Organist: Michael Schönheit: Johann Sebastian Bach — Fantasia and Fugue in G minor BWV 542 (in the version by Karl Straube); Franz Schmidt — Chorale Prelude “Nun danket alle Gott”; Max Reger — Introduction and Passacaglia in D minor WoO IV/6; Franz Schmidt — Lento – Interlude I from the oratorio “The Book with Seven Seals”; Franz Schmidt — Vivace ma non troppo – Interlude II from the oratorio “The Book with Seven Seals”; Franz Schmidt — Allegro molto moderato – from the oratorio “The Book with Seven Seals”; Franz Schmidt — Prelude and Fugue in D major (“Hallelujah”); Max Reger — Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H op. 46
After a pleasant hour and a half at the Fine Arts Museum, I went along to St Thomas’ Church. This was a very great deal of noisy dense organ music and I realised for music of this period on this instrument it would have been much easier to hear it and understand what was going on in the Gewandhaus hall as opposed to the (inevitably) very resonant and muddy acoustic of a church. The Bach arrangement by a former cantor of the 30’s and 40’s in St Thomas’ Church was monstrous in its pomp and solemnity, whether Wilhelmine or National Socialist I’m not sure. The Regier pieces were much as I imagined they would be – dense, academic and difficult to listen to. The most attractive pieces were by Franz Schmidt, perhaps because they had a narrative backgrpund – and the apocalyptic suits the sound of the organ. I must give the Book of the 7 Seals and some of the symphonies another try – I do have the recordings.
John's musical journey 