Recorded at:		-
	Live / Studio		Studio
	Producer		-
	Balance engineer		-
	First LP Edition		BASF | 29 21192-4 | 2 LPs | durata 42' 11" - 41' 28" | (p) 1972
	First CD Edition		MEMBRAN | 234255 | 20 CDs | durata 42' 11" - 41' 28" | (c) 2016 | ADD
	Note		-

Musik aus Schlössernb & Residenzen (20 CD Collection) Membran | 234355 | (c) 2016 (in CD 15 & 16)

Musical life at "Bavarian's courts and residences", which in the 18th century enjoyed its glorious heyday, began to flourish as the early as the 16th century. The influence of the church, the musical fervour  of the princes, the gentry and wealthy burgers, a prospering economy and thenumerous connections with Southern Europe led Munich to become a focal point of cultural activity. Orlando di Lasso, the "genius loci", attracted a considerable throng of foreign musicians who brought with them a stream of ideas reflecting the art and spirit of the Italian Late Renaissance and Early Baroque and imprinted on Bavaria's musical life their own individual personalities and art. Thus Munich established its reputation as a major centre of music in Europe. One of the most brilliant periods in Munich’s musical history was the 16th century. The Bavarian Ducal Court Chapel enjoyed at this time a position unequalled in Europe except by the Papal Court Chapel itself. By acquiring the highly-esteemed blind organist Conrad Paumann (c. 1420 - 1473), of Nuremberg, Duke Albert III made Munich for the first time a city of musical importance. Paumann’s tombstone still today has a special place of honour below the organ gallery in the Frauenkirche. One generation later the „greatest German song-writer“ of the century, Ludwig Senfl (c 1486 - 1543), of Switzerland, chose to settle in Munich. Senfl was a pupil of the famous Flemish composer Heinrich Isaac and, as such, found a post allotted to him quite early on in his career at the Imperial Court Chapel, which, at the turn of the century, represented Europe’s most distinguished musical institution. When the music-loving Emperor Maximilian I died, in 1519, Senfl decided to go to Munich, where he was eventually made Court Kapellmeister of the Ducal Chapel. Under his influence the Bavarian Ducal Chapel developed rapidly, modelling itself on the Imperial Court Chapel. As Court Kapellmeister Senfl was required to provide music for an extremely wide variety of occasions: masses, motets, magnificats and hymns for the church services and prayers as well as secular songs and instrumental pieces as suitable entertainment at table and for court festivities. Senfl became the greatest and most prolific writer of German Lieder of the period. No matter what the material to hand, his inexhaustible imagination would spark off ever new flights of creativity. Ludwig Daser (c. 1525 - 15S9) was born in Munich and became one of Senfl’s successors to the much coveted post of Court Kapellmeister. He held the position from 1552 to 1563. Daser preferred to follow in the musical tradition of his predecessors in his compositions, as his 8-part motet „Benedictus Dominus“, written on 4 consonant cantus firmi, clearly shows. The year 1556 was to witness a decisive step in the history of Munich’s Court Chapel. Duke Albert V, an ardent patron of the arts, summoned to his service the young Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594), of Mons in Hennegau, already a well-known and highly regarded musician. Munich became the focal point of musical Europe, for Lasso, known by his contemporaries as the „Belgian Orpheus“, became the most celebrated composer of his day, comparable only to Palestrina in Rome. Lasso remained in the service of the Bavarian Court Chapel for nearly 40 years. A true cosmopolitan, travelling widely throughout Europe, he became a composer of universal stature, in whose style all the elements of contemporary European music were united. He represented the „culmination of the Flemish school“, which, since Johannes Ciconia (+ 1411), had for nearly 200 years led Europe in the field of music. His numerous secular songs comprise German Lieder, French chansons, Italian madrigals and Latin humorous songs and drinking-songs. To each genre he brought a supreme mastery practically unmatched in his day. The „Magnificat sexti Toni“ and the hymn „Kombt her zu mir, spricht gottes son“ are fine examples of the type of sacred music he customarily provided for the daily requirements of the chapel, likewise the two 6-part motets „Timor Domini“ and „Timor et tremor“ and the sections of the great doublechorus „Missa vinum bonum“ show the master at his most powerful. The young successor to the throne, William V, later known as William the Good, became very attached to Lasso, and a warm friendship grew between the two men which was to prove of great value to them both later, in good times and in bad. After his wedding the twenty-year-old William lived at Trausnitz above Landshut, where he maintained a splendid court. With friendly advice from Lasso he built up his own court chapel, which included among its members several noteworthy composers. Lasso’s fame spread throughout Europe. A deep-thinking man, highly educated and skilled in many languages, he became in addition a much sought-after teacher. The best talent of the land was sent to him for tuition, even Venice sent their subsequently famous Giovanni Gabrieli to Munich for further studies. The singers and musicians of the Court Chapel were frequently notable composers as well, and compete masters of their art in all its aspects. The manuscript copies they produced were for many years thought to be printed, so perfectly were they written. Lasso was consequently fully occupied as Kapellmeister and Court Composer and at the same time teacher of the choristers, of the instrumentalists and of the best students of composition. To assist him in carrying out his many duties he had a Second Court Kapellmeister, Johannes de Fossa (c. 1540-1603), a Dutchman, of whom a work is included on this record: the Kyrie and Gloria from his Missa „Ich segge ä dieu“, a mass written on a well-known Dutch song. Perhaps the most eminent member of the Chapel around 1570 was the Dutchman Ivo de Vento (c. 1543/45-1575), Kapellmeister of the Landshut Court Chapel and organist of the Munich Chapel. He is the great German song-writer of the late 16th century. His 3, 4 and 5-part songs and his short 5-part motet „Herr dein Wort“ display his undoubtedly great skill. The Austrian composer Leonhard Lechner (1553-1606) also began as a chorister in Munich under Lasso and later under Ivo de Vento at Landshut. His two great masters had a lasting influence on him, inspiring him to develop into Germany’s greatest composer of the turn of the century. His reputation as the „mighty composer“, however, was won during the course of a somewhat hectic career, in which he moved from Munich to Landshut, Nuremberg, Hechingen, and finally to Stuttgart, where he died in 1606. Jacob Reiner (before 1560-1606),’ regens chori’ of the neighbouring abbey at Weingarten, came to Lasso for tuition and became one of his favourite pupils. The 6-part motet „Mane nobiscum domine“ and the parting-hymn „Behüt euch Gott“ show Reiner to be a composer of considerable merit. The compositions of Anton Gosswin (c. 1546- 1594), Dutch counter-tenor at the Munich Court Chapel and later in the service of Duke Ernst, Prince-Bishop of Freising, and Balduin Hoyoul (1547/8 -1594) give evidence of yet two more leading musicians at the Munich Court Chapel. An institution such as the Munich Court Chapel, unique as it would seem to have been in Europe, required a strong leading personality to keep the many talented individuals together, to care for both their artistic and their human needs. This personality it fortunately possessed: Orlando di Lasso. Konrad Ruhland