Jan PieterszoonSweelinck: Pseaumes de David

Featuring

Manfred Cordes
Edoardo Bellotti
Weser-Renaissance Bremen
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

Did you know?

1/7

Recording & Production

This CD is dedicated to Edoardo Bellotti, a respected colleague and organ soloist on this album, who passed away unexpectedly in February of the recording year.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Sweelinck's keyboard compositions combine the legacy of classical polyphony, the Franco-Flemish tradition, and the virtuosity and expressiveness of English virginalists.

Compositional Technique

Sweelinck's Echo Fantasies, a new element in the organ repertoire, feature short rhythmic-melodic motifs repeated in dialogue between two manuals with contrasting dynamics or at the octave.

Composer Biography

Sweelinck became known as a 'maker of organists,' attracting numerous students from Northern Germany, including Heinrich Scheidemann and members of the Praetorius family, who sought multi-year training with him.

Historical Context

The Netherlands, where Sweelinck lived, experienced significant political and religious turmoil during his lifetime, including the 'Great Iconoclasm' of 1566 and the Eighty Years' War against Spanish rule.

Composer Biography

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, the composer featured on this album, was born in Deventer in 1562, and his family moved to Amsterdam in 1564 where his father, and later he and his son, served as organists at the Oude Kerk for three generations.

Instruments

The organ used for the solo pieces is a modified replica of an early 17th-century North Italian processional organ by master Carlo Prati, built by Giovanni Pradella.