September 2005
Bachs music served as a departure point for Liszts own compositions. Liszt would take an idea from Bach and then expand it in his chromatic and romantic style. His works were written specifically for the organ that they are played on here, the Ladegast organ at Merseburg Cathedral. Its restoration was completed in 2004, after a misguided effort to update it in the 1960s destroyed its character and tonal integrity. It sounds wonderful now, and the magnificent instrument, as skillfully played by Michael Schönheit, sounds just right for this music. Schöenheit takes broad tempos to allow for the long reverberation time of the cathedral and extracts every ounce of lyrical substance from each work. His playing of the famous Bach Passacaglia is romantic, but that seems fine given its context in this mostly 19th-century program. MDG has recorded this performance in the most realistic way imaginable. In multichannel playback, the listener can feel the air "alive" all around him. The decay after the big chords cut off is most impressive in its realism. The bass is solid, the upper registers sweet; the overall sound has great presence without a trace of harshness. It is a virtually perfect recording job, a feat we have come to expect regularly from MDG. GO BACK TO: |