Pater Noster Leonhard Völlm & Johannes Wedeking

• Johann Pachelbel (1653 - 1706):
• 1Pachelbe: Ciacona in f-Moll · F minor · fa mineur08:25
• Frederik Punsmann (b. 1993):
• 2Punsmann: Du wirst nur mit der Tat erfasst03:43
• Peter Cornelius (1824 - 1874): Vater unser. Neun geistliche Lieder, op. 2:
• 3Cornelius: Vater unser, der du bist im Himmel, op. 2 Nr. 103:37
• 4Cornelius: Geheiliget werde dein Name, op. 2 Nr. 204:14
• 5Cornelius: Zu uns komme dein Reich, op. 2 Nr. 303:24
• 6Cornelius: Dein Wille geschehe, op. 2 Nr. 401:36
• 7Cornelius: Unser täglich Brot gib uns heute, op. 2 Nr. 502:42
• 8Cornelius: Vergib uns unsre Schuld, op. 2 Nr. 603:49
• 9Cornelius: Also auch wir vergeben unsern Schuldigern, op. 2 Nr. 701:21
• 10Cornelius: Führe uns nicht in Versuchung, op. 2 Nr. 805:32
• 11Cornelius: Erlöse uns vom Übel, op. 2 Nr. 902:08
• Leonhard Völlm (b. 1985):
• 12Völlm: Nekropolis - Gespräch mit Gebeinen10:17
• Louis Vierne (1870 - 1937):
• 13Vierne: Finale aus der 1. Sinfonie für Orgel, op. 1406:29
• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827):
• 14Beethoven: Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart04:26
• Total Runtime01:01:43

Info for Pater Noster

The present album is the first recording with the new Klais organ and the cantor at St. Martin’s church in Stuttgart-Möhringen, Leonhard Völlm. The recording focuses on the Nine Sacred Songs op. 2 by the Romantic poet and composer Peter Cornelius, entitled ”Vater unser“ (”Our Father“, Pater noster) for solo voice and piano – here in an orchestral arrangement for the organ. At this point, the organ appears as a virtuoso chamber music instrument in an extended manner with characteristically haunting sounds. Organ works from the Baroque period to the present and another song composition form a programme with interrelated dramaturgical accents that bring to sound the special features of this modern instrument with historical references. The singer Johannes Wedeking and the organist Leonhard Völlm met during their studies of church music. Early on, they discovered their shared weakness for vocal music and making as chamber music partners. Both artists share the ambition to constantly open up new repertoire and in doing so, to also launch rarely performed works. Both performers aim to combine historically informed, stylistically confident musicmaking with contemporary contexts. On this album, organist Leonhard Völlm fills a dual role as performer and composer respectively arranger.

A recourse to the earliest tonal models of the new Klais organ is the Ciacona in f by Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706). The equally simple and concentrated art song ”Du wirst nur mit der Tat erfasst“ (”When I go toward you“) to a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926), composed by Frederik Punsmann (b. 1993), introduces the singing voice in the program of this album. Together with Punsmann’s setting, which tends to be oriented retrospectively, Rilke’s late Romantic poetry can be seen as a prologue to the song cycle Vater unser. Neun geistliche Lieder op. 2 (”Our Father. Nine sacred songs“) by Peter Cornelius (1824–1874). In his cycle he precedes all nine song movements with the Gregorian setting of the Latin articles of the Lord’s Prayer, which are then interpreted and illustrated in free poetry. On a musical level, these Gregorian melodic particles form leitmotifs in the individual songs and are modified in accordance with the song text. The four-movement suite Nekropolis – Gespräch mit Gebeinen (Necropolis – Conversation with Bones) by Leonhard Völlm, born 1985, was written under the impressions of a visit to an ossuary in the foundation of the Tübingen Collegiate Church. The composition refers to the weekly hymns for the Sunday of Laetare as specified in the pericope order of the protestant regional church in Württemberg, on which the first performance took place: ”Jesu, meine Freude“ (”Jesus, my Joy“, EG 396) and ”Korn, das in die Erde, in den Tod versinkt“ (”Now the green blade rises“, EG 98). Here the organ of the Martinskirche Möhringen presents itself in the apparel of modernity. Traditional organ recitals often end with the Finale from the 1st Symphony for Organ op. 14 by Louis Vierne (1870–1937). The festive service for the inauguration of the Klais organ was also concluded with this brilliant music. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) wrote his String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, op. 132 in 1825. This late composition comprises a total of five movements. The middle movement is entitled ”Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart“ (”Holy song of thanksgiving of a convaleszent to the Godhead in the Lydian key“). An autobiographical reference to a serious illness that forced Beethoven to interrupt his compositional work. The arrangement by Leonhard Völlm recorded here comprises only the introduction of the very slow and intimate 3rd movement (Molto adagio – feeling new energy ...). The lyrical I from the song cycle by Peter Cornelius has found peace in ”Hope eternal“ (No. IX). Beethoven’s ”Heiliger Dankgesang“ may be a reminiscence of the Cornelius song ”Vergib uns unsere Schuld“ (”Forgive us our trespasses“) and forms the epilogue to the programme of this album. Performed on the organ, this music by Beethoven impressively evokes the association of the “great calm after the storm“; by the choice of a tempo that is hardly realisable for strings in this recording, an essential specific feature of the instrument organ comes to bear: the potential infinity of sound.

