Martin Souter - Great Organ Classics - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Johann Sebastian Bach, possibly the greatest composer to ever live, composed a huge amount of organ music, much of which has remained some of the best-known pieces of all time. Most of the music was written when Bach was a young man and it retains a dynamism and joy that has never been equaled. This recording includes a selection of toccatas, fantasias, preludes and fugues played on a stunning original instrument from 1732. Album Tracks 1. Toccata 2. Fugue 3. Toccata 4. Adagio 5. Fugue 6. Fantasia 7. Fugue 8. Prelude 9. Fugue 10. Prelude 11. Fugue 12. Passacaglia and Fugue

Album Tracks 1. Chorals (3), for Organ, M. 38-40 NR. 1 E-Dur 2. Chorals (3), for Organ, M. 38-40 NR. 2 H-Moll 3. Chorals (3), for Organ, M. 38-40 NR. 3 A-Moll 4. Sonata for Organ No. 1 1. Mäßig Schnell 5. Sonata for Organ No. 1 1. Lebhaft 6. Sonata for Organ No. 1 2. Sehr Langsam 7. Sonata for Organ No. 1 2. Phantasie, Frei 8. Sonata for Organ No. 1 2. Ruhig Bewegt 9. Passacaglia and Fugue, for Organ in C minor, BWV 582 (BC J79)

Schoenberg's 'Variations on a Recitative' were first published in 1943 in an edition which gave very detailed performance instructions based on the 1928 Skinner Organ in Princeton University Chapel. A restoration of this organ has made it possible to reconstruct the intentions of this edition, and this recording brings the forensic practices of early music to the 1940's. in addition, there are two amazing pieces by Max Reger. The 'benedictus' provides a perfect foil to Schoenberg's monumental work and it is followed by Reger's own monumental piece, the 'Introduction, Variations & Fugue'. Album Tracks 1. Recitative 2. Variations 3. Fugue 4. Benedictus, Op. 59, No. 9 5. Introduction 6. Theme and Variations 7. Fugue