Robert Woolley - Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Organ Works (2003)

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Robert Woolley - Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Organ Works (2003)

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The late-Renaissance keyboard music of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck is virtuosic to a high degree, reflecting both his exceptional skills as an improviser and the secular role organ music was assigned in Reformed Amsterdam. Without a liturgical function to constrain his imagination or shape his music – Calvinist services had no place for it – Sweelinck was free to provide fanciful showpieces for his daily recitals in the Oude Kerk. Examples of his improvisational style can be found in the quasi-fugal Hexachord Fantasia, the witty Echo Fantasia, and the flamboyant Toccatas, of which three are included here. Yet Sweelinck's music is also rigorously logical and full of ingenious contrapuntal devices. These are readily found in his fantasias, but are prominently featured in his numerous sets of variations. His elaborate settings of the chorales Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr and Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott, and his variations on popular melodies, such as the famous Mein junges Leben hat ein End, display his invention and thorough manipulation of his subjects in all registers. Perhaps better known as a harpsichordist, Robert Woolley is also a fine organist. Woolley has selected representative works from each of Sweelinck's favored genres and given them exceptional performances on the Van Hagerbeer organ of the Pieterskerk, Leiden.

Review by Blair Sanderson, Allmusic.com

Much of Sweelinck’s keyboard music, unpublished in his lifetime but haphazardly preserved in manuscript copies, is unrecorded; half of Woolley’s selection is new to the catalogue. One of the characteristics of his style, common to toccatas, fantasias and variations alike, is a sense of controlled improvisation, reflected in this thoughtful playing. Some of the music itself wanders timelessly – chorale variations on ‘Erbarm dich’, clothed in ambivalent harmony, oscillate constantly between modes. By contrast, the uncompromisingly major-key ‘Allein Gott’ is integrated and purposeful, as, too, the familiar ‘Mein junges Leben’, beautifully shaped and revealing a charming range of colours. The 1643 Pieterskerk organ in Leiden was scrupulously restored in 1998, an exceptionally fine and apt instrument for Sweelinck. Helpful booklet notes give specification and sample indications of Woolley’s use of it, responding to the 17th-century instruction to leave no stop untouched lest they should ‘through misuse stiffen or become silent’ – the tonal variety is a delight. The long reverberation of loud final chords reveals the recording challenge. It’s well met, but, despite Woolley’s lifted touch, virtuosic figurations are sometimes clouded. Meantone tuning struck me as bitter-sweet in an opening Toccata, but lends creamy smoothness to quiet sustained chords elsewhere. Clearly, a must for organ buffs – but strongly persuasive for the uninitiated, too.

Review by George Pratt, BBC Music Magazine

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Robert Woolley - Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Organ Works (2003)

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Robert Woolley - Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Organ Works (2003)

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Robert Woolley - Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Organ Works (2003)

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