Organ Works [Before and After]

“Before and After” presents organ works in which composers refer to and develop the music of earlier generations. Johannes Skoog opens the program with Bach’s Prelude in C-sharp major, BWV 848, which is immediately followed by Brad Mehldau’s “After Bach: Rondo.” Skoog performs the work, originally composed for piano, in his own organ transcription, which is being recorded here for the first time.

The principle of musical retrospection also shapes the rest of the program: Jehan Alain develops a theme attributed to Clément Janequin in his Variations; Herbert Howells recalls Thomas Tallis in “Master Tallis’s Testament”; and Maurice Duruflé paid musical tribute to Alain with his “Prélude et fugue sur le nom d’ALAIN.” Two movements from Carl Unander-Scharin’s “Suite Processionis” and Michael Nyman’s “Fourths, Mostly” complete the program.

Johannes Skoog won first prize and the Gérard Coulombe Bach Prize at the International Organ Competition of Canada in 2024 and was appointed organist to the Swedish Royal Court in 2025. The recording was made in January 2026 on the Létourneau organ at the Francis Winspear Centre for Music in Edmonton.