On 2 August 1596, an extraordinary effervescence reigned over the Castle
of Gröningen, near Halberstadt. Fifty-three organists, prestigious
Masters of Music, arrived from all over Germany to test and inaugurate
the instrument commissioned four years earlier by Duke Heinrich Julius
of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Bishop of Halberstadt, from the organ builder
David Beck. Its 59 metal organ stops make it an exceptional encyclopedia
of sounds, imitating all instruments perfectly and producing the most
astonishing musical combinations. Among all the participants, only Hans
Leo Hassler, Hieronymus Praetorius and Michael Praetorius have left works
in print. Through their art, this recording sheds new light on compositions
for the organ in Germany at the end of the Renaissance and at the birth
of the different writing styles of the Baroque period.