Tag: Organ music

Manuel Tomadin (Van Hagerbeer/Schnitger organ 1646/1725)
146:04 (2 CDs)
Brilliant Classics 95453

[dropcap]V[/dropcap]incent Lübeck (1654-1740) was a well-known teacher and trusted advisor on organ design in the generation of organists in North Germany before J. S. Bach. By 1675 he had become organist of St Cosmae et Damiani in Stade, near Hamburg, where there was an organ by Arp Schnitger. In 1702, Lübeck moved into Hamburg and became organist at St Nikolai, where there was a four-manual Schnitger organ of 67 stops.

Bach was certainly influenced by Lübeck, but remarkably little of his music survives: five cantatas, a suite for harpsichord and some pieces for organ that show an imaginative and technically advanced player. His rhapsodic Preludes, with a number of fugal sections and some recitative-like episodes, have unusual features like virtuoso two-pedal parts. They sound and feel like the kind of improvisations that one might devise for putting an organ through its paces – indeed I remember using them for just that purpose when I first found myself exploring some of the organs in Holland in the late 1950s.

These two CDs from Brilliant Classics contain all Lübeck’s keyboard music that survives, ably played on three instruments by Manuel Tomadin. The majority of the larger scale organ music is played on the large Van Hagerbeer 1646 organ in Grote Sint-Laurenskerk in Alkmaar which was rebuilt in 1725 by Frans Casper Schnitger, much of which survived to be carefully conserved and restored by Flentrop in 1986. The specification is given, and for detailed registration of each piece you are referred in the liner notes to the Brilliant Classics website where they are said to be given, though frustratingly I could not find them. The harpsichord pieces – a prelude and fugue and a short suite – are played on a copy by William Horn after a Michael Mietke of Berlin original dated c.1700, but some of the smaller pieces from the ‘S.M.G. 1691’ manuscript are played on a small positive organ of four ranks, including a regal, made in 2012 by Francesco Zanin of Udine, and heard effectively in the Trompeter Stück  and the following March  (CDII, nos 31 and 32).

The ‘S.M.G. 1691’ manuscript is a collection of 45 short pieces for keyboard, many of which remain anonymous while some are attributable to Vincent Lübeck senior, but others may be by the younger Vincent, his son. And given their p and f dynamic marks in some cases may have been intended for the clavichord, the preferred instrument on which to learn keyboard technique.

As always in these Brilliant CDs, lesser-known composers are treated with seriousness and receive scholarly and well-researched performances by impressive artists whose technique is flawless and whose ability to bring minor masterpieces to life is winsome. I particularly enjoyed his inégales in some of the harpsichord performances. This double CD album, recorded in Alkmaar and in Silvelle in Udine, the region where Manuel Tomadin is based, is a fine example and will be invaluable to all those who want to understand North German pedagogy at the end of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries better.

David Stancliffe

James Johnstone (Raphaëlis Organ, Roskilde)
59:29
Metronome MET CD 1095
BWV 535, 537, 538, 544, 545, 572, 578

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen I reviewed the first volume of James Johnstone’s complete Bach organ music in June 2016, recorded on the reconstructed Wagner organ in Trondheim Cathedral, I welcomed his stylish and lively playing, saying how important the choice of organ was for such a project. This is the second volume, and shows the same spirited playing, good choice of instrument and fresh approach to colour. He clearly plays from newly edited scores (listen to the Largo in BWV 545) and there is always the sense that he comes from a world of informed and concerted music-making that is a good way from the presuppositions of the English cathedral organ loft.

For these Fantasias, Preludes & Fugues, Johnstone turns to the Raphaëlis organ set near the pulpit in the western half of Roskilde cathedral, where he had recorded (on the Marcussen choir organ) Paul McCreesh’s fine Matthew Passion in 2004. This organ began its life in 1554-5, and, after modernisation in 1611 and in 1654-5, very little was done till 1833, when the firm of Marcussen did a major rebuild. Further enlargement took place in 1926 and 1950. Marcussen completed a major reconstruction in 1991, refashioning the structure and voicing to its 17th-century form. The results are an instrument that speaks with clarity and zip, whose action must make it a pleasure to play.

