Jens Korndörfer - Windows of the Spirit (2020) [Hi-Res]

"Windows of the Spirit", the first recording on the renovated and enlarged Klais/Schlueter organ at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta.

About the Recordings: The organ, as a system of mechanical relays and artificially created and operated lungs and pipes, would seem to be antithetical to the production of emotive music. Indeed, Igor Stravinsky famously derided the instrument by saying “the monster never breathes”. Yet for hundreds of years, musicians and organ builders strove to have this hybrid of pipes and keyboards mirror the particular musical expression expected by the culture of the time. In the early seventeenth century, Michael Praetorius crowned the organ with the title “King of all instruments” because it could replicate and participate in the polychoral music in vogue during his time. During the explosion of the art of orchestration in the nineteenth century, Hector Berlioz acknowledged that both the orchestra and the organ were kings “or rather, one is emperor and the other pope”: they were to be used for different tonal purposes and did not mix well together. During the remainder of the nineteenth century and beyond, cutting edge technologies were often employed to push this seemingly inert instrument to an esthetic interpretation equal to or beyond that expected and normally experienced by its culture.

The newly renovated and enlarged Klais/Schlueter organ (IV/112) at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta continues in this tradition; this album’s offerings – including arrangements and premiere recordings by the organ virtuoso Jens Korndörfer – were chosen for the illustration of its orchestral capabilities.

Jens Korndörfer, organ