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Organ Works Vol. 6

Jacques van Oortmerssen

Organ Works Vol. 6

Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917209624
Catnr: CC 72096
Release date: 17 September 2001
1 CD
 
Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917209624
Catalogue number
CC 72096
Release date
17 September 2001
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL

About the album

The ‘Bach Organ’
Many authors have considered questions about the type of organ that is most ideal for the interpretation of Bach’s organ works. The notion of a ‘Bach Organ’ quickly established itself. All things considered, the conclusion can only be that the ‘Bach Organ’ is an unattainable and utopian ideal. Bach had extensive knowledge of organ-building and came into contact with builders from differing German organ- building traditions. His own sphere was Thuringia and Saxony, a region where a multitude of influences from other areas can be observed, and which possessed its own indigenous types of organ.

Bach became acquainted with, and played on, instruments of all traditions, and undoubtedly thought about these types of instrument in course of writing down his compositions. The eclectic nature of Bach’s works for organ equates, as it were, with the diversity of the organ timbres he encountered. The versatility of his organ compositions, with their immense stylistic palette, makes for performance on organs of different traditions not only possible but even desirable.

In choosing registrations for his Bach recordings, Jacques van Oortmerssen is following exactly Bach’s (infrequent) indications for the use of one or more manual(s) and forte/piano dynamics. Moreover, he is basing his interpretations on that which is known about registrational practices in Bach’s time and region; in this respect the surviving prescriptions of Georg Friedrich Kauffmann (1733-6) and Jacob Adlung (1758) are particularly useful. For the plena of the large ‘free’ works, he is following conventions that are rooted in older traditions. Trio textures are registered with timbres that correspond to instruments commonly used in trio compositions. A colourful spectrum is thus brought to life, and the player is therefore able to illustrate the diverse Affekten of Bach’s music more effectively.
De orgelwerken van Bach gespeeld volgens de tradities van zijn tijd
Dit is het zesde volume uit de serie Organ Works, met orgelwerken van Johannes Sebastian Bach, uitgevoerd door Jacques van Oortmerssen, die recent is overleden. De serie bestaat uit negen delen.

Veel auteurs hebben zich afgevraagd welk type orgel het meest ideaal is voor het uitvoeren van de werken van Bach. Maar het ideale ‘Bach orgel’ bestaat niet. Bach kwam in contact met orgels en orgelbouwers uit verschillende tradities. Zijn composities voor orgel zijn zo veelzijdig, dat het niet alleen mogelijk, maar zelfs gewenst is om ze op orgels uit verschillende tradities uit te voeren.

Van Oortmerssen voerde de werken op dit album uit op het Christian Müller orgel uit 1734. Hij maakte gebruik van de aanwijzingen van Bach bij het kiezen van de registers. Bovendien baseerde hij zijn interpretaties op de registerpraktijk in Bachs tijd en regio. Hij volgt de conventies van oudere tradities in de zogenaamde ‘vrije’ werken van Bach: de preludes, fuga’s, toccata’s en fantasia’s. Door terug te grijpen op deze tradities kan Van Oortmerssen de verschillende affecten in Bachs muziek nog effectiever weergeven.

Jacques van Oortmerssen was jarenlang een prominente figuur in de orgelwereld. Hij stond bekend om zijn veelzijdigheid en om zijn uitvoeringen van de muziek van J.S. Bach. Hij gaf optredens over de hele wereld en werd vaak uitgenodigd om op prestigieuze festivals te spelen, zoals de BBC Proms.

