Bach, J S: Fugue in E flat major, BWV552/2 'St Anne'

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.

JS Bach’s works are played on this recording on the historic organ Isnard de la Basilique du Couvent Royal de Saint-Maximin.

Chances are that anyone who has ever heard organ music has been exposed to the organ music of J. S. Bach. More than just a daily staple of the organist's diet, Bach's organ music represents the pinnacle of the art.

Grand toccatas and fantasies; the sophisticated counterpoint of preludes and fugues; virtuoso sets of variations; show-off concertos; astonishingly tuneful trio sonatas; and chorale preludes ranging from complex fugal subjects to simply elaborated harmonization's of Lutheran chorales - in all these genres, Bach built on existing, inherited models and launched them into new territories of the imagination.

The current collection presents the most beautiful selections from the critically acclaimed Edition Bachakademie, bringing together the diverse talents of Europe's most exciting young organists - Kay Johannsen, Bine Katrine Bryndorf, Andrea Marcon, Wolfgang Zerer,and Martin Lücker. For as long as there are organs, it is inconceivable that Bach's organ music will not be performed upon them.