This recording is the first in a series that brings together organ works from the early 17th century contemporaneous to the sound-aesthetic of organ builder Friederich Stellwagen (1603-1660). The series title, Voices of the Hanse, is inspired by the painted faces on the façade of the Stellwagen organ that demonstrate the embodiment of the organ as a ‘singing voice’, filled with personality, colour, and emotion. The chosen works by the composers here - most notably Hieronymus Praetorius, Matthias Weckmann, Dieterich Buxtehude and Heinrich Scheidemann - represent some of the most important churches in the Hanseatic region of northern Germany. Jonathan William Moyer plays the remarkable ‘swallow’s nest’ organ of the Jakobi Church in Lübeck, built between 1467 and 1515. Nearly all of the pipes in the manual divisions are original. Highlights include Matthias’s glorious Komm Heiliger Geist and Buxtehude’s masterful Magnificat primi toni, as well as several fine works from the Lüneburger Orgeltabulatur. In addition to being a successful church musician, concert organist and pedagogue, Jonathan Moyer is the David S. Boe chair and assistant professor of organ at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, as well as organist of the Church of the Covenant in Cleveland, Ohio, where he oversees two pipe organs (Richards, Fowkes and Skinner/Aeolian) and a 47-bell Dutch carillon. He has been a visiting lecturer in organ at the Hochschule für Musik in Lübeck and specializes in a vast repertoire from the renaissance to the 21st century. The Baltimore Sun described his impressive performances as ‘ever-expressive, stylish, and riveting’.

John Pitt