Fritz Neumeyer (harpsichord) Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck,
Instrument: Johannes Ruckers, Antwerpen 1640
Originally Vinyl, LP, Mono, released: June 1962 by Harmonia Mundi HM 30627. This release Production Harmonia Mundi ® 1975, 20-22461-3
Recorded in SchloB Ahaus, Westfalen, Aufnahmeleitung: Dr. A. Krings, Technik: Tonstudio Südwest, Stuttgart, Germany

Seite A
00:00 Toccata in a
06:07 Liedvariationen ,,Ich fuhr mich über Rhein”
13:00 Fantasia chromatica

Seite B
21:27 Liedvariationen “Mein junges Leben hat ein End”
28:12 Toccata in C
32:36 Liedvariationen “Unter der Linden grüne”
38:36 Balletto del gran Ducca

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621) ,is the first great representative of a national Dutch school in music. For over 40 years he worked in Amsterdam at the Oude Kerk, famous throughout Europe as an organ virtuoso, while – as with J. S. Bach – his work as a composer remained relatively unknown. This fame brought him a large number of important pupils, particularly from North Germany, through Whom his influence reached as far as J. S. Bach. His compositions – 254 vocal and 72 instrumental works – are available in ·a collected edition. His style is probably best described as a synthesis of a val’iety of spheres of musical tradition : his keyboard music, for example, reveals the influence of Spanish, English and ltalian masters; but his works are borne on such a flowing vitality and freshness typical only of Sweelinck that the entire generation which followed was able to draw on them. In this way too they speak directly to present-day interpreters and listeners. Perhaps only Bach and Mozart achieve 50 pel’fectly the combination of music which falls naturally under the fingers and music of caprice and fantasy or of strict and intellectual counterpoint in structure. Even though the practising musician may feel the spirit of a work to be dos er to the organ or to the harpsichord, it is still impossible to ascribe the compositions definitively to one or other of these instruments. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the “mean-tone temperament” was in general use, and not the “even temperament” of twelve equal semitones to which we are accustomed today, but which was not customary until almost the end of the eighteenth century. The difference between diatonic and chromatic semitones is particularly dearly expressed in the “Fantasia chromatica”. The pure major thirds of mean-tone temperament lend the triads their characteristic sober darity.
The harpsichord by Johannes Ruckers was made available by its owner, Count Landsberg-Velen, whose ancestor, Alexander,
Reichsgraf of Velen, baron of Raesfeld, Imperial Field-Marshal, member of the War Council and a contemporary of Wallenstein,
in all probability acquired the instrument direct from its maker. The inside of the lid is decorated with paintings originating from Rubens’ workshop, depicting, on the keyboard side, Apollo and the nine Muses and, on the face lying above ,the sounding-board, the contest between Apollo and Marsy as. Sweelinck himself owned an instrument from Ruckers’ workshop: they were still enjoying such fame in the eighteenth century, that even Handel acquired one.
(Prof. Fritz Neumeyer)

Titelbild: Ruckers Cembalo, Ausschnitt mit freundlicher Genehmigung von: Landschaftsverband Westfalen/Lippe

#Ruckers #FritzNeumeyer