Amid the never ending list of available recordings of Bach's organ works, it's nice to see a new SACD being released that brings all of his brilliant Toccatas together on one disc. These works, which capture a snapshot of Bach letting his hair down, showcase the essence of the composer at his best. Highly spirited music, brimming with expressive freedom bordering on the ecstatic. Organist Christoph Schoener certainly perceives these elements within the music and delivers up-tempo, animated and exuberant readings of all the pieces that call for it. The highlight for me on this disc is the account of the Toccata in F, BWV 540. A brilliant work, even by Bach's standards, with outstanding harmonic development throughout, underpinned by solid and long-sustained pedal notes upon which Bach constructed cathedrals of sound.

First Bach, then Reger, and now Bach/Reger: the present disc is Christoph Schoeners third MDG recording on the four organs in St. Michaels Church in Hamburg. The attractive program featuring Johann Sebastian Bachs seven toccatas, five of them in gripping arrangements by Max Reger, embodies the best and fullest opulence of sound. The MDG sound engineers rely on the very finest three-dimensional SACD technology, the big sound of this musical event, including the echo division and its extra spatial effects, can be enjoyed at home an audiophile highlight of a special kind! The seven toccatas were originally intended for the harpsichord.

A few years ago Rudolf Innig accomplished a grand discographic feat with his complete recording of the nine organ symphonies of Felix Nowowiejski, thereby rehabilitating an almost entirely forgotten master of late romantic organ sound. He later presented a recording of smaller-format organ compositions by Nowowiejski. The four “Concerti” recorded here conclude this valuable edition now for the first time presenting the Polish master’s complete organ oeuvre on CD on MDG. Those who expect an orchestra for the concerto form are in for a genuine surprise.

Arguably Pachelbel's masterpiece, "Apollo's Lyre" is a series of six arias, each of which consists of a set of highly contrasted variations on the initial theme. As a composer, Pachelbel was perhaps most interested in the variation principal, in direct contrast to his great successor, Bach, who used the form only rarely (but then typically wrote the greatest variation work ever–the "Goldberg Variations"). The musical argument is easy to follow, and the tunes themselves simple and memorable. John Butt frames the work with two mighty chaconnes. A chaconne is basically the same thing as a passacaglia, namely a series of variations over a constantly repeating bass line. Try this disc. You're in for a pleasant surprise.

This release follows some fine recordings with Christoph Schoener of Reger and Reger-arranged Bach from this venue, and with such consistently high results I’m now always on the lookout for new recordings from this source. As far as I can tell this is the only title available with this repertoire in organ arrangements, so quality and novelty would seem to be assured.

Buxtehude began his activity at St. Mary’s Church exactly 350 years ago, and the City of Lübeck fittingly commemorated this anniversary by awarding this year’s renowned Buxtehude Prize to organist Harald Vogel. Matched by no other musician, Vogel has distinguished himself both in historical organ playing in general and with Buxtehude’s oeuvre in particular. To celebrate this occasion, MDG is now releasing a highly interesting new edition containing all of Buxtehude’s works from the Codex E. B. of 1688 and including - as a surprising rarity - the recording premiere of a sonata with obbligato gamba.

Im umfangreichen Werkverzeichnis von Felix Mendelssohn nehmen die Orgelwerke nur einen relativ bescheidenen Nischenplatz ein. Im Stammbaum der Orgelmusik aber stehen sie an prominenter Stelle: Vor allem die Sechs Sonaten Op.65 sind die wichtigsten Bindeglieder zwischen Barock und Romantik, kompositorische Leuchttürme aus einer Zeit, die mit der Orgel ansonsten nicht viel anzufangen wusste. Ihre Impulse, namentlich für die Entstehung von Orgelmusik in Deutschland, waren enorm. Sie eröffneten zahlreiche neue und unerhörte Möglichkeiten für die vermeintlich so ungelenke Orgel.

Sensational organ transcriptions have made Jean Guillou famous far beyond his native France. Taught by Marcel Dupré, his command not only of organ playing but also of the piano and composition is demonstrated by the absolutely boundless technical and intellectual demands posed by his oeuvre. In Zuzana Ferjen 269;iková, Guillou now has found more than just a worthy heir: the first volume in our series featuring Guillou's organ works includes a recording premiere and reveals the profound emotional affinity uniting these two exceptional artists.

