Today’s program is dedicated to music for Holy Week, that is, music that is currently associated with it. We will hear three works by Emperor Leopold I.
The first and last works in this hour were originally intended for the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. It received papal approval in 1688 and was celebrated from 1727 to 1814 on the Friday before Palm Sunday, and then on September 15. The Stabat Mater, which was removed from the liturgy by the Council of Trent, was restored to it in 1727 and became part of the Office of Our Lady of Sorrows.
These two works and a setting of the Miserere are by the hand of Emperor Leopold I, who, like all Habsburg emperors, was a great lover and connoisseur of music. He composed and also performed as a musician. His contemporary Biber composed his Rosary Sonatas in Salzburg for his employer, Archbishop Max Gandalf.
Leopold I (1640-1705)
1. Motetto de Septem Doloribus Beatae Mariae Virginis
Cappella Murensis, Les Cornets Noirs conducted by Johannes Strobl
(cd: “Paradisi gloria – Sacred music by Emperor Leopold I” – Audite 97.540, 2016)
2. Miserere per la settimana santa
Weser-Renaissance Bremen conducted by Manfred Cordes
(cd: “Il sagrifizio d’Abramo, Miserere” – CPO 555 113-2, 2020)
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704)
3. Sonata VII in F ‘Die Geißelung’ (C 96)
4. Sonata VIII in Bes ‘Die Dornenkrönung’ (C 97)
Mayumi Hirasaki, violin. Jan Freiheit, viola da gamba. Michael Freimuth, theorbo. Christine Schornsheim, harpsichord and organ
(cd: “Mystery Sonatas – Rosenkranz-Sonaten” – Passacaille PAS 1088, 2022)
Leopold I
5. Stabat Mater
Cappella Murensis, Les Cornets Noirs conducted by Johannes Strobl
(cd: see 1)
addition:
Gottlieb Muffat (1690-1770)
6. Capriccio 14to
Pier Damiano Peretti, organ
(cd: “Ricercate, Canzoni, Toccate & Capricci” – Ambiente ACD-2023, 2012)
Image: Emperor Leopold I (source: Geschiedenis extra)
