Poulenc: Organ Concerto and works by J.S. Bach, Pachelbel & Brixi

This attractive program brings together a fine selection of solo and concertante works for organ, as played by the young and highly talented Czech organist Adam Suk. Probably the best-known and most frequently performed organ concerto with orchestra ever was written by French composer Francis Poulenc. Although several separate parts can be recognized in its course, it is written as an uninterrupted single-movement flow of music. The mood of the concerto is deep, dark and introspective, yet it bears all the typical hallmarks of Poulenc's music: distinctive melodic invention, a sense of contrast, and subtle irony. Another organ concerto presented here is by Franz Xaver Brixi, a Bohemian who worked at the Benedictine Church of St. George at Prague Castle, where he wrote several organ concertos specifically for this venue – a form that was not at all common at the time. The Organ Concerto in D major retains the classical three-movement structure (fast–slow–fast). In style, it is more of a classical work, light and free of the complex “Bachian” Baroque polyphony. As a start of the program we here three works for organ solo by Pachelbel and Johann Sebastian Bach, whose Sinfonia from Cantata No.29 ‘Wir danken dir Gott, wir danken dir’ BWV29 whose festive tone is enhanced by three trumpets with timpani and an unusually virtuoso organ part. Adam Suk (born 2005) won several national and international competitions and builds an impressive career both as soloist and with orchestras, like the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice. Vahan Mardirossian leads Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice in the concertante works on this recording.