The Organ, Master of them all - general organ thread

[Marc]

Or Stef Tuinstra, with this 3cd-set:



Fully recommended by yours truly.
Convincing informed and expressive organ & harpsichord playing by this Dutch organist.
Instruments: the Schnitger organ of the Jacobikirche in Hamburg, and the Hinsz organ of the Mariakerk in Zandeweer (Groningen, NL). A few pieces are played on a 1728 Christian Zell harpsichord (belonging to the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg).

Dutch website:

http://www.documuziekproductie.nl/website/cds/b%C3%B6hm

Might be difficult to purchase outside Europe, though.
But if you're interested, you can always send an e-mail to ask for more info:

info@documuziekproductie.nl

Or to the organist himself maybe?

stuinstra@nnoa.nl

[prémont]

Might be difficult to purchase outside Europe, though.

Yes, this was why I did not mention it.

[Opus106]

Ooh, tempting. It's always good to know what's out there -- you'll never know where they might turn up. Thank you, Marc.

[milk]

This is music I know nothing about. I wonder if anyone out there has heard this recording. Are you a fan of this music? And how about it as an organ transcription?

[Coopmv]

Has anyone read this? Does it go into his musical ideas much? Are there any (other?) good things to read about him, in English or French?

My understanding is Helmut Walcha was blind most of his life.  How he became such an outstanding organist is beyond my comprehension ...

[Marc]

This is music I know nothing about. I wonder if anyone out there has heard this recording. Are you a fan of this music? And how about it as an organ transcription?

Venus, organ arrangement by Peter Sykes, as an example, to give you an idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_avJDA9EvP8

[Mandryka]

My understanding is Helmut Walcha was blind most of his life.  How he became such an outstanding organist is beyond my comprehension ...

André Marchal  was also blind, it's a strange coincidence! 

The book's lovely. It's basically written by someone who just adores Walcha, but the hagiographical element doesn't annoy me too much because there's a sort of naivety, when you read him it's a bit like listening to a child. Not that it's childish -- it's just simple, no agenda other than the enthusiasm he wants to transmit.

A lot of it is just touching - what his house looked like etc. But there's ideas in there too. Here's a rough translation of something from the book:

Bach's music and the music of those who came before him must, according to Walcha "preserve in its sound something still, calm and concentrated" As an example, he offers the simple recorder, which has limited nuances of intensity. All notes played on an organ offer the same power, and Walcha believes that the intensity of the music resides in this static sonority.

And then he goes on to suggest that these sort of ideas led Walcha to a very purified view of baroque performance practice -- back to urtexts with no dynamic markings, reducing the number of registration changes. That link between an aesthetic conception of early music and Walcha's performance style was new to me. How all this relates to Walcha's actual performance style in recordings is a contentious area I suppose.

Coppey and Kunz get these ideas from a monograph that Walcha published called "The Marvels of Polyphony" which I would like to read, but I just can't find it anywhere in English or French.

[Coopmv]

André Marchal  was also blind, it's a strange coincidence! 

The book's lovely. It's basically written by someone who just adores Walcha, but the hagiographical element doesn't annoy me too much because there's a sort of naivety, when you read him it's a bit like listening to a child. Not that it's childish -- it's just simple, no agenda other than the enthusiasm he wants to transmit.

A lot of it is just touching - what his house looked like etc. But there's ideas in there too. Here's a rough translation of something from the book:

And then he goes on to suggest that these sort of ideas led Walcha to a very purified view of baroque performance practice -- back to urtexts with no dynamic markings, reducing the number of registration changes. That link between an aesthetic conception of early music and Walcha's performance style was new to me. How all this relates to Walcha's actual performance style in recordings is a contentious area I suppose.

Coppey and Kunz get these ideas from a monograph that Walcha published called "The Marvels of Polyphony" which I would like to read, but I just can't find it anywhere in English or French.

The deaths of Gustav Leonhardt and Marie-Claire Alain earlier this year certainly marked the end of an era for performance of baroque organ works ...

[Coopmv]

Has anyone read this? Does it go into his musical ideas much? Are there any (other?) good things to read about him, in English or French?

Is there an English version of this book?

[Sammy]

The deaths of Gustav Leonhardt and Marie-Claire Alain earlier this year certainly marked the end of an era for performance of baroque organ works ...

How so?

[prémont]

André Marchal  was also blind, it's a strange coincidence! 

There are many blind organists. Holm Vogel is another example. In Copenhagen there is a school for blind organists, and I think this is a not uncommon occurrence elsewhere.

..... a monograph that Walcha published called "The Marvels of Polyphony" which I would like to read, but I just can't find it anywhere in English or French.

