Masterworks of the Baroque Era for Violin and Organ

Johann Sebastian Bach: Toccata con Fuga ex d (BWV 565) (Organ solo/Violin solo) (8:54 + 9:02)/ Sonata G Major (BWV 1019a) (4:32 + 7:39)
Johann Adam Reincken: Was kann uns kommen an für Not (12:30)
William Brade: Choral (4:48)
Heinrich Scheidemann: Praeambulum in F (1:44)/ Toccata in G (4:37)/ Paduana Lachrymae (5:21)
Johann Schop: Lacrime Pavan (4:30)
Dietrich Buxtehude: Praeludium in g (BuxWV 148) (7:33)

Total time 71:12

Annegret Siedel, Baroque Violin
Pieter van Dijk, Van Hagerbeer/Schnitger and Van Covelens-Organ of the Grote Sint Laurenskerk, Alkmaar

This CD is an introduction to the nearly forgotten tradition of ensemble performance with violin and a large (church) organ.

Besides the accompaniment of the congregational singing, great church organs primarily have a soloistic function in today’s musical practice. For performances of cantatas and oratorios, chest organs are usually employed today. The continuo part in solo music for violin is typically performed on harpsichord and/or chest organ. The situation was very different in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries! The organists on the large organs in the municipal churches of northern Germany had to be able to play together with other instruments and small ensembles. The program of this CD includes music for violin and organ as it was heard in northern and central Germany.

The combination of cornetts, trombones, and large organ is documented in Hamburg already in the sixteenth century. This practice was known as “Blasen in die Orgel,” i.e., “playing [or lit. ‘blowing’] in the organ,” since on the floor of the church the instruments sounded as if they were part of the large organ

Diverse sources report of appearances by Johann Schop, the leader of the Hamburg “Ratsmusikanten” (“musicians of the town council”), with the renowned Hamburg organists Heinrich Scheidemann and Matthias Weckmann. When Weckmann successfully auditioned in the Jacobikirche in 1655, one of the challenges was to work out a continuo bass together with the violinist Schop. Among the critical listeners was Heinrich Scheidemann.

The poet Johann Rist related in 1658 that he came especially to the Katharinenkirche in order “to hear the world-famous Herr Scheidemann on the organ. After the sermon was finished, my very revered friend, the old, much-praised Herr Schope said to Herr Scheidemann: My brother, let us together make a fine piece for the pleasure of our worthy friend. Since the noble Scheidemann was entirely willing, they began to play for me an extremely agile little piece whose text was sung very charmingly by a skillful falsetto.”