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Kimberly Marshall, The king of instruments, Early Music, Volume 36, Issue 2, May 2008, Pages 338–341, https://doi.org/10.1093/em/can011
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Many fine recordings of early organ music have recently appeared, with programmes ranging from one composer's oeuvre, to the representation of a distinct style, to music chosen according to broader themes that allow for a wider geographical and/or chronological spectrum. The seven recordings reviewed here demonstrate these different approaches. Three feature music by one composer or from one source: Lübeck, Pachelbel and the Livre d'orgue de Limoges; two evoke a specific historical time and place, such as 18th-century France or Tudor England; and two explore stylistically diverse compositions through a common theme, music for the Christmas season and music related to the Magnificat and Marian traditions.
The organ works of Vincent Lübeck (1654–1740), arguably the last in a line of great north German organists, are the subject of a distinctive recording by Joseph Kelemen, Lübeck: Organ works (Oehms Classics OC607, rec 2005, 67′). At the age of 20, Lübeck was appointed organist to the Church of St Cosmae in Stade, where he presided over a fine instrument built by Behrendt Huss with the help of his nephew, Arp Schnitger. Lübeck came to be an expert on organ building and developed a close friendship with Schnitger, who began an expansion of the St Cosmae organ in 1688. This instrument, which has survived the vicissitudes of intervening centuries to be restored by Jürgen Ahrend in 1993–4, reveals itself to be the perfect vehicle for Lübeck's music. The brilliant plenum dazzles the ear, consort registrations of reeds and mutations provide variety, and the large pedal division forcefully delivers virtuoso solos.
