Organ Bach Sielbermann

The Silbermann organ at Crostau has long been considered one of Germanys most significant monuments of organ building. The combination of the instruments crystalline sound with Lucas Pohles sensitive organ playing and the historically informed performance expertise of the Dresdner Barockorchester promises to make the present album a real highlight on the classical music market. The organ concertos of the Baroque continue to exert an exceptional degree of fascination even today, not least because the organ is widely seen as the solo instrument par excellence.

The Italian harpsichordist, fortepianist, organist and conductor, Davide Pozzi, got the diploma with full marks of harpsichord, fortepiano and clavichord (M. Porrà), and organ and organ composition (Eva Frick Galliera) at the Conservatorio G. Verdi in Milan. At the same conservatoire he got a first-class degree in organ. He He then continued his studies at the Civica Scuola di Musica di Milan, receiving his diploma, again with honors, in Lorenzo Ghielmi's Baroque organ class. While there he also enhanced his harpsichord studies with Laura Alvini.

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.

The fifth volume of Masaaki Suzuki’s series of Bach’s works for organ features one of the most important surviving instruments from Bach’s time, made by the German organ builder Christoph Treutmann the Elder. Widely known for its extraordinary tonal quality, the instrument was built between 1734 and 1737. A recent general restoration preserved all essential structural elements or renewed them while remaining faithful to the originals, making this an ideal instrument for Bach interpreters who wish to come close to the sound world of the Leipzig Thomaskantor. Suzuki now takes up the Orgel-Büchlein (literally, “little organ book”), a collection of 45 short chorale preludes on melodies from the Lutheran hymn book, a project that came into being in connection with Bach’s appointment as organist and chamber musician at the Duke’s court in Weimar in 1708. Presenting chorales for different periods of the church year, this collection serves as a general guide to text-based composition focusing on word-sound relationships and content-specific musical expression. Three Preludes and Fugues complete the second volume dedicated to the Orgel-Büchlein, illustrating the principle of variety and structure historically practised by concert organists in order to demonstrate the tone colours and expressive possibilities of their instrument.

The fifth volume of Masaaki Suzuki’s series of Bach’s works for organ features one of the most important surviving instruments from Bach’s time, made by the German organ builder Christoph Treutmann the Elder. Widely known for its extraordinary tonal quality, the instrument was built between 1734 and 1737. A recent general restoration preserved all essential structural elements or renewed them while remaining faithful to the originals, making this an ideal instrument for Bach interpreters who wish to come close to the sound world of the Leipzig Thomaskantor.

​Bach's trio sonatas, originally written as teaching pieces for his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann, show Johann Sebastian Bach at the zenith of his compositional art: three independent parts engage in a captivating dialogue, combining cantabile melody lines with a skilful yet natural-sounding counterpoint - all embedded in an experimental formal design with balanced proportions.

Highpoints of virtuosity in Bach’s output and the Baroque organ repertoire, in new recordings by an organist with a rich catalogue of success on Brilliant Classics to his credit.