Loft Recordings has released the first recording of the Craighead-Saunders Organ in Christ Church, Rochester, the newest instrument in the collection at the Eastman School of Music (LRCD-1115, $14.98).
The organ is the result of an eight-year international research project documenting and copying the 1776 organ by Adam Gottlob Casparini (1715–1788) in the Holy Ghost Church in Vilnius, Lithuania, one of the best preserved late-baroque organs in all of Europe.
After a thorough documentation of the original instrument, a team from GOArt, at Gothenburg University in Sweden, led by Mats Arvidsson and Munetaka Yokota, worked closely with the Eastman School of Music and a group of organbuilders in America (Steven Dieck, Paul Fritts, Bruce Fowkes, Martin Pasi, and George Taylor) to produce the first research instrument after Casparini anywhere in the world, and the first large-scale historical reconstruction at this level in America.
In this first recording on the new instrument, the three Eastman organ professors (David Higgs, William Porter, Hans Davidsson) perform repertoire from Bach through Mendelssohn, plus a new work by Stephen Kennedy (director of music at Christ Church, where the organ is located) and a newly commissioned work by Martin Herchenröder.
The
booklet contains complete organ specifications.
For information: www.gothic-catalog.com.
