Ferdinand Fischer

From Heaven on Earth - Lute Music from Kremsmunster Abbey

Hubert Hoffmann

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: SACD
Barcode: 0608917274028

Catalog number: CC 72740
Releasedate: 04-11-16

- a brand new discovery of lute music never published or heard before

- it belongs to a Benedict monk who was known as lutenist at the beginning of 18th Century: Pater Ferdinand Fisher

- here we present three highly original Suites where you can hear the knowledge and influence of both French and German lute masters

- Ars Antiqua Austria lutenist Hubert Hoffmann is responsible both for the musicological research and for the performance

When I visited the Benedictine Abbey of Kremsmunster in upper Austria some years ago to look at the lutes stored in the abbey archives, I could not guess that this visit would radically change my life as a lutenist. I learnt that the writer of tablatures I discovered was a member of the abbey named Pater Ferdinando (Fischer). It soon turned out that much of the music set down by this scribe was not to be found in the numberless lute manuscripts from this period scattered around the world. These were unique manuscripts. Moreover they contained quite extraordinary works of striking compositional quality: new lute music in the form of cyclical poems of a lute enthusiast - a padre - at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. In one of the quietest recording studios in all of Europe - the Galaxy studios in Mol, Belgium - we finally brought the long since faded lute-poems of Pater Ferdinando back to life. Through the wonderfully delicate sound of my lute, Bert's immeasurable se