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

Two German Anniversaries: 1624 & 1674
Samuel Scheidt and Matthais Weckmann

Andrew Benson-Wilson

Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654)
Tabulatura nova, 1624
Echo ad manuale duplex forte et lene
Fantasia super Io son ferito lasso
Modus pleno Organo pedaliter: Benedicamus à 6 Voc

Matthias Weckmann (c1616-1674)
Canzon in G
Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein
Praeludium A.5 Vocem

This recital celebrates the 400th and 350th anniversaries of two of the most important German composers of the early to mid-17th century: Samuel Scheidt’s seminal three-volume 1624 Tabulatura nova and Matthias Weckmann, who died in 1674.

Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) spent most of his life in Halle. He was the son of the city’s wine and beer steward. Around 1608 he studied with Sweelinck in Amsterdam, returning to Halle the following year as court organist and later Kapellmeister to the Margrave of Brandenburg. In 1624, he published the three-part collection of organ music, Tabulatura Nova, with 764 pages of music and 255 pieces, including toccatas, fantasias and sacred and secular variation sets. The ‘New Tablature’ of the title refers to the use of individual staves for each voice rather than the letter notation used at the time.

The Echo ad manuale duplex forte & lene (Part 2) is a direct reference to echo pieces by Sweelinck. Over 125 bars, Scheidt explores many types of echo passages. The final section, marked alio modo, is reminiscent of music by Monteverdi.

The Fantasia super Io son ferito lasso (Part 1) is one of Scheidt’s most contrapuntally complex pieces. It is a fugue based on four phrases of a melody as themes. The first theme is the opening phrase of Palestrina’s madrigal, Io son ferito lasso. It was a popular basis for decorated versions by several Italian composers, and was used for a parody Mass by Lassus. The second theme is the first in reverse, the third a chromatic rising tetrachord which is reversed for the fourth theme. It is an extraordinary tour de force of advanced counterpoint, the four themes appearing in augmentation and various diminutions, culminating in a passage when all four themes combine just before a short chordal coda. Palestrina’s text (I am wounded) is a plea for a beloved to heal the wounds she has caused, to which she responds that she “only wounded him to give comfort, because an achievement appears sweeter after greater toil”, and concludes “Come back to me, your woe displeases me, I have wounded you only to give you peace”.

The monumental Modus pleno Organo pedaliter: Benedicamus à 6 Voc is the last piece in the Tabulatura nova. Part 3 features music for a Lutheran Vespers service, the final part of which is the Benedictus. The chant is hidden within the six voices – four played on the manuals and two on the pedals, a medieval tradition of organ playing.

Matthias Weckmann (c1616-1674)is one of the most influential 17th-century organist composers of the North German school. He was born in Thuringia, studied in Dresden with Schütz, a pupil of Gabrieli, and in Hamburg with Jacob Praetorius, a Sweelinck pupil. He was a friend of Frescobaldi’s pupil Froberger. In 1655, after a well-documented audition, he became organist at Hamburg’s Jacobikirche which had one of the finest organs in Germany, with pipes dating back to 1512. He is buried beneath the organ. The historian, Mattheson, records that he “moderated the seriousness of Praetorius with the sweetness of Scheidemann and introduced many new elegant discoveries”.

The little Canzon shows the influence of Frescobaldi and Gabrieli, who developed the instrumental form from earlier vocal Flemish chansons. The three sections use versions of the same theme, which, as in the Praeludium A.5.Vocum, seems to quote the start of the Lutheran Gloria, Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr.

The three verses of Nun freut Euch, Lieben Christen would have been played during the ten sung chorale verses as musical reflections on the texts. The powerful first verse has the theme in the pedal, the second as an ornamented treble. The third verse has the theme in the pedal with two upper voices intertwining. It is one of the most remarkable musical creations of the North German repertoire, ending with a sequence of intricate chromatic passage work.

The sparkling Praeludium A.5.Vocum is an example of the freestyle stylus phantasticus, an improvisatory genre developed by Frescobaldi that lasted through to Bach. The first section is a sequence of flourishes, and the concluding toccata is one of the most exciting of the repertoire. In between are two contrasting fugues, based on the same Allein Gott subject.

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Andrew Benson-Wilson specialises in the performance of early music, ranging from early 14th and 15th century manuscripts to late Classical composers. His playing is informed by his experience of historic organs, an understanding of period performance techniques and several internationally renowned teachers. He has recorded the complete organ works of Thomas Tallis. One of the two CDs was Gramophone’s ‘Record of the Month’. The Organists’ Review commented that his “understanding of the historic organ is thorough, and the beautifully articulated, contoured result here is sufficient reason for hearing this disk. He is a player of authority in this period of keyboard music.”

Andrew’s recitals have ranged from the enormous 1642 Festorgel organ in Klosterneburg Abbey and the famous 1562 Ebert organ in the Innsbruck Hofkirche, to a tiny 1668 chamber organ in a medieval castle in Croatia and the 1723 ‘Bach’ organ in Störmthal, Leipzig. One reviewer wrote that his recital in St John’s, Smith Square was “one of the most rewarding organ recitals heard in London in years”. Recent London recitals have included Christ Church Spitalfields and the farewell concert in St George’s, Hanover Square for the Handel chamber organ before it moved to the Handel House Museum.

Andrew’s little book, The Performance of Early Organ Music (a gentle introduction to techniques of performance) is a required text in a number of Universities. He is also a reviewer, formally writing for Early Music Review, and now on his website: http://www.andrewbensonwilson.org. He is an elected member of The Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain and the Council of the National Early Music Association.