Artist(s)

Jacques van Oortmerssen

Jacques van Oortmerssen (Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 1950) studied at the Conservatory of Rotterdam, where he completed his soloist diplomas for both the organ, as a student of André Verwoerd, and for piano as a student of Elly Salomé. Thereafter he undertook postgraduate study with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris (France). He was awarded the Prix d’ Excellence in 1976. In 1977 he won first prize in the National Improvisation Competition in Bolsward (NL) and was runner-up in the Tournemire Prize in St Albans (England). He has been professor of organ at the Conservatory of Amsterdam (NL) since 1979, where his organ class attracts students from many countries.  In 1982 he succeeded Gustav Leonhardt as Organiste Titulaire of the Waalse kerk in Amsterdam, where he plays the famous 1734...
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Jacques van Oortmerssen (Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 1950) studied at the Conservatory of Rotterdam, where he completed his soloist diplomas for both the organ, as a student of André Verwoerd, and for piano as a student of Elly Salomé. Thereafter he undertook postgraduate study with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris (France). He was awarded the Prix d’ Excellence in 1976.
In 1977 he won first prize in the National Improvisation Competition in Bolsward (NL) and was runner-up in the Tournemire Prize in St Albans (England). He has been professor of organ at the Conservatory of Amsterdam (NL) since 1979, where his organ class attracts students from many countries. In 1982 he succeeded Gustav Leonhardt as Organiste Titulaire of the Waalse kerk in Amsterdam, where he plays the famous 1734 Christian Müller organ. Jacques van Oortmerssen enjoys an international reputation as both soloist and pedagogue, in which context he is regularly invited to teach at Universities and Conservatories throughout the world.
He has been leader of the Falun Organ Academy in Falun (Sweden) for many years since 1984, was Betts Fellow in Organ Studies at the University of Oxford (England) during the 1993-1994 academic year and Associate Professor at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (Finland) during the 1994-1995 academic year. He will receive an honorary doctorate at this academy in June 2012.
Jacques van Oortmerssen was a regular guest professor of organ at the Lyon Conservatory (France) between 1999 and 2004, and he has also been a guest professor at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester (England) and during many years at the Conservatory in Göteborg (Sweden). In addition he has been a member of the advisory board of the Göteborg Organ Art Centre (GOArt) at the University of Gothenburg. As soloist Jacques van Oortmerssen regularly performs throughout Europe, North and South America, Africa, Japan and South Korea and is frequently invited at prestigious international festivals sucu as the BBC Proms in London (England), the Prague (Czech Republic) Spring Festival, the Bach Festival in Leipzig (Germany) and the City of London Festival. He is well known for his interpretations of early music and in particular of music of J.S. Bach.
Jacques van Oortmerssen is also active as a composer and conductor.
As a recording artist, van Oortmerssen has featured on more than 50 CD releases for prominent international labels, as well as broadcasting on both radio and television.
Among the recordings he made are the complete works of C.P.E. Bach and Johannes Brahms as well as a series of records of J.S. Bach’s organ music, already having released nine volumes.
Jacques van Oortmerssen has been actively involved with the art of organ building in the broadest sense since 1970. Through his international career he intensively used and examined many organs, both historical and new, all over the world. As an organ expert he guides both restorations of historical instruments and constructions of new instruments.
Jacques van Oortmerssen is one of the inspirators of the Göteborg Organ Art Centre (GOArt) at the University of Gothenburg. This centre is committed to improve the quality of the art of organ building, both in restoring historic instruments and building new instruments, having built up a huge international reputation in doing so. Therefore interdisciplinary research is being conducted here in which musical instrument builders, musicians, organologists, technologists and musicologists cooperate on an international level. Thus the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg carries out important research on different aspects of historical organ building in the field of metallurgy, thermo-dynamics and acoustics.
As a result of these efforts two large projects have been realized, of which the North German Organ Research Project particularly caused an international stir.
Jacques van Oortmerssen believes the current profile of ‘omniscient advisor’ to now be obsolete. The complexity of restoring organs and the diversity of the historic patrimony demand a different approach in which the organ advisor will increasingly develop into a leader of a team of specialists.

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Composer(s)

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions, and hundreds of cantatas. His music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth.  Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest in and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.  
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Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions, and hundreds of cantatas. His music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth.

Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest in and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.


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