This recording reconstructs what Bach's Dresden audience might have heard: three organ concertos in the Vivaldian fast-slow-fast format, with an accompanying ensemble of strings and continuo.
Performer Biography
Matthew Dirst, the organist on this album, is the first American musician to win major international prizes in both organ and harpsichord.
Composition History
The earliest known concerted movement featuring the organ is from Handel's 1707 work, Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno.
Composition History
Bach's D-minor harpsichord concerto (BWV 1052), which is known in its solo version from around 1738-39, was likely his first keyboard concerto and possibly intended for organ.
Performer Biography
Ars Lyrica Houston, the period-instrument ensemble on this recording, received a Grammy nomination in 2011 for Best Opera for their world premiere recording of Johann Adoph Hasse's Marc Antonio e Cleopatra.
Instruments
The organ used for this recording was designed and built by Paul Fritts & Company of Tacoma, Washington, and installed in St. Philip Presbyterian Church in Houston in 2010.
Instruments
The organ's tonal design leans towards a Northern-Germanic style, inspired by the work of late 17th-/early 18th-century organ builder Arp Schnitger.
