Annikka Konttori-Gustafsson & Jan Lehtola - Sigfrid Karg-Elert: Music for Piano and Organ (2017)

This recording revives long-forgotten sonorities that once would have beenvery familiar: the sound of piano and organ being played together.

It also presents a Sibelius premiere: the arrangement by Sigfird Karg-Elert ofthe suite from Pelléas and Mélisande.

As the popularity of domestic music-making grew through the nineteenthcentury, it brought first the piano and, then, often the harmonium into well-offliving-rooms across the western world.

Composers naturally responded, with original works and arrangements:Sibelius’ Andante cantabile was written after a visit to relatives who had bothinstruments in their salon.

Karg-Elert, by contrast, was one of the world’s outstanding virtuosi on bothharmonium and organ and composed with his concert public in mind.