Österreich: Psalmen und Kantaten

Music for Gottorf Castle Vol. 3 Gottorf Castle in Schleswig not only is one of the most important architectural edifices in Schleswig-Holstein but also plays a significant role in cultural history owing to the chapel masters once active there in the Gottorf Castle court ensemble. Following sacred cantatas by Augustin Pfleger and Johann Philipp Förtsch in our new series »Music for Gottorf Castle, « the WESER-RENAISSANCE ensemble under Manfred Cordes dedicates itself to psalms and cantatas by Georg Österreich on Vol. 3. Those familiar with Österreich's name link it to an invaluable achievement in cultural history. He bequeathed to posterity a music library without which we would hardly know anything at all about the pre-Bach period. Österreich compiled most of its holdings while he was the chapel master to the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf. These meritorious services obscure the fact that Österreich was also a composer. Today approximately seventy church or sacred cantatas from his compositional oeuvre continue to be extant, and these works demonstrate that he was an outstandingly skillful author of figural church music. Above all, however, he supplied top-quality music to a wide range of funeral ceremonies. The music was supposed to get under the skin and to convey the message of its text as impressively as possible.