The Mendelssohn sonatas
are established 'standard repertoire'
items for most organists. Commissioned
in London as 'Voluntaries' and then
published simultaneously in four different
countries, they are notable for their
lack of consistent form, ranging from
two to four movements, and eight to
fifteen minutes in length. These are
perhaps pieces which have lent themselves
more to transformation by each international
school of playing in the late 19th and
20th centuries than any other romantic
organ music. In Britain one is still
used to hearing this music with swell-boxes,
Celestes, perhaps even an occasional
tuba ..... This music forms, however
an interesting cross-roads between the
new 19th century thinking about the
instrument, and 18th century traditions
of composing; Mendelssohn was of course
the greatest of Bach pioneers. Organists
have only recently come to terms with
the fact that these pieces are probably
written for a rather classical instrument,
and other aspects such as execution
of the so-called 'accent slur', (reflecting
after all 18th century beat hierarchy),
as opposed to the longer line, ('Lied
Ohne Worte..........') remain issues
of contention.
This is a very well
judged and well executed recording of
the Mendelssohn Sonatas. It faithfully
reflects the registrational ideas of
the composer in his brief preface to
the works, and also his tempo markings,
so precise, and crucial for the correct
'colour' of each movement. Johanssen
is a multi-prize winning former student
in Freiburg and Boston. Some minor things
puzzled me, why for example does he
take a new tempo with the entry of the
chorale in the first movement of the
first sonata?
Most problematic of
all however is his choice of organ,
which is unimaginative to say the least.
Built by Rensch in 1995, it is yet another
Central European eclectic mish-mash
organ, which the Frenchy reeds in the
box, the Acuta and Krummhorn in the
Positive, the big chorus in the Hauptwerk,
the sequencer, the ultra-stable wind
... etc. It is not a bad example, with
more 8’ foundation stops than most of
these organs possess and housed in a
warm acoustic. But for a Mendelssohn
sonata cycle in this age of wall-to-wall
organ recordings, its choice is in my
opinion unforgivable. Germany and indeed
the Netherlands, (think of Utrecht,
Deventer, Farmsum, the Ronde Lutherse
Kerk in Amsterdam to name but four)
have so many, so much more beautiful
instruments from the time of Mendelssohn
which could have made this a 'must-have'
recording instead of just a recommendable
one. I will shortly review a complete
Brahms organ-works cycle on these pages
where superb organ choice makes precisely
this difference.
Despite this serious
flaw, this remains worth having.
Chris Bragg
Kay Johannsen, organ 
