A talk on Brahms and the organ, written and presented by Martin Schmeding (Professor of Organ, Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Leipzig), of particular interest to FRCO students.

An online recital by Martin Schmeding of German organ music 1870-1940, on the Ladegast-Sauer-Eule organ of the Nikolaikirche, Leipzig.

A presentation by Martin Schmeding on German Organ Music 1870-1940, the set period for the FRCO History of Organ Music paper for the examinations 2021-2022. 

The RCO runs study trips abroad – a splendid opportunity to play organ repertoire on the instruments for which it was written. Robbie Carroll went on a recent RCO study trip to Germany, playing Brahms, Reger and Reubke on organs in Berlin, Leipzig and Merseburg. He sent us this personal account of the trip.

Max Reger’s great first compositional period ended with his Second Sonata for Organ, Opus 60, written in 1901 at the time of his move from Weiden to Munich. It is a good introduction to his work, because it is concise, but has a lot of variation of form and technique.

On his move to Munich in 1901, Max Reger’s music, even by his standards, became more involved and difficult, and the signature work from this time is his set of variations on a theme by Bach, one of six great sets of variations he wrote. This work was written for piano, but conductor Ira Levin, using Reger’s own orchestration of his Beethoven Variations as an inspiration, has orchestrated the work.

This documentary film attempts to prise open Reger’s music, to equate it with his biography and the context of his life, and to combine discussion of his music with footage of performers playing excerpts from major works in many forms – lieder, orchestral and instrumental works, and the organ music from his great Weiden period of 1898 to 1901.

On location in Germany, UK Reger expert Prof. Graham Barber introduces a selection of Reger’s organ works and discusses their context and performance.

This video, the fourth in Daniel Moult’s series on playing styles, addresses the German Romantic music of Mendelssohn and Brahms.