From Heaven on Earth - Lute Music from Kremsmunster Abbey by Hubert Hoffmann

Hubert Hoffmann

From Heaven on Earth - Lute Music from Kremsmunster Abbey

Price: € 20.95
Format: SACD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917274028
Catnr: CC 72740
Release date: 04 November 2016
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917274028

Catalogue number
CC 72740

Release date
04 November 2016

"If you have any affinity for music of the lute, I heartily commend this recording to you. The performances are those of a master on the lute, the recording quality is that of a master recording engineer applying some of the highest skills in the industry. (I'll be writing more about Bert van der Wolf in the future!) In the DXD resolution to which I am listening, the sound quality is as good or better than any I've heard—capturing the sound of this 11-string lute's snap and resonance, in an ethereal natural acoustic environment, superbly. Highly recommended!"

Positive Feedback, 11-5-2020

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

When I visited the Benedictine Abbey of Kremsmunster in upper Austria some years ago to look at the lutes stored in the abbey archives, I could not guess that this visit would radically change my life as a lutenist. I learnt that the writer of tablatures I discovered was a member of the abbey named Pater Ferdinando (Fischer). It soon turned out that much of the music set down by this scribe was not to be found in the numberless lute manuscripts from this period scattered around the world. These were unique manuscripts. Moreover they contained quite extraordinary works of striking compositional quality: new lute music in the form of cyclical poems of a lute enthusiast - a padre - at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. In one of the quietest recording studios in all of Europe - the Galaxy studios in Mol, Belgium - we finally brought the long since faded lute-poems of Pater Ferdinando back to life. Through the wonderfully delicate sound of my lute, Bert's immeasurable se

Lang vergeten luitmuziek, die ons hart vandaag de dag nog steeds raakt
Dit album bevat 3 suites van de Benedictijn en luitist, pater Ferdinand Fischer. Befaamd luitist Hubert Hoffmann ontdekte deze suites tijdens zijn zoektocht naar oude luiten in een klooster in Oostenrijk. De lang vergeten luitgedichten kwamen weer tot leven, in een van de stilste opnamestudio’s van Europa. Hoffmann: "Door de prachtige verfijnde klank van mijn luit, de onvoorstelbare fijngevoeligheid van opnametechnicus Bert van der Wolf en de geavanceerde opnametechnologie, begon de luitist en pater tot ons te spreken. Moge deze muziek, ontwaakt uit zijn eeuwenlange slaap, onze harten vandaag de dag nog steeds raken!”

Hoffmann: “Toen ik enkele jaren geleden het Benedictijnse klooster van Kremsmünster in Oostenrijk bezocht, om daar in het archief een paar luiten te bekijken, kon ik niet vermoeden dat dit bezoek mijn leven als luitist radicaal zou veranderen. Ik ontdekte dat de auteur van het speciaal voor luit bestemde muziekschrift, dat daar ook in het archief lag, een lid van het klooster was, pater Ferdinand Fischer. Al gauw bleek, dat zijn muziek niet terug te vinden was tussen de wereldwijd verbreide luitmanuscripten uit die periode. Het waren dus unieke manuscripten, buitengewoon en opvallend van kwaliteit. Nieuwe luitmuziek in de vorm van cyclische gedichten, geschreven door een pater en luitenthousiast, aan het eind van de 17eeeuw.“

Als vooraanstaand luitist gaat Hubert Hoffmann wereldwijd op tournee als solist en speler van barokmuziek. Hij is gefascineerd door de veelheid aan stijlen van de Habsburger hofmuziek, wat zich uit in het meespelen in een ensemble als Ars Antiqua Austria. Met zijn eigen ensemble realiseert hij geavanceerde muziekprogramma's, die door publiek en pers enthousiast ontvangen worden. Hoffmann is altijd intensief op zoek naar historische muziekstudies voor tokkelinstrumenten.

