This disc offers several organ works of major significance, and takes the listener on a tour which includes four different organs, all built by Bach's friend and contemporary, the Master Organ-builder Gottfried Silbermann (1683-1753). We begin and end with the great Freiberg Cathedral organ, Silbermann's finest extant instrument, and surprisingly perhaps, only the second one he built – at the age of 28. We then hear three different village organs, and if they all sound very similar this is no coincidence.

Working out of his Freiberg workshops, centrally situated to serve his home state of Saxony, Silbermann confined his projects to the borders of Saxony, thus minimizing transportation costs. He formulated a standard village organ – for it was mostly the villages which he served – of 2 manuals and 20 to 23 stops, aiming for mass-production, or as near as was possible. This provided him with considerable savings on pipe and woodwork construction, savings which he passed on to his customers in the form of the very best materials available and immaculate workmanship – qualities which draw admiration from researchers and restorers even today. In addition he frequently added a free extra stop over and above the contracted specification. Silbermann was a dedicated craftsman – and a good businessman!

Our program features the great and the quiet – the monumental Prelude and St Anne Fugue, the Passacaglia, the Dorian Toccata and Fugue and the Canzona, contrasting with quieter pieces, Preludes & Fugues and a chorale.

The Freiberg Cathedral Organ is featured in detail on their website. The CD booklet includes specifications of the Crostau and Rötha organs.

To learn more about the master Saxon organ-builder, check the official Gottfried Silbermann Museum website:
GOTTFRIED SILBERMANN: Master Organ-Builder of the German Baroque
oder in deutscher Sprache:
GOTTFRIED SILBERMANN: Sächsischer Orgelbauer der deutschen Barockzeit