Clavierists at the Organ in 18th Century Sweden

It’s the early days of spring of 2020, and Caprice Records now releases the album Clavierists at the Organ in 18th Century Sweden with organist and musicologist Jonas Lundblad, who has made a deep dive into the more mysterious musical practices of the 18th century. The album is available on both CD and digital formats.

Swedish church music of the 18th century has often been described as enigmatic. This recording is a modern portrait of the music that Swedish clavier players might have carried to the organ in the second half of the century. Since hardly any Swedish music of the time was written exclusively for the organ, we must rely on few historical sources of music that were sung and played in the churches, for a sense of the possibilities. The selection offered here is largely a work of reconstruction, and except for a short movement by Roman, none of this repertoire has been recorded before, at least in this form for organ.

Another difficulty is to work out how to play the organ in a historically informed performance practice. At the same time, a number of important organs from 18th century Sweden are well preserved, especially from the end of the century. Recordings have been made on several of them, but most often with German repertoire performed, for example, music by Johann Sebastian Bach and his disciples.