6 organ sonatas by Ton Koopman

Ton Koopman

6 organ sonatas

Price: € 12.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917226027
Catnr: CC 72260
Release date: 09 May 2014
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917226027

Catalogue number
CC 72260

Release date
09 May 2014

""Bach junior's modest organ works perfectly fine thank you." "

EOS Classical Music, 01-6-2015

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Artist(s)

Composer(s)

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About the album

C.P.E. Bach left a substantial body of work after his death. He left relatively few works for organ. These have given rise to considerable debate: how many of his works have been lost, and should a particular piece be played on the organ or some other keyboard instrument? There are also several questions surrounding his organ sonatas: did he write five or six of them? In any event, only one of them survives in manuscript, in the collection of Amalia of Prussia. Princess Anna Amalia,youngest sister of Frederick the Great, played the organ and was the fortunate owner of no fewer than two organs. The organ on which I recorded these six sonatas once belonged to her, having been installed in her Berlin mansion in 1755, the same year that marked the appearance of four of these Organ Sonatas. The instrument, manufactured by Peter Migendt, has two manuals and a pedal board, with what was an exceptional range for those days. In the period 1753-1755, C.P.E. Bach was keenly looking for alternative positions. Was he perhaps hoping for an appointment with the princess? It appears that she was not altogether taken by C.P.E. Bach’s style, rather preferring his father’s music.
It was a delight to be allowed to record these works on this beautiful Migendt organ, following its recent restoration.

Sonates voor een prinses
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is de 2e en bekendste zoon van Johann Sebastian Bach. Tijdens zijn leven waren zijn werken een stuk bekender dan die van zijn vader en na zijn dood kwamen nog meer van zijn werken aan het licht. Onder zijn uitgebreide repertoire waren echter maar weinig orgelwerken. Daarnaast is het onzeker of C.P.E. Bach alle zes orgelsonates heeft gecomponeerd die aan hem zijn toegeschreven, of slechts vijf hiervan.

Het zeker dat tenminste één van deze sonates in het bezit was van prinses Anna Amalia van Pruisen. Deze prinses was eigenaar van maar liefst twee orgels. De sonates op dit album zijn opgenomen op één van deze orgels. In de periode van 1753-1755 was C.P.E. Bach op zoek naar een nieuwe werkgever. Wellicht hoopte hij met deze sonates op een afspraak met de prinses, maar het lijkt erop dat zij niet onder de indruk was van C.P.E. Bachs stijl en de voorkeur gaf aan de werken van zijn vader.

Niettemin zijn het prachtige sonates die ter gelegenheid van de 300e verjaardag van C.P.E. Bach zijn opgenomen door Ton Koopman. Koopman is een expert op het gebied van oude muziek en staat bekend om zijn geprezen opnames van alle Bach cantates en het werk van organist Dieterich Buxtehude.

Orgelsonaten von C.PH.E. Bach auf der original restaurierten Amalia-Orgel in Berlin mit Ton Koopman.

Prinzessin Anna Amalia, die jüngste Schwester des Preußenkönigs Friedrich dem Großen, war eine kunstsinnige Frau, die sich sehr für die Orgel interessierte.

Sie besaß selber zwei verschiedene Orgeln, darunter ein Instrument des Orgelbauers Peter Migendt, das 1755 im Berliner Stadtschloss aufgestellt wurde und über 22 Register verfügte, die auf zwei Manuale und ein Pedal aufgeteilt sind. Anna Amalia spielte dieses Instrument selber.

Zur gleichen Zeit schrieb Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach nachweislich für diese Orgel eine Sonate (Wq 70/2). Möglicherweise versuchte er in dieser Zeit, sich bei Hofe zu bewerben. Wie wir wissen, war der junge Bach-Sohn in Berlin wenig erfolgreich und ging 1768 nach Hamburg.

Jedoch entstanden 6 Sonaten für Orgel in seinen Berliner Jahren, die Ton Koopman auf der oben erwähnten Migendt-Orgel einspielte.
Die Orgel überlebte sämtliche Kriegswirren, da sie glücklicherweise der Gemeinde Buch (heute Stadteil von Berlin) geschenkt wurde. Nötige Umbauarbeiten der Bucher Kirche und ihre spätere Zerstörung, erforderten eine Auslagerung der Orgel. Heute steht die Amalien-Orgel in Berlin-Karlshorst und erstrahlt nach ihrer Restaurierung im Jahre 2007 in ihrem originalen Klanggewand.

L’integrale della Sonate per organo solo per celebrare il trecentesimo anniversario della nascita di C.P.E. Bach. Oltre a essere una delle figure di riferimento nell’interpretazione della musica barocca, Ton Koopman è uno dei più fantasiosi, originali e stimolanti organisti in circolazione. Le sonate sono eseguire su un organo Migendt del 1755 appartenuto alla principessa Anna Amalia di Prussia – C.P.E. Bach scrisse e dedicò le sue opere a Anna Amalia.

