Spotify classical music playlists: You want to hear organ music on the Dutch radio? Well, forget it, buy a CD...!!

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

You want to hear organ music on the Dutch radio? Well, forget it, buy a CD...!!

It was around 2004 when one of the most anti-radio verdicts was stated by then Avro program manager Ad ’s-Gravesande. After banning organ music from the classical PBS station radio 4 he was asked where organ lovers should go to after the ban he replied: “let them buy a CD” …

Weird, because “Dutch organ culture” was the winner of a public query in the search of the penultimate Dutch music culture. I remembered this ban, just after I heard one of the finest organ players of the Netherlands, Piet Kee, had died at the age of 90, last week.

In the 1990’s he recorded a couple of splendid organ CD’s for the Chandos Chaconne label. The one I always liked best was the one with the 1743/1750 Weingarten organ. An organ filled with myths, stories and unique stops, as can be heard in the last two tracks of this CD.

As a tribute to Piet Kee, this playlist:

Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)

1. Ciacona d-moll

2. Präludium d-moll

3. Fantasie g-moll

4. Ciacona f-moll

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

5. Prelude in f-minor BWV 534

6. Fuge in f-minor BWV 534

Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)

7. Jesu, meine Freude (Variationen)

Johann Michael Bach (1648-94)