Piet Kee, Jacques van Oortmerssen - Organworks (1987)

Since listening to a very spirited performance of Mozart’s Fantasy in F minor, K. 608, many years ago I have been looking out for a recording of this and other organ works, and this CD fits the bill. The soloist is the Austrian, Martin Haselböck, b. 1954, and he was only 25 when these recordings were made with the Haydn Organ in Eisenstadt and the Pfliegler Organ in Altenburg. This is particularly apt because this is very much youthful and energetic writing.

Once again, Koch International’s notes, by Carl de Nys, translated by Celia Skrine, are exemplary, describing the position of the composer’s works for organ within his overall musical development, describing his frustration at having to respond to commissions for mechanical organ, describing the individual works and providing detailed information on the two organs, both restored in the post-war period, that ‘have a tonal character typical of the South German baroque organs but [that can] offer a wider range on both pedal and manuals’ and the organist. In every respect, the attention to detail is of the highest.

The largest works on this CD, which lasts just over 73 minutes in total, are the two F minor Fantasies, K. 594 and 608, and the F major Andante, K. 616, all written for the mechanical organ in his final year and intended to be played alongside a showcase of figurines and models illustrating contemporary events and commemorating dead celebrities. In the same year, Mozart wrote his Adagio and Rondo in C, K. 617, originally for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello, and here played on the organ at Eisenstadt, as are the three earlier works. The opening of the K. 608 Fantasy, played suitably powerfully here, is what first drew me to the work.

The remaining ten shorter works, all played on the Pfliegler instrument of the Benedictine Abbey in Stift Altenburg, are charmingly varied and include the C major Adagio, K. 356 [K. 617a], originally written for the blind glass harmonica player, Marianne Kirschgässner [reminiscent of his piano concerto K. 450, composed for the blind pianist Maria Theresia Paradis] and the Liszt arrangement, more recomposition, of Ave verum corpus, K. 618.

The diversity of the programme, the organist’s attention to detail and articulation, and the notes all make this a very enjoyable listening experience.