-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
John McKean, German keyboard music from the late Renaissance to the Galant, Early Music, Volume 44, Issue 4, 1 November 2016, Pages 653–655, https://doi.org/10.1093/em/caw065
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
Recordings of German keyboard music have long been a mainstay of the early music discography, with the peerless works of J. S. Bach often taking pride of place. Although Bach is represented in the batch of twelve recordings reviewed here, these releases are largely devoted to the music of lesser-known keyboardist-composers. We begin with a number of discs featuring works from the North German organ school before moving on to consider several recent recordings of harpsichord music, ranging from Froberger’s suites to harpsichord duets by W. F. and J. C. Bach.
The Hungarian-born organist Joseph Kelemen has recorded a broad sampling of works from the North German organ school for the Oehms Classics series Norddeutsche Orgelmeister (Oehms Classics oc014, issued 2016, 491′), which was released as a box set earlier this year. (Kelemen has also recorded another set for Oehms devoted to South German organ music.) The sixth and final album in the series, Hieronymus & Jacob jun. Praetorius: Organ works (Oehms Classics oc691, rec 2013, 77′), features music by Hieronymus Praetorius, and his son Jacob, a one-time student of Sweelinck. The three hymns and Magnificat setting by Hieronymus (drawn from the Visby Tablature of 1611) contrast well with the somewhat more progressive praeambulum, two organ chorales, and Magnificat setting by Jacob included on the programme. (As an interesting aside, the manuscript for Jacob’s Magnificat setting was cut up and used to mend the bellows of the chapel organ of Clausholm Castle in Denmark around 1700; this was only discovered and the piece reconstructed in the 1960s.) While it is easy for this repertory—which, aesthetically, lies on the threshold between the Renaissance and the early Baroque—to sound somewhat wooden, Kelemen imbues his performance with musicality and finesse, with singing descant lines and beautifully contoured pedal parts. The tasteful choice of registrations (which are detailed in the informative liner notes by Kelemen) further enriches the performance and showcases the historic organ of St Stephanskirche in Tangermünde, built by Hans Scherer the younger around 1624. The instrument is not only a pleasure to listen to, but is also an ideal choice for this repertory given that Scherer was acquainted with Jacob and took care of the organ he played at the Jacobikirche in Hamburg.
