CD 40

Music from Stams Monastery XV

Stefan Paluselli was the heart and soul of the extraordinary fl ourishing of musical life at Stams Monastery in his day. He was active at the convent in a variety of functions: organist, violin  teacher  at  the  junior seminary and, at the height of  his  career,  choirmaster conducting  the  singers  and orchestra from 1791 on. Above all, however, Paluselli was a gifted composer, whose works far surpass the average monastic composition in originality. This already  shows  in  his  early works composed before 1770 while he was still in secondary school in Innsbruck. They are first  presented  in  sound  on this CD. Some of the stylistic touches that would later turn out  to  be  highly  individual features of Paluselli’s music already appear in the bud here. Nevertheless, many a detail of the form and intent is still far from possessing the superior infallibility of the compositions later produced in Stams. The Divertimento (tracks 12-17) already has a classical structure with a delicate Andante as its central  movement  enclosed between minuets. It opens with the customary march, with the fine rhythmic differentiation so typical for Paluselli, while a virtuoso finale closes this amusing   piece   of   music with  a  flourish.  Paluselli’s preoccupation  with  Italian Baroque music, particularly Vivaldi’s, cannot be overheard. It is especially noticeable in the Andantino of the Musica seu Parthia, an utterly remarkable movement that spotlights the young Paluselli’s extraordinary talent  (track  25).  In  the manuscripts of this composition he still calls himself Anton Julian Paluschelli and refers to himself as a musicus of the Nikolai House run by the Jesuits in Innsbruck. That is where he had found accommodation as a student when he arrived from his native Kurtatsch, South Tyrol.

Track 25, 3:57
Andantino
Stefan Paluselli OCist.
(1748-1805)

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