«C.P.E. Bach ci ha lasciato un corposo catalogo dopo la sua morte. Ma ci ha lasciato relativamente poche composizioni per organo, che hanno sollevato molte discussioni: quante composizioni sono andate perdute? Su quale strumento – organo o qualche altro strumento a tastiera – dovrebbe essere suonato il tal pezzo particolare? Ci sono anche diverse questioni riguardanti le sue sonate per organo: ne ha scritte cinque o sei? In ogni caso, una soltanto ci è giunta manoscritta, nella collezione di Amalia di Prussia. La principessa Anna Amalia, sorella più giovane di Federico il Grande, suonava l’organo ed era la fortunata posseditrice di due organi. L’organo su cui ho registrato queste sei sonate è appartenuto a lei, essendo stato installato nel suo palazzo di Berlino nel 1755, lo stesso anno che segnò la comparsa di quattro di queste Sonate per organo. Lo strumento, costruito da Peter Migendt, ha due manuali e una tastiera, con quella che per quell’epoca era un’eccezionale estensione. Nel periodo 1753-55, C.P.E. Bach stava cercando alacremente degli impieghi alternativi. Forse stava sperando in una nomina presso la principessa? A quanto pare non era coinvolto dallo stile di C.P.E. Bach, preferendo piuttosto la musica di suo padre. È stato un piacere poter registrare queste opere su questo splendido organo Migendt, realizzata dopo il suo recente restauro.»
Ton Koopman, dalle note di copertina

Artist(s)

Ton Koopman (organ)

Ton Koopman was born in Zwolle in 1944. After a classical education he studied organ, harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam and was awarded the Prix d'Excellence for both instruments. From the beginning of his musical studies he was fascinated by authentic instruments and a performance style based on sound scholarship and in 1969, at the age of 25, he created his first Baroque orchestra. In 1979 he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra followed by the Amsterdam Baroque Choir in 1992.
Koopman's extensive and impressive activities as a soloist, accompanist and conductor have been recorded on a large number of LPs and CDs for labels like Erato, Teldec, Sony, Philips and DG, besides his own record label “Antoine Marchand”, distributed by Challenge Records.
Over the course of a forty-five-year career Ton Koopman has appeared in the most important concert halls and festivals of the five continents. As an organist he has performed on the most prestigious historical instruments of Europe, and as a harpsichord player and conductor of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir he has been a regular guest at venues which include the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Philharmonie in Munich, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York and leading concert halls in Vienna, London, Berlin, Brussels, Madrid, Rome, Salzburg, Tokyo and Osaka.
Between 1994 and 2004 Ton Koopman has been engaged in a unique project, conducting and recording all the existing Cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, a massive undertaking for which he has been awarded the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis "Echo Klassik", the BBC Award 2008, the Prix Hector Berlioz, has been nominated for the Grammy Award (USA) and the Gramophone Award (UK). In 2000 Ton Koopman has received an Honorary Degree from the Utrecht University for his academic work on the Bach Cantatas and Passions and has been awarded both the prestigious Silver Phonograph Prize and the VSCD Classical Music Award. In 2006 he has received the « Bach-Medaille » from the City of Leipzig. Recently Ton Koopman has embarked on another main project: the recording of the whole works by Dietrich Buxtehude, one of the great inspirer of the young J.S. Bach. The recording will be accomplished in 2010 with the release of 30 CDs. Ton Koopman is President of the “International Dieterich Buxtehude Society”. Ton Koopman is very active as a guest conductor and he has collaborated with many prominent orchestras in Europe, USA and Japan. He has been Principal Conductor of the Netherland Radio Chamber Orchestra and has collaborated with the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, DSO Berlin, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Cleveland Orchestra, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and Wiener Symphoniker. In the following season he will work on new programmes with the New York Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Orchestra RAI in Turin, Stockholm Philharmonic, Tonhalle in Zurich. After the great success of his tour at the beginning of 2008, Ton Koopman has been nominated Artist in Residence at the Cleveland Orchestra for three consecutive years starting in 2011. Ton Koopman publishes regularly and for a number of years he has been engaged in editing the complete Händel Organ Concertos for Breitkopf & Härtel. Recently he has published Händel’s Messiah and Buxtehude‘s Das Jüngeste Gericht for Carus. Ton Koopman leads the class of harpsichord at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, is Professor at the University of Leiden and is a Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Ton Koopman is artistic director of the French Festival “Itinéraire Baroque”.

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Composer(s)

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

It can't be easy to have been a son of the great Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach was undoubtedly very strict, and if you'd have any composition ambitions, you would have to find a way to step out of the shadow of your father. Luckily, his sons had everything going for them considering their music. Whereas the traditional Baroque music of their father slowly went out of fashion, most of Bach's sons managed to follow the new trends of the early Classicism. In other words: relatively simple, melodic music which is not too heavy on the listener, yet still very passionate. Carl Philipp Emanuel, Bach's fifth son, became the most outstanding among his siblings. Like each of Bach's sons, he received a...

Carl Philipp Emanuel, Bach's fifth son, became the most outstanding among his siblings. Like each of Bach's sons, he received a solid education from his father, en Carl Philipp developed into a remarkably talented keyboardist. Moreover, he became a prolific composer and of all Bach's sons, he was able to came closest to the quality of his father's work, albeit in a completely different style.

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Press

"Bach junior's modest organ works perfectly fine thank you."
EOS Classical Music, 01-6-2015

Koopman's rhetorical and individual playing suits this music excellently
Choir & Organ, 30-9-2014

Effortless idiomatic and precise, this playing is a stand-out tercentenary tribute.
BBC Music Magazine, 01-9-2014

Those who prefer Koopman to CPE Bach will love this
Early Music Review, 01-8-2014

And the attractiveness of his new recording of six organ sonatas is greatly heightened by the use of a gorgeous-sounding historic instrument that the composer knew and oplayed. A near perfect match of music, instrument and performer.
The Irish Times, 27-6-2014

Koopman made a right choice by choosing this organ
Opus Klassiek, 07-5-2014

"Effortlessly idiomatic and precise, this playing is a standout tercentenary tribute."
BBC Music Magazine

"Ton Koopman brings his own quirky interpretations to all he plays."
Early Music Review