The tempi are on the brisk side and Johnstone’s registration aids his clean fingerwork. The only fly in the ointment is the sometimes slow-speaking pedal 8’ Trompet, which he uses a lot to give clarity to the pedal line in preference to the 16’. As with a number of the organs of this period, the only pedal fluework is a Principal chorus based on the 16’, with a solitary flute at 8’. 1’ Sedecima  stops on both the Rygpositiv and the Brystværk indicate the instrument’s early origins and there is (as far as I can tell) only one Tierce rank.

The cracking pace of the Prelude and Fugue in B minor BWV 544 is exhilarating, and neither here – nor in the Gravement in BWV 572 – is he afraid to use a manual 16’. But, if you want a testimony to his fingerwork, listen to the clarity of the episodes in the Prelude in G minor BWV 535. The disc ends with the Dorian Toccata and Fugue where you can appreciate the balanced flue choruses of the Manualværk and Rygpositiv. For the Fugue he adds the 8’ manual Trompet  for a rich and zesty fullness.

The dancing rhythms and splendid energy of Johnstone’s playing are matched by quality recording technique, which makes this a complete Bach organ music to follow with eager anticipation. Collect them all.

David Stancliffe

Organ music & vocal works by Buxtehude, Hassler, Praetorius & Scheidemann
Kei Koito, Il canto d’Orfeo, Gianluca Capuano
73:15
deutsche harmonia mundi 889854 376727
+Böhm, Decius, Decker, Goudimel, J. Praetorius the younger, Joh. Praetorius?, M. Praetorius, Stadlmayr, Tunder, Weckmann & anon

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his splendid and beautifully recorded CD is a tribute to its engineers as well as to the artists who chose and performed such interesting and well-researched music. This is the best tribute to this year’s Lutheran celebrations that I have heard, and it captures the richness of the interplay between the outstanding Hans Scherer organ of St Stephanskirche in Tangermünde and the chorales, motets and Gregorian chant sung by the Italian group, Il Canto di Orfeo, whose contributions were recorded in a sacristy in Milan. Try the amazing organum  on track 17 as a taster!

As in her Bach Vol. 5, recorded equally well on the Volkland organ in the Cruciskirche in Erfurt, the choice of instrument seems exactly right for this music. Like the Erfurt organ, this remarkable survival of the 1624 Hans Scherer organ was reconstituted by Alexander Schuke of Potsdam and is tuned pretty mean at 486hz. She draws attention to the remarkable 8’ Pedal Octavenbaß and we hear it used on its own, where it has the clarity and dignity of a G violone at the bottom of an early Baroque instrumental ensemble as well as providing a rich fullness to the pedal organ in combination with the Untersatz or the Bassunenbaß. The manual reeds on the Oberpositiff are colourful, the OberWerke is based on the 16’ principal, and its mixtures are related to that pitch. It seems possible to combine ranks in almost any combination, and her choice of registration lets us hear the variety as well as the depth of this almost unique survival of its period and place.

As her helpful notes – you need to check the English version with the German when it seems peculiar – disclose, the connections between the composers represented and the socio-cultural as well as musical worlds that they inhabited is remarkably complex. She lists which composers’ works are found in which libraries, and the relatively brief notes (nine pages) are full of detailed information and further references. As in her other recent recordings, only the specification is given in the booklet, but the detailed registration is provided in full on her website, to which the booklet refers.

I enjoyed the artistry, the planning of the programme, the collaboration with the Italian OVPP group, the beautifully recorded organ and its colourful registers in equal measure. This is a well-thought-out, and very musical programme, performed with great skill. The sounds are exciting, and the overall concept is excellent. I cannot commend it too highly.

