Daniel Beckmann - Robert Schumann: Complete Works for pedal piano or organ (2020)

Aeolus' first collaboration with the Mainz cathedral organist Daniel Beckmann leads us to the Bernhard Dreymann organ, which has been restored to its former glory, in the St. Ignazkirche in Mainz. The instrument, built in 1837 at the beginning of the Romantic period, was praised by Christian Heinrich Rinck as exemplary for the then modern organ building and fits exactly into the time of Robert Schumann's works for pedal grand pianos or organ.

At the time that Robert Schumann was composing his studies and fugues for pedal grand pianos, the instrument organ was in shadow in most European countries.
Clara wrote in her diary about the acquisition of a pedal wing at Schumann: "On April 24th [...] we received a pedal under the wing [...]. Robert found greater interest in the instrument and composed some sketches and studies for the pedal grand, which will certainly be very well received as something new. ”All of these compositions were made in Dresden in 1845.
In one of the earliest reviews of the B-A-C-H fugues, Magdeburg cathedral organist August Gottfried Ritter wrote: “Anyone who knows Robert Schumann will not be surprised by such a phrase. Such a deep-thinking and deep-feeling composer, who was thoroughly hostile to all the effects whitewashed from the outside, had to be drawn to the instrument that was so closely related to his inner being and to find in him the most suitable one for expressing his thoughts. "Schumann himself was convinced the fugues are, as it says in a letter, "a job which I believe may survive my others the longest."
Due to its abundant basic voices and the resulting diverse possibilities of dynamic gradations, the Mainz three-man organ is almost predestined for the release of these cycles.