CD 11/12

Tyrolean Musical Treasures 10

Johann Georg Höttinger the Younger, View of Schwaz (detail), 1725

This CD is the acoustical record of the 3rd Tyrolean Church Music Concerts held in Schwaz in 1999. On this occasion, sacred music by the Schwaz Baroque composer Johann Georg Tschortsch was presented in the town of his birth and his main place of activity as the parish church organist for the first time. Besides the deeply moving requiem from opus 2, which was published along with seven masses in Augsburg in 1731, the program focused on his festive offertories dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This cycle of 14 offertories, published as opus 3 in 1733 in Augsburg, is certainly one of the period’s outstanding compositions intended for practical use in church. Tschortsch modestly justifi es the publication of his work by the circumstance that there are far too few works in the genre of festive offertory available for performance in the liturgy. However, this opus 3 is actually a sublime confession of faith and an absolute masterpiece. Johann Georg Tschortsch came from the Schwaz family of musicians that had provided organists for the town’s parish church for several generations. Around 1692 he joined the court ensemble of singers and instrumentalists as a choirboy in Innsbruck, where he acquired a well-grounded musical and humanist education. In order to continue composing, he chose the priesthood, a vocation that furnished him the necessary social security. He was granted a benefi ce in his hometown that he retained until his death (end of 1736 or early 1737).

CD2, Track 7, 5:38
Offertorium
Cum iucunditate
Johann Georg Tschortsch
(1681/82-1736/37)