“Flamme’s playing always has a pleasing flow and he delights in exploring the colours of the wonderful Melle organ… Full marks.” --The Gramophone
Never let it be said that leading curatorial label cpo can be faulted for stinting on notable lesser lights, regardless of the fact that you might never have heard of them before. A disc like this one is essentially a public service for diehards chasing down the music of their favorite, oft-overlooked composers, and searchers after a new treat.
Never let it be said that leading curatorial label cpo can be faulted for stinting on notable lesser lights, regardless of the fact that you might never have heard of them before. A disc like this one is essentially a public service for diehards chasing down the music of their favorite, oft-overlooked composers, and searchers after a new treat.
Organ buffs may not require an introduction to the three composers whose works make up this set, but the rest of the world probably does. All three were born around the middle of the 17th century, with Johann Adam Reincken the best known—Bach even ventured out to hear him play in Hamburg. Andreas Kneller, meanwhile, managed to make the organ sound positively cheeky at times with his knack for conjuring good, strong tunes, while enjoying a reputation as an organ savant in Hannover, serving on committees and inspecting instruments. Christian Geist—who has all of six and a half minutes of surviving organ music—bounced around Scandinavia and Gothenburg in Germany, and was the least known of our triumvirate, but with a talent no less viable.
Taken together, the three are quite a force, their shared hallmark being an ability to humanize an instrument so keenly associated with sacred concerns—a world, that is, beyond man’s own. Kneller’s technique is geared towards asides, the parenthetical remark commenting on a passage just played, often taking the form of quotes. Crisp sound often accentuates crisp decision making in music, and as with Kneller’s preludes and fugues, Reincken’s toccatas—which are deftly intricate, yet smoothly flowing—suggest a musician able to make composed music come off as improvised, fresh, immersed in navigating its own twists and turns, never mind that they’ve all been worked out beforehand. The three short pieces from Geist have a bubbling, frothy appeal—despite being hymns—that derives from their restraint, a playful tug at the sleeve, rather than a full-throated shout to the high heavens. A favorite disc featuring Reincken and another north German organ master, Nicolaus Bruhns, is available on Ricercar (additionally, BIS has a Hans Fagius set with Reincken, Geist, and Kneller) with Bernard Foccroulle in the organist’s chair, but Friedhelm Flamme has these guys down and with energy to spare. It is essential that a spirited nimbleness be conveyed in performing these works, with voicings reacting to each other naturally in dialogue, the organist cast in the role of devout mediator on behalf of forgotten friends.
FANFARE: Colin Fleming
Taken together, the three are quite a force, their shared hallmark being an ability to humanize an instrument so keenly associated with sacred concerns—a world, that is, beyond man’s own. Kneller’s technique is geared towards asides, the parenthetical remark commenting on a passage just played, often taking the form of quotes. Crisp sound often accentuates crisp decision making in music, and as with Kneller’s preludes and fugues, Reincken’s toccatas—which are deftly intricate, yet smoothly flowing—suggest a musician able to make composed music come off as improvised, fresh, immersed in navigating its own twists and turns, never mind that they’ve all been worked out beforehand. The three short pieces from Geist have a bubbling, frothy appeal—despite being hymns—that derives from their restraint, a playful tug at the sleeve, rather than a full-throated shout to the high heavens. A favorite disc featuring Reincken and another north German organ master, Nicolaus Bruhns, is available on Ricercar (additionally, BIS has a Hans Fagius set with Reincken, Geist, and Kneller) with Bernard Foccroulle in the organist’s chair, but Friedhelm Flamme has these guys down and with energy to spare. It is essential that a spirited nimbleness be conveyed in performing these works, with voicings reacting to each other naturally in dialogue, the organist cast in the role of devout mediator on behalf of forgotten friends.
FANFARE: Colin Fleming
