Recorded at:		-
	Live / Studio		Studio
	Producer		-
	Balance engineer		-
	First LP Edition		BASF | 29 21193-2 | 2 LPs | durata 39' 35" - 36' 39" | (p) 1972
	First CD Edition		PILZ - ACANTA | 44 2166-2 | 2 CDs | durata 39' 35" - 36' 39" | (c) 1993 | ADD
	Note		-

Musik aus Schlössernb & Residenzen (20 CD Collection) Membran | 234355 | (c) 2016 (in CD 9 & 10)

Scarcely any other town of comparable size reflects the course of German history, with all its vicissitudes, as does the old „Free Imperial City“ of Nuremberg; and, woven into the intricate web of political, economic, religious and cultural developments, music, in particular, stands out vividly in all its varied forms. In the 14th and 15th centuries it was chiefly the Community’ s flourishing foreign trade that enabled the arts to enjoy similar good fortune and develop to an unprecedented degree. In the first half of the 15th century Nuremberg had already produced within its ancient walls the first great name in the musical history of Germany, Konrad Paumann (c. 1415 -1473), the great pioneer of organ and lute playing. Closely connected with the development of organ music there grew up at the same time another new art-form, the German Lied, whose main sources were also to be found in Nuremberg: the „Lochamer-Liederbuch“ (1452 - 1460) and the song-book of Hartmann Schedel (1460 - 1467). At the time of Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528), when Nuremberg was at the peak of its cultural and political development, the foundations were laid for the two thriving musical industries of the future, instrument making and music printing and publishing. The new humanistic learning of the period also made its presence felt and led to the reform of musical instruction in schools, the driving forces in this direction being Johannes Cochläus and Sebald Heyden. The city produced two composers of note, Conrad Rein, the teacher of Hans Sachs, and Wilhelm Breitengraser. Adolf Blindhamer, former court lutenist to Emperor Maximilian I, and his pupil Hans Gerle and Hans Neusiedler became leading exponents of the art of lute-playing and also produced excellent compositions for this instrument. Although the middle of the 16th century saw a decline in the city’s musical activities, from 1575 onwards the city received renewed impetus from Friedrich Lindner and, in particular, Leonhard Lechner, who secured a place for Nuremberg again among the musical centres of Southern Germany. As a result of the successful blending of the old German and Flemish musical styles with the new Italian madrigalian devices in vocal writing a „new German Lied“ emerged, mainly due to the work of Lechner, which found its culmination in the masterly compositions of Hans Leo Hassler. It would seem that the most concentrated, substantial picture of Nuremberg’s musical life is presented in the Baroque era, when the city directed its cultural efforts along a course completely independent of any neighbouring musical activities. This is all the more remarkable as the political and economic importance of the city had noticeably declined during the Thirty Years’ War and after the devastating plague years of the 17th century. In contrast to the prevailing pattern of musical life as witnessed in the other „free imperial cities“ and royal courts of Germany at that time, the focal point of which was always the reigning chief conductor or choirmaster, Nuremberg’s musical activities revolved round its organists. The work of these Nuremberg masters was strongly determined by the great tradition of organ playing which had grown up in Nuremberg and continued to be handed down from teacher to pupil for a period of over five generations, stretching from Johann Staden through to Pachelbels son Wilhelm Hieronymus and the threshold of the classic era. Such continuity of teaching was quite unique in Germany and one can with justification speak of a „Nuremberg School“: Staden was the teacher of Johann Erasmus Kindermann, whose pupils Heinrich Schwemmer and Georg Kaspar taught Johann Krieger and Johann Pachelbel. A flowing cantabile style of writing, tight-knit formal construction, a simple tunefulness and lack of any overdramatic pathos characterized the Franconian-Baroque, Nuremberg style. Johann Matthäus Leffloth was able to benefit from the musical heritage of the „Nuremberg School“. Born in February 1705, the son of a Nuremberg merchant and organist, he received his early musical instruction from Wilhelm Hieronymus Pachelbel and, aged only 18 years, was appointed organist of St. Leonhard’s. The promising young genius, however, died in October 1731 at the early age of 27. His compositions for keyboard instruments clearly show the influence of the Italian style. The fact that his Sonata for Viola da gamba and Harpsichord in C major, recorded here, was once erroneously thought to be by George Frideric Handel is proof enough in itself of the substance of this composer’s works. Although in the 18th century Nuremberg, compared with other South German musical centres such as Mannheim, Munich and Vienna, was somewhat out of the mainstream of contemporary musical activity, it, nevertheless, in that period too, played a significant role. Evidence of this is provided by the music printing and publishing trade, which was thriving once again. It was to the Nuremberg music engravers and publishers Christoph Weigel and Balthasar Schmid that Johann Sebastian Bach himself entrusted the printing of three of his works (few of which were ever printed during the composer’s lifetime). It is true that some of the city’s talents had to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Thus Johann Christoph Vogel, born in 1756 into an old Nuremberg family of lute and violin makers, decided to settle in Paris in 1777, where, like Leffloth, he suffered an untimely death at the age of 32. Vogel always regarded Christoph Willibald Gluck as his real teacher in composition. He himself was considered one of the most important operatic composers between Gluck and Mozart. Whereas a revival of Vogel’s operas in our days has proved unsuccessful, there is a growing interest in his instrumental works, a number of which are becoming increasingly popular. Written originally to provide for the court orchestras of the French nobility, they have a charming musical freshness which appeals today. One instrument that features prominently in much of Vogel’s chamber music is the clarinet. This is significant as it was from the city of Nuremberg that this instrument set out on its triumphal progress through musical Europe, for around the year 1700 Johann Christoph Denner of Nuremberg produced the first key-chalumeau, the immediate forerunner of the clarinet. The composer Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen was also a virtuoso clarinetist. The Backofen family, of which there were numerous branches, was the one musical family to achieve any prominence during Nuremberg’s last years of glory as a „free imperial city“. J.G.H. Backofen was born at Durlach in 1768. In 1780 he and two of his brothers became apprenticed to Capellmeister Georg Wilhelm Gruber in Nuremberg. He remained in Nuremberg until 1806 and died in 1830 in Darmstadt, where he had been a member of the Court Orchestra. In addition to composing, Backofen also compiled excellent text books on the principles of playing both the clarinet and the harp. His concertos and concertante symphonies for various solo instruments and orchestra, which were widely performed during his lifetime, date, for the most part, from his years in Nuremberg, a time when the former medieval Franconian metropolis, through people like Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder and Ludwig Tieck in particular, was already being „discovered“ by the new Romantic movement. Franz Krautwurst