1739 Trost organ at Altenburg Castle, Germany

We pick up the contrapuntal thread from last week and continue with some additional adventures. Bach left Die Kunst der Fuge incomplete, perhaps by design, perhaps by oversight, perhaps due to ill health. Should one resist the temptation to imagine a conclusion? We don’t.

From a parish church in Raykjavik, Iceland, to a splendid mansion near Philadelphia, our next Pipedreams program samples great sounds and keeps your finger on the pulse of the pipe organ world. It’s a review of recent compact discs, giving you an opportunity to hear the largest church organ in America, a brand-new installation in Seattle, historic instruments in Central Germany from the time of Bach, and a stunning organ-with-trumpet duo from France. We’ll also listen to a sensuous Arabesque by Debussy, a youthful Pastorale by Ned Rorem, new music by Pamela Decker, a tango - believe it or not, and some jazzy measures from the old country. This week’s program is a wild mix of new organ compact discs including jazz stylings from Germany, a Tango from the Desert, Variations in Seattle, a sweet song from the DuPont summer mansion, and Bach in Iceland. John Weaver, Peter Sykes, Michael Keeley, and other share the glory as we sample new releases of organ compact discs, Going On Record, this week on Pipedreams.

It’s a game of getting-to-know-you. First a few notes, then some others and before you know it, we’re into a new adventure in sound. For hundreds of years, players have explored the limits of their instruments and of their own techniques in works that evolved from the sheer tactile pleasure of pushing down the keys and seeing what happens. Marius Monnekendam in the Netherlands, Robert Elmore in the United States, Girolamo Frescobaldi of Italy, J.S. Bach in Germany and many others have written some of their most exciting music following this scheme. Tactile and tantalizing, our program explores four hundred years of repertoire, instruments from three centuries, and the delights of things done by hand. Better than a good massage, with a tingling sensation guaranteed, we Reach out and Touch the Art of the Toccata, this week on Pipedreams.

Although we’ll never be able to find a definitive Bach organ, we do know where he played and the sorts of instruments which influenced him. On this week’s show, we’ll visit the church in Arnstadt, Bach’s first important job, drop in at the Castle Church in Lahm, where he helped a cousin with the organ design, and at Altenburg Palace where, later, his best pupil, Krebs, was employed. We’ll hear an instrument by Silbermann, who Bach respected but with whom he did not see eye-to-eye, also the new organ at Saint Thomas Church, Leipzig, modeled after one in Bach’s hometown, and the extraordinary Hildebrandt masterpiece in Naumburg, which we think Bach designed. Bach traveled the countryside as Germany’s foremost recitalist, and we follow his footsteps to hear the sounds he knew and the organs which were important in his growth as an artist. Come with us to Arnstadt, Altenburg, Naumburg, Leipzig and Lahm, as we revisit history and celebrate Bach’s Royal Instruments.

Composers old and new create music of awe and expectation that preludes the Christmas festival.

Whether because of a guiding star, or a brilliant flash of inspiration, our composers make more vivid that special moment of clarity.

…a tri–centenary salute to Bach's favorite and most prolific student, Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713–1780)

…whether in Baroque chorale-preludes, Victorian anthems, or contemporary meditations, compositions for the Resurrection Festival always uplifts.

…you don’t want to be left all alone when things go bump in the night in the organ loft!

…in anticipation of the upcoming Pipedreams Tour in Germany, we sample various interpretive approaches of Bach’s music played on instruments in Bach Country.

…Whether in Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands or Germany, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach is always “at home.”

…Beginning the New Year with a sampler of recent released of organ music on cassette and compact disc.

Scavenging amidst the numerous and imaginative works of Bach’s exceptional pupil Johann Ludwig Krebs.

A summer survey of recent releases of organ music on compact disc.

Music of expectation and exhultation for the Advent season.

An extravagantly colorful autumn collection of recent recordings in review.