Echoes from Northern Germany and Italy

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621) and Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) may be considered the founders of the most important “European organ schools” between the Renaissance and the Baroque.

Both were much sought-after teachers, and through their students they had a great influence on the development of keyboard music in Northern and Southern Europe, respectively.

They really had no way to meet each other: Sweelinck lived and worked for most of his life in Amsterdam, and Frescobaldi in Rome, holding the position of organist at St. Peter’s Basilica. As far as we know, they never met and never mentioned each other’s music.

The concert program reflects the echoes of Northern and Southern European traditions also through the compositional style of their respective pupils.