Hubert Hoffmann: Als ich vor einigen Jahren das Benediktinerkloster Kremsmünster in Oberösterreich besucht habe, um mir einige der Lauten anzusehen, die dort im Archiv verwahrt sind, hätte ich mir nicht vorstellen können, dass dieser Besuch mein Leben als Lautenist radikal verändern würde. Ich fand heraus, dass der Autor von Tabulaturen, die ich entdeckte, ein Mitglied des Klosters namens Pater Ferdinando (Fischer) war.
Es stellte sich bald heraus, dass sich viel Musik, die von diesem Schreiber notiert wurde, nicht in den zahllosen Lautenmanuskripten dieser Zeit findet, die über die ganze Welt verstreut sind. Diese Manuskripte waren einzigartig. Außerdem beinhalteten sie ganz außergewöhnliche Werke von beeindruckender Qualität: neue Lautenmusik in der Gestalt von zyklischen Gedichten eines Lautenenthusiasten – ein Pater – an der Wende vom 17. zum 18. Jahrhundert.
In einem der ruhigsten Aufnahmestudios in ganz Europa – den Galaxy-Studios im belgischen Mol – haben wir die lang verblichenen Lautengedichte von Pater Ferdinando endlich wieder zum Leben erweckt. Durch den wunderbar filigranen Klang meiner Laute, Berts unermessliches Feingefühl und die fortschrittlichste Aufnahmetechnologie, die zu nutzen ich je das Privileg hatte, begann der Pater-Lautenist, wieder zu uns zu sprechen.
Im Kontext lassen sich Fischers mutmaßliche Originalkompositionen nur durch ihre stilistischen Eigenschaften von anderen anonymen Werken unterscheiden. Der erste Hinweis findet sich in der beträchtlichen Zahl zuvor gänzlich unbekannter Zyklen. Ihre exquisite Qualität, ihr hohes Maß an Originalität und kompositorischer Eigenständigkeit, zusammen mit den beträchtlichen technischen Ansprüchen, die sie an den Lautenisten stellen, führen uns zu der Annahme einer gemeinsamen Autorschaft.

Artist(s)

Hubert Hoffmann

Like most musicians of his generation, Hubert Hoffmann, a member of Austria's leading early music ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria, pursues a wide-ranging career as a continuo player with numerous ensembles performing on period instruments all over the world. His fascination for the unique blend of lute music for the Habsburg Courts is reflected in his solo projects, in which he aims to shed light upon this undeservedly neglected niche in baroque lute music repertoire. His first solo CD of works by the Bohemian Count Johann Antonin Losy was received to wide critical acclaim. The second recording of music from the lute manuscript Ms.1255 in the monastery library at Klosterneuburg for the ORF Edition of Classical Music, the first ever recording of Wenzel Ludwig Radolt's important 1701 collection of lute concertos Die allertreueste Freindin for Challenge Classics, and the music of the Vienna lutenist Karl Kohaut, also for Challenge Classics, have now been issued.
In 2012, he was appointed curator of a long-term research project in the fields of lute music, lute playing and lute restoration at Kremsmünster Abbey in Upper Austria, producing an edition of the tablatures for lute and mandora, stored in the music library there. As a part of this work he has recently recorded music of Father Ferdinand Fisher, a lute playing member of this Benedictine Monastery, also for Challenge Classic.
From 2013 to 2015 he was active as chairman of the Austrian Lute Society "ÖLG". As artistic consultant, he is also engaged in establishing a new concert series with music from the Goess Manuscripts in the historic Fronmiller Hall at Ebenthal Castle in Carinthia.

Composer(s)

Ferdinand Fischer

Press

If you have any affinity for music of the lute, I heartily commend this recording to you. The performances are those of a master on the lute, the recording quality is that of a master recording engineer applying some of the highest skills in the industry. (I'll be writing more about Bert van der Wolf in the future!) In the DXD resolution to which I am listening, the sound quality is as good or better than any I've heard—capturing the sound of this 11-string lute's snap and resonance, in an ethereal natural acoustic environment, superbly. Highly recommended!
Positive Feedback, 11-5-2020

All in all, whomever the composer or composers of the music on this disc are, it makes for attractive listening in an idiosyncratic but excellent series of 20 performances. Recommended.
Fanfare Magazine, 01-6-2017

Hoffmann is playing these works as concentrated as introverted, but understands it, to give the dance pieces drive and rhythmic movement. With a very dense atmosphere, underlines the recording technique the impression of the intimity and seclusion of a monastery cell
Concerto magazine Germany, 01-5-2017

Hoffmann abduct us in this musical world, sometimes lost in thought, sometimes galant - but always very own. The listener shall enjoy these discovery, very nice recorded and above all excellent
Klassik-Blog "Ouvertüre", 26-3-2017

" (...) IThink this material would mostly be interesting for the hardcore lute enthousiasts (...) "
Luister, 06-3-2017

Hubert Hoffmann's discovery is a real luck!…Music for silent moments which needs your attention
SWR 2 , 20-1-2017

Hoffmann plays the compositions fantasticly.
Kerk en Leven, 18-1-2017

''Hoffmann playes these works masterly.''
Kerk en Leven, 16-12-2016

Best rating: ***** "The player is known. It is Hubert Hofmann, and he is a d…. good one, too. What more can I say?"
HRAudio, 21-11-2016