Stefan Kiessling – organist
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Samples for concert programmes


A selection of programmes for organ recitals. A selection of them comes with audio samples.
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Fantasy and Fugue in g minor

Schübler Chorales

Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major

– Intermission –

Piece d'Orgue

One of the Sonatas for organ

Passacaglia in c minor
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Sonata Nr. 1 in G Major, BWV 1027


Sonata No. 2 in D Major, BWV 1028


Sonata No. 3 in G Minor, BWV 1029
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in d minor, BWV 903,
transcribed for organ by Max Reger
1
Fantasy

2
Fugue


Max Reger
Six Trios op. 47
3
Canon

4
Gigue

5
Canzonetta

6
Scherzo

7
Siciliano

8
Fuge


Johann Sebastian Bach
one of the Sonatas for organ
9
Allegro

10
Adagio

11
Allegro


Max Reger
Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H op. 46
12
Fantasy

13
Fugue
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Nikolaus Bruhns - Praeludium in e minor

Johann Sebastian Bach - Oone of the Sonatas for Organ

Antonio Vivaldi - Concerto in C major

Dieterich Buxtehude - Passacaglia in d minor

Johann Sebastian Bach - Toccata in E major
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Johannes Brahms - Prelude and Fugue in g minor

Johannes Brahms - Chorale preludes

Hugo Distler - Choralpartita on „Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme“/„Wake, awake, for Night Is Flying“

Max Reger - Choralphantasie „Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme“/„Wake, awake, for Night Is Flying“
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Max Reger
1
One of the Chorale Fantasies


Johann Sebastian Bach
2
One of the Chorale Partitas


Sigfrid Karg-Elert
Symphonic Chorale on „Jesu, meine Freude“ op. 87/2
3
Introduzione (Inferno)

4
Canzone

5
Fuga con Corale
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Sigfrid Karg-Elert
from ”Poesien”, op. 35: Ideale
from ”Silhouetten”, op. 29: Berceuse mignonne

from Sonatina in a minor, op. 74 for organ
Andante Molto

Marcel Georges Lucien Grandjany
Aria in Classic Style

Clifford Demarest
Sunset

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns
Fantaisie op. 95 for Harp

Rudolf Ewald Zingel
Legende
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Gustav Holst's cycle transcribed for organ.
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Max Reger - Choralphantasie on the Chorale “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”/“Wake, awake, for Night Is Flying”

Hugo Distler – Partita on the Chorale “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland”/“Savior of the nations, come”


Johann Sebastian Bach – Sonata No. 6 in G Major


Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger – Sonata No. 3 in G Major “Pastoralsonata”
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Sigfrid Karg-Elert – Sonatine

Johann Sebastian Bach – One of the Sonatas for organ

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy – One of the Sonatas for organ

Max Reger – One of the Sonatas for organ
It is not at all self-evident to play sonatas on the organ. The organ had grown up with music for the liturgy of the church. The alternation with singers, the connection to chorales and church songs, and finally the preparation and accompaniment of the parish singing were traditional tasks that cannot be solved with a multi-movement sonata.

The sonata, the "sound piece" for instruments, had two parents: the sonata da chiesa (church sonata) and the sonata da camera (chamber sonata). Since the singing did not always take place during the Mass, the sonata da chiesa also had a place between stations of the liturgy or during communion. Now the jump to the organ is still missing.

Johann Sebastian Bach seems to have been an innovator without an immediate successor. He left behind a handwritten collection of six mostly three-movement "Sonatas" for organ alone. Composed around 1730, the consistently three-part compositions could have been meant for the education of his first-born son, as his biographer Forkel described it making use of information by Bach's sons: "Bach put it on for his eldest son, Wilh. Friedemann, who thus had to prepare himself for becoming the great organist he later became." Among the movements are also those that have older roots in Bach's chamber music works and have now been arranged so that the bass could be played from two feet on the organ pedal.

In the 18th century, these works were hardly comparable in terms of demands on performers and compositional quality. In organ music we can jump straight to the sonatas of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. He was one of the few musicians of his time who played Bach's organ works in public concerts. As far as this was possible on the small English instruments at that time, Mendelssohn introduced Bach's music to his hosts on the island. It did not take long, and the desire for organ compositions was brought to him. From organ pieces written in England, strongly revised early works and reminiscences of improvisations, Mendelssohn created the six sonatas for the organ in Frankfurt (Main) in 1845, which he published simultaneously in London, Paris, Leipzig and Milan in September as op. 65. As with Bach, "Sonata" here stands for loose series of different types of movements such as fugue, toccata, fantasy or chorale arrangement.

