With CPO's Volume 15, their comprehensive project featuring organ works of the Northern German Baroque is now complete. On the last release, Friedhelm Flamme dedicates himself to the complete free organ works, that is, to the complete fugues and preludes, of Heinrich Scheidemann, a composer regarded as one of the co-founders of the Northern German organ school. Some of Scheidemann's chorale settings are also presented. Johann Adam Reincken succeeded Scheidemann as the organist at St. Catherine's Church in Hamburg after his mentor's death and is regarded as his most important pupil. Scheidermann's activity and influence on other organists and choirmasters brought him great respect in Hamburg's music world, and he is regarded as one of the most significant composers or organ works from the early seventeenth century. Here we would like to thank our interpreter Friedhelm Flamme for his renderings of Northern German marvels of organ sound. His recordings demonstrate how genuine technique and virtuosity can be combined with intellectual probing to produce sensational results.

Our new complete recording of the organ works of Johann Pachelbel, the most important composer of the Southern German organ tradition, concludes with a total of three albums – all of them once again in SS and with first-class organists performing on selected organs. Our three protagonists, Michael Belotti, Christian Schmitt, and James David Christie, have produced enthralling recordings on which they demonstrate their expertise in performances on outstanding historical instruments. This final volume of our complete edition adheres to the same policy as Vols. 1 and 2: it too is based on the new collection and edition of the composer’s extant oeuvre. The order of the works on the recordings initially follows that of the chorale arrangements in the edition, which results in programs with the following thematic emphases: Passions, Psalm Settings, and Chorale Partitas. The new recording invites all listeners to rediscover the mastery and versatility of the keyboard composer Pachelbel. Toccata wrote of Vol. 1 of the edition: “Here everything is in order: very good interpretations on appropriate instruments, with an informative booklet in which we also find descriptions and the disposition of the organs played as well as information about the registration of each individual work. The project has what it takes to become one of the most important of this time.”

This new release, featuring the recording premiere of his complete chorale cantatas, is in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of composer Max Reger’s death. Although raised Catholic, Reger had an early fascination with Protestant music, much to the concern of his family. Regers chorale contributions to the Protestant church cannot be overlooked, and he submitted many compositions to the monthly Monatschrift fur Gottesdienst und kirchliche Kunst.