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| Carol Williams, San Diego Municipal Organist, visits Luxembourg to play the Stahlhuth organ, built in 1912 as a 3-45 and now enlarged to four manuals and 94 ranks. | |
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| Zacharias Hildebrandt organs from 1728 in Pösfeld and Sangerhausen and 1730 in Sotterhausen are ably demonstrated by Marina Pohl. | |
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| George Bozeman plays Hook Opus 553 after its move to Germany from its Massachusetts home. | |
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| Jozef Serafin plays the organ built in 1620 in the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist in Kazimierz Dolny by Szymon Liliusz, or possibly Johann Hellqig, and remaining as the oldest playable organ in Poland. Miroslawa Semeniuk-Podraza plays in the Parish Church of St. Nicholas, Crakow on an 18th- century organ by Thomas Fall. | |
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| Joachim Grubich plays the 1914 Zebrowski organ built into a case dating to 1761 by Józef Weissmann and located in the Monastery Church of St. Paul, Crakow in works of J.S. Bach, Zipoli, and Surzynski. Jan Jargon plays the 1755/1788 Johann Friedrich Rhode organ in the Church of the Dominican Monastery of St. Nicholas in Gdansk as restored in 1977, performing works by J.S. Bach, Nowowiejski, and Jargon. | |
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| The three Franck Chorales and Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 6 are played by the famed Dr. Schweitzer in his Alsatian village church. | |
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| Difficult acoustic? Deal with the problem by placing 113 stops in three locations. Albert Schönberger plays at Mainz Cathedral. | |
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| Würzburg Cathedral Organist Stefan Schmidt performs works for the Feast of Pentecost | |
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| Destroyed by Allied bombing near the end of World War II, Dresden’s great 18th-century Frauenkirche has been rebuilt and was rededicated on October 30, 2005. The Frauenkirche’s 1736 Silbermann organ, played by Bach, was entirely destroyed by the bombing, so the reconstructed church has a visually identical and tonally eclectic organ built by Daniel Kern of Strasbourg. In this first CD from this most important new organ, Samuel Kummer plays Bach and Duruflé. The CD is recorded as a surround sound SACD Hybrid playable on all CD players.BACH: Concerto in d after Vivaldi; Trio on Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend, BWV 655; Sei gegrüßet, BWV 768; Pièce d'orgue, BWV 572 DURUFLÉ: Suite, op. 5 | |
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| Marcus Eichenlaub plays the 2001 Göckel 3-51 organ built in Romantic style at St. Bonifatius Church in Wirges (near Koblenz).Click the headline for repertoire and to order. | |
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| William Wright, organ teacher at the University of Toronto and director of music at Deer Park United Church there, plays a program from all periods on the only organ known to have been played by J. S. Bach, approved by him, and possibly designed by him, and as built by Zacharias Hildebrandt in 1746 at St. Wenzel Church in Naumburg, Germany. The wide range of repertoire demonstrates some of the colorful effects on this organ, including a celeste, and the recording is very effective in capturing the sumptuous reverberation of St. Wenzel Church. Click the headline for titles and to order. | |
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| The popular French organist Jean-Paul Imbert plays the inaugural CD on the 4m organ of 72 ranks built in 2004 by Bernard Dargassies at the Basilique Notre-Dame du Perpétuel Secours in Paris. The Russian works are transcribed for organ by Imbert. COCHEREAU: Improvs on Vesper Versets Nos. 1-5, 7, 13; BACH: Passacaglia & Fugue in c BWV 582; FRANCK: Choral No. 2 WIDOR: Mvt. from Sym 5 BOËLLMANN: Gothic Suite RACHMANINOV: Vocalise PROKOFIEV: 3 extracts from Romeo & Juliette SCRIABIN: Etude, op. 2/1 SHOSTAKOVICH: Waltz No. 2 in d | |
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| The new 4m Rieger organ of 69 stops built in the sumptuous acoustics of Essen Cathedral is played by Jürgen Kursawa, organist of the Cathedral. Click the headline for works by Bach, Vierne, Reger, and Guillou, and to order. | |
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| Since the 14th century, the organ at Strasbourg Cathedral has been located in a “swallow’s nest” at a height of about 65 feet above the floor, and it still includes the case built by Friedrich Krebs in 1498. The current 3-45 organ by Strasbourg builder Alfred Kern reuses material from previous organs including 317 pipes from the 1716 Andreas Silbermann organ that was largely replaced in 1935. The organ thrives as a destination for organ tourists and concert goers. Pascal Reber, appointed titulaire in 2002, improvises and plays works by Fleury, Guilmant, Fauré, Grigny, Marchand, and Bach. Click the headline for details and to order. | |
