Schütz’s adventurous Italian influence and the North German style developed by the pupils of Sweelinck.

The concert will include three contrasting pieces from each composer, demonstrating the change in style between the late Renaissance to the early Baroque over the one-generation gap between them.

The 2012 Richards, Fowkes & Co organ in St George’s Hanover Square is ideally suited to the music of 17th-century German. Details of the organ can be found here and here.

Admission is free, with a retiring collection.
More information and a link to the programme notes will be added nearer the time.