Brahms: Prelude and Fugue in G minor, WoO 10 - download (MP3 & FLAC)

Naïve’s prestigious ‘Cité de la Musique’ series presents a new recording of pieces originally written for - and here played on - a rarely performed instrument of the past, the pedal piano. This intriguing CD includes two monumental works by Franz Liszt, Evocation à la Chapelle Sixtine and the Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H, as well as music by Boëly, Schumann’s Four Sketches opus 58, two preludes by Alkan, and Brahms’ Prelude and Fugue in G minor Woo 10.

The Cité de la Musique in Paris is a major centre covering all musical genres and repertoires. Along with two concert halls, it includes a museum of early instruments. Naïve and the Cité de la Musique have launched a series in which great performers record on legendary instruments. This new volume is dedicated to an instrument scarcely played, the pedal piano, which belongs to a line of instruments which, like the organ, are equipped with a pedal keyboard. In the middle of the 19th century several major composers wrote pieces for pedal piano, including those featured on this CD.

Olivier Latry is regarded as one of the leading organists of his generation, both in France and on the international scene. After a period as organist of Meaux Cathedral from 1981 to 1985, he was only twenty-three when selected by competitive examination to become principal organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

A look at various biographies reveals two main reasons for such people to occupy them-selves with the organ: firstly, to improve polyphonic composition skills through a close examination of contrapuntal writing and the works of baroque composers (such as Buxtehude, Handel and Bach) and, secondly, to help cope with personal crises in life by working with themes of a religious nature. Both of these reasons apply to the works of Johannes Brahms: His organ compositions appeared in two phases of his life, characterised especially by close contact to Robert and Clara Schumann.

St. Rupert's Catholic Parish Church in Munich is home to one of the few surviving Maerz organs. The recent restoration of this marvellous late-romantic organ to its 1907 operating standards means that it can now be heard in its original splendour of sound.

The young organist Anne Horsch, performs the complete organ works of Brahms. His preludes and fugues and his eleven chorale preludes, which are often regarded as masterpieces in this genre, can be heard to perfection with the SACD quality.