However, the layout of the Weingarten instrument with its detached console (itself unusual for the period) means that the complexity of the mechanical linkages are almost beyond belief. The trackers from the console up to the Crown Positive are around twenty metres in length, and have to go around corners. Thus, each stop and coupler the organist selects adds weight to the finger pressure required to depress the keys at the manuals. Because of the long average length of this organ’s trackers, I can only imagine that the action must be difficult to master and soon become more fatiguing than usual on the player’s fingers.
And so to a consideration of two fine organists playing this imposing instrument.
Piet Kee at Weingarten, Chandos 0520
Pachelbel –
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Ciacona in D min
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Praeludium in D min
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Fantasia in G min
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Ciacona in F min
J S Bach - Prelude and Fugue in F min BWV 534
J G Walther – Variations on ‘Jesu, meine Freude’
J M Bach - In dulci jubilo
N-A Lebegue – Les cloches
F X Murschhauser – Variations on ‘Let us rock the baby’
Edgar Krapp an der Barockorgel in Weingarten, Eurodisc 257 484-231
Georg Muffat – Toccata 11 in c min
F A Maichelbeck – Sonata Prima in D maj
J S Bach –
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Wenn wir in hochsten Noten sein, BWV 641
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Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich, BWV 668
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Prelude and Fugue in C maj, BWV 531
Brahms – Sechs Choralvorspiele aus, op 122
Mendelssohn – Prelude and Fugue in c min op. 37, 1
Orgelsonate in A maj op.65, 3
In his programme note, Edgar Krapp says that he “found that Mendelssohn and Brahms were particularly convincing on this instrument, perhaps because both composers, despite all their romantic harmonies, were guided by a classic organ ideal.”
Piet Kee says “The capricious, brilliant character of this organ is so pronounced that it is shown to its best in a programme of mixed repertoire – not focused on a single composer, but on the instrument itself. For this recording, music from southern and central Germany has been chosen, written by composers active within a distance of Weingarten. Added to this are some baroque ‘novelties’ for this organ and its gadgets.”
I have, of course, listened to both of these discs many times over the years, but I find myself gravitating more to the Piet Kee. There are three points I would mention: The Chandos disc sounds clearer and sharper, thanks to Ralph Couzens, sound engineer. Piet Kee’s playing is more imaginative and his interpretations seem exuberant but scholarly, and in this programme, he demonstrates everything this unique organ can do. A major point in favour of the Chandos disc is the quality and content of the accompanying booklet. I’m afraid that Eurodisc did neither themselves nor Herr Krapp any favours by assuming buyers would be disinterested in such esoteric matters as disposition and registration.
On an older vinyl LP, I have Piet Kee playing the Walther ‘Jesu, meine Freude’ on the Bavo organ, and the comparison is fascinating. His re-interpretation for Chandos, quite simply, sends shivers down the spine as he unleashes all the power of the Weingarten organ in a manner more typical of Max Reger’s writing, and it is one of my most favoured pieces of organ playing. Notwithstanding the understood limitations of stylus-to-vinyl-groove technology, and an LP in immaculate condition, the earlier version of the piece is very much more restrained.
Peter Wilding.
