Praetorius & Siefert: Complete Organ Works

Praetorius, Jacob, Siefert, Paul

Flamme, Friedhelm, Siefert, Paul

CPO 777 959-2

The penultimate volume of our edition featuring organ works of the Northern German Baroque focuses on the complete organ works of Jakob Praetorius the Younger and Paul Siefert. Hieronymus Praetorius, the organist at the Church of St. James in Hamburg, is regarded as the most important founding figure in the field of independent Northern German organ artistry (cf. the recording of his great organ works on the Scherer organ in Tangermünde: cpo 777 345-2). Three of his four sons, Jakob, Johann, and Michael (who died at an early age), likewise became organists. His son Jakob Praetorius, who already in 1604 had contributed a quarter of the eighty-four cantional settings to the renowned Hamburger Melodeyen Gesangbuch, is said to have developed a special form of fingering and pedal technique making it possible for the organist to assume a very relaxed sitting position and corresponding to his serious, sober personal disposition. According to the music critic Johann Mattheson, Praetorius's works were »more serious« and »more forcefully elaborated« than those of his friend Heinrich Scheidemann. Biographical documentation concerning Paul Siefert begins when at the age of twenty-one he held a scholarship from the city of his birth for study with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck in Amsterdam. From 1607 until about 1610 he received instruction from Sweelinck along with Melchior Schildt from Hanover and Heinrich Scheidemann from Hamburg. Siefert enjoyed great esteem as an organ master. The thirteen extant fantasias in various church modes representing the largest part of his organ oeuvre evidently were inspired by Schmedeke's fantasias. Siefert's works in some cases display very demanding and highly varied coloration attesting to the virtuosic excellence of his organ artistry.

SACD x 2

CPO

22.09.2016

761203795925