Sigfrid Karg-Elert was only four years younger than Max Reger. Like Reger, he is one of the few composers of distinction who, in the years around the First World War, gave the organ sophisticated works at the height of their time. Karg-Elert also cultivated playing and composition for the Kunstharmonium. His style is closely tied to the dynamically flexible German symphonic organ. Finely graded string and flute stops, less the brilliant reeds of France, must be able to be mixed in many gradations. Like the late Reger, Karg-Elert also occasionally penetrates new tonal territory without being a revolutionary, but not far enough to protect him from oblivion. This is gradually changing. The technical demands are often high. Especially such an understating title like that of a cute "Sonatine" has to make you suspicious. This full-grown cycle is a heavyweight sonata.

Karg-Elert, who in 1919 was appointed to the Chair of Composition in Leipzig, once filled by Reger, was able to get to know the USA on a tour in 1932. Reger, who would have loved to have a 72-hours working day, never had the opportunity to do so. His first sonata for organ was written in 1899, when he lived under the care of the family in Weiden again after some dissipating years. He dedicated the sonata to Alexander Wilhelm Gottschalg in Weimar, who had once advised Franz Liszt on organ matters and who, at the age of 70, was already a reviewer for Reger's organ works. For him Reger was a "Bavarian organ titan". The sonata begins in the baroque style with a fantasy and fugue and ends with a passacaglia. Only an intermezzo can stand in between. Motivic references connect the movements. He himself considered the sonata to be "very difficult to make properly 'enjoyable' and a very spiritual organist is needed for it".
His second sonata for organ followed the first already after two years and went into print in 1901. Meanwhile publishers ordered compositions from Reger. The opening improvisation seems fictitious and contradicts the traditional form of a sonata head movement. The invocation in the middle runs towards a quotation from Luther's church song melody "Vom Himmel hoch". Introduction and fugue round off the gloomy cycle.

Ekkehard Krüger
English translation: Sonja Pitsker
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Modest Mussorgski's piano cycle "Pictures at an Exhibition" in an organ trancription.
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Arvo Pärt – Annum per Annum
Philipp Glass – Mad Rush
György Ligeti – Volumina
Charles Tournemire – L'Assomption
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Oskar Lindberg – Sonata in g

Arild Sandvold – Seks improvisationer

Oskar Merikanto – Konsertiifantasia

Carl Nielsen – Commotio
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Enjott Schneider – Ataccot

Johann Sebastian Bach – Toccata and Fugue in d minor

Marco Enrico Bossi – Scherzo

Maurice Ravel – Bolero

Maurice Duruflé – Scherzo

Wolf-G. Leidel – Toccata delectatione op. 5

Charles-Marie Widor – Adagio and Toccata from Symphony No. 5
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Johann Sebastian Bachs Clavierübung Teil III. Passend zur jeweiligen Orgel kommt eine Auswahl der Stücke zur Aufführung („Große Orgelmesse“, „Kleine Orgelmesse“).Clavier-Übung III by Johann Sebastian Bach. Depending on the organ the a selection of the pieces will be performed (“Great Organ Mass“ or “Little Organ Mass“)
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Johann Sebastian Bach – Fantasia super „Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott“ from the Leipzig Chorales

Johann Sebastian Bach – One of the Organ Sonatas

Dieterich Buxtehude – Two Chorale Preludes on „Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott“

Daniel Magnus Gronau – Choralvariations on „Komm, Gott Schöpfer Heiliger Geist“

Maurice Duruflé – Prélude, Adagio et Choral varié sur le thème du 'Veni Creator'
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Johann Sebastian Bach - One of the Sonatas

Carl Ph. Em. Bach – Sonata g minor

Hugo Distler – Triosonata

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy – One of the Sonatas
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Marcel Dupré - Variations sur un Noël

Dieterich Buxtehude - Magnificat Primi Toni

Johann Sebastian Bach - Einige canonische Veränderungen

Heinrich Reimann - Fantasy on „Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (How Brightly Shines the Morning Star)“
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César Franck - Choral in E Major

Charles Tournemire - L'Assomption

Charles-Marie Widor - Symphony No. 6 in g minor
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Matthias Weckmann
Toccata in a minor
Variations on „Die lieblichen Blicke“

Johann Pachelbel
Ciacona in f minor

Girolamo Frescobaldi
Toccata

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Variations

Georg Muffat
Passacaglia in g

Dieterich Buxtehude
Suite
Praeludium
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Sinfonia from Cantata No. 29

Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in d minor, BWV 903

Chaconne in d minor, BWV 1004

Chorale "Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott", BWV 721

Toccata and Fugue d-moll, BWV 565
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Edward Elgar – Sonata in G major op. 28

César – Franck Prelude, Fugue et Variation op. 18

Maurice Duruflé – Suite op. 5
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