Bremen and Stade

This morning we were up quite early- we wanted to get on the road at 7 AM to make it to Bremen by 10 AM for my appointment to interview Dr. Manfred Cordes, director of Weser-Renaissance Bremen. Anyone who listens to Ancient Voices will know this group- they are one of my faves, not only because they perform a lot of early German Baroque music, but because of their consistently excellent musicianship.

We had been warned that there was lots of construction on the way, so we took care to be early. As it happened, we got there with just 10 minutes to spare! I had a great talk with Dr. Cordes, who was just as nice as he could be, and very obliging in answering all of my questions. I'm looking forward to producing that program!

We walked around Bremen for a little bit, got some lunch, and proceeded on our way to Stade for the 4:15 organ demonstration. Not just any old organ- the Huß/Schnitger organ at St. Cosmae and St. Damiani. Somehow I really expected Stade to be a village of 10 houses clustered around a church, but in reality it was quite a town! Like Bremen, Hamburg and Luebeck, Stade was also a Hansastadt. 

St. Cosmae and St. Damiani, Stade

The Schnitger did not disappoint! The organist, Martin Böcker, first gave a talk about the organ and the historical context in which it was built. Of course, my German only allowed me to understand about 80% of the talk, but from what I understood, the 30 years war was barely over, and Stade was beseiged by the Swedish, but despite all that, the construction of this magnificent instrument was a high priority for the church council. And Arp Schnitger was just a youngster- I think the organist said he was just 21 at the time of this project- what a coup for a young kid like that. And what a masterpiece. It was later thoroughly restored by Jurgen Arend, and is now held as a model of how to effectively restore a 17^th century instrument.

The organist demonstrated several of the stops in turn, including flute stops, principals, dulcian, trumpets, etc. Then we got to hear some music- 2 pieces by Georg Böhm, including his Praeludium in C major (which, if you've never heard it, starts with a most impressive pedal solo. Get thee to YouTube and have a listen!) He was going to stop there, but we cajoled him, and he very kindly treated us to a capriccio by Böhm as well! The organ is as lovely to the eye as it is to the ear. Check it out!

After a little more walking, including a view of Stade's harbor, we landed at the Ratskeller for dinner (right next to St. Cosmae). At 6 PM we were treated to a veritable symphony of church bells, which I recorded with my little hand-held mp3 recorder for posterity.

Having eaten a fairly heavy lunch, we decided on salads for dinner, but I couldn't resist the siren song of Weissbier. Yum!

So Stade was a big hit- definitely a place worth revisiting. Maybe there will be a Schnitger festival there someday! (Did anyone hear that noise? That was Jim running shrieking for the hills!) ;-)

Jim did all the driving today, which certainly nominates him for husband of the year. German traffic can be somewhat nervous-making. I think we drove more than 300 miles today! 

Oh, and in case you're wondering, people do go extremely fast on the Autobahn (usually Audis, interestingly). At one point, we were going about 75 or 80 MPH in the middle lane, and someone flew by us going at least 100 MPH. It's bizarre to be going that fast and yet feel like you're standing still...