Includes chaconne(s) by Johann Caspar Fischer. Soloist: Gustav Leonhardt.

Includes work(s) by Johann Pachelbel. Ensembles: Namur Chamber Choir, Les Agrémens. Conductor: Jean Tubéry.

Wolfgang Rübsam, one of the finest, busiest, and most prolifically recorded organists on Planet Earth, launches the first volume of a cycle devoted to the complete organ works of Pachelbel. The first impression you'll get from placing this disc in your trusty CD changer will be the pungency of the bright, reedy stops characterizing the organ by Johann Nepomuk Holzhey at Wiessnau (built in the 1780s). Naxos' transparent, up-close engineering further underscores the instrument's timbral distinctions. Listen, for example, to the registral clarity in the three Christmas Chorale Preludes, the brooding G minor Fantasia (what heartbreakingly gorgeous low-register harmonies!), or the flowing, reflective Komm, Gott Schöpfer, heiliger Geist. The two Toccatas in C major boast snarling pedal-points from which vivid, trumpet-like lines proudly take wing. Rübsam's slight ritards and breath marks throughout the D minor Chaconne, together with his strikingly varied couplings, add welcome drama and color to the score. Some listeners might prefer the steadier rhythm and restrained registration of Joseph Payne's more conservative reading on Centaur, but I lean toward Rübsam.


Payne's Pachelbel cycle, nearly complete at 10 volumes, employs a different organ for each installment. Will Rübsam do the same? That is, if he's been designated to record the whole Naxos Pachelbel cycle himself (remember, the label's Dupré organ music cycle is given over to different players). Artistically speaking, Rübsam and Payne complement rather than compete with each other. Even if you've acquired all or many or some of the Payne volumes, give Rübsam's Pachelbel a fair shot. What can you lose at Naxos' rock bottom price? Stay tuned for Volume 2.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

During his lifetime, Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706) was best known as an organ composer. He wrote more than two hundred pieces for the instrument, both liturgical and secular, and explored most of the genres that existed at the time. He is considered to be the apex of the 17th century’s south German organ school and generally one of the most important composers of the middle Baroque. His sphere of activity included central and southern Germany (modern Bavaria, Thuringia and Stuttgart), as well as important formative years in Vienna in his early 20s, during which he absorbed the Habsburg Empire’s dominant Italian and south German influences. The southern organ-builders’ emphasis on manual divisions is also apparent in much of Pachelbel’s liturgical organ music, which is relatively simple and written for manuals only. With this 13-disc set covering Pachelbel’s pivotal contributions to the chorale prelude, fugue and variation forms, internationally acclaimed organist Simone Stella adds another milestone to his already prolific discography of baroque keyboard music surveys on Brilliant Classics.

REVIEW:

The organ used here has much greater possibilities in variety of tonal colors, and Stella uses it to fine effect in the many fugues and chorale variations – and, it must be said, the music is in need of it. Pachelbel’s technique for toccatas is also consistent; based on pedal notes, the keyboard figurations of parallel 3rds, 6ths and 10ths predominate. Although not difficult to improvise, Pachelbel is always surprising in his modulatory shifts and textural changes.

-- Choir & Organ

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.”

Includes work(s) for org by Johann Pachelbel. Soloist: Joseph Payne.

The present recording spreads out before us the rich musical panorama covered by Pachelbel’s Magnificat compositions. We do not know what we should admire more about these works: the complexity of the contrapuntal and concerto textures or the naturalness and cantability of the part writing. In addition, we have Pachelbel’s great variation artistry, which constantly brings forth new formal designs, instrumental combinations, and focal points on the basis of one and the same text. Moreover, the natural flow of Pachelbel’s music includes a steady stream of musical rhetorical interpretations, and the richly pictorial Magnificat text offers plenty of opportunities for them. On this recording two sacred concertos and a Mass in three movements complement the four very different Magnificat settings and serve as contrasts to them.

