Ton Koopman at the Zacharias Hildebrandt Organ (1726) in Lengefeld in the Erzgebirge by Ton Koopman

Ton Koopman

Ton Koopman at the Zacharias Hildebrandt Organ (1726) in Lengefeld in the Erzgebirge

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917226423
Catnr: CC 72264
Release date: 15 January 2016
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917226423

Catalogue number
CC 72264

Release date
15 January 2016

"Ouverture klassik-blog 30-08-2016"

ouverture klassik-blog, 30-8-2016

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

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About the album

SUMMARY
In 1724, Zacharias Hildebrandt was commissioned to build a new organ. In 2010 a pre-examination by the organ builders Kristian Wegscheider of Dresden resulted in a sensational find: unusually well-preserved seventeenth century pipes which probably originated from the precursing instrument built by Christoph Donat in 1661/62. This set of pipes, probably the oldest surviving in Saxony, was used by Zacharias Hildebrandt for his new organ. Between 2010 and 2014 they were jointly restored by the organ building firms of Hermann Eule, Bautzen, and Kristian Wegscheider, Dresden
MUSIC
Ton Koopman: This masterful Zacharias Hildebrandt organ includes seven seventeenth century stops. For me, that is a good reason to perform not only works by Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries – Bach was a great lover of Hildebrandt organs – but also music from the seventeenth century.
During his time, Dieterich Buxtehude (c.1637-1707) was very well-known as an organist, composer and organiser of the famous “Abendmusiken” in Lübeck. Like Buxtehude, Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) was a master of the ostinato bass. We know of eight chaconnes written by him, although not all of them survive in their entirety. This Chaconne in D minor is the only one of which we can be certain that it was written for organ as it includes an obbligato pedal part Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621) lived and worked in Amsterdam as a composer and organist and was also a famous pedagogue. I have chosen a masterful Fantasie, as well as an arrangement of the Christmas carol Puer nobis nascitur, played here using only the seventeenth century stop. Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748), a distant cousin of Johann Sebastian Bach, was an eminent music theorist, composer and copyist. This recording includes a concerto after Tomaso Albinoni, alongside a beautiful chorale arrangement. Gottfried August Homilius (1714-1784) may have been a student of Johann Sebastian Bach. In Dresden, he was organist at the Frauenkirche. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) should of course not be missed out in this context. His early Prelude and Fugue in C minor is written in the stylus phantasticus, full of youthful energy in the pedals, as well as the manuals. Much later on, Bach composed another Prelude and Fugue in C minor (BWV 546) – a completely different world. Then we have Bach’s possibly most complex organ work of all: Vater unser im Himmelreich from the Clavier-Übung, Part III. The complex canon technique and the many different rhythms are characteristic; but first and foremost it is a poignant piece of considerable duration. This is followed by the simple but wonderful Canzona in D minor (played on manuals only), and a chorale arrangement without a BWV number – however, when one hears it there cannot be any doubt that this work originates from the pen of Johann Sebastian Bach. To end, one of his most significant and brilliant compositions, the Passacaglia in C minor, which sounds especially appealing played on an organ tuned after Neidthard.

Ton Koopman bespeelt het prachtige gerestaureerde Hildebrandt orgel uit 1726
In 1724 kreeg Zacharias Hildebrandt de opdracht om een nieuw orgel te bouwen, dat twee jaar later werd voltooid. In 2010 deden de orgelbouwers Kristian Wegschneider uit Dresden tijdens de voorinspectie van het orgel een sensationele vondst: 17e-eeuwse orgelpijpen, nog in goede staat, die waarschijnlijk afkomstig waren van de voorganger van het Zacharias Hildebrandt orgel. Deze orgelpijpen zijn waarschijnlijk de oudste nog bestaande pijpen in Saksen. Hildebrandt heeft ze gebruikt voor de bouw van het nieuwe orgel. De orgelpijpen werden tussen 2010 en 2014 gerestaureerd door verschillende Duitse orgelbouwers.

Ton Koopman was erg enthousiast over het orgel en schreef hierover: "dit meesterlijke orgel bevat zeven registers uit de 17e eeuw. Dat is voor mij een goede reden om niet alleen composities van Bach - een groot liefhebber van Hildebrandt orgels - en zijn tijdgenoten uit te voeren, maar ook muziek uit de 17e eeuw."

Ton Koopman treedt als organist en klavecinist op in de meest prestigieuze concertzalen, en speelt op de mooiste historische instrumenten van Europa, waaronder het Hildebrandt orgel. In 1979 heeft hij het Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra opgericht, dat in 1992 werd aangevuld met het Amsterdam Baroque Choir. Het wereldberoemde ensemble is een van de beste ensembles die gebruik maakt van historische instrumenten.

