Before Bach There Was Sweelinck

Early this month, I became aware of a ten-CD collection given the title Sweelinck Collection - Complete Keyboard Music & Psalms, release by Brilliant Classics. I had no trouble finding its Amazon.com Web page, from which I learned that it would be released this coming Friday (September 4). While the name of the Dutch composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck has been familiar to me for as long as I have been involved with my writing gig, my encounters with his music have been few and far between. Indeed, the last time his name appeared here was about a year and a half ago, when harpsichordist Jonathan Salzedo played Sweelinck’s setting of music for Psalm 140 for a Noontime Concerts™ recital.

Cover of the first CD in the collection being discussed

The contents of the collection are somewhat uneven. The first six CDs have the subtitle Complete Harpsichord and Organ Music. To be honest, I am not sure if I can validate the completeness of this collection, particularly since there does not appear to be any systematic approach to the ordering of the compositions. The same can be said for the following three CDs, given the subtitle Psalms. The title of the final CD is Music from the Golden Age of Rembrandt, and only four of the thirteen tracks are Sweelinck compositions. My guess is that the other four composers will be totally unfamiliar to most readers: Cornelis Schuyt, Nicolas Vallet, Cornelis Thymanszoon Padbrué, Herman Hollanders, and Peeter Cornet. (Curious readers will be happy to know that all of them, except for Hollanders, have their own Wikipedia pages!)

Once again, I am reminded of an old motto from an advertisement for the Sunday edition of The New York Times: “You don’t have to read it all, but it’s good to know it’s all there!” To be fair, however, my only evidence of completeness comes from Sweelinck’s Wikipedia page, which cites a Complete Keyboard Works release from NM Classics (about which I know nothing!), consisting of nine CDs. Since this is consistent with the number of CDs in the Brilliant collection, I am willing to take it “on faith” that the new release is true to its title!

Thus far I have familiarized myself with those first six CDs. The keyboardist is Daniele Boccaccio. Each of the individual album jackets provides a generously thorough account of the instruments that he plays (another aspect of the Times motto).

It goes without saying that I am getting curious about getting to know some of this music for myself. Fortunately, four of the keyboard compositions found their way into The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, whose Dover edition has been on the shelf by my Yamaha Clavinova for as long as I have had the instrument. There is also one selection, “Fantasia in echo,” in the first volume (“Oriental, Medieval and Renaissance Music”) of the Historical Anthology of Music compiled by Archibald T. Davison and Willi Apel. On first glance, this one looks like it will require more than one keyboard!

That said, I appreciate this new release for reviving my interest in the pre-Baroque repertoire!