Sattler: Orgelwerke

This is a rare album: In the "Preziosa" edition, MDG releases organ works by the eminent but completely forgotten late Romantic Carl Sattler, which had previously only been available on vinyl. The recording was made in 1982 with Reinhard Kluth at the Klais organ in the Himmerod Abbey in the presence of the very elderly Father Raimund, Sattler's last surviving pupil – a recording of particular authenticity! Kluth played from Sattler's manuscripts, most of which had not been published. One of them later burned in a car accident – fortunately, only after the recording was in the can and Kluth had been able to edit the handwriting... Sattler's dense harmony comes particularly well to bear in the broad tempi he suggested. Above all, the large sonata op. 17 lives from the colorful registration, for which Father Raimund was still able to provide valuable insights. The harmonium sonata is quite different, in which the horizontal trumpets of the organ come to use virtuously and extremely punchily. Fascinating: in "Christmas" op. 22, Sattler combines "Silent Night" with "Joseph, dear Joseph mine" in a magnificent way – it is extremely skillful. As always in the "Preziosa" series, producer and sound engineer Werner Dabringhaus opens up his little box of secrets, so about the craftsmanship of the Himmerod monks, or their enthusiasm for football – a refreshing contrast to the substantial music, which more than deserves a real renaissance.