Johann Christian Schieferdecker

Musicalische Concerte (Hamburg 1713)

Elbipolis Barockorchester Hamburg

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: CD
Barcode: 0608917253122

Catalog number: CC 72531
Releasedate: 11-10-11

This excellent German Baroque orchestra plays the works of Johann Christian Schieferdecker, a totally unknown composer. He was a pupil of the well-known Dieterich Buxtehude. Actually Schieferdecker was married to Buxtehude's daughter so his connection to him went even deeper. The Elbipolis Barockorchester Hamburg opens for us a new musical world of this unknown master!

The orchestra opens up the worlds of a totally unknown composer, the successor of Buxtehude: Johann Christian Schieferdecker
The orchestra is formed from a nucleus of leading musicians from Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin
It had repeated invitations to the Cologne Philharmonie and to Das Alte Werk of the NDR–North German Radio Hamburg, to festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Leipzig Bachfest, the Potsdam Sanssouci Music Festival, the Herne Tagen Alter Musik – Days of Early Music, the Bremen Musikfest, the Brügge Musica Antiqua Festival and the Rheingau Music Festival
In 2010 the ensemble was invited by the Goethe Institute to perform concerts in South America, in April 2011 Elbipolis made their debut in Brussels at the invitation of the Palais des Beaux Arts
They recorded earlier for Raumklang, Edel and Sony
The orchestra's splendid debut on Challenge Classics: a unique document from wonderful music of a forgotten composer!

Schieferdecker was born as a son of a choirmaster and organist in Teuchern. After the visit of the Leipzig Thomas; school he studied at the Leipzig university. His friend Reinhard Keiser who also came from Teuchern got him in 1702 as a harpsichord player to the Hamburg opera-house in the gooses market where he also composed. Already two years later he became, first a pupil, then assistant with Dietrich Buxtehude in the Lübeck Marien church. When Buxtehude died in 1707, Schieferdecker became his successor. In this connection he had to marry Anna Margareta Buxtehude, one of the daughters of his predecessor. Johann Mattheson reported that this condition had kept him himself, scuffle and Johann Sebastian Bach from taking care of Buxtehudes succession. Slater successor became Johann Paul Kunzen.

From Schieferdecker surely extensive work is received very little. Is certain that he continued firmly established cycle of public concerts, the ‘Abendmusiken’ from Franz Tunder begun and from Buxtehude in the Lübeck’s Marien's church. Nevertheless, from his for it to composed works like Der geduldige Creutz-Träger Hiob (1720) or Der feurige Untergang Sodoms und Gomorrae (1721) merely the librettos exist for the performances of the years from 1714 to 1729. From 1707-1714 the lawyer and writer Andreas Lange was their librettist.