Tangermünde | Andrew Benson-Wilson : Early Music Reviews +

Matthias Weckmann: Complete Organ Works
Léon Berben
1637 Stellwagen organ, St. Jakobi, Lübeck
1624 Hans Scherer organ, St. Stephanus, Tangermünde
Aeolus. AE-11431. 2CDs 72’27+78’29

Matthias Weckmann (c1616-1674) is one of the most interesting and influential of the North German pre-Buxtehude organist composers. Unlike most of the other organists in Hamburg, he was not a pupil of Sweelinck but was clearly influenced by those who were, not least his teacher for three years, Jacob Praetorius, organist of the Hamburg Petrikirche and Heinrich Scheidemann organist of the Catharinenkirche. His own organ playing was said to have combined elements of the style of both Praetorius and Scheidemann. His earlier musical training had been in Dresden when he was a chorister at the Saxon Court under the court composer Heinrich Schütz, a pupil of Giovanni Gabrieli. After his Hamburg years and a short period with Schütz in Denmark, he became the Electoral Court Organist in Dresden where he met and befriended the much-travelled Froberger, a pupil of Frescobaldi. The pair engaged in a famous keyboard competition arranged by the Saxon Elector. In 1655 he returned to Hamburg as organist of the Jakobkirche after a well-documented audition, records of which gave valuable information about the expectations of a Hamburg organist and practical information about, for example, registration practice at the time. He founded the Hamburg Collegium Musicum.

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Splendour
Golden Age of North German Organ Music
Organ Music & Vocal Works by Buxtehude, Hassler, Praetorius & Scheidemann
Kei Koito, Il Canto di Orfeo
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, 88985437672. 73’15

This CD features a comprehensive survey of the important 17th -century North German School of organist composers, broadly covering the generations of composers between the Hamburg Sweelinck pupils and Buxtehude. The latter’s predecessor in Lübeck, Franz Tunder, opens the programme with his ebulient Praeludium in g. The programme then broadly follows the format of a organ chorale prelude followed by the relevent chorale, sung by the Italian choir Il Canto di Orfeo, directed by Gianluca Capuano. The organ used is the well-known 1624 Hans Scherer instrument in the Stephanskirche, Tangermünde, Germany, a splendid example of the early 17th-century North German organ building tradition. It’s impressive range of colours and textures are explored to the full in Kei Koito’s choice of registrations.
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