Anders Eidsten Dahl - Inspired by Bach (2009)

In March, 2008, parts of St. Thomas cantor Wilhelm Rust's manuscripts were turned over to the University and State Library of Sachsen-Anhalt in Halle, and it was then that Stephan Blaut and Michael Pacholke discovered that the collection contained a complete copy of Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale fantasia on "Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält." Until then, only a few measures of the work, dated to between 1705 and 1710, were known to exist.

This discovery, as well as the high quality of the music, has caused something of a sensation. In this short period of time, the work has been circulated and performed in many parts of the world. Now, one of the first recordings of the piece can be heard on this CD by a young Norwegian organist, Anders Eidsten Dahl. Entitled "Inspired by Bach," it includes music by Robert Schumann, Arne Eggen, Fartein Valen, and Johann Sebastian Bach.

What these composers have in common is Bach's influence and their own creative impulse. In Robert Schumann's "Skizzen für den Pedalflügel" and "Studien für den Pedalflügel – Sechs Stücke in kanonischer Form," written for the now relatively unusual pedal grand piano, the aim was to create a strong bond between a contrapuntal way of thinking and poetic expression. Schumann himself believed that the pedal grand piano, which did enjoy some degree of popularity during the 1800s, would become the piano of the future. But today it is associated primarily with the core Romantic organ repertoire.

Arne Eggen, who was organist at Bragernes Church in Drammen from 1908 to 1924, wrote his magnificent "Ciaconna" in 1917. When the present organ was built in 1998, the decision was made to use seven or eight central voices from the Claus Jensen organ from 1872, which had been rebuilt several times. Thus the current organ has a number of the most important voices which were in use when Eggen was church organist there. This work by Eggen, certainly one of the major Norwegian organ works from the Romantic tradition, is now available on CD for the first time.

Although Fartein Valen, like most composers of his generation, had completed a degree in organ, he wrote only two organ works, "Prelude and Fugue, op. 33" and "Pastorale, op. 34." Both works, now available on CD for the first time, are good examples of Valen's characteristic dissonant counterpoint, in which he has left much of the musical colouring to the performer.

The main organ in Bragernes Church was built in 1998 by a Dane, Carsten Lund, regarded today as one of Scandinavia's leading organ builders. The organ and sanctuary of Bragernes Church are among Norway's finest, and the instrument is particularly well suited for Romantic organ music

Anders Eidsten Dahl, organ