The International Historical Organ Recording Collection

Fernando Germani, 1906 – 1998. Fernando Germani was an Italian organist. He studied in Rome, and at age eight he started taking lessons in composition from Resphigi who headed Germani toward the organ. In 1921 he began a career as organist. He has taught in Siena and Rome and played widely in the USA. He gave Bach's complete organ works for the first time in Italy in 1945, repeating them several times, and was first organist at St Peter's, Rome, 1948-59. Spanning a career of almost seventy-five years, Germani also was a celebrated teacher in Italy. He died in 1998. Here is a funny story; Pageant by Leo Sowerby was written in 1931, at the request of Germani. Germani had played Sowerby's Medieval Poem on his first concert in the United States, under the composer's baton. The Italian possessed a phenomenal pedal technique, and Sowerby's Pageant was very obviously intended as a direct challenge. In form it is a set of ingenious variations on a rather perfunctory theme,...

Marcel Dupré and Jeanne Demessieux hardly need any introduction. They were some of the most prominent exponents of the French organ style and two of the most celebrated performers. Anyway, here is a little biography from Wikipedia: Marcel Dupré, May 3, 1886 – May 30, 1971 Marcel Dupré was born in Rouen. Born into a musical family. Dupré entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1904, where he studied with Louis Diémer and Lazare Lévy (piano), Alexandre Guilmant and Louis Vierne (organ), and Charles-Marie Widor (composition). In 1926, he was appointed professor of organ performance and improvisation at the Paris Conservatoire, a position he held until 1954. In 1934, Dupré succeeded Charles-Marie Widor as titular organist at St. Sulpice in Paris, a post he held until his death in 1971. (Partly from Wikipedia) These recordings were recorded for the British Decca Records in the 1940s. They were recorded in Saint Mark Church in North Audley Street in London on an organ which was maybe not ideally ...

I know this release is sort of incomplete. I’ve been trying find some biographical information concerning Walther Fischer, but havn’t been able to find any even though he was cathedral organist at Berliner Dom and one of the leading figures of the German late romantic school.So please help me out here. If any of you have some information and/or pictures please send it to me. Furthermore it would be very nice if someone has any informantion regarding when the Rheinberger and Händel concertos were recorded, on which organ and with whom. It was almost as diffucult finding something on Kurt Grosse, but I managed to find a little; “Kurt Grosse was a Berliner through and through. Born there in 1890, educated there, worked there and, as far as we know, died there. He was a student at the “Royal Berlin School of Music” from 1914-19, worked as organist at the Garrison church in Spandau and after 1920 moved across as organist and choirmaster to the Friedrich-Werder church”. (This excerpt is from...

I've created a group on the network Facebook, where I'll encourage everyone interested in this blog to join. There I'll be posting news and updates. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53287556938 So please look up "The International Historical Organ Recording Collection" and join the group. Best regards, Lars.

Alfred Sittard was born in Stuttgart in 1878. He studied in Cologne under F. W. Franke and became organist at Dresden Kreuzkirche in 1903, then in 1912 organist at the Michaeliskirche in Hamburg. In 1925 he became professor of organ studies at Universität der Künste in Berlin, where he died in 1942. In his lifetime he was considered one of the foremost organ virtuosos in Germany, which these recordings clearly show. Due to his influence through his teaching post in Berlin, he is a direct connection to the Berlin Organ School of the late 19th century and early 20th century among others like Max Reger and Karl Straube. The solo recordings were recorded from 1928 to 1932. The first six tracks were recorded in Alten Garnisonkirche in Berlin and the others were recorded at the Walcker organ in Michaeliskirche in Hamburg. Alfred Sittard was involved in the construction of this 163 stop organ in 1912.The organ was heavily damaged during the Second World War and in 1962 the organ company Stein...

Cathedral Organist Niels Otto Raasted might need a little introduction to non-Danish organists. The danish organist Niels Otto Raasted (1888-1966) was one of the leading – if controversial – church musicians of his time. After studies in Leipzig with Karl Straube and Max Reger he was appointed organist at the Church of Our Lady in Odense in 1915-24 and Cathedral Organist in Copenhagen in 1924-58, where he started the tradition of broadcast morning services. In 1925 he founded the Bach Society, and he was chairman of the composers’ rights organization KODA in 1937-64. He was moreover an active concert organist and organ teacher. As a composer he kept up a high output of works throughout his life, totaling 116 opus numbers, especially organ works (six sonatas in 1917-48), choral music (Mass 1924), hymn tunes, chamber music and orchestral works (three symphonies). In his own lifetime his music was performed frequently, especially in Denmark and Germany. The early works were romantic in s...

These recordings hardly need any introduction to organists. They consist of some works by Cesar Franck, two movements from his L’Orgue Mystique, and of course his legendary five improvisations which Maurice Duruflé transcribed and published in 1958. He was a student of Cesar Franck and was the organist of Saint Clotilde from 1898 succeding Gabriel Pierné until his death in 1939. Though his skills as an interpreter are well preserved here, his greatest ability was to improvise. Until the server space is up and running at the Royal Academy of Aarhus, I have chosen to store the files on Rapidshare.com. They should be quite easy to download and with reasonable speed also. These recordings have kindly been provided by Michael Gartz - a great thanks to him! Download detailed playlist Download link: www.ihorc.com/ihorc/IHORC-01/IHORC-01_-_Complete_Charles_Tournemire.rar