Organ Works, Vol. 7

Organ Works, Vol. 7 Naxos 8.573119

Heinrich Scheidemann’s sig­nificance as a composer lies in his absorption of the influence of his teacher Sweelinck, and his subsequent forging of a new, independent style in North German music in the first half of the seventeenth-century. Volume 7 includes one of his significant settings of the Magnificat and presents chorales, liturgical extemporisations, and keyboard realisations of vocal motets. Also included are some brief dance pieces showing Scheidemann’s lig­hter side.

Review:
Many years have passed since Julia Brown embarked on the task of placing on disc the complete organ works of the long-forgotten Heinrich Scheidemann. History will place his name as little other than the organist who added a fourth manual to his Hamburg instrument to add to the range of colours available, and thus prompted the development of the instrument. Heard today his music does not seem of momentous value, but it was to form the basis of the great organist-composers that were to follow including Bach and his contemporaries. The Dutch organist’s in­fluences you hear in the opening Magnificat the only extended work on this seventh volume. There follows the Fantasia in D minor, the opening seemingly having strayed into the far distant future…\[Brown\] plays the organ built in 2004 by John Brombaugh for the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Illinois. He is an expert in the field of recreating period instruments, this one offering 17th century sounds without the compromises you have to accept in the originals.
David Denton, David’s Review Cor­ner