Three Recent 17th Century Releases

Program: #24-42   Air Date: Oct 14, 2024

Buxtehude and his Circle (Theater of Voices/Paul Hillier). DaCapo CD 6.220634.

From Classical a la carte: Paul Hillier and his Theatre of Voices explore the circle of church organists and composers in northern Germany and the Baltic region that were all linked in some way to Buxtehude. One of his possible teachers in Copenhagen was the Danish court kapellmeister Kaspar Förster, whose psalm Confitebor tibi Domine offers a hint of what the composer might have learnt in Rome from Carissimi. Another of Buxtehude’s probable teachers was the organist Johann Lorentz, whose successor Christian Geist is represented by the paradoxical mood of sensuality and mournfulness in Die mit Tränen säen. In 1668 Buxtehude succeeded the recently deceased Frans Tunder as kantor at the Marienkirche in Lübeck (and the new organist married his predecessor’s daughter), and Tunder’s Dominus illuminatio mea is given a lightly intimate performance. 

One of Buxtehude’s pupils was Nicolaus Bruhns, whose magnificent De profundis clamavi for solo bass is sung with ardent gravitas and virtuosity by Jakob Bloch Jespersen, and the violin ritornellos are played exquisitely by Jesenka Balic Zunic and Karolina Radziej. Buxtehude’s own chorale-based trio setting of Jesu, meine Freude is sung and played beautifully. Gott, hilf mir is conceived on a more elaborate scale; its five-part vocal ensemble and five-part strings convey the emotional weight of the penitential cry for God to save the suffering soul, and Hillier’s lovely performance is on a par with the very finest that the Buxtehude discography has to offer. 

II. Cor Collaborandi (The Kris Collective/Michael Kris). Acis APL54018.

Led by trombonist and early music specialist MICHAEL KRIS, COR COLLABORANDI celebrates the transformative power of cultural exchange across borders—both during the Early Modern period as performed on this new recording, and today, by bringing together modern musicians from across two continents to record in the majestic venue of Duke University Chapel in the culmination of a seven-year process.

The composers on the album shaped European sacred music as we know it; many of them held prestigious “maestro di cappella” positions in major cathedrals. Giovanni Gabrieli and Francisco Guerrero brought innovation to the Venetian and Spanish schools of music through their use of plainsong, polychoral writing, and high-contrast dynamics. However, MICHAEL KRIS also dives into the composers’ unique and colorful life stories in the liner notes. Antonio de Cabezón excelled as a blind composer; Philippe Rogier mastered both Flemish and Italian style but most of his output was lost in fire and earthquake; Francisco Guerrero survived both a pirate attack and debtor’s prison while desperately trying to return to his job at Seville Cathedral. COR COLLABORANDI also highlights changes in secular music: Cesario Gussago’s Sonata à 4 from 1608 is the first known publication of instrumental music bearing the title of “Sonata”.

MICHAEL KRIS has said, “The joy of working across international borders is at the heart of everything we do.” Featuring composers from Italy and Spain, the album illustrates the spread of musical ideas across the European continent, and KRIS’s musicians follow in their footsteps. Music of the 16th to 18th centuries was transmitted artist to artist, master to apprentice, and through performance and printing, the courtly patronage of both religious and secular leaders. Improvements in communication and transportation helped powerful benefactors and their entourages move about Europe in a profound sharing of local musical styles. The Kris Collective leans into the modern-day equivalents of cultural exchange, embracing that which has shaped and driven music for centuries. In keeping with the project’s international spirit, the recording was made simultaneously on two continents, with producer Adam Woolf “working from home” in Spain, in real time on a high-resolution audio link. The album boasts use of the Brombaugh Pipe Organ (1997) modeled after Renaissance Italian instruments. Played by noted organist Dr. Joe Causby, the glorious sound of the instrument’s tracker action and historical “meantone” temperament is a sumptuous conclusion to the album.

III. Johann Philipp Förtsch: Sacred Concertos & Cantatas (Weser-Renaissance/Manfred Cordes). CPO 777 860-2.

Gottorf Castle in Schleswig is not only one of Schleswig-Holstein's most important architectural monuments but also a culturally significant site inasmuch as it was within it's walls that the chapel masters of the local court ensemble once exercised their duties. Following Vol. 1 and it's sacred cantatas by Augustin Pfleger our new series featuring Music for Gottorf Castle continues with Vol. 2: here the WESER-RENAISSANCE ensemble under Manfred Cordes turns to cantatas and sacred concertos by Johann Philipp Förtsch, who was the Gottorf chapel master during 1680-84 and one of the particularly colorful musical personalities of his time. As an opera singer, librettist, and composer, Förtsch was a pioneer in the field of the German-language opera (with the Hamburg Opera House, founded in 1678, forming it's center). Any attempt to do justice to Förtsch's artistic multifacetedness would have to highlight three aspects: his work in various genres for court performance, the transfer of his opera experience to sacred music, and his work with sacred songs. Splendid compositions featuring all sorts of different forms open and conclude this recording; these were works in which the court trumpeters were called on to participate. Such tone color was also a must for "Nun danket alle Gott" (set to a biblical text from the Book of Sirach): a court composition in honor of the heavenly king and crowned with an alleluia. Tonal magic of a special kind results when this work is performed in it's original setting. The Gottorf Castle Church, it's interior so richly endowed with wood carvings, hardly produces echo effects, so that even the rich string part remains transparent into it's middle voices, and over it the soft, baroque trumpet sound unfolds in all its glory.

Composer Info

Giovanni Battista Grillo (c. late 16th century–1662), Orlandus Lassus (c. 1532–1594), Antonio de Cabezón (1510–1566), Pietro Lappi (c. 1575–1630), Francisco Guerrero (1528–1599), Cesario Gussago (fl. 1599–1612), Giovanni Battista Buonamente (c. 1595–1642), Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1555–1612), Philippe Rogier (c. 1561–1596), Giovanni Domenico Rognoni Taeggio (late 16th century–before 1626)