Freiberg, the Rathaus.
The site of Freiberg, Saxony, was established in about AD 1156, when a group of German settlers cleared the woods and estabished a settlement they named Christiansdorf. In 1180 a city was proclaimed by the Margrave Otto, and named Freiberg. The Margrave's statue stands in the Obermarkt upon an ornate fountain with four lions spouting water from their mouths.
The medieval city's heart has been well preserved; originally a walled city, the authorities have wisely built a ring road around the old city, and many buildings have been restored to their former glory. Within the old city, the narrow cobbled streets don't make for good traffic flow, though there is some traffic, and the big Markts, the Obermarkt and Untermarkt, are partly used as car parks. Inevitable, I suppose, but it rather detracts from the ambience of the old city. During the years of communist rule, parts of the city were neglected and fell into disrepair. Since the reunification of Germany in 1989, much restoration has been carried out, and on my 2008 visit there were several old houses and shops being renovated for housing.
My own link with Freiberg has followed an association of people and places, started when I first started using the Internet. I'd been interested in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and found the best website on the subject (listed below): it is a compendious site about Baroque music in general, and has links to many other sources. The link to Gottfried Silbermann, master organ-builder, interested me greatly, and I was determined to visit Bach's birthplace, Eisenach, and Freiberg, some day. In June 2007 I made the journey from Bonn, Beethoven's birthplace, through Eisenach (of wich more later), to Freiberg. J S Bach and Silbermann were contemporaries. but sources differ on whether they met: some say they collaborated on the "voicing" (tuning, I think) of organs, and that Bach tested some of Silbermann's fortepianos that he made in later life. Bach was a church organist and Kapellmeister all his life, and it is probable that he played on some Silbermann organ at some time.
The attraction at Freiberg is the big original 1715 Silbermann organ in the Dom St Marien, a three-manual intrument with 2674 pipes(I hope that's right!). There is a smaller Silbermann instrument -- the Kleiner --in the gallery. The Dom has a wonderful acoustic, on my 2008 visit I attended an Abendmusiek recital, a regular Thurday evening concert; the music was superb, plyed on both organs, and the huge nave of the Dom was filled with the great sound of it. The last piece, the Allegro maestoso e vivace, from the Sonate in B, Op.65 by Mendessohn, was really thrilling.
The great 1715 Organ, Dom SMarien
The Nave, Dom St Marien
(Freiberg Cathedral)
Small Silbermann instrument
Baroque decoration on the great organ
Keyboard of the great organ
There are Sibermann organs in the St Petrikirche and the St Jacobikirche in Freiberg, and many more in the surrounding districts. I attended a morning service in the St Petrikirche, a delightful family affair, with scads of kids, a really happy and friendly occasion. I managed to catch the attention of the organist, who very kindly took the time to show me the huge bellows at the back of the organ, and expained some of the functions on the keyboard. That organ ia a 2-manual (keyboards) instrument with about a thousand pipes. The Dom and St Petrikirche instruments are often used for recordings, as the acoustic in both churches is near-perfect (to my untutored ear anyway).
Silbermann Organ, St Petrikirche
Organist, St Petrikirche
Having heard these organs in their original settings, I've been more interestd in organ music; I bought some CD's from these churches, souvenirs of two memorable visits. It's no wonder they call the organ 'The King of Intruments'.
References: http://www.baroquemusic.org/
Freiberg: Discover a Region; Freiberger Fotofreunde, 2007.
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