Eminent Italian early music keyboardist Manuel Tomadin adds to a splendid discography on Brilliant Classics with his eighth release for the label. Commemorating the centenary of the apparition of Mary at Fátima, Portugal (1917), Tomadin performs settings for organ of the well‐known Marian hymn Magnificat by four composers from the Hanseatic north of Germany, all talented students of Dutch organist–composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, father of the north German organ tradition. And what more fitting organ could be selected for this tribute than the fine Dell’Orto & Lanzini instrument, modelled on 17th‐century organs of the Hanseatic school, housed in a Piedmontese parish church dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima? This organ reflects the rich tonal resources that would have been at the skilled fingertips of Scheidemann, Schildt, Weckmann and Strungk, who were active in the 17th century around the Hanseatic area on such organs as those at St Catherine’s and St James’s, Hamburg, the Marktkirche, Hannover, and Braunschweig’s St Martini church.

Manuel Tomadin is joined in these Magnificat performances by award winning tenor and early music ensemble director Giuseppe Maletto.