Ullrich Böhme at |the Sauer-Organ

Franz Liszt’s majestic ‘Prelude and Fugue on the Name BACH’ is not only his best-known work for organ, but also the sounding pedestal onto which the composer lifts his colleague Johann Sebastian Bach. Indeed, many other artists were inspired by the life and works of the great cantor at St Thomas and wrote pieces – especially for the organ – in which their reverence for the ‘old master’ is strikingly apparent. Ullrich Böhme, the present organist at St Thomas Leipzig, allows his predecessors as well as other organ virtuosos to express their veneration at the church’s Romantic Sauer-Organ: alongside the letters of Bach’s name in Liszt’s work, he performs ‘Herzlich tut mich verlangen’ from the chorale preludes op. 122 by Johannes Brahms, the ‘Fantasia Sonata’ by Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, the solemn ‘Festive Hymn’ by Karl Piutti – written by the former organist at St Thomas for the dedication of the Sauer-Organ – as well as works by Max Reger: the ‘Benedictus’ from op. 59, the chorale prelude on ‘Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott’ from op. 135a, and the grand chorale fantasia op. 27, which is based on the same tune. These pieces in particular reveal to Ullrich Böhme the close connection of their composer with the organs built by Wilhelm Sauer. The performance of op. 27 at one of Sauer’s instruments, Böhme suggests, is a ‘real treat’ for any organist.