Eine Reise durch das Siebzehnte Jahrhundert mit sieben Haltestellen

Bach liebte die Orgeln von Zacharias Hildebrandt, der 1724 den Auftrag bekam eine neue Orgel für Lengefeld (Erzgebirge) zu bauen und der, wie Kristian Wegschneider 2010 herausfand, Pfeifen von einem Instrument von Christoph Donat aus den Jahren 1661/61 dafür verwendete. Nachdem diese Orgel 2014 fertig restauriert wurde, war es für Ton Koopman ein Bedürfnis eine Aufnahme mit Werken von Bach und seinen Zeitgenossen auf dieser besonderen Orgel einzuspielen. Eine Reise durch das Siebzehnte Jahrundert mit sieben Haltestellen: Johann Sebastian Bach, Dieterich Buxtehude, Johann Pachelbel, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Johann Gottfried Walther, Gottfried August Homilius und Johann Gottfried Walther.

Artist(s)

Ton Koopman

Ton Koopman was born in Zwolle in 1944. After a classical education he studied organ, harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam and was awarded the Prix d'Excellence for both instruments. From the beginning of his musical studies he was fascinated by authentic instruments and a performance style based on sound scholarship and in 1969, at the age of 25, he created his first Baroque orchestra. In 1979 he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra followed by the Amsterdam Baroque Choir in 1992.
Koopman's extensive and impressive activities as a soloist, accompanist and conductor have been recorded on a large number of LPs and CDs for labels like Erato, Teldec, Sony, Philips and DG, besides his own record label “Antoine Marchand”, distributed by Challenge Records.
Over the course of a forty-five-year career Ton Koopman has appeared in the most important concert halls and festivals of the five continents. As an organist he has performed on the most prestigious historical instruments of Europe, and as a harpsichord player and conductor of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir he has been a regular guest at venues which include the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Philharmonie in Munich, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York and leading concert halls in Vienna, London, Berlin, Brussels, Madrid, Rome, Salzburg, Tokyo and Osaka.
Between 1994 and 2004 Ton Koopman has been engaged in a unique project, conducting and recording all the existing Cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, a massive undertaking for which he has been awarded the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis "Echo Klassik", the BBC Award 2008, the Prix Hector Berlioz, has been nominated for the Grammy Award (USA) and the Gramophone Award (UK). In 2000 Ton Koopman has received an Honorary Degree from the Utrecht University for his academic work on the Bach Cantatas and Passions and has been awarded both the prestigious Silver Phonograph Prize and the VSCD Classical Music Award. In 2006 he has received the « Bach-Medaille » from the City of Leipzig. Recently Ton Koopman has embarked on another main project: the recording of the whole works by Dietrich Buxtehude, one of the great inspirer of the young J.S. Bach. The recording will be accomplished in 2010 with the release of 30 CDs. Ton Koopman is President of the “International Dieterich Buxtehude Society”. Ton Koopman is very active as a guest conductor and he has collaborated with many prominent orchestras in Europe, USA and Japan. He has been Principal Conductor of the Netherland Radio Chamber Orchestra and has collaborated with the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, DSO Berlin, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Cleveland Orchestra, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and Wiener Symphoniker. In the following season he will work on new programmes with the New York Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Orchestra RAI in Turin, Stockholm Philharmonic, Tonhalle in Zurich. After the great success of his tour at the beginning of 2008, Ton Koopman has been nominated Artist in Residence at the Cleveland Orchestra for three consecutive years starting in 2011. Ton Koopman publishes regularly and for a number of years he has been engaged in editing the complete Händel Organ Concertos for Breitkopf & Härtel. Recently he has published Händel’s Messiah and Buxtehude‘s Das Jüngeste Gericht for Carus. Ton Koopman leads the class of harpsichord at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, is Professor at the University of Leiden and is a Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Ton Koopman is artistic director of the French Festival “Itinéraire Baroque”.

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Composer(s)

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions, and hundreds of cantatas. His music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth. Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest in and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest in and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

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Johann Pachelbel

Like Wagner has his Tristan-chord and Landini a self-titled cadence, Pachelbel has his canon in D, for which he will always be remembered. Unfortunately, this work is far from representative of his body of works: it's the only canon he ever wrote, and chamber music in general was only a marginal part of his complete works. Pachelbel was the son of wine salesman, who should have been known for his organ music today if it wasn't for his famous canon. In his own time, he was a celebrated organist, composing over 200 works for organ. Almost half of these are chorale settings, which thanks to their soberness and clarity form benchmarks of the genre. Another important part of his influence were his fugues. His Magnificat fugues are particularly noteworthy. A third genre in which Pachelbel excelled was the variation on a theme. A famous example is Hexachordum Apollinis, which is a serie of variations with keyboard arias. Finally, his vocal music is absolutely worth listening to, even though it has been in obscurity for a long time.

