Mendelssohn: 6 Orgelsonaten, Op. 65

Album review

Even with the general Mendelssohn revival of the last few decades, his organ music has remained little known. It's hard to say why this should be; these six sonatas, published in 1845, are substantial pieces. Mendelssohn himself thought highly of them, and organists studied them closely (and still do). They're very much the missing link between organ music of the eighteenth century and the works of Rheinberger and the other composers of the late Romantic German organ school. And they partake liberally of a major source nourishing Mendelssohn's music in general -- his discovery of the music of J.S. Bach.
That might be the problem. With a few prominent exceptions, Mendelssohn's heavy Romantic takes on Bach tend to rub modern listeners the wrong way, for we treat Bach as a kind of touchstone of faith and purity. The language here is that of the composer's Symphony No. 2, "Lobgesang," of 1840, with chorales, fugues, and other neo-Bachian features woven into a stream of strong textural contrasts and, in parts, music more chromatic than almost any other Mendelssohn wrote. There are passages of Mendelssohnian lyric charm, balanced with majestic perorations. The sonatas are idiomatically written for the organ -- check out the last movement of the Sonata No. 1 in F minor for arpeggio effects rivaling anything in the more popular works in the organ repertory -- and German organist Kay Johannsen has the music fully under control. He is also known as a harpsichordist.
Our perception of the sound of organ recordings is shaped by the technical wizardry that brought the Columbia recordings of E. Power Biggs their ringing depth and wide dynamic range. This recording, made on a church organ in Würzburg, Germany, isn't on that level, but it's more than adequate sonically, and it will definitely be of interest to listeners and libraries aiming to gain a complete picture of Mendelssohn's output.

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