Bach, J.C. / Wesley / Hesse / Merkel: Duets for Organ

Featuring

Hans Fagius
David Sanger
Samuel Wesley
Adolf Friedrich Hesse
Johann Christian Bach
Gustav Adolf Merkel

Johann Christoph Kellner

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Composer Biography

Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of J.S. Bach, spent a large part of his life in London and significantly influenced the city's musical development.

Composer Biography

A.F. Hesse, one of the leading organists of his day, was mainly based in Breslau but frequently toured France and England, influencing organ technique in those regions.

Compositional Technique

Samuel Wesley's Grand Duet for organ features a characteristic blend of Classical, early Romantic, and conservative Baroque styles, and includes a crescendo made with the swell, a device found earlier in England than elsewhere in Europe.

Historical Context

Playing the organ four-handed, though now a curiosity, was a widely accepted practice in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, partly due to insufficient pedal compass on some organs for music by composers like J.S. Bach.

Composition History

Gustav Merkel's four-handed Sonata in D minor, Op. 30, won first prize in an 1857 competition advertised in the musical periodical Urania, marking his breakthrough as a composer.

Historical Context

English organs generally lacked pedals well into the 19th century, making four-handed playing a solution for performing much of the European Baroque repertoire.

Composer Biography

Samuel Wesley, a significant composer and leading English organist, was an enthusiastic advocate of J.S. Bach's music, even resulting in an edition of Das Wohltemperierte Clavier.