Organ

The organ works of Axel Ruoff, born in Stuttgart in 1957, constitute one of the most important contributions to the literature for the instrument by any composer since Messiaen. Stylistically, his music unites the French cathedral tradition of composers like Langlais, Dupré and Guillou with the concern with counterpoint and logic heard in Reger and later German figures. Like Messiaen, Ruoff often finds stimulus in religious sources; unlike him, it is biblical narrative that inspires many of Ruoff’s works, and he uses the unparalleled resources of the modern symphonic organ in his response to some of the most dramatic scenes in the Old Testament, writing music of freewheeling energy and uncompromising power.

Listeners to his Requiem will recognise Duruflé's conservative and intensely personal musical language as heard in his organ music. The influence of Debussy, Dukas, Ravel, Tournemire and Vierne is evident, and like these composers Duruflé provides detailed performance indications.

Friedrich Lux (1820–95) was one of those musicians who formed the fabric of musical life in nineteenth-century Germany: though he worked away from the major cities, as conductor, teacher, organist, organiser and composer, he was an indispensable element of the communities in which he worked. His large body of organ music, as good as unknown before now, brings together elements of the musical language of Bach, Mendelssohn and Schumann, in works that range from the intimate to the grandiose.This second volume brings some of his many transcriptions to the fore.

"Bach - Sonatas" is the fourth recording in Kåre Nordstoga's series of Bach's complete organ works. The main works on this double-CD are the six "Trio Sonatas".

The talented organist and harpsichordist Maud Gratton is an artist constantly seeking perfection. A graduate of the Paris Conservatoire, she trained with such great masters as Pierre Hantaï (harpsichord) and Louis Robilliard (organ), as well as with Olivier Baumont, Blandine Rannou, Kenneth Weiss, Michel Bouvard, Olivier Latry, and Olivier Trachier.

It's good to report Naxos again sweeping aside the competition not only in price, but in the quality of both performance and recording as well. Not that Brahms's organ works have received quite as much exposure on CD as one would have expected. The 11 Chorale Preludes, Brahms's swan-song (the cynics would describe it as a deathbed conversion), for all their popularity are elusive works attempting a synthesis between the essentially functional chorale prelude form and the intimate, personal language of an impromptu.

All the works on this CD are from the French Romantic organ repertoire. They have all enjoyed great popularity and bear the typical characteristics of French Romantic organ writing; melodic elegance, colourful harmonies and compositional clarity. Ben van Oosten performs on the Jann Organ of St. Martin, Dudelange, Luxembourg.

Though other Baroque composers had written chorale arrangements for organ in which the cantus firmus was assigned to a solo wind instrument, the idea of writing a Fantasia for the same combination seems to have originated with Johann Krebs. His soulful, eloquent Fantasia in F minor for oboe and organ was celebrated in its day, and when you hear it on this engaging recording, you can well understand why. Though the fantasias are the more intricate works, the chorales with wind obbligato are admirable for their contrapuntal inventiveness and for the various ways in which the composer chooses to set the familiar tunes.

This recording revives long-forgotten sonorities that once would have been very familiar: the sound of piano and organ being played together. It also presents a Sibelius premiere: the arrangement by Sigfird Karg-Elert of the suite from Pelléas and Mélisande. As the popularity of domestic music-making grew through the nineteenth century, it brought first the piano and, then, often the harmonium into well-off living-rooms across the western world. Composers naturally responded, with original works and arrangements: Sibelius Andante cantabile was written after a visit to relatives who had both instruments in their salon.