Michael Parenti

With this two-disc set, Friedhelm Flamme brings us Volume 13 in his impressive and valuable coverage of the work of the North German baroque organ masters. Here he turns his attention to the complete organ works of Michael Praetorius of Wolfenbüttel. Praetorius is well known to many early-music lovers for his delightful dance music arrangements from "Terpsichore"; but in fact he was also a choral and organ composer of the very first rank, as well as contributing invaluable theoretical and practical material to our knowledge of music history in his writings.

The works of Michael Praetorius (1571-1621), an outstanding composer and great innovator, have mainly come to the contemporary public's attention thanks to his collection of dances under the name of Terpsichore and to his theoretical writings. Jean-Charles Ablitzer here gives us the first recording of 10 organ pieces selected from his Musae Soniae, fantasies on Lutherian melodies) and from his Hymnodia Sonia (Latin hymns). This interpretation, already acclaimed by a 'Choc' from the Monde de la Musique, reveals Praetorius as an inspired and gentle colourist, whose musical idiom will left a deep imprint on the first generation of baroque composers.