Bach Toccatas, Preludes And Fugues

In his ninth and tenth of a total of fourteen releases of Bach’s collected organ works, Kåre Nordstoga pulls together much of what was not collected from the composer’s side — preludes and fugues. The double form prelude (or toccata) and fugue has been an established form of composition since the 1600s. The North Germans Dietrich Buxtehude and Georg Böhm made a powerful contribution to this contrastive style in which the freer first part and the more rigorous second part are united in a dynamic whole. The young Johann Sebastian harvested significant impressions from these two composers during his time in Lübeck and Lüneburg, and this album was recorded in Lüneburg. Kåre Nordstoga (b. 1954) studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music under Søren Gangfløt, Bjørn Boysen and Kaare Ørnung, among others. Following his debut concert in 1978, he continued his studies under David Sanger in London, and he was for a time organist at Ullern Church, before coming to Oslo Cathedral in 1984. He has also been associated with the Norwegian Academy of Music, where he was appointed professor in 1994. Nordstoga is an active concert organist.