Giulio Mercati - Wagner: Organ Transcriptions by Edwin Henry Lemare (2012)

With this release the Tactus label launches a new series in cooperation with the Loreto Study Centre. Although the majority of the recordings will concentrate on the music of Italian composers, this first volume presents music by Richard Wagner arranged by the British organist Edwin Henry Lemare. Included are the Preludes to the first Acts of Tristan und Isolde, Lohengrin, and Die Meistersinger, as well as selections from Tannhäuser and Parsifal.

Born in Saronno, Italy Giulio Mercati’s repertoire ranges from Renaissance music to the organ virtuoso literature of the nineteenth and twentieth century’s, particularly the works of César Franck, Max Reger and Julius Reubke. He has performed alongside many of Europe’s leading ensembles including the internationally renowned “I Barocchisti” and its musical director Diego Fasolis.

Edwin Henry Lamare was born in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight in 1866. During his lifetime he became well-known for editing a series of brilliant transcriptions for organ, including the pieces by Wagner featured here.