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| Jane Parker-Smith plays Romantic works of French, Belgian, English, and German/American heritage on a new 4m organ built in French Romantic style by the Goll firm of Lucerne, Switzerland, for the Church of St. Martin in Memmingen, Germany, replete with two 32’ stops and three horizontal reeds. Click for works by Demessieux, Middelschulte, Boulnois, Mulet, Jongen, Languetuit, Whitlock, and York Bowen. | |
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| Glorious Pipes compiles important recordings by major organists on a 2-CD set. Plays include Olivier Latry, Gillian Weir, Peter Planyavsky, Marcel Dupré, Simon Preston, Pierre Cochereau, Thomas Trotter, Peter Hurford, Wolfgang Rübsam, Helmut Walcha. Click the headline for works and to order. | |
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| Stephanuskerk in Hasselt and Grote Kerk in Dordrecht, magnificent buildings with environments most enhancing to organ sound and exciting organ playing. Click the headline for works by Grison, Festing, Rheinberger, Dubois, Guilmant, Bach, and an improvisation by Mulder. | |
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| Power Biggs in that his fame came mainly through radio broadcasting. From the 30s through the 60s he performed regularly on various European radio networks and in live concert. A large number of Egmond’s radio broadcasts were recorded at the Prinsessekert in Amsterdam, but only a handful survived. This compilation displays Piet van Egmond’s outstanding musicianship and also the well-preserved sound of the 1924 Steinmeyer 41-rank organ, which unfortunately was lost in 1982 when the church was demolished. Click the headline for works by Falulkes, Kint, Nielund, Bossi, Merkel, Dubois, Mulet, Guilmant, De Wolf, Egmond, and to order. | |
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| This special release includes two discs for the price of one: one conventional CD and the same program on a second disc produced in DVD-Audio. Roland Muhr plays the restored organ at the former Cistercian monastery church in Fürstenfeld near Munich. Finished in 1736, the organ of 27 stops comprising 43 ranks on two manuals and 18-note pedal was restored by the Sandtner firm and fills the huge and resonant Bavarian abbey church with its original sounds as so amply demonstrated with this happy program of marches by Guilmant, Boellmann, Smart, Purcell, Nowowiejski, Grieg, Fumagalli, Gherardeschi, Hartmann, Mendelssohn, Handel, Balbastre, and Lasceux, many transcribed by Muhr. Click the headline for the marches and to order. | |
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| The master work of French organbuilder Karl Joseph Riepp (1710-1775) in the Basilica of Ottobeuren — actually a double organ — is one of the most treasured historic organs in Europe. It was not until 1957 that a third organ was added by G. F. Steinmeyer & Co, which has recently been renovated and augmented by Johannes Klais, making 100 stops available on 5 manuals. Young German organist Axel Flierl gives an impressive performance amid this wealth of riches. Click the headline for titles and to order. | |
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| Jane Watts plays the 1877 T.C. Lewis & Co. organ rebuilt in 1976 and now containing 3,531 pipes at the Cathedral (Anglican) in Wellington, New Zealand. Click the headline for works by Dudley Buck, Wm. Lloyd Webber, Guilmant, and Sumsion, and to order. | |
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| Passionate Dutch Organist Feike Asma (1912-1984) polarized the Dutch organ scene in the latter half of the 20th century, having developed a passionate and expressive style that made him a frequent recitalist who brought large audiences and many people to the organ. Writes organist Herman van Vliet, “His interpretations of the great organ repertoire were monuments in sound. . . He possessed a natural understanding of tension and its release, for timing, rubato, style of playing and touch, and for colorful and dynamic registrations.” The Festivo label presents several retrospective CDs of Feike Asma, both live concerts and recording sessions, playing famous Dutch organs. Click the headline for descriptions of each CD. Feike Asma In Concert Feike Asma Plays Reger, Hoyer, Reubke Asma & Zwart Chorales and Psalms Old Church, Amsterdam | |
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| Midnight at Notre-Dame in Paris, where Olivier Latry is titulaire organist and conducted sessions for this high-tech Deutsche Grammophon CD in November and December 2003, after the daily crowds had left and the tumult outside had subsided. Click headline for repertoire | |
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| Bischof and Ken Cowan play the unique Miller concerto at the Tonhalle, Zurich, with the Zurich Symphony Orchestra, Jose Ulla, conductor. | |
