Ich Bin Die Auferstehung Buxtehude and His
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Ich bin die Auferstehung Buxtehude and His Copenhagen Connections Jakob Bloch Jespersen Concerto Copenhagen & Lars Ulrik Mortensen Dietrich Buxtehude · Johann B Erben · Johann V Meder · Matthias Weckmann DIETRICH BUXTEHUDE (1637-1707) Kaspar Förster (the Younger) · Anderas Kirchhoff · Nicolaus Bruhns Ich bin die Auferstehung und das Leben, BuxWV 44 6:03 Ich bin die Auferstehung – Buxtehude and His Copenhagen Connections JOHANN B. ERBEN (1626-1686) Sonata sopra ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 6:50 Jakob Bloch Jespersen, bass-baritone JOHANN V. MEDER (1649-1719) Concerto Copenhagen Gott hilf mir 10:29 Lars Ulrik Mortensen, organ, harpsichord and direction MATTHIAS WECKMANN (1619-1674) Toccata in A minor 5:22 Kommet her zu mir ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 8:11 KASPAR FÖRSTER (the Younger) (1616-1673) Jesu dulcis memoria * 8:02 Fredrik From, Hannah Tibell (violins); Antina Hugosson, Jesenka Balic Zunic (violas); Heidi Gröger (violone); Gawain Glenton, Josue Melendez (cornets); Robert Farley, ANDREAS KIRCHHOff (d 1691) Christopher Pigram (trumpets); Jane Gower (dulcian) Sonata á 6 * 6:00 Fredrik From, Hannah Tibell (violins) NICOLAUS BRUHNS (1665-1697) Fredrik From, Hannah Tibell, Antina Hugosson Jesenka Balic Zunic (violins); Heidi Gröger (violone) Mein Herz ist bereit 9:24 Fredrik From, Hannah Tibell (violins); Hanna Thiel, Hanna Loftsdóttir, Heidi Gröger (viola da gamba) KASPAR FÖRSTER (the Younger) Antina Hugosson, Jesenka Balic Zunic (violins) Sonata á 7 * ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 6:23 Fredrik From, Hannah Tibell, Antina Hugosson (violins); Total: 66:44 Hanna Thiel, Hanna Loftsdóttir (viola da gamba); Heidi Gröger (violone) * World premiere recording Fredrik From (violin) Fredrik From, Hannah Tibell (violins); Antina Hugosson (viola); Heidi Gröger (violone) Gawain Glenton, Josue Melendez (cornets); Jane Gower (dulcian); Dacapo Records is supported by the ICH BIN DIE AUFERSTEHUNG UND DAS LEBEN plenty of free scope to realise his prestige buildings in Copenhagen and to attract some of the Buxtehude and his Copenhagen Connections by Jakob Bloch Jespersen greatest international stars of the era to the capital, such as Heinrich Schütz, Johann Schop and John Dowland With the dawning Atlantic trading, the Sound Dues developed over the years into an explosive political problem, since they restricted the access of the other Baltic Our choice of works for this release reflects an attempt to provide a glimpse of the richness countries to the oceans of the world The dues were especially a thorn in the flesh to the represented by the music from the Baltic region in the latter half of the 17th century The so- go-ahead, ambitious Swedish monarch, Karl X Gustav With the Swedish conquests in Poland called early Baroque (Frühbarock) is normally overshadowed by both the breakthrough of the and Northern Germany, the power balance in the Baltic radically changed in the space of a few Baroque in Northern Italy around 1600 and the culmination of the style a century or so later, with years In 1657, Denmark declared war on Sweden, which resulted in a catastrophic counter- the great German masters Telemann, Handel and Bach As our selection of works confirms, the attack It led to three years of war which, after the Swedish occupation of Kronborg Castle in music of the 17th century is indeed a difficult entity to define It is a period deeply characterised Elsinore and the siege of Copenhagen, culminated in a large naval battle in the Sound between by fearless innovation, bubbling creativity, and an experimentation with form that only with the the Swedish fleet and the Dutch, who had come to the rescue for Denmark In 1660, the war subsequent generation of composers develops into fixed conventions and a higher degree of finally ended, the result being that Denmark had to hand over Skåne, Halland and Blekinge to conformity It is in the middle Baroque that the elements which we know consider as defini- Sweden But the power balance in the Baltic was only consolidated for a short time Inter- tive for Baroque music are developed and consolidated Actually, the music of this period can national alliances against Sweden led in 1700 to military conflicts known as The Great Northern be said both in a concrete and a metaphorical sense to form the very focal point or hub of War, which lasted right up until 1721 the Baroque The Composers