Bach, J S: Prelude & Fugue in A minor, BWV543

The outstanding young organ virtuoso Cameron Carpenter burst on to the scene last year with an astonishing recording entitled “Revolutionary” (CD80711). Reviewers were fulsome in their praise of his gifts as a performer. In an interview, feature, and review in the Gramophone Jeremy Nicholas stated that his “rhythmic buoyancy, clarity of voicing, and sheer élan are quite masterly” in his interpretation of pieces by Dupré, and Demessieux. There was also an interview/feature in Classic FM magazine and cover feature in “Muso”. He was recently picked as one of the “New Stars of 2010” in Classic FM Magazine.

Unlike his first recording “Revolutionary” which was made on a virtual pipe organ, Cameron Carpenter’s second album for Telarc has been made on a large-scale acoustic instrument, the massive Aeolian-Skinner organ at New York’s Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. This CD/DVD two-disc album includes three preludes and fugues from J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and five preludes and fugues from the major organ works of Bach. The DVD features performances on a Wurlitzer pipe organ built in the early 20th Century. It includes arrangements of Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, two pieces by George Gershwin, “The Alcotts”, from Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata, Astor Piazzola’s Libertango, Mozkowski’s Sparks (“Etincelles”), Schubert’s Erlkönig, Rachmaninov’s arrangement of Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in E Major, and Carpenter’s own celebrated arrangement of Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever.

Any collection of recordings by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) must include a good proportion of his compositions for the organ on which he must have been a master-performer and for which he provided a treasure trove of works. With organs requiring large acoustics they are usually to be found in churches, but such is the expense of maintaining them and the buildings in which they are housed that some are falling in to a state of disrepair or are being removed to be replaced by modern electrical or electronic instruments which, for all their good workmanship, completely fail to match the majesty of the original. Recordings, therefore, on a fine Hi-fi system are a fine alternative to travel long distances to sit on often uncomfortable pews in cold churches (however that is not to say that they should completely replace the chance of hearing an original in real life, like other forms of music a live performance has added dimensions, it is just that it is becoming harder to attend such performances). Lionel Rogg, in this first of several planned sets, brings together many of the more extended works which are set as either a Fantasia, Prelude or Toccata followed by a Fugue and include many favourites including the ever popular Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565.

On 6 August 1840, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy gave his legendary concert with works by Johann Sebastian Bach at the organ of St Thomas Leipzig. Mendelssohn Bartholdy concluded the evening with an improvisation which acted as a window onto the past: herein, he relates the musical expressivity of his own time to Bach’s compositions.

Mendelssohn’s concert programme is the basis for this new CD: 171 years later, the composer Hans-Joachim Hespos reopens this window, and performs his piece Luftschattengelichte at the very same moment in the programme at which Mendelssohn Bartholdy had begun to improvise. While Mendelssohn had tried hard to highlight the connections with the musical past, to present Bach’s music as living heritage, the composer Hespos instead chooses to emphasise the ‘non-connections.’ Luftschattengelichte is constructed from sounding events, from islands of sound, the order and inner design of which by and large can and have to be determined by the performer. On the present recording, Oliver Kluge performs at the Marcussen organ at the Pauluskirche Hanover.

The final volume in Margaret Phillips’ critically-acclaimed survey of the complete Bach organ works, includes the rarely-recorded ‘Neumeister’ chorale preludes, together with a selection of other works, including some of Bach’s best-loved organ music, such as the 4th Trio Sonata, and the brilliant and virtuoso Preludes & Fugues in D major (BWV 532) and A minor (BWV 543).

The ‘Neumeister’ chorale preludes, discovered at Yale University in 1985, encompass a wonderful variety of techniques, with many opportunities to exploit the colours of a large historic instrument, such as this one in the Grote Kerk, Leeuwarden, in the Netherlands, which was built by Christian Müller in 1727, and is one the world’s finest historic organs, set in a perfect acoustic.

A magnificent conclusion to a series being hailed as one of the finest recordings of Bach’s organ music on disc.

The organist and musicologist Hubert Meister died at the end of 2010 and in his memory MDG is making three of his recordings available for the first time on a double CD. Meister recorded the music from the period between 1701 and 1744 on Mathis organs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Canadian-born Michael Unger is a multi-award winner, including First Prize in the 2008 Sixth International Organ Competition Musashino-Tokyo, Japan, and First and Audience Prize in the 2008 American Guild of Organists’ National Young Artists Competition.