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| This newly issued CD selects 12 great tracks from Latry’s many recordings made for the French BNL label, several of which are now out-of-print. Click the headline for works by Handel, Mozart, Bach, Litaize, Widor, Vierne and Duruflé. | |
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| The 1919-29 Hill, Norman & Beard organ now in Dunedin Town Hall, Otago, New Zealand, was restored by the South Island Organ Company 1993-95 and lovingly given the name “Norma.” Hans Uwe Hielscher plays a diverse program to demonstrate the fantastic sound of the 75-stop organ which was originally built as a touring concert organ and billed as the “Bathurst Mammoth Touring Cathedral Organ” that moved around on seven trucks with a crew of 10 men who could remove, pack, and reinstall the 23-ton organ in just 14 hours. After less than a decade of use in England, the organ was sold to Dunedin in New Zealand and greatly enlarged in 1929 by Hill, Norman & Beard.Click headline for repertoire | |
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| Amazingly musical Bengt Tribukait plays the new "Schnitger" organ created by Go-Art and the 1871 Willis organ at Ögryte Church in Göteborg, Sweden. Two new works are by young Russian-born composers as well as works by Liszt, Wm. Byrd, and Bach Click picture for repertoire | |
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| After the 1998 restoration of the Benedictine Abbey church in Villingen (in the Black Forest), the 1752 Johann Andreas Silbermann organ (having been removed to Karlsruhe ca. 1800, much rebuilt, and then destroyed in World War II) was entirely recreated by Gaston Kerr in consultation with Silbermann expert Marc Schaefer, the results of which are played for this recording by five organists: Schaefer, Christoph Bossert, Christian Schmitt, Hans Musch, and Stephan Rommelspacher. Click the headline for works by Clérambault, Steingleder, Cabanilles, DeGrigny, Schaefer, Guilain, and Bach. | |
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| Great Organs of Japan, Vol. 2 Of about 100 ranks, the C. B. Fisk organ in Minato Mirai Concert Hall in Yokohama plays all styles and periods of organ music, and is especially adapted for performance with orchestra via a floating Tuba division. Hatsumi Miura, resident organist at the hall, has studied and worked in Japan, the U. S., and Europe, has won competitions in Japan and Switzerland, and teaches at Ferris University. Click the headline for titles and to order. | |
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| at Oliwa Cathedral, where the organ was begun in 1763 and has been periodically enlarged to its current 152 ranks. It occupies a large and spectacular Rococo case. Roman Perucki’s program pleases, and introduces two recent works. Click the headline for titles and to order. | |
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| In the Kashubian Ethnographic Park Roman Perucki plays the 5-rank organ built by Gottfried Weinert of Gdansk. It and the church which contains it were moved in 1987 to an historical park. Click the headline for titles and to order. | |
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| Marek Stefanski plays the organ at St. Mary’s Church, Kracow, Poland, with trumpeter Marek Skwarezynski. Click the headline for works by Martini, Viviani, Vejvanovski, Loeillet, etc. | |
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| Born in 1950 in sourthern Poland, this fine organist and improvisateur studied widely (notably with Isoir and Chapuis in Paris) and is now Professor and Head of the Organ and Harpsichord department in the Music Academy in Katowice. The organ at Frombork Cathedral is a modern electropneumatic one of 67 stops on 5 manuals, residing in a spectacular 17th-century case and retaining some older pipes. Click the headline for titles and to order. | |
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| Jan Szypowski (b. 1969 Warsaw, studet of Bovet, Darasse, Robilliard, Roth, Szathmary, Wulf, Zacher, Zerer) plays the recent 3m, 81-rank Eule organ in Warsaw Cathedral. Vierne: Symphony No. 6 and Tournemire Symphonie Sacrée | |
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| The first American-built organ in a European cathedral was completed by the C. B. Fisk firm in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2003. This first CD features Jean-Christophe Geiser playing works in four styles: German Baroque, French Classic, German Romantic, and French. LÜBECK: Praeludium in d DUMAGE: Suite du 1er ton LISZT: Évocation à la Chapelle Sixtine DURUFLÉ: Suite, op. 5 | |
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| Barbara Dennerlein: Jazz Pipe Organ Jazz organist Barbara Dennerlein records her first CD on a pipe organ in great acoustics. This CD has been the subject of much discussion for its quality of music making and sound. The recent organ was built by the Goll firm of Switzerland for St. Martin Church in Memmingen, Germany. Click the headline for titles and to order. | |