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Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

If it were up to Calvinism, all the organs would have been destroyed during the Beeldenstorm, the outbreaks of destruction of religious images that occurred in Europe in the 16th century. Thanks to city governments, the organs were saved. Strictly speaking, Sweelinck was a servant for the city government as well as the city organist of Amsterdam. His organ and harpsichord music was also used during international negotiations, making his music arguably quite influential. Sweelinck's music should not be listened to with the same ears as one listens to Bach, Beethoven or Brahms. His instrumental works have its own completely unique expression, including temporal modulations, instead of tonal ones. His toccatas, variations and fantasies often start modestly, and gradually increase in movement. Especially his fantasies are masterpieces in this regard. Take for instance his Chromatic Fantasy. The first part uses the chromaticism by alternating whole and half steps. In the second section, the theme is enlarged to a complete cantus firmus, while the embellishments increase in speed. In the third section, the chromatic theme is increased in speed as well, after which the whole work is finished with a graceful bow.

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Gottfried Homilius

Gottfried August Homilius (2 February 1714 – 2 June 1785) was a German composer, cantor and organist. He is considered one of the most important church composers of the generation following Bach's, and was the main representative of the empfindsamer style. Homilius was born in Rosenthal, Saxony, the son of a Lutheran pastor, and was educated at the Annenschule in Dresden. He then studied law at Leipzig University and the organ under Johann Sebastian Bach. From 1742 he was organist at the Dresden Frauenkirche, and from 1755 until his death cantor at theKreuzkirche in Dresden with the associated responsibility of music director at the Kreuzkirche, the Sophienkirche, and the Frauenkirche. After the destruction of the Kreuzkirche during the Seven Years' War he worked mainly at the Frauenkirche.

Gottfried August Homilius (2 February 1714 – 2 June 1785) was a German composer, cantor and organist. He is considered one of the most important church composers of the generation following Bach's, and was the main representative of the empfindsamer style.
Homilius was born in Rosenthal, Saxony, the son of a Lutheran pastor, and was educated at the Annenschule in Dresden. He then studied law at Leipzig University and the organ under Johann Sebastian Bach. From 1742 he was organist at the Dresden Frauenkirche, and from 1755 until his death cantor at theKreuzkirche in Dresden with the associated responsibility of music director at the Kreuzkirche, the Sophienkirche, and the Frauenkirche. After the destruction of the Kreuzkirche during the Seven Years' War he worked mainly at the Frauenkirche.

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Johann Gottfried Walther

Johann Gottfried Walther (18 September 1684 – 23 March 1748) was a German music theorist, organist, composer, and lexicographer of the Baroque era.
Walther was born at Erfurt. Not only was his life almost exactly contemporaneous to that of Johann Sebastian Bach, he was the famous composer's cousin.
Walther was most well known as the compiler of the Musicalisches Lexicon (Leipzig, 1732), an enormous dictionary of music and musicians. Not only was it the first dictionary of musical terms written in the German language, it was the first to contain both terms and biographical information about composers and performers up to the early 18th century. In all, the Musicalisches Lexicon defines more than 3,000 musical terms; Walther evidently drew on more than 250 separate sources in compiling it, including theoretical treatises of the early Baroque and Renaissance. The single most important source for the work was the writings of Johann Mattheson, who is referenced more than 200 times.
Some further information on Walther can be found in the book Musica Poetica by Dietrich Bartel. On page 22, Bartel quotes Walther's definition of musica poetica, or musical rhetoric, as: "Musica Poetica or musical composition is a mathematical science through which an agreeable and correct harmony of the notes is brought to paper in order that it might later be sung or played, thereby appropriately moving the listeners to Godly devotion as well as to please and delight both mind and soul…. It is so called because the composer must not only understand language as does the poet in order not to violate the meter of the text but because he also writes poetry, namely a melody, thus deserving the title Melopoeta or Melopoeus." (22) Walther was the music teacher of Prince Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar. He wrote a handbook for the young prince with the title Praecepta der musicalischen Composition, 1708. It remained handwritten until Peter Benary's edition (Leipzig, 1955). As an organ composer, Walther became famous for his organ transcriptions of orchestral concertos by contemporary Italian and German masters. He made 14 transcriptions of concertos by Albinoni, Gentili, Taglietti, Giuseppe Torelli, Vivaldi and Telemann. These works were the models for Bach to write his famous transcriptions of concertos by Vivaldi and others. On the other hand, Walther as a city organist of Weimar wrote exactly 132 organ preludes based on Lutheran chorale melodies. Some free keyboard music also belongs to his legacy.

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Press

Ouverture klassik-blog 30-08-2016
ouverture klassik-blog, 30-8-2016

" [...] When Ton Koopmans hits the keyboards, He becomes inspired and the joy sparkles off from the play. As well on this CD. [...]"
Orgel Nieuws, 30-4-2016

Luister 10 "The sound of this particular instrument, in a relatively small space with little, is wonderful in this beautiful recording."
Luister Magazine, 01-3-2016