Georg Muffat was born in Megève, Savoy, into a family of Scottish ancestry. As a boy he went to Alsace, then to Paris where he was proud to have studied with the great Lully from 1663 to 1669. Thereafter he was a student of a Jesuit institution in Selestat, moving in 1671 to Molsheim, where he became organist of the exiled Strasbourg Cathedral chapter. Danger of war took him to Ingolstadt, and later in a flight "to Vienna in Austria, Prague and then finally to Salzburg and Passau". During a period as organist and chamber musician to the Archbishop of Salzburg he was granted extended leave to go to Italy, where from 1680 to 1682 he studied with Pasquini and wrote Concertos that were performed in Corelli's house. In 1690 he left Salzburg and moved to Passau, where he remained as a Kapellmeister to the Court of the Bishop and tutor to the Court pages.

Muffat, Who always considered himself a German, was the first truly international Composer who could combine in his art the extremes of the French and Italian styles. The new "mixed style" was later described by Quantz as a way "to choose the best from the styles of different countries".

Muffat himself saw this new synthesis not only as an artistic aim but also as a political goal, as he declared in a dedication to the Prince-Bishop of Passau: "The notes, the pages, the sweet musical notes give me my daily work, and as I mix the French style with the German and Italian, I do not stir up any conflict, but rather perhaps give a foretaste of the desired harmony among the people, for beloved peace." In another dedication he writes about "the chance to see Italy, where I applied myself to learning to temper the profound Italian emotions with the French festivity and sweetness, so that neither could become too darkly pathetic nor too light-heartedly free."

The Apparatus musico-organisticus was published in Salzburg in 1690 and is Muffat's second published work after the Armonico tributo of 1682. The Composer was able to present the work to it, dedicatee, the Emperor Leopold I, in Augsburg during the Coronation of Leopold's Son Joseph as Roman king. An engraving was therefore added to the first page of music showing a Turk lying on the ground under the feet of a Christian, with the Turkish army in flight in the background, presumably an allusion to the defeat of the Turks after the siege of Vienna in 1683 and 1684. The work is the largest published collection of major organ pieces of the period and enjoyed some popularity, being re-issued in Vienna between 1704 and 1726. In a Latin foreword, translated into German in the later edition, the composer describes the content as "twelve Musical Pieces or long Toccatas (as one says)/delicately arranged in a new way for the particular delight of Music-lovers/and for ample exercise in this art. To which are added/ a Ciacona, a Passacaglia, then also a well-harmonized Cyclopeias, each of which is distinguished by many variations".

Muffat's collection can be considered the third major collection of organ music by a composer in the Habsburg Empire after the Libri by the Austrian Court Organists Johann Jakob Froberger and Johann Kaspar Kerll. These Italian style Libri combined Short Toccatas with Canzonas, Ricercari, Variations and free pieces in the principal church modes. In contrast to Short versetti used in alternation with choral or Gregorian chants verses, the longer pieces were used as Preludes and Postludes or for more extended parts of the liturgy, such as the post elevationem, after the consecration.

Muffat's "long Toccatas" combine in their multiple sections the free writing of the old Toccata with the polyphony of canzonas and other fugal forms. Muffat's pedagogical purpose in the Apparatus, which he dedicated to the "particular delight of music lovers and for ample exercise in this art" can be felt throughout the work, in the use of the principal church modes in Toccatas I to VIII, in the multiple formal structures, in the use of Italian stylistic elements and even in the sometimes unusual form of notation, using all nine clefs and some archaic forms of ornamentation in Toccata XI.>

With their use of consecutive church tones the first eight Toccatas can be performed on a mean-tone instrument, therefore the famous organ of Kloster-neuburg Abbey was chosen for this recording. The second part of the Apparatus with its more modem features could not be played on this archaic organ.

Martin Haselböck

Martin Haselböck
Distinguished both as an organist and as a conductor, Martin Haselböck studied the harpsichord, organ, composition and conducting in Vienna and Paris. Already well-known as the winner of numerous organ prizes and competitions, he then embarked on an international solo career, with a concert schedule that regularly takes him to major music festivals and includes collaboration with leading symphony orchestras. He has appeared as a soloist under distinguished conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel and Riccardo Muti and has made over sixty recordings ranging in repertoire from Bach to Liszt, and to contemporary composers. Works dedicated to him include the two organ concertos of Ernst Krenek. Since 1985 Martin Haselböck has been Music Director of the Wiener Akademie Orchestra, a period instrument ensemble that gives a regular series of Viennese classical music concerts in the Vienna Musikverein and performs frequently in Japan, Paris, Madrid, Cologne, Milan, Moscow and the United States. He has conducted many operas, including a series of the major Mozart operas in Germany and Prague. As conductor of the Wiener Akademie Martin Haselböck has recorded some forty CDs with works by Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Schubert, with a recent series of ten CDs commemorating five hundred years of Vienna Court Music. His recording awards include the Liszt Award of 1986, the Diapason d'Or and the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis. In 1997, he was awarded the highest Austrian Cultural Award by the State President.

The Organ of Zwettl Collegiate Church
In 1731 the Passau master organ-builder Johann Ignaz Egedacher constructed an instrument for the Cistercians at Zwettl in Lower Austria. Its lay-out combined the classical pattern of Austrian organ-building with some thoroughly personal elements. The three manuals of the organ were combined in the Brustwerk, while only the pedal pipes were placed in the two-part Hauptwerk. In addition to the two "classical" manuals was added a third, which included, according to the contract, stops to provide special Galanterei such as Fagot, Flaschaleth, Hubua, and Dulciana. The instrument was restored in 1983 by Gerhard Hradetzky and in 1991 Jürgen Ahrend restored it to its original sound.

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