The grand Arp Schnitger organ in St. Jacobi (Church of St James) in Hamburg is remarkable in several respects. This instrument with four manuals boasts of the largest extant inventory of original pipes from thensixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the Trompete 16’ in the great organ is the very oldest of its kind. Harald Vogel, the Nestor of the Northern German organ tradition and the recent recipient of the Buxtehude Prize of the Hansa City of Lübeck, presents this magnificently restored organ in conjunction with an unusual Hamburg “family reunion”.

Johann Sebastian Bachs organ artistry made a powerful impression in St. Catherines Church when he applied for the coveted organists post at the Principal Church of St. James in Hamburg in 1720. Since Bach, unlike his rival, was unwilling to contribute the immense sum of four thousand marks as his dowry, he did not prevail but instead found a new job in Leipzig a few years later. In Leipzig he initially discharged other duties before he again came forward as an instrumental composer with a dazzling cycle of organ chorales in 1739. Andreas Fischer has freshly recorded this Third Part of the Clavierübung on his very own St. Catherines organ certainly in a rendering that would have brought joy to Bach, who could not praise enough this instrument outstanding in every respect.

,,Weihnacht mit Bach" - so hat Jacobi-Organist Gerhard Löffler sein MDG-Debüt betitelt. ,,Und mit Arp Schnitger" mag man hinzufügen, denn Schnitgers meisterhaftes Orgelwerk in der Hamburger St. Jacobi-Kirche ist nicht nur das größte Instrument des norddeutschen Orgelbauers, dessen Todestag sich dieses Jahr zum 300. Male jährt; mit dem wohl bedeutendsten original erhaltenen Pfeifenbestand des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts prägt es ganz erheblich Musik und Interpretation. Im prachtvollen dreidimensionalen Klanggewand auf Super Audio CD eingefangen, ist Festtagsstimmung rund ums Jahr garantiert.

Two great organists on two famous organs - and then Bach! Leo van Doeselaar and Erwin Wiersinga approach the Saxon master in an interesting and original way, and the fact that the two titular organists at their Martinikerk in Groningen have at their disposal one of the most important baroque organs from the workshop of the jubilarian Arp Schnitgers makes this new publication a current as well as exciting experience. Elaborately produced for multi-channel playback on Super Audio CD, this new release is a delight with its three-dimensional, high-resolution sound, which allows the spatial distribution of the two instruments to be experienced embedded in the cathedral sound of the Gothic church.

Franz Liszt certainly would have been very pleased with Zuzana Ferjen 269;íkovás selection of the Aloys Mooser organ in the Fribourg Cathedral for the first release of her complete recording of his organ works. Liszt himself travelled to Fribourg with George Sand in 1836 in order to have this instrument presented to him. Inspired by this marvellous organ, he then repeatedly wrote compositions and transcriptions for performance on the organ, constantly expanding the sound panorama to keep up with the advances in organ design.

In a church in a quiet northern Italian town survives a hidden jewel: an organ dating from 1749 which is perfect for Bach’s music. In this recording, renowned Italian organist Luca Guglielmi presents a fine sequence of some of Bach’s finest keyboard works, played on the historic organ in the Chiesa di San Nicolao, Alice Castello. The programme is compiled from works by Bach collected by two eighteenth century scholars, Padre Martini and Friedrich Wilhelm Rust, which would surely have been performed in the famous Abbey of Montecassino, a magnet for musical travellers on ‘The Grand Tour’. Martini and Rust played a major role in the creation of the first collected edition of Bach’s works. Guglielmi’s neatly-structured programme includes the brilliant Fantasia Chromatica, the solemn Fuga sopra il Magnificat, the fine Fantasia pro Organo in C minor and the great Fantasia & Fuga pro Organo, as well as Preludes and Fantasias, Duetti from the Clavierübung and seven Chorales for the Catechism, all demonstrating the vivid colours of this remarkable instrument.

Hugo Distler's contribution to Lutheran church music of the twentieth century can hardly be overestimated. His clear musical language marked by lightness and transparency has influenced generations of church musicians and composers. With the Norddeutscher Kammerchor in top form, Maria Jürgensen has now recorded a program with works from Distler's Liturgische Sätzend as a complementary contrast - Hans-Werner Zimmermann's jazz-inspired chorale variations Distler's Nürnberger Großes Gloria. The Liturgische Sätze (Liturgical Settings) are based on original Lutheran melodies from the Reformation period.