Mendelssohn: Organ Music

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Mendelssohn’s organ sonatas require tons of panache – which is what we have here. Phrasing could be a bit more expansive, but registrations are beautifully selected and faster movements pack... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2018, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 18th May 2018
Catalogue No: 95658
Label: Brilliant Classics
Length: 70 minutes

Mendelssohn: Organ Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 65 No. 3

Work length10:27

$3.00

$3.90

Matthias Havinga (organ)
Recorded: 12-14 August 2017
Recording Venue: The Koepelkerk, Amsterdam, Netherlands

I. Con moto maestoso

Track length7:57

$2.00

$2.60

II. Andante tranquillo

Track length2:30

$1.00

$1.30

Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture, Op. 61, MWV P3 (arr. Y. Merlin for organ)

Work length6:27

$1.00

$1.30

Matthias Havinga (organ)

Mendelssohn: Andante sostenuto in F Minor (second version of Fugue in F Minor)

Work length4:52

$1.00

$1.30

Matthias Havinga (organ)

Mendelssohn: Organ Sonata No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 65 No. 4

Work length13:34

$4.00

$5.20

Matthias Havinga (organ)
Recorded: 12-14 August 2017
Recording Venue: The Koepelkerk, Amsterdam, Netherlands

I. Allegro con brio

Track length3:36

$1.00

$1.30

II. Andante religioso

Track length2:02

$1.00

$1.30

III. Allegretto

Track length3:41

$1.00

$1.30

IV. Allegro maestoso e vivace

Track length4:15

$1.00

$1.30

Mendelssohn: Organ Sonata No. 6 in D minor, Op. 65 No. 6

Work length15:10

$4.00

$5.20

Matthias Havinga (organ)
Recorded: 12-14 August 2017
Recording Venue: The Koepelkerk, Amsterdam, Netherlands

I. Chorale and variations

Track length9:37

$2.00

$2.60

II. Fugue

Track length2:49

$1.00

$1.30

III. Finale: Andante

Track length2:44

$1.00

$1.30

Mendelssohn: Fugue in E minor, MWV W24

Work length4:38

$1.00

$1.30

Matthias Havinga (organ)

Excerpt, Mendelssohn: Little Pieces (3)

Work length7:33

$2.00

$2.60

Matthias Havinga (organ)

No. 2. Allegro in D Minor

Track length7:33

$2.00

$2.60

Mendelssohn: Paulus (St. Paul), Op. 36: Overture (arr. W.T. Best)

Work length8:15

$2.00

$2.60

Matthias Havinga (organ)

About
Reviews
Explore

About

An invaluable single-disc survey of Mendelssohn’s organ music, including not only works originally conceived for the instrument but also arrangements to display the majestic tonal possibilities of a fine Dutch instrument as well as the virtuosity of one of the most talented young organists in the Netherlands.

Bach was a central figure in the musical education of the prodigious young Mendelssohn, and he continued to expand the family’s collection of the Leipzig master’s organ music. However, he was also gifted at the art of improvisation which is central to the organist’s training, and he later wrote out several of his best improvisations as compositions for posterity. His organ music abounds in the elegance and impetuous vitality which characterise his music in general, while his lifelong immersion in the music of Bach is evident in both the counterpoint and the chorale movements to be found throughout his organ sonatas.

Matthias Havinga plays three of the best-known of those sonatas on this album: Op.65 nos 3, 4 and 6. No.3 concludes in a lovely song without words, a style which he revisited for the Andante tranquillo of no.4. No.6, by contrast, opens with a magnificent set of variations upon the ‘Our Father’ chorale theme Vater unser in Himmelreich, elaborated with such mastery by Bach in the Clavierübung III.

Three standalone movements include an energetic E minor fugue and a much more introverted, even melancholic F minor fugue (a cousin to the despairing F minor string quartet which became his last major composition). The Allegro in D minor begins in brilliant and pianistic fashion (perhaps also owing something to Bach’s D major Prelude and Fugue, BWV 532) before seguing into a chorale and fugue. The arrangements are of the overture to his oratorio St Paul (transcribed by the English organist W.T. Best) and the Scherzo from his incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which translates surprisingly well to the organ. It is played here on the 1830 Bätz organ in the Koepelkerk in Amsterdam by Matthias Havinga, who also contributes an extensive booklet essay, considering Mendelssohn both as an organist and organ composer.

Reviews

August 2018

Mendelssohn’s organ sonatas require tons of panache – which is what we have here. Phrasing could be a bit more expansive, but registrations are beautifully selected and faster movements pack a punch.

Mendelssohn: Organ Music

Downloads

Contents

Download queue