Contemporary contrasts: organ music from the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
Berlin Classics presents the world’s first recording of a solo organ recital from the Elbphilharmonie featuring titular organist Iveta Apkalna: Light & Dark.
The Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the city’s glittering new landmark, opened in January 2017. “Light & Dark,” now available on Berlin Classics, is the world’s first recording of a solo organ recital in the Grand Hall. Featuring a range of appealing contemporary works, the album showcases the wide tonal spectrum of the Elbphilharmonie’s organ.
Built by the Bonn-based firm Klais, the organ is an instrument of superlatives. 4,765 pipes extend over five rows of seats, their lengths ranging from just eleven millimetres to an imposing ten metres. Thanks to the very open structure of the hall’s “white skin” around the organ, audiences can actually look inside the instrument and some of the pipes have been coated such that they can be touched without leaving any marks. The organ fits perfectly into the spectacular architecture and has a very impressive sound. “There’s nothing this organ can’t do,” Iveta Apkalna enthused following the very first full rehearsal on the instrument. “It’s warm and rich, with many beautiful fundamental tones that sound from everywhere, and from the depths. The sound embraces the audience.”
With its modern selection of repertoire, seemingly tailor-made for both the organist and the instrument, the album compellingly draws listeners into a fascinating world of sound, and is available as a CD with a detailed booklet and a high-quality slip case or as a double LP. At the heart of the recording is the work that gives the album its name – Sofia Gubaidulina’s “Light and Darkness”, a piece of great extremes that penetrates every fibre of the body. Two composers, Aivars Kalējs and Lūcija Garūta, hail from the organist’s native Latvia, and the album also includes works by Leoš Janáček, György Ligeti, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Thierry Escaich. Iveta Apkalna has made an album that brings to life the qualities of this organ with a modern and extremely diverse selection of works.
Iveta Apkalna is one of the world’s most famous organists and, as titular organist, knows the Elbphilharmonie instrument like no other musician. The Latvian has performed at the world’s most important concert halls and churches. She is fully committed to seeing the glittering beauty of the organ better represented in concert halls. Iveta Apkalna is a cultural ambassador of Latvia and dedicates this album to her country, which this year celebrates its 100th anniversary.
The recording “Iveta Apkalna – Light & Dark” is a coproduction with the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.
