Gustav MERKEL (1827-1885)
Organ Works - Vol. III
Sonata no.4 in F minor, op.115 [17:07]
Postlude, op.44 no.3 [2:30]
Chorale Studies - Ten Variations on the Chorale 'Wer nur den lieben
Gott lässt walten, op.116 [16:21]
Sonata no.5 in D minor, op.118 [14:23]
Fantasy in D minor, op.176 [8:07]
Sonata no.6 in E minor, op.137 [18:28]
Halgeir Schiager (1821/1896 Buchholz organ)
rec. St-Marien-Kirche, Barth, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, 19-21 May 2006.
DDD
SIMAX PSC 1275 [76:56]
This is the third of four CDs by Halgeir Schiager of the most important organ
works of the north German composer Gustav Merkel. The fourth (PSC1320) was
released concurrently. The first and second volumes were released together
in 2009 (PSC1273,1274 - see review
of both).
Norwegian organist Halgeir Schiager's most notable recordings hitherto
have been his five volumes of Czech composer Petr Eben's organ music
for Hyperion (CDA 67194-8, released 2000-06), for which he was widely praised.
He comes to Merkel as an academic expert on the composer, having presented
his doctoral thesis at the Norwegian Academy of Music on Merkel's organ
music. In all his Merkel recordings, Schiager performs on instruments that
the composer himself would have used, in this case a full-blooded 19th-century
Carl August Buchholz organ in the St-Marien-Kirche at Barth on Germany's
Baltic coast. Here, once again, he is a fine advocate for Merkel's
undeservedly neglected music, technically assured and winningly confident.
In his lifetime Merkel was pretty famous as an organist, and his own music
was popular not only in Europe, but even in America. Like many 19th century
composers, however, he fell victim to fashion, dictated in part by self-appointed
mavens, who derided his music as 'derivative' - meaning simply
that it was nostalgic and non-innovative rather than forward-looking and exploratory.
Merkel is not entirely forgotten today, in fact - he does at least have an
entry in the New Grove dictionary, albeit lacking the standard list of works.
His organ method continued to be used by students right through the 20th century.
As the booklet notes indicate, Merkel's organ music is reminiscent
of that of the younger Josef Rheinberger, himself sadly rather neglected -
a more meaningful reference might be Mendelssohn or Max Reger. Moreover, Merkel
spent the last thirty years of his life as organist in Dresden. Given also
his Lutheran beliefs, it is hardly revelatory to say that the spirit of the
'Dresden Hofcompositeur' Johann Sebastian Bach also looms large
in these works - nowhere more so than in the terrific fugue that closes the
Sonata in D minor.
In his programme Schiager includes a single Postlude from Merkel's
four op.44. In his notes he does not explain the absence of the remaining
three, which do not appear on any of the other volumes. On the evidence of
his miniature firework, more's the pity! The dramatic Fantasy in D
minor is longer but quite similar, with an interpolated reflective passage,
and one of the shamefully few of Merkel's works still in the organ
repertoire. The Chorale Studies op.116 are superbly paced and sometimes brilliantly
virtuosic. These ten colourful variations on 'Wer nur den lieben Gott
lässt walten" really ought to be performed frequently, not to mention
recorded by others. Like the other works in Schiager's recital, this
is a first recording.
Unusually, all nine of Merkel's Organ Sonatas are in a minor key. They
come in the same traditional format: three five-minute movements, basically
fast-slow-fast. Their classical structure, detail, conciseness and melodic
and harmonic attractiveness will surely leave any audience wondering why they
are not still appearing on programmes across Europe and America!
The spectacular chorale-based fugue that concludes the E minor Sonata offers
a tantalising glimpse of Merkel letting his hair down, and leaves the listener
eager to get hold of volume 4!
The attractively designed English-German-Norwegian booklet can be downloaded
in PDF form for free here.
Schiager's notes are fairly dry, focusing on technical description,
but there is a lot of detail, including a separate article on the different
kinds of organs Merkel was familiar with, and a very full disposition and
piece-by-piece registrations section.
Editing is very good, but sound quality is reasonable rather than brilliant,
slightly muffled in the deeper notes, with a hint of distortion in the loudest
sections. One other minor quibble is the lack of composition dates, though
it may be that there is no precise information on these.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
A tantalising glimpse of Merkel … leaves the listener eager to get hold of
volume 4!