MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Complete Organ Works

Chorale Prelude and Fugue on “O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid”, WoO 7 [10:12]
Prelude and Fugue in G minor, WoO 10 [7:32]
Fugue in A flat minor, WoO 8 [8:19]
Eleven Chorale Preludes, op. posth. 122 [35:54]
Prelude and Fugue in A minor, WoO 9 [5:56]
Anne Horsch (organ)
Maerz-Prgel (1887), St. Rupert’s Catholic Parish Church, Munich
rec. July 2007 (October 2005 for op. 122)
CPO 777384-2 [68:22] 

 

Experience Classicsonline


This marvellous disc is a fine tribute to a neglected area of Brahms’ work, and it also draws great praise for the playing of Anne Horsch. 

Always known for his great musical architecture, Brahms brings a similar grasp of structure to his organ music.  Importantly, however, many of Brahms’ key organ works date from emotional climaxes in his life so these are not mere academic studies in the form.  The chorale prelude “O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid” was probably written as a tribute to Schumann after his death in 1858.  Horsch plays it as a touching homage, but she also includes whispers of hope and shafts of light which temper the overall mood.  Forty years later Brahms composed his Eleven Chorale Preludes as a burial tribute to Clara Schumann.  This remarkable sequence of works showcases the influence of Bach, whose work Brahms adored.  Each piece is a profound and majestic meditation on one aspect of death.  They are densely contrapuntal in nature, but there are light touches in the midst of the heavy mood, such as Brahms’ take on Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen. 

The other works on this disc showcase Brahms’s skill at counterpoint.  The G minor prelude and fugue and the fugue in A flat minor are overtly Bachian and are rather astonishing in the way each layer of the music folds into the overall structure.  The concluding A minor prelude and fugue is perhaps less intense, but it shows equal skill and it is astute programming to end on a (relatively) lighter note. 

Throughout this recital Anne Horsch is fully aware of the emotional and structural scale of these works.  This marvellous young virtuoso scales the technical heights seemingly effortlessly, and she tempers her playing most effectively for the lighter moments.  She encompasses the full range of emotions in the Eleven Preludes and Fugues and she is helped by an instrument and acoustic which fit the late Romantic mood of these works very well.  There is no austerity or sparseness from this organ: instead we get wave upon wave of lush Romantic sound which can at times feel almost cloying.  In fact the sound on this disc is perhaps its greatest asset.  The rich reverberant sound really engulfs the listener in a way I’ve seldom experienced, and you don’t need full SACD technology to appreciate.  The basic stereo is very precisely placed so that it’s as though we were listening from the very middle of the church.  It’s very effective and, truth be told, it suits the rich, predominantly gloomy mood of these works very well indeed. 

So buy this disc for virtuosic playing of marvellous music captured brilliantly in an entirely appropriate acoustic.  Well done to all involved.

Simon Thompson


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.