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| The spectacular contemporary stained-glass windows in the oldest church in Cologne, with beginnings in the 4th century, provide the themes for improvisations and classic organ pieces played by Jürgen von Moock on the new Weimbs organ (2001) in this magnificent, restored edifice. Click the headline for works by Bach, Franck, Couperin, Bruhns, Dupré, and Improvs. | |
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| the venerable Swedish organbuilder, created a 2-21 in French style for the music school occupying the villa Stora Sköndal in Stockholm. Mikael Wahlin plays interesting works superbly. Click the headline for titles and to order. | |
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| Stefan Engels, professor of organ at Westminster Choir College and organist at First Presbyterian in West Chester, Pennsylvania, plays the 1958 Romanus Seifert organ at St. Matthia in Berlin. With 74 stops and rich acoustics in the church, it is well known and a popular choice for radio broadcasts and recordings. Click Picture for Details & to Order | |
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| Thunderstorms created by the organ were popular concert fare a century ago and even before, so much so that some organs were equipped with thunder pedals and rain machines. The fabulous organ at the Hofkirche in Lucerne, Switzerland, contains a rain machine built in 1862 and it is given a workout in these pieces either containing composed thunderstorms or related to inclement weather and the calm thereafter. The notes on the works are highly informative. The organ contains 18 registers created in 1650, 35 created in 1862, and the rest of its 116 ranks in 81 registers on five manuals were built by the superb Swiss firm of Th. Kuhn in 1977. Click Picture for Details & to Order | |
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| Dutch virtuoso Christine Kamp explores more Romantic repertoire on the 4-m Sauer (1914-15) in Sibiu, Romania. Click the headline for works by Bartmuss, Karg-Elert (Bach transcriptions), Merkel, and Liszt. | |
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| Nicolas Kynaston plays the 1993 5-manual Klais organ in the Athens Concert Hall, Megaron, Greece, where he has been organist since 1995. MENDELSSOHN: Prelude & Fugue in f, op. 35/5 REGER: Rhapsody in c#; Consolation in E KARG-ELERT: Homage to Handel; Rondo alla Campanella BACH: Toccata & Fugue in e “The Wedge”; An Wasserflüssen Babylon C.P.E. BACH: Sonata in g Click ikon to order | |
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| Naji Hakim plays the Stahlhuth organ at St. Martin Church in Dudelange in Luxembourg, restored in 2002 by Thomas Jann, entirely reversing the “neobaroquefication” that had occurred, badly, in the 1960s. Georg Stahlhuth (1830-1913 was an ideal choice to build the organ of 1912 at Dudelange following Albert Schweitzer’s conceptions adopted in Vienna in 1909 as the International Guidelines for Organbuilding. In splendid acoustics, Hakim’s playing of Liszt, Karg-Elert, Langlais, Franck, and both an improvisation of his own and a composed work, is wonderful, of course, and the organ sounds fabulous. The CD booklet greatly informs us about this organ and its builder, and the exceptional characteristics recaptured in the restoration. Click on the headline for more information and to order. | |
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| Of great interest here are effective yet unfamiliar concert pieces and Willibald Guggenmos’ superb playing of them. Composers include Claussmann, Paponaud, Kropfreiter, Verschraegen, Dupont as well as Dupré and S. S. Wesley. The organ is the 1987 Rieger 3-54 at St. Martin’s Catholic Church in Wangen/ Allgäu, Germany. Click on the headline for more information and to order. | |
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| Wine & Water plays with the old Cistercian monastery’s location near the Lake of Constance and its past as a wine producer. The unusual theme suggests an interesting repertoire for the 1900-1901 Schwarz organ in the former monastery. Michael Eckerle is the organist. The score of Hans Uwe Hielscher’s California Wine Suite is available in the sheet music department. Click on the headline for more information and to order. | |
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| Cathedral organist Clemens Ganz plays the new “swallow’s nest” organ and the famous 1948-51 Klais 4m of 68 stops in the transept, enlarged in 1956 to 86 ranks,and rescorded before the 2001 rebuilding by Klais. RHEINBERGER: Sonata 6 JOACHIM BLUME: Fantasia Kosmologica (Sonata V) ALAIN: Première Fantaisie; Le jardin suspendu VIERNE: Clair de lune FRANCK: Choral 2 | |
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| FIRST CD OF REBUILT NAVE ORGAN:Winfried Bönig demonstrates with an eclectic program the two Klais organs (1998 swallow’s nest 3-72 organ and the 2001 rebuild of the 1951-56 Klais electropneumatic nave organ) in the reverberant acoustics of the 750-year-old Cologne Cathedral. Click on the headline for more information and to order. | |
