Praetorius: Complete Organ Works

Flamme, Friedhelm

CPO 777716

Along with the smaller complete organ oeuvres of David Abel, Johann Bahr, Jakob Bölsche, Petrus Hasse I and II, Wilhelm Karges, Hieronymus Praetorius III, Andreas Werckmeister, and Melchior Woltmann, Vol. 13 of our complete organ works of the Northern German Baroque concentrates above all on the complete organ oeuvre of Michael Praetorius (MPC), who was an exceptional figure among German musicians during the transition from the late Renaissance to the early Baroque. He not only was an organ composer of outstanding stature but also distinguished himself as a musical consultant and organizer and as a composer of liturgical music with a large expressive breadth in form and content. Moreover, he was known far and wide as a music writer, with his significant contributions to this field continuing to be felt today, and is to be regarded as the first truly professional German musicologist. MPC's few extant organ works confirm his status as one of the great masters of German organ artistry, even before the era of the influence of the Dutch keyboard music, say, of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and the new musical forms of the so-called seconda pratica of Monteverdi and many other Italian composers. Later these composers would clearly influence MPC's musical oeuvre. Friedhelm Flamme uses this interesting program to present a portrait of the Christoph Treutmann organ (1734-37) at St. George's Monastery Church in Grauhof, near Goslar.

SACD x 2

CPO

30.10.14

761203771622