The Hanseatic League

A new signing for Delphian, In Echo is made up of some of Europe’s finest young early-music specialists. Each a soloist in their own right, under director Gawain Glenton they have put together a fascinating snapshot of the musical landscape during the heyday of the Hanseatic League. The seafaring nations of northern Europe have always been connected: London to Tallinn via Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen and the ports of Holland, Denmark and Sweden.

After Stralsund and Danzig, Magdeburg is the third stop on Manfred Cordes' journey through the cities of the Hanseatic League. This stop not only takes him to a city quite far from the sea but also to the earliest period of Protestant church music. Magdeburg introduced the Reformation already in 1524, just seven years after Luther's decisive act. Immediately, the transformation began of what the former monk from Eisleben cherished as a "gift and blessing from God" and saw as an effective means of preaching the Gospel. A genuine "Magdeburg School" emerged, with its representatives cultivating and developing the music of the new faith up until the Thirty Years' War. This program follows that tradition, bringing to life the works of cantors from Martin Agricola to Heinrich Grimm, thus allowing compositions spanning approximately 120 years to resound once more.

After Stralsund and Danzig, Magdeburg is the third stop on Manfred Cordes’ journey through the cities of the Hanseatic League.

From the middle of the sixteenth century the reputation for excellence of the composers of Northern Germany was well established. Given dynamism by commercial exchanges thanks to the bustling activity of the port of Hamburg notably, the cities of the Hanseatic League welcomed many foreign workers, their customs inspiring the artistes of the Germanic tradition. At the end of the seventeenth century, Hamburg was a free city sheltered from war, a refuge for artistes and for great fortunes. It was then the most cosmopolitan city in Germany and its population included a great number of merchants, bankers, diplomats and senators, so many men who were rich and who had the time necessary for enjoying music and for encouraging this flourishing art.