A close contemporary of Buxtehude, Johann Pachelbel was, by all accounts, an outstanding keyboard player himself, and his compositions provide a fascinating stylistic bridge between early-Baroque composers such as Frescobaldi and Froberger (both of whom influenced him) and the later music of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries. Organist Matthew Owens continues his major exploration of the many extant organ works of Pachelbel with this fourth volume, recorded on a recent instrument by the renowned French organ builder, Bernard Aubertin. This recording sheds fresh light on Pachelbel's ingenious counterpoint and inventive chorale preludes, revealing layers of seventeenth-century Lutheran devotion and compositional mastery.

A close contemporary of Buxtehude, Johann Pachelbel was, by all accounts, an outstanding keyboard player himself, and his compositions provide a fascinating stylistic bridge between early-Baroque composers such as Frescobaldi and Froberger (both of whom influenced him) and the later music of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries. Organist Matthew Owens continues his major exploration of the many extant organ works of Pachelbel with this third volume, recorded on the Flentrop organ of Dunblane Cathedral, Scotland. This album explores Johann Pachelbel's improvisational techniques and compositions, highlighting his use of variation, counterpoint, and chorale preludes. It features preludes, fugues, ricercars, and variations that showcase his mastery and educational methods.

A close contemporary of Buxtehude, Johann Pachelbel was, by all accounts, an outstanding keyboard player himself, and his compositions provide a fascinating stylistic bridge between early-Baroque composers such as Frescobaldi and Froberger (both of whom influenced him) and the later music of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries. Organist Matthew Owens continues his major exploration of the many extant organ works of Pachelbel with this second volume, recorded on a recent instrument by the renowned French organ builder, Bernard Aubertin. The recital includes Pachelbel’s largest set of Magnificat Fugues – 23 in total – alongside free works and chorale-based works.

In the last decade of his life, Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) worked as a church musician in his hometown of Nuremberg. In this capacity, he was extremely productive, even by the standards of the time: he set the Magnificat, the Virgin Mary's hymn of praise to the greatness of the Lord, who chose her to be the mother of the Savior, almost a dozen times for Protestant vespers services. And he did so with admirable creative imagination and a feeling for instrumental colors that still has an immediate effect today: as in the first episode of this series, we are confronted here with a full-bodied, pithy life that by no means perceives the world as a vale of tears. The Himlische Cantorey, under its founder, conductor, and tenor Jan Kobow, once again lives up to its name.

REVIEW:

The Himlische Cantorey is the perfect advocate of Pachelbel’s oeuvre. The ensemble is impeccable, and the solo contributions of the individual singers are indeed impressive. Veronika Winter is the ideal interpreter of ‘Mein Fleisch,’ and Joel Frederiksen delivers an incisive performance of ‘Ach Herr, wie ist meiner Feinde so viel.’ Veronika Skpulik needs to be mentioned for her highly impressive interpretations of the obbligato violin parts.

— musica Dei donum (Johan van Veen)

Johann Pachelbel is remembered today for his Canon in D major, but he was an outstandingly successful organist and composer whose musical legacy is in fact quite broad and varied. Of his keyboard pieces the Hexachordum Apollinis is regarded as the pinnacle of his oeuvre and was a work to which Pachelbel himself attached great importance. Consisting of six arias with variations, the collection brings together the influence of several schools of music, all filtered through the composer’s refined tastes and superlative technical skill. The splendid Chaconne anticipates Bach and is one of Pachelbel’s best-known keyboard pieces.

REVIEW:

The title work on this disc is a fascinating composition. A set of 6 arias with variations written for either harpsichord or organ. Mathematically complex with symbolism relating to numerology and the Kabbalah the booklet notes point out some interesting features and point to a work that should perhaps be more widely known and appreciated. The Chaconne is a more known work.

-- Lark Reviews (Stephen Page)

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Includes chorale(s) for org by Johann Pachelbel. Soloist: Joseph Payne.
Includes work(s) for org by Johann Pachelbel. Soloist: Joseph Payne.