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| Peter Kneeshaw records the first CD on the organ built in 1999 by the Canadian firm Orgues Létourneau of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada in a transept gallery in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Australia, as seen on the cover of The American Organist. The 46-stop, 59-rank organ is one of four in the church. Click the headline for repertoire by Rutter, Bach, Widor, Holland, Jongen, Balbastre, Thalben-Ball, Pachelbel, Buxtehude, Tregaskis, Whitlock and Fletcher, and to order. | |
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| Colors of the Organ Terry Norman explores the tonal resources of the well-regarded 4m Walker organ in Adelaide Town Hall, in works by Heiller, Dandrieu, Alain, Bonighton, Liszt, and Bach. Click the picture for titles and to order. | |
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| Australia’s oldest Town Hall houses a 4-84 J. W. Walker & Sons instrument from England, the largest mechanical action organ built in the United Kingdom in 100 years, says the CD booklet. Calvin Bowman, a resident of Australia and Yale University Fulbright scholar, plays works of Franck, Boellmann, Maleingreau, Frank Martin, Thiman, and Koehne. Click picture for repertoire | |
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| At St. Paul’s in Schwerin, Germany, the city’s fine organbuilder Friedrich Friese built this restored 2-35 in 1869 with several Romantic features, influenced by the huge Ladegast organ in the nearby Dom. Click on picture for repertoire by Hertel, Mendelssohn, Bach, Messiaen, Kiel, Franck, and Dubois. | |
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| The main organ (1992 Alex. Schuke 3-85, with some pipes from the 1906 Klais) in the Cathedral of St. Mary in Erfurt possesses mighty, sumptuous symphonic sound, with further charm added whenever the choir organ (2-49) plays either simultaneously or in dialogue. Silvius von Kessel, cathedral organist, plays a symphonic program of four works. Click picture for repertoire | |
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| Hans-Ola Ericsson plays works in symphonic style by Respighi, Gounod, Bellini, Smetana, and Elgar on an 87 rank organ built in 1998 by Gerald Woehl. Click picture for repertoire | |
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| In November, 2001, Tharp concertized and recorded his first European CD at the Parish Church of St. John at the Latin Gate in Troisdorf-Sieglar, Germany, on the recent 4m Seifert organ of 55 ranks in Romantic style. He plays Bach, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dubois, Franck, and Widor. Click picture for repertoire | |
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| In her fifth CD Sophie-Véronique Choplin plays the great 1862 Cavaillé-Coll at St-Sulpice, Paris, including works by Pierné, Boellmann, Mulet, Brahms, Saint-Saëns, Mendelssohn, Vierne, and Grunenwald. Click the picture for works and to order. | |
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| In this fourth CD recorded at St-Suplice in Paris where she is second organist, Sophie Véronique Choplin improvises and plays works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Boely, Rheinberger, Duruflé, and Daniel Roth. | |
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| Sophie-Véronique Choplin plays at St. Sulpice: Messiaen, Mendelssohn, Rheinberger, Grunewald; and she improvises La Creation. | |
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| Sophie-Véronique Choplin plays the recently discovered Mendelssohn Allegro, Chorale & Fugue and Sonata 3, as well as works of Demessieux, Bach, and Brahms. Also, her own earth-shaking improvisation on the 102-rank Cavaillé-Coll. | |
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| St. Laurens Church in Rotterdam was completed in 1525, and only the walls and tower remained after a German air raid in 1940. The church was rebuilt 1947-1968. Three new organs were built by Danish builders Marcussen & Son and by Sybrand and Jürgen Zachariassen. Roger Judd of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, is an active musician and teacher in Great Britain and he plays an eclectic program, Sweelinck to Hurford with lots in between. Click picture for repertoire | |
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| Trier Cathedral is the oldest church north of the Alps, with walls dating to the 4th century, and it has a gigantic, thrilling acoustic. Thus, the very famous 100-rank Klais installed in 1974 sounds all the more magnificent, especially under the hands of cathedral organist Josef Still. Works by Reger, Schumann, Eben, Schroeder, and Dupré Symphony Passion Click picture for repertoire | |
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| Christoph Bossert plays the 1906 Gebrüder Link 3m, 57-rank organ (of which 26 are at |