Dutch Delight - Organ music from the Golden Age
Jan Pieterszoon SWEELINCK (1562-1621)
Fantasia chromatica (SwWV 258) [8:37]
Almande gratie (More Platino) (SwWV 318) [4:24]
Mein junges Leben hat ein End (SwWV 324) [7:11]
Anon
Wilhelmus/Almande prynce [2:02]
Henderick SPEUY (c1575-1625)
Psalm 118 [2:44]
Anthoni VAN NOORDT (c1619-1675)
Psalm 24 [7:49]
Jan Pieterszoon SWEELINCK
Ballo del Granduca (SwWV 319) [5:02]
Anon
Daphne [5:54]
Jan Pieterszoon SWEELINCK
Psalm 36 (SwWV 311) [9:42]
Anon
De frans galliard [0:50]
Serbande [1:45]
Almande Brun Smeedelyn [1:25]
Jan Pieterszoon SWEELINCK
Malle Sijmen (SwWV 323) [1:39]
Cornelis SCHUYT (1557-1616)
Padovana (del decimo modo) [4:21]
Gagliarda (del decimo modo) [1:46]
Gerhardus HAVINGHA (1696-1753)
Ouverture VIII: vivace [4:34]
Jan Pieterszoon SWEELINCK
Fantasia a 3 in g minor (SwWV 271) [5:44]
Matthias Havingha (organ)
rec. 2014, Jacobuskerk, Zeerijp, Netherlands. DDD
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 95093 [75:42]
In many European countries in the 16th and 17th centuries organists
were among the most respected musicians. They not only played a key
role in liturgy but were also active in musical life in the towns where
they lived and worked. The Low Countries were somewhat different. Since
the Reformation the organ had not been used in Sunday services. The
congregation sang its Psalms unaccompanied. That changed around the
middle of the 17th century, when the dismal state of congregational
singing became unbearable. Before that time organists - mostly in the
service of city councils - played improvisations before and after services
and on weekdays when churches were used as a kind of market-place. For
preference they improvised on the tunes of the Genevan Psalter in order
to make them better known. Very few variations on Psalm tunes from the
late 16th and early 17th centuries have come down to us. This is for
exactly the same reason why the repertoire by representatives of the
North-German organ school is rather limited: organists were expected
to improvise and organ music was hardly ever printed. It is mostly through
copies by pupils that we know some part of their improvisations. Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck is a good example. Obviously this sometimes leads
to doubts about the authenticity of a piece. Some scholars believe that
Sweelinck's Ballo del Granduca is from the pen of his German
pupil Samuel Scheidt.
Sweelinck is the main figure on the present disc by Matthias Havinga
who recorded a survey of “organ music from the Golden Age”. That subtitle
isn't quite correct as a large part of the music selected for this recording
is not specifically intended for the organ but rather for any keyboard
instrument. The dances and the variations on secular tunes were mostly
written for domestic performance on instruments such as harpsichord,
spinet or virginals. The Padovana and Gagliarda by Cornelis
Schuyt are not even intended for a keyboard instrument; rather for a
consort of instruments, such as gambas or recorders. The movement from
Gerardus Havingha's Ouverture VIII is for the harpsichord. It
is taken from a set which dates from 1725 - well after the end of the
Golden Age: roughly speaking from 1600 to c.1675.
The dances have mostly been preserved in manuscripts. One of these is
the so-called Susanne van Soldt-manuscript. A large selection
from this source was recorded by Guy Penson (review).
Others are the Camphuysen -manuscript and the Leningrad manucript
which dates from around 1650. From the latter comes one of the most
interesting little pieces here, a version of the Dutch national anthem
Wilhelmus which is very different from the version sung today.
Most of these pieces are anonymous, and that also goes for the three
variations on Daphne, known in Britain as When Daphne from
fair Phoebus did fly.
This disc includes a number of pieces by composers who are not that
well-known, certainly not outside the Netherlands. Among them are Henderick
Speuy, Anthoni van Noordt and the above-mentioned Cornelis Schuyt. It
is remarkable that Van Noordt's Tabulatuur-boeck - one of the
most important collections of 17th-century Dutch organ music - has never
been recorded complete. A selection was recorded by Leo van Doeselaar
(NM Classics, 1991). Speuy is hardly represented on disc and the same
goes for Schuyt. The Dutch have not shown a great interest in their
musical heritage. It is telling that only recently the first complete
recording of the oeuvre of arguably the greatest composer in Dutch music
history, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, was completed.
That makes this disc all the more important, especially as the liner-notes
are translated into English and German, allowing this repertoire to
become better known outside the Netherlands. Moreover, Matthias Havinga,
who has already made two discs for Brilliant Classics which have been
positively reviewed here (review;
review)
is a stylish interpreter who knows exactly how to reveal the features
of these pieces. The programme starts and closes with compelling performances
of two of Sweelinck's best works. This disc also offers the opportunity
to listen to one of the finest historical organs of the Netherlands.
It was built in 1651 and reconstructed in the 1970s. It is in the high
pitch which was common in the 17th century (a=466 Hz) and in quarter-comma
meantone temperament which is indispensable in music from this period.
This disc is a Dutch delight indeed.
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen
