SACDs - Froberger

The present SACD – recorded in the Abbey Church of Muri, which was founded by the forefathers of the Habsburgs – is dedicated to the organ music at the Viennese Habsburg Court of the 17th century. Leopold’s father and grandfather had already given music important status in their running of the Court. With the practicing musician Leopold I (1640 - 1705), who often led rehearsals and performances himself, the Viennese Hofkapelle (Court Chapel) became one of the most significant European music institutions of the time. Important musicians such as Johann Jakob Froberger, Johann Kaspar Kerll, and Alessandro Poglietti found employment in Vienna as Court Organists. A selection of their compositions is presented here as well as additional works from the baroque and early Baroque period by Priuli, Valentini, Ebner and Techelmann and by Emperor Leopold I himself.

Alongside genuine organ works the recording also contains intabulations of double-choir motets and canzonas. With these arrangements, the two organists Johannes Strobl and David Blunden tie in with the tradition of their historical predecessors and can present the two magnificent Bossart organs from the year 1743 in the Abbey Church of Muri both as solo and duetting instruments in excellent fashion. Sources from the music archive of the Vienna Minorite Monastery give evidence for the time around 1700 that Gregorian chant was not sung a cappella, but with organ accompaniment. This practice, which is hardly ever observed today, is taken into consideration in this recording.

The South German Organ Tradition was a considerable influence on Bach’s oeuvre. This recording portrays representative works of the South German composers Johann Jakob Froberger, Johann Caspar Kerll, Georg Muffat and Johann Pachelbel alongside compositions of Bach, thus outlining these interrelations. In addition, this SACD realises the historical performance practice of the Magnificat: works by Pachelbel and Bach are newly combined in a traditional performance of the Magnificat including sung and played verses, forming one musical unity.

Two different instruments with different tunings have been used for this recording: the two early works by Froberger and Kerll are performed on the historic choir organ by Blasius Bernauer (1776) in Laufenburg, Switzerland, and the remaining works are played on the new Metzler organ (2005) in Stuttgart- Obertürkheim.