Much of the organ music of Johann Sebastian Bach can be played successfully on an organ having only one manual with pedals. One thinks immediately of the many preludes and fugues for which no second manual is necessary, or even appropriate. But in choosing works for this CD, it seemed better not to provide a program focused on preludes and fugues, which would of necessity point toward a recording of plenum (“full organ”) registrations, but rather to choose from among the various chorale settings, familiar and unfamiliar, that would allow one to explore the remarkable richness of color available at Störmthal, by playing on single registers and with combinations of two or three stops. Of the twenty-one compositions heard on this CD, fourteen of them are played on registrations consisting of three or fewer stops in the manual, with little duplication—twelve different registrations in all. It is characteristic of the organs of Hildebrandt that, at the level of eight- and four-foot stops, each stop has such a distinctive color that it may be used alone with equal success in a variety of textures, and may at the same time be combined with practically any other stop or pair of stops without sacrificing blend or cohesiveness. Moreover, each register is scaled and voiced to serve polyphonic and melodic music equally well. Thus, for example, the same combination of flute registers at eight- and four-foot pitch illuminates both the imitative polyphony of “Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan” (Neumeister), set in motet style similar to many of the works of Pachelbel, and the more active and concentrated texture of “Mit Fried und Freud’ ich fahr dahin” (Orgelbüchlein) dominated by the relentlessly joyful skipping rhythms of the figura corta.

The chorales from the Neumeister collection, placed in the first part of this recording, show Bach to have been exploring stylistic contrasts from his earliest years as a composer. North German elements are in evidence, from the almost obsessive use of a figure resembling the opening of Buxehude’s famous Praeludium in C (BuxWV 137) in “Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr,” to the use of paraphrase in “Herr Gott, nun schleuss den Himmel auf,” reminiscent of a number of chorale settings by Georg Böhm. Chorales such as “Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan” and “Christus der ist mein Leben” reflect more typical central German practice, known particularly in the works of Pachelbel and Johann Michael Bach. Internal contrasts abound as well: “Herzlich lieb” becomes a gigue at its midpoint, as does “Wir Christenleut,” and “Herr Gott, nun schleuss” dissolves into a brilliant cadenza at its close.

If the works presented here from the Orgelbüchlein give the impression of being less wildly experimental than those from the Neumeister collection, they are no less varied in Affekt, and here the registrations are chosen to reinforce the character of each piece. The quiet intricacy of the counterpoint found in “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” finds expression in the use of the Principal and Quintadena together, and two other pieces of similar texture, “Jesu, meine Freude” and “Vater unser im Himmelreich” are played using the Gedackt and Quintadena for the former, and the Gedackt, Quintadena, and Rohrflöte for the latter, both registrations being remarkably successful “substitutes” for the sound of the Principal. The use of all three eight-foot registers together, a risky undertaking on many organs of this period, here provides an elegantly blended sound for “Christe, du Lamm Gottes,” allowing the canon between the tenor and soprano voices to sing with admirable clarity. The remaining