Already in the early 17th century, Hamburg was an extremely attractive city – thanks to its port and links to the world’s oceans and with clever alliance policy, it was a major trading metropolis, politically neutral, thus becoming an oasis in the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War. This naturally led to the development of a flourishing cultural life, which in turn attracted the most capable minds. One of them was without question Thomas Selle, who was appointed to the coveted position of town cantor in 1641. In the following years he wrote several sacred works here. Around 1650, Selle collected what he considered to be the most relevant of his sacred compositions in order to preserve his work for posterity. As was common in his time, there were various instrumentation variations of the works, so Selle presented several alternatives in Concertuum Latino-sacrorum. The result is a fascinating compendium of one of the most important composers of his time. (covielloclassics)
