W A Mozart, Peter King - Mozart Works for Solo Organ
STYLE: Classical RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 21238- LABEL: Regent REGCD244 FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 1
Reviewed by Steven Whitehead
This recital is a major new contribution to the Mozart year discography being possibly the most comprehensive single CD collection of music appropriate for solo organ by Mozart ever recorded. The interesting essay by David Gammie on the CD sleeve tells us that Mozart loved the organ, considering it the "king of instruments," but preferred to improvise rather than compose for it. Thus we have some fascinating examples of musical archaeology in the attempt to restore that which has been lost. For example, when Mozart played at Strahov in 1787, the resident organist wrote down a detailed description of what he heard and started to sketch out some of it in musical notation until a colleague interrupted him. The surviving fragment was later expanded into a complete piece in the style of Mozart by the Czech organist Jiri Ropek and is now known as the Strahower Improvisation (KV 528a). This is its first CD release and any admirer of Mozart will enjoy it. Indeed this is true of the entire collection: it is full of curios but every piece shines even more light on the genius that was Mozart. The organist is Peter King playing on the magnificent Klais organ in Bath Abbey.
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