Mozart The Organist, Vol. 1 [World Premiere Recording]

Dear Friends,

This is truly a new chapter in presenting Mozart’s music, especially in the organ world. The time has arrived for Mozart’s sunny and joyful music in a completely new setting, in his anniversary year — the 270th anniversary of his birth.

Mozart the Organist, Vol. 1 is the first recording of this repertoire in the history of world phonography, presenting a selection of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s famous piano sonatas and fantasias in an arrangement for solo organ by Andrzej Szadejko, a celebrated Polish interpreter on the early music scene, recorded at St. James’s Church in Stralsund, Germany. The recording was made using audiophile surround sound technology in cooperation with the Polish record company Ars Sonora, and presents the following pieces:

[1] Präludium / Capriccio in C Major, K. 284a/395 (300g) (1777)
[2-4] Sonata in C Major, K. 330 (330h) (ca. 1783)
[5] Fantasia in D Minor, K. 397 (385g) (1782)
[6-8] Sonata in F Major, K. 332 (330k) (ca. 1783)
[9] Adagio in B Minor, K. 540 (1788)

“I admit, it might be a bit awkward for me to convince you to dedicate another hour to listening to my organ braveries on selected piano sonatas and fantasies by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, since these sounds have already been heard so many times. But when I first played excerpts from several of them on the royal instrument, I was surprised by the distinctly different character emerging from the organ sound than in the piano original. It was so compelling, fresh, joyful, new, and good that I decided to share it with you, go all out, and dedicate an entire album to these compositions. What you hear may allow you to imagine how the brilliant Mozart would sit at the organ console and recount musical tales, savouring the sounds of his beloved instrument—the organ.”

Andrzej Szadejko, Organ