Alfred Koerppen: |Chorale Fantasias for Organ

Chorale Fantasias by Alfred Koerppen: the new disc by Ulfert Smidt, organist at the Marktkirche Hannover, not only features contemporary organ music, but is a vignette of work-in-progress between composer and performer. As the title suggests, the CD focusses on chorale-based compositions, ordered here according to the liturgical year. Koerppen’s works retain the sacred context of an organ tradition which upholds an artistically highly demanding middle-ground, stretched out between the extremes of purely functional liturgical and experimental organ music. Ulfert Smidt studied the music together with Alfred Koerppen intensively, discussed interpretative approaches with him, and coordinated their visions for the works’ sound. The tempos, phrasings, and registrations chosen by Smidt make ideal use of the instrument’s specification, and allow the Marktkirche’s Goll-Organ to resound in splendour.