The exiting young ensemble Trondheim Barokk have found beautiful and unknown works from the 1700s around the Baltic Sea. Church cantatas and sonatas written by among others commander Georg von Bertouch of Akershus Castle.
Bertouch – commander at Akershus fortress 1719-40
Georg von Bertouch (1668-1743) was surprisingly well established as a composer among his contemporaries, corresponding with J.S. Bach, and also a personal friend of Johann Matthesson. He had devoted his doctoral dissertation to legal questions related to opera performances, but later entered military service to pursue a remarkable career as an officer of the Danish army. The cantatas are the works of a young man. The sonatas, on the other hand, were composed towards the end of Bertouch’s life. New trends and developments had crystallized into what is usually called the late Baroque style, epitomized by Arcangelo Corelli’s sonatas and concertos.
Vierdanck and Theile
Johann Vierdanck (1605-46), the oldest of the three composers, had a distinguished start on his career, singing in the Hofkapelle of the Elector of Saxony in Dresden, where Schütz encouraged his early attempts at composition. After brief sojourns in Lübeck and Copenhagen, he moved to Stralsund, spending the final ten years of his life as organist of the Marienkirche. Johann Theile (1646-1724), like Vierdanck, made the acquaintance of Schütz, but only as an adult. By 1673 he was living in Lübeck, counting among his friends the composers Dietrich Buxtehude (ca. 1637-1707) and Johann Adam Reincken (1643-1722). During the same year he was appointed Kapellmeister to the court of Duke Christian Albrecht at Gottorf. However, as a result of Danish military actions, Theile had to be released from service two years later and fled to Hamburg, joining the duke. Theile’s importance as a composer is based on his sacred cantatas, many of which testify to his extraordinary contrapuntal skills.
Trondheim Barokk with friends
Trondheim Barokk, representing a new generation of early music performers, have developed under the guidance of people like Andrew Parrott and Sigiswald Kuijken. Soprano Ingeborg Dalheim is a memger of Les Arts Florissans, Marianne Beate Kielland performs regularly with conductors like Jordi Savall and Fabio Biondi, and Njål Sparbo has among other things won the Kirsten Flagstad Prize for his artistic work.
