Vincent Lübeck (1654-1740) was a well-known teacher and trusted advisor on organ design in the generation of organists in North Germany before J. S. Bach. By 1675 he had become organist of St Cosmae et Damiani in Stade, near Hamburg, where there was an organ by Arp Schnitger. In 1702, Lübeck moved into Hamburg and became organist at St Nikolai, where there was a four-manual Schnitger organ of 67 stops.
The people of Lübeck had a decided preference for music for strings. Important violinists and viola da gamba players worked there even at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and their teaching abilities ensured a continuous supply of successors. Initially influenced by the English music for viols, there developed a string style in Lübeck which combined English polyphony with a new degree of virtuosity. Johann Heinrich Schmelzer's trio sonatas for violin, viola da gamba and basso continuo were in the possession of the Marienkirche, and they caused South-German and Italian ideas to be incorporated as well. The music for strings was additionally influenced by the North-German organists' preference for the stylus phantasticus; often several hundred bars in length, the North-German chorale fantasias feature fascinatingly colourful and often abrupt changes in technique, tone colour, improvisatory quality and virtuosity. (Simone Eckert, CD-booklet)
Der Schauspieler und Synchronsprecher Christian Brückner liest Thomas Manns Vortrag "Lübeck als geistige Lebensform" 60 Minuten lang, bewußt sich zurückhaltend und dem Text dienend. Man kann Brückner gut zuhören.
Thomas Mann hält Rückschau auf die vergangenen Jahrzehnte seiner Karriere, auf seine Herkunft und seine Prägung ("…Lübeck, Rom und München"). Ein bürgerlicher Schriftsteller ist er, der Thomas Mann (er kann das gar nicht oft genug betonen), natürlich meint er "großbürgerlich", jedesmal wenn er "bürgerlich" schreibt. Wenn man das Werk Thomas Manns einigermaßen gut kennt - das setzt der Text voraus - wird man an Christian Brückners Vortrag seine Freude haben.