Composer: Andreas Willscher

  • Schächer & Willscher – Organ works

    Schächer & Willscher – Organ works

    This recording features music by two German composers: Raimund Schächer (b.1960) and Andreas Willscher (b.1955). Each composer is represented by three varied, yet characteristic, pieces. Raimund Schächer’s years of work as an editor of late medieval and early Renaissance keyboard music show in the free modality and early-influenced forms of his compositions. Andreas Willscher’s deep interest in French romanticism and eclectic musical interests (drawing on both classical and non-classical sources) are displayed in his pieces.

    Carson Cooman (b.1982) is an American composer with a catalog of hundreds of works in many forms—ranging from solo instrumental pieces to operas, and from orchestral works to hymn tunes. His music has been performed on all six inhabited continents. As an active concert organist, Cooman specializes in the performance of contemporary music. Over 300 new works have been composed for him by composers from around the world, and his organ performances can be heard on a number of recordings of which this is his third for Divine Art.

    The recording was made on the Mathias Orgelbau instrument of 1997/2006 in the Pfarrkirche St. Peter-und-Paul, Görlitz, Germany, in a live performance using the Hauptwerk system.

  • Andreas Willscher: Organ Symphony No. 5

    Andreas Willscher: Organ Symphony No. 5

    German composer Andreas Willscher has won many awards for his compositions, which range widely from symphonic forms and oratorio to cabaret jazz and rock. His organ works are especially fine and varied – involving often a mélange of post-tonal modernism, minimalism, and jazz and rock elements. Willscher is also an active writer of literary and scientific articles and as a collector and preserver of ‘lost’ and forgotten music of the past.

    Organ Symphony No. 5 is on a grand scale but is mostly quiet peaceful and meditative with only two fast and louder sections; the symphony is subtitled “Of Francis’ Preaching about Holy Poverty” and is a reflection on the life and teaching of St. Francis of Asissi.

    Carson Cooman is organist of the Memorial Church at Harvard University and also a most prolific composer, writer and teacher. His works have appeared in many recordings and have been played in every inhabited continent. This is his first recording for Divine Art as performer, but the label has already released thirteen CDs of Cooman compositions with more planned.

    Organ of Laurenskerk, Rotterdam (recorded via Hauptwerk)

    More Willscher here and here