David Stancliffe

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here are two stars on this recording, the player and the instrument. Right from the first bars of the opening Tunder Praeludium the full sound of this stunning organ, expertly recorded here, shines through with the splendour of the disc’s title. The instrument is the early 17th-century Hans Scherer organ in the Stephanskirche in Tangermünde, restored in 1994 by Alexander Schuke. Koito follows the Tunder with Buxtehude’s Nun komm der Heiden Heiland  played on flutes which immediately shows the quieter side of the organ. The rest of the programme is chosen to showcase it in music by Hieronymous and Jacob Praetorius, Scheidemann, Weckmann and Böhm. There is lots of antiphonal playing which contrasts various stop combinations, while the meantone tuning and beautifully-even voicing make it a joy to listen to. Koito’s playing matches the brilliance of the organ with fluent and unforced phrasing, enhanced by intelligently-applied ornamentation. The organ music is interspersed with chorale settings by earlier German composers like Hassler and Michael Praetorius and with some plainchant. As on Koito’s other recordings, the gaps between tracks are minimised which helps the flow between them. Continuity is also helped by particular groupings of tracks around successive verses of the Magnificat  (though unfortunately only one verset from Weckmann’s organ set is included) and the German Vater unser. The vocal tracks are sung by Il Canto di Orfeo and are mostly of a suitable brightness to match the organ. There is some anomalous Solesmes-style plainchant, and parallel-fifth organum, but generally the match between organ and singing works well. Koito has written her own very helpful liner notes and there is more comprehensive information about registrations, texts and translations, biographies on her website at http://www.kei-koito.com/. This is a most impressive recording indeed which makes a compelling case for the importance of the North German organ and its repertoire.

Noel O’Regan

Stefano Molardi Volckland organ (Cruciskirche, Erfurt)
211:56 (3 CDs in a box)
Brilliant Classics 95418

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he indefatigable Stefano Molardi, who recorded all J. S. Bach’s organ music for Brilliant Classics in 2013 and all Kuhnau in 2015, has given us the complete surviving organ music by two of the early Bach family organists, the bothers Johann Christoph and Johann Michael Bach. They worked throughout the latter half of the 17th century in Thuringia, and their works are substantially in that school of organ composition we associate with Johann Pachelbel. From J. C. there is a Prelude and Fugue and some sets of variations in the Pachelbel style, but the remainder of his work and all of J. M.’s is a variety of chorale preludes, largely with the initial voices in pre-imitation followed by the chorale melody in the cantus firmus. Such works, frequently improvised, were the bread and butter of a Lutheran organist’s weekly liturgical performance, introducing the chorale and setting the context for the congregation’s singing.

On that account alone, this would be a welcome production in the anniversary year of Luther’s reformation. But it also introduces us to the sound-world in which Bach grew up. The Bach families were entwined, and Johann Sebastian’s first wife was the daughter of J. M., and Arnstadt and Eisenach was where they lived and worked. This was what Bach heard in church, Sunday by Sunday.

The other significant factor is the instrument chosen for this recording: the cherished Volckland organ, built in 1732-7 for the Cruciskirche in Erfurt after its major rebuilding. Although the booklet gives the specification of the organ, reconstructed and restored by Schuke of Potsdam in 2000-03, the organ builder’s website is surprisingly reticent about how much work was conservation and how much was ‘reconstruction’. While it seems to me to be a very satisfactory representative of the early 18th-century Thuringian school of organ building, the recording is not so clean as to make each combination of registers clear, and we are given the registration for none of the 131 tracks, which is a pity since there are no less than five 8’ registers on the Hauptwerk besides the perky Vox Humana – the only manual reed. Choosing a registration is a significant part of the organist’s interpretative skill. The instrument is just slightly anachronistic, and I wonder if one from the 1670s or 80s might not have been better.

But this is a significant and timely recording. It could have been both recorded and presented better, but I hope that all students of Bach’s compositional technique will profit from the insights it delivers.

David Stancliffe