Froberger’s Travels

Johann Jacob Froberger numbers among the most well- known and yet most enigmatic musicians of the seventeenth century. He was born in Stuttgart in 1616 and died in 1667 in the service of the widowed Duchess Sybilla from the Mömpelgard collateral line of the House of Württemberg. His oeuvre displays all the important forms, compositional concepts, and expressive ideals of his epoch. He exerts a special fascination today, above all since the concept of Europe is once again being put to the test. There are just as many unifying factors here as there are local and national particularities, things that Froberger was able to discover on his many journeys and through his network of contacts. His works were not limited to a specific from todays view authentic instrument: he made use of all the keyboard instruments common at that time. Magdalena Hasibeder plays Viennas oldest playable organ, it was built in 1642/43 by Johann Wöckherl and erected in the choir of the Franziskanerkirche. The harpsichord is a French two-manual instrument built ca. 1680 and attributed to Claude Labréche.