Jörg Himmelreich

With the major project "Bach Organ Landscapes" and the recording of all of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ works, the German conductor, harpsichordist and organist Jörg Halubek invites you on a comprehensive journey to historical organ builders who shaped Johann Sebastian Bach. "The further you look back into music history, the more regional developments can be discovered," says the artist. “These connections between instrument and organ work characterize the so-called organ landscapes”. The third and fourth albums of the ten-part series are about 'Hamburg' and 'Lüneburg & Altenbruch'.

The large-scale Bach Organ Landscapes project featuring J.S. Bach’s entire organ oeuvre recorded on a range of instruments aims to provide an overview of organ-playing and organ-building traditions that were key to Bach’s composing. With a keen eye to the unique cultural organ legacy of the places associated with Bach, Halubek has placed Bach’s original sound at the heart of his project. The recordings are accompanied by digital material that offer an almost tactile access to the great composer’s sound universe. This Album features famous organs of north Germany. Firstly, the organ by Friedrich Stellwagen in Lübeck. Secondly, the organ made by Christoph Treutmann in Grauhof near Goslar.

For this album Jörg Halubek selected selected Bach’s “Third Part of the Keyboard Exercise” – one of the rare collections of organ music that Bach set in print in his own lifetime (1739).

For this album Jörg Halubek selected selected Bach’s “Third Part of the Keyboard Exercise” – one of the rare collections of organ music that Bach set in print in his own lifetime (1739). The collection captivates him with its visionary compositional approach and a refreshingly pragmatic approach to printed layout that can still be appreciated today (cf. Gregory Butler, 1990). The compositional vision of the Clavierübung is linked for Halubek with the visionary element of Trost’s organ aesthetic. Bach thought highly of him – and will have appreciated his experiments with tone colours. As ever, a nobly dignified plenum forms the central pillar of the organ sound. Both mixtures contain thirds, resulting in combination with the softened middle register in a certain sharpness of sound, but also the clear, eloquent transparency of polyphonic works. The spatial acoustic has very little reverberation even in an empty church and is very clear. Apart from the plenum, the organ specification is mainly characterized by a wealth of eight-foot and four-foot stops: there are six 8' flue stops and three 4' flues in the Hauptwerk alone, among them a tremulant. The fine nuances in these sensitive timbres are an invitation to interpreters to experiment and to hear with new ears.