Leonhard Völlm, organ
Johannes Wedeking, bass

Leonhard Völlm
studied protestant church music in Tübingen, graduating with the A examination in 2013. Further studies in organ playing led him to Michel Chapuis (Paris), Peter Planyawsky (Vienna) and Almut Rössler (Düsseldorf); in addition, study visits to Gotheburg and Stockholm enriched his musical education. His encounters with historical piano and organ instruments from different stylistic eras and cultural landscapes has been formative for his artistic developement – Leonhard Völlm has always found them to be ”teachers“ tht promote musical perception and sense. The artist seeshimself asacomprehensive musican: already during his studies he worked as an arranger and pianist at the Alte Theater Heilbronn. In 2014 he was appointed director of music and organist at the Protestant Martin’s Church in Stuttgart-Möhringen, where he works extensively with various children’s and adults choirs and music ensembles. Since 2016, Leonhard Völlm has also been an organ expert for the Evangelical State Church in Württemberg. In 2016 Völlm conducted the premiere of his comissioned composition ”Wandel der Zeit“ (”Change of the Times“), for soloists, choir, organ and percussion. From 2017 to 2019, he directed the Morello Consort Stuttgart, which is dedicated to of ensemble music from the 17th and 18th centuries on period instruments. Völlm is a cofounder of the ”Sprungbrettorchester“ (”Springboard Orchestra“) whose artistic direction he has held since 2021; this formation is dedicated to promoting young soloists and supporting freelance musicians during the Corona pandemic and beyond. On selected occasions, Leonhard Völlm can also be heard in Germany and Switzerland with chanson programmes by the Viennese composer, singer and poet Georg Kreisler. In Leonhard Völlm’s instrumental repertoire, his own arrangements of chamber music and symphonic works as well as compositions for organ have recently become a focus, not least inspired by the new Klais organ in the Martinskirche Stuttgart-Möhringen.

Johannes Wedeking
studied church music and singing at the universities of music in Rottenburg on the Neckar, Tübingen and Düsseldorf (Robert Schumann Hochschule). It is there that he continued his musical education in the opera class of Thomas Laske in 2013. His artistic studies were enriched by masterclasses in both opera and art song repertoire as well as masterclasses and work shadowing with reknown ensembles and singers. Johannes Wedeking also studied German language and literature and musicology at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. In 2017 he was a prizewinner at the International Singing Competition of the Schloss Rheinsberg chamber opera. Johannes Wedeking then committed himself to opera at the theatres of Hagen and Münster. He performed the role of the Grand Inquisitor in the opera Don Carlo at the Flanders Festival Ghent in 2018. During the season 2019/20 he was a guest at the Opera Houses Cologne (Brett Dean: Hamlet) and Halle (Mozart: Don Giovanni, Masetto). Focal points of his artistic work are the ensemble singing and particularly the art song. Johannes Wedeking performes as a bass in reknowned vocal ensembles such as the Vocalensemble Rastatt (Holger Speck) and the Chorus Musicus Cologne (Christoph Spering). His work as part of ”The Orpheus Consort“ is dedicated to ensemble music from the Renaissance and early Baroque and the performance of contemporary music with period instruments. Recently, Johannes Wedeking has devoted himself primarily to Lied singing. The development of hitherto unknown or rarely performed works, predominantly from the late Romantic period, is a particular concern of his. Wedeking participated in radio broadcasts and made a recording for the Swedish label Sterling among others.

Booklet for Pater Noster