John Bullard - Organ Works on the Weimbs Organ - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Album Tracks 1. Toccata 2. Fugue 3. Sinfonia in F Major (After Bach) 4. Duet in D Major 5. Duet in C Major 6. Invention No. 2 in G Major 7. Invention No. 3 in C Major 8. Trio in C Major (After Bach) 9. Andante 10. Adagio 11. Presto 12. Nun Komm, Der Heiden Heiland, BWV659 13. Wachet Auf, Ruft Uns Die Stimme in E Flat Major, BWV645 14. Valet Will Ich Dir Geben 15. Ich Bitte Dich, Herr Jesu Christ 16. Ach, Wie Hungert Mein Gemuthe 17. Passacaglia in C minor, BWV582

Album Tracks 1. Rondo for Piano in C minor, Op. 1, CT. 192 2. Mazurka for Piano No. 2 in C Sharp minor, Op. 6/2, CT. 52 3. Mazurka for Piano No. 7 in F minor, Op. 7/3, CT. 58 4. Mazurka for Piano No. 20 in D Flat Major, Op. 30/3, CT. 70 5. Mazurka for Piano No. 21 in C Sharp minor, Op. 30/4, CT. 71 6. Mazurka for Piano No. 40 in F minor, Op. 63/2, CT. 90 7. Mazurka for Piano No. 47 in a Minor, Op. 68/2, CT. 97 8. Waltz for Piano No. 6 in D Flat Major ('Minute'), Op. 64/1, CT. 212 9. Waltz for Piano No. 3 in a Minor, Op. 34/2, CT. 209 10. Waltz for Piano in E minor, KK Iva/15, CT. 222 (B. 56) 11. Ballade for Piano No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23, CT. 2

One can easily find a great number of outstanding chamber music works for string instruments; on the other hand, chamber music repertoire for woodwinds on a similar high level of composition is relatively sparse. By the 1800s, string instruments and the piano had achieved a high standard in terms of playing technique and construction; wind instruments, however, lagged somewhat behind. Woodwinds still sounded uneven across their registers and suffered from technical constraints, including limitations in terms of musical keys all of this must have exerted a counterproductive influence on a generation of Romantic composers who wanted to expand music's horizons in terms of dynamics and harmony. The Ma'alot Wind Quintet has teamed up on this album with pianist Markus Becker in works by Ludwig van Beethoven for piano and woodwinds, supplemented by several of Beethoven's charming works for flute-playing clock, arranged by clarinetist Ulf-Guido Schäfer for woodwind quintet. The main raison-d'être for this choice of program lies in the fact that Beethoven himself composed an excellent large-scale original work for four woodwinds (oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon) and piano - a work which, in terms of musical proportions and compositional ingenuity, rose far above the standard of what was otherwise being written for winds at the time when it was premiered (1796).That original composition is coupled on this album with another work by Beethoven for which we no longer have the original instrumentation, but which can be reconstructed, thanks to a series of circumstances, to a point of departure from which Ulf-Guido Schäfer has been able to arrange it as a chamber music Concerto for piano and wind quintet. Album Tracks 1. Piano Concerto in E Flat Major, Woo 4 2. Four Pieces for Mechanical Flute-Playing Clock, Woo 33 3. Quintet for Piano, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon