Marie-Claire Alain - L'encyclopédie de l'orgue : Intégrale de l'œuvre pour orgue de Franz Tunder (À l'orgue de l'église Saint-Laurent de Rotterdam) (2026)

Franz Tunder can be considered the first giant of the rich North German organ school, which would give rise a few years later to Buxtehude (whose father-in-law he was, incidentally). He organized the vibrant musical life of the wealthy Hanseatic citiy of Lübeck through the institution of the Abendmusiken. Tunder also served as the missing link between Frescobaldi (who may have been his teacher) and Bach, developing the genre of the chorale fantasia and introducing the virtuosic stylus phantasticus to Germany. In 1974, Marie-Claire Alain performed his greatest works on the then-newly designed organ (and the largest in Europe with a fully mechanical action) of Rotterdam Sint-Laurenskerk