Matthias Havinga - Dutch Delight: Organ Music from the Golden Age (2015)

This beautiful programme, recorded in 2014, brings us back to the Golden Age of the Netherlands, the 16th and 17th century, in which cultural life blossomed thanks to the economical prosperity brought by the overseas trade. Wealthy merchants commissioned works by artists like Rembrandt, Vermeer, Ruischdael and others. Also musical life flourished, and musicians from all over Europe came to hear and study with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. Organist Matthias Havinga selected a beautiful bouquet of works by Dutch composers: Sweelinck, Van Noordt, Schuyt, Havingha (an ancient ancestor of the artist..?) and others. Havinga plays a magnificent Faber/Blank organ from 1651, located in the Jacobuskerk in Zeerijp. Matthias Havinga won several international organ competitions and his two previous recordings for Brilliant Classics (Bach Italian Concertos BC94203 and Passacaglias BC9269) have won great critical acclaim in the international press. The booklet contains extensive liner notes written by the artist, information on the organ and its specifications and an artist biography in English, Dutch and German.