and Their Music The Baltic The historical events just mentioned and the commercial cities of the Baltic form a backdrop for The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), along with plague epidemics and starvation, reduced the lives of the present composers Their professional careers and personal connections seem central and southern Europe to a traumatic torpor that lasted long after the cessation of the to be as closely knit as the trading network of the age Weckmann, Förster, Erben, and Kirchhoff war During all this time, the ports of the Baltic enjoyed economic growth, which is why many belong to the generation that immediately precedes Buxtehude Their music and lives, in their musicians from the small princely courts of Mid-Germany moved northwards towards the Baltic distinctive ways, are typical of the Baltic composers of this period One salient common feature and Scandinavia The Baltic region was still strongly influenced by the formerly so dominant is the strong influence of Italian music While Förster and Erben studied and worked in Italy Hanseatic League and its commercial network Close trading ties linked the major commer- for certain periods, Weckmann in Hamburg industriously copied music from the climes further cial cities: Stockholm in the north, Tallinn and Riga in the east, Danzig and Lübeck in the east south In the encounter between the still young Protestant Church and the musical inspiration and west North Germany, and in Denmark, they extended to Copenhagen and Elsinore For from Italy a new type of church music emerged, one with its own distinct identity The Italian decades, Denmark exploited the narrow strait between Elsinore and Helsingborg, imposing ‘blood transfusion’ became crucial to the development of the music of the Baltic composers customs on cargoes being transported in and out of the Baltic, and Elsinore became a natural Buxtehude marks the culmination of this development, and his strong influence on the compos- place to take provisions on board and do business on one’s way out into the world The Sound ers of the succeeding generation, such as Meder, Bruhns and JS Bach, places him as a key Dues were a lucrative source of income for the Danish state They provided Christian IV with figure in the history of Protestant church music 4 5 Matthias Weckmann (1616-1674) is an example of the brain-drain from south to north which direct knowledge of the virtuoso Italian singing This is highly evident in Kommet her zu mir, took place during and after The Thirty Years’ War Weckmann was born in southern Germany which in Monteverdian stile concitato displays by equilibristic leaps and bounds the full extent and from 1627 onwards was a pupil of Heinrich Schütz in Dresden With the decimation of of the bass voice and the technical skill of the singer The five-part string ensemble opens with cultural budgets in South Germany, Heinrich Schütz moved to the court of Christian IV in a longish Sonata, introducing the bass singer who portrays Jesus to the text from Matthew XI, Copenhagen – and took his pupil Weckmann along with him Weckmann was loaned out to the vv 2830 For the section “So werdet ihr Ruhe finden für eure Seele” (And ye shall find rest unto royal Danish court for five years, where he served under Crown Prince Christian in Nykøbing your souls), Weckmann developed a unique harmonic sequence with a soothing treatment of Falster until 1647 He returned for a short while to Dresden, but the following years visited dissonance in the description of the rest which results from giving oneself up to Christ Hamburg and Lübeck once more, where, with Franz Tunder as his best man, he married After yet another period in Dresden, he moved definitively to the north in 1655 when he gained the Kaspar Förster (the Younger) (1616-1673) grew up in the Hanseatic city of Danzig, and lived appointment of organist at St James’ Church in Hamburg Here he established himself as for most of his career in the Baltic region He spent several periods of his life in Italy, and his a trend-setting composer and became a close friend of Johann Adam Reincken, Christoph knowledge of the Italian style made him a man in great demand in northern Europe Johann Bernhard and Dietrich Buxtehude Matthe son, in his musical encyclopedia Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte (1740) devotes a quite Weckmann never went to Italy Nevertheless, his compositional style is to a great extent large section to Förster, revealing that he was considered to be an important