It was part of a German book where ca. 20 different musicians each had written maybe 15 pages about themselves, among others Karl Münchinger and Wilhelm Kempff and of course Walcha. It must be more than 30 years since I read it, and I have since long forgotten the title. It was here Walcha wrote about his discovery of the F major invention as a young boy.

[prémont]

And then he goes on to suggest that these sort of ideas led Walcha to a very purified view of baroque performance practice -- back to urtexts with no dynamic markings, reducing the number of registration changes. That link between an aesthetic conception of early music and Walcha's performance style was new to me. How all this relates to Walcha's actual performance style in recordings is a contentious area I suppose.

Certainly. And this is because Walcha´s level of historical information was limited. He created his own style out of the naked score. This does not however detract from the spellbinding effect of his playing, but it demonstrates once again, that Bach´s music works in many different ways of interpretation.

Also Walcha (born 1907) may be considered an important transitional figure between Karl Straube (the Leipzig school) and Anton Heiller and Marie Claire Alain. In a way I find Walter Kraft (born 1905) to be an even more important figure, because his style was much more informed.

[Mandryka]

I like that discussion in the book about how, according  to Walcha, baroque music is "still, calm and concentrated", like Gregorian chant, not nuanced in terms of colours and dynamics like Liszt. It made me remember how much I like the later Bach records he made.

Coopmv, as far as I know the book isn't in English.

Premont, I like Kraft's Buxtehude because of its relative calmness and lack of fireworks  (though lately I've been listening to  Vogel more), but somehow I've never got into Kraft's  Bach, I'll have to give it another chance.

[prémont]

........but somehow I've never got into Kraft's  Bach, I'll have to give it another chance.

The Orgelbüchlein - even if scattered over several CDs, some of the Leipzig chorales (fx BWV 656, 658, 659, 660 and 665), Clavierübung III (fx BWV 669 - 671 and 684) and some of the chorale free works fx BWV 543, 544, 546 and 548 might be the ones to persuade you of his style.

[Mandryka]

The Orgelbüchlein - even if scattered over several CDs, some of the Leipzig chorales (fx BWV 656, 658, 659, 660 and 665), Clavierübung III (fx BWV 669 - 671 and 684) and some of the chorale free works fx BWV 543, 544, 546 and 548 might be the ones to persuade you of his style.

Well I'm slightly ahead of you in fact because today I was listening to a whole pile of BWV 678, and I was struck by the nobility and the strength of  Kraft. He's definitely moving on my radar for Bach.

By the way I made the Bwv 678 playlist because of two things. One was hearing Matteo Messori's performance, which uses some sort of bell, I don't think it's a cymbelstern, it doesn't tinkle. And the other was reading this comment (unreferenced) in wikipedia

The pastoral quality in the organ writing for the upper voices at the opening has been interpreted as representing the serenity before the Fall of Man; it is followed by the disorder of sinful waywardness; and finally order is restored in the closing bars with the calm of salvation.

I was interested to see if anyone does anything remotely like Messori (no), or whether anyone brings out this putative disorder (not sure, actually maybe this is a feature of Kraft's reading)

[milk]

Is F. Couperin's organ music great?

[Mandryka]

I've started to listen to Gillian Weir's CD of Bruhns. What lovely music, instantly appealing.  Sometimes very noble and comforting, at least in Weir's hands, though you can often hear some very surprising and intesting things in the music, fantasticus style. I'm enjoying what she does. If anyone has any Bruhns records they love then please let me know as I'd like  to explore a bit further.

[jlaurson]

Dip Your Ears, No. 138 (Mendelssohn Organ Works)

Felix Mendelssohn B. was fond of organs and organ music and wrote idiomatically for the instrument. You
just can't hear it in his other compositions (think Bruckner, for contrast), and since you just about never hear
Mendelssohn's organ music in recital or concert either, that part of his output—limited as it is—remains ignored.
A pity, I suppose, since his organ writing, like so much of Mendelssohn in any genre, can be uncommonly
attractive...

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/05/dip-your-ears-no-138-mendelssohn-organ.html[/url]

[milk]

I've gone from Bach to modern French organ music. I made two purchases tonight:


I've jumped over romantic organ. I feel like I need to get a good sampler of romantic organ works.

[prémont]

I've started to listen to Gillian Weir's CD of Bruhns. What lovely music, instantly appealing.  Sometimes very noble and comforting, at least in Weir's hands, though you can often hear some very surprising and intesting things in the music, fantasticus style. I'm enjoying what she does. If anyone has any Bruhns records they love then please let me know as I'd like  to explore a bit further.

One of the first Bruhns sets I acquired was Helmut Winter´s recording for Harmonia Mundi on the splendid Klappmeyer organ in Altenbruch. I think Winter succeded in making this truly phantastic music sound fresh anew. I have got some other sets, but this remains my favorite.