Organ and Violin

The new CD of the ensemble with the program “Duo literature from four centuries”

© M.Michaely

Magazine “Musik und Kirche”
Orgel plus … Violine

with kind permission © Mathias Michaely

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This CD was produced in the context of a concert in the Lutheran monastery church of St. Marienberg in Helmstedt. You can hear duo literature for violin and organ from the late Renaissance to the 20th century. The violinist Anna Barbara Kastelewicz performs with the organist Mathias Michaely. The special charm of the recording is that, depending on the stylistic requirements of each composition, all three organs of the church are used. The purchase price of 15,- Euro will fully benefit the further restoration of the Furtwängler & Hammer organ from 1900.

You can hear the three organs of the Ev.-luth. monastery church

St. Marienberg Helmstedt

Titel 1: Truhenorgel, I-4, Karl Schuke, 1984

Titel 2+3: Vierungsorgel, II/P-25, Alfred Führer, 1973

Titel 4+5: Westorgel, II/P-25 Furtwängler & Hammer, 1900

Available from us, just write us an email: mip@music-in-progress.com.

Anna Barbara Kastelewicz and Mathias Michaely have taken up the duo literature for violin and organ. Original compositions for this instrumentation are relatively rare, despite the tonally very grateful combination of the two instruments.

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Until the Baroque period, there were only compositions for violin with (arbitrarily executable) basso continuo. In the 18th century one finds, for example, the sonatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose concertante structure - although intended for violin with obbligato harpsichord - can be convincingly performed on the organ. But it was not until the development of the Romantic fundamental organ in the 19th century that the violin became an equal partner, both through the dynamics of the swell and through a rich fund of orchestral timbres.

Starting with Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger, composers increasingly discovered the possibilities of this instrumentation, and finally, at the turn of the 20th century, numerous works were written that today are among the rarities of the concert repertoire. The exploding stylistic diversity of this period is reflected in very different compositions. The Variations by Camillo Schumann, for example, belong more in the retrospective, tonally and formally quite conservative direction, while the pieces by the Alsatian Marie-Joseph Erb and the Estonian Artur Kapp are true gems of late impressionist-emotional program music. Finally, the sonata by Reger's pupil Karl Hoyer is a prime example of highly organized counterpoint, as it led via Johann Nepomuk David, Hugo Distler and Siegfried Reda to an independent linear style, especially in early modern organ music.

Well into the post-war period, composers such as Zoltán Gárdonyi continued to write music for violin and organ, although this duo instrumentation remains mainly a child of the turn of the century, also due to changing trends in organ building. There are still many treasures to be found here for interesting and unusual concert programs.

Anna Barbara Kastelewicz

Anna Barbara Kastelewicz

© A. Kleuker

Anna Barbara Kastelewicz works as a soloist, chamber musician and concertmaster. She has a national and international presence with performances and tours in Europe and Asia and makes radio, television and recordings.
She studied in Berlin, London and Bloomington/USA. Her repertoire on baroque violin and modern violin ranges from Renaissance to modern. Anna Barbara Kastelewicz founded two project orchestras, the “neue barockorchester berlin” and the “neue konzertorchester berlin”, which she conducts herself as concertmaster. She is also active as a lecturer at colleges of music. Born in Berlin, she lives in Berlin as a freelance artist.

 

Mathias Michaely

© Mathias Michaely

Mathias Michaely was born in Saarbrücken in 1963. After his first organ lessons with Gunther Hoffmann, he studied in Herford (Wolfgang Lüschen) and Detmold (Adelheid v. d. Kooi-Wolf), where he passed the A exam in 1991. This was followed by interpretation courses with Gerd Zacher, Ludger Lohmann and Wolfgang Zerer, among others. Since 1994 Mathias Michaely lives and works in Helmstedt as provost cantor at the Haupt- und Stadtkirche St. Stephani, organ expert and member of the regional church examination board. In 1996 he was a prize-winner at the international organ competition of the Organ Culture Foundation of the Hanseatic Cities in Elburg (Netherlands). Concerts as organist and choirmaster in Germany and abroad are part of his activities as well as CD productions and world premieres.

 

 

Organ music through four centuries

Antonio Bertali (1605-1669), Sonata a Violino Solo from the book Partiturbuch Ludwig (1662)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Sonate A-Dur BWV 1015, (Dolce) – Allegro assai – Andante un poco – Presto

Zoltan Gardonyi (1906-1986), Fantasie über ein ungarisches geistliches Lied (1968)

Camillo Schumann (1872-1946), Choralvariationen und Fuge zu dem Choral “Befiehl du deine Wege” op. 106

Marie Joseph Erb (1858-1944), Gib uns heute unser täglich Brot, Tonstück für Violine und Orgel op. 71

Emotional Overload – Jugendstil

In this concert, Anna Barbara Kastelewicz and Mathias Michaely offer a selection of duo compositions for violin and organ, as they emerged around the turn of the century with the increasing emancipation of orchestral instruments in the solo and chamber music field. Especially the almost unlimited dynamic range of the violin in combination with the fundamental-symphonic sound ideal of the contemporary organ opens up undreamed-of musical possibilities. From the almost retrospective, baroque-inspired movement style of Camillo Schumann, who translates old forms into modern harmony, to the almost expressionistic tonal language of the Alsatian Marie-Joseph Erb, the entire diversity of a largely forgotten literature is presented here.

Karl Hoyer Sonate d-Moll

Zoltan Gardonyi Fantasie über ein ungarisches Lied

Artur Kapp “Die letzte Beichte”

Sigfrid Karg-Elert Sanctus

Marie Joseph Erb “Gib uns heute unser täglich Brot”

Camillo Schumann Variationen und Fuge über “Befiehl du deine Wege”

Read the article “Organ plus …” about Mathias Michaely & Anna-Barbara Kastelewicz from the magazine ‘Musik und Kirche’.

with kind permission © Mathias Michaely
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