MIDDELSCHUTTE: Organ Works

Sonnentheil, Jürgen

CPO 999739

No less a figure than Ferruccio Busoni called him the "master of counterpoint" and the greatest counterpoint player since Bach: Wilhelm Middelschulte, born in 1863 in Werwe, Westphalia, active in Chicago from 1891, and who died in Dortmund in 1943 during a visit to his homeland. In his day, Middelschulte was considered an organ virtuoso par excellence who went on to an extraordinary soloist career in America. His oeuvre, consisting only of organ works, is comparatively small, but in terms of its exceptionally strict contrapuntal orientation and stylistic stringency, which would be simply inconceivable without a close relationship to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, it is completely singular. Busoni also saw it that way when he called him the "Gothic of Chicago". Today - unfortunately - Wilhelm Middelschulte and his "Gothic" music are only in the field of vision of a few specialists who trace the introverted arts of a brilliant musical master builder.

It is high time that the most important organ composer next to Reger is recognized again, and that is why Jürgen Sonnentheil has now recorded a cross-section of his work for the first time on the wonderful Woehl organ of the St. Petri Church in Cuxhaven. The focus is on the mighty Contrapuntal Symphony based on 14 Bach themes and the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue.

Works:

•Middelschulte: Toccata über den Choral
•Middelschulte: Contrapuntal Symphony
•Middelschulte: 2 Studies on Vater unser im Himmelreich
•Middelschulte: Perpetuum mobile (After J.S. Bach's BWV548)
•Middelschulte: Chaconne

CD x 1

CPO

15/11/2001

761203973927