Commisioned by duke Heinrich Julius of Braunschweig-Lüneburg the organ with wooden pipes of Frederiksborg castle was the result of the artistic cooperation between Esaias Compenius, the organ and instrument builder to the court of Wolfenbüttel, and the kapellmeister Michael Praetorius. Four hundred years later this recording celebrates the rediscovery by these outstanding personalities of this universal masterpiece.

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.