Mozart N

Adagio and Fugue,K546 - Adagio and Rondo,K617 - Adagio and Allegro,K594 - Adagio,K356/K617a - Allegro,K72a - Andante für eine Walze in eine kleine Orgel,K616 - Orgelstück Fantasia für eine Uhr,K608 - Fugue,K153/375f - Fugue,K154/385k - Fugue,K401/375e - Gigue,K574 - Suite in the style of Handel,K399

Karol Golebiowski org

Autographe    148010 (66 minutes : DDD)

Recorded on the organ of the Saint Nicholas Basilica, Gdansk
Reviewed: Gramophone (10/1991)
Mozart N

Adagio and Allegro,K594 - Adagio,K356/K617a - Andante für eine Walze in eine kleine Orgel,K616 - Orgelstück Fantasia für eine Uhr,K608 - Fugue,K153/375f - Fugue,K154/385k - Fugue,K401/375e - Gigue,K574 - Suite in the style of Handel,K399

Martin Haselböck org

Novalis    150 054-2 (49 minutes : DDD)

Reviewed: Gramophone (10/1991)
Liszt . Mozart N

Liszt Evocation à la Chapelle Sixtine Allegri/Mozart,S658 - Mozart: Ave verum corpus Mozart Adagio and Fugue,K546 - Adagio and Rondo,K617 - Fugue,K443/404b - Adagio and Allegro,K594 - Adagio,K356/K617a - Andante für eine Walze in eine kleine Orgel,K616 - Orgelstück Fantasia für eine Uhr,K608 - Fugue,K153/375f - Fugue,K154/385k - Fugue,K401/375e - Gigue,K574 - Suite in the style of Handel,K399

Martin Haselböck org

Koch Schwann     317003 (73 minutes : ADD)

Played on the Haydn Organ, Eisenstadt and the Pfliegler Organ, Altenburg
Reviewed: Gramophone (10/1991)
 
Mozart's renowned skill as an improviser at the organ combined with the very limited scope for original organ composition in eighteenth-century Austria meant that he actually wrote down very little music specifically for the instrument. The two best-known 'organ' works, K594 and K608, together with the delightful Andante in F, were composed for a mechanical organ in a museum owned by a Bohemian nobleman, Count Joseph Deym. At the same time as he composed these three pieces, Mozart wrote an Adagio and Rondo for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello (K617) which, along with the Adagio in C for glass harmonica (K356/617a), was also arranged for Deym's mechanical organ. The remainder of Mozart's organ music consists of Fugal compositions mostly written for other instruments (but clearly with the organ in mind) or, as in the case of the delightful 'Leipzig Gigue' (K574), jotted down in manuscript, almost, it would seem, on the spur of the moment.
With the bicentenary of Mozart's death we can expect every nook and cranny of his work to be explored. The argument as to what constitutes his organ music will no doubt rage, but as all three of these recordings use Haselbock and Schlee's edition of the Complete Organ Music there is general consensus in their content. The only notable differences are in Haselbock's 1979 Schwann recording, which includes two arrangements of pieces originally by Mozart (Liszt's Ave verum corpus and Vincent Novello's Benedictus) and in his 1989 Novalis disc which omits K617. In the ten years between his two recordings Haselbock has, if anything, become a little more relaxed and, especially in the Fugues, is inclined to allow the music a freer sense of movement. Certainly in the earlier recording the semiquaver chords from the Allegro of K594 and the characteristic dotted rhythms of K608 have more bite. But his performances on both discs are unfailingly elegant and stylish. The Eisenstadt organ was built to Haydn's specification and makes an absolutely captivating sound in the 'mechanical' pieces on the Koch disc. (The only disappointment here is a messy edit 6'12"" into K594.) Against this, the 1772 Pflieger instrument at Altenburg, used for the other works, is rather less pleasing on the ear and the recorded sound is a little muffled. On the later recording I find the 1758 instrument in Brixen rather lopsided; the pedals never seem to be able to support the manuals successfully and the sound is somewhat soggy.
The large two-manual instrument in Gdansk dating from 1755 which Karol Golebiowski uses seems a most satisfactory compromise between the intimate and the majestic, and his registration is most effective and imaginative. He manages to re-create what Mozart complained of as the ""too high pitched and too childish"" character of the mechanical organ without it sounding in the least bit silly. His performances generally are beautifully prepared and stylish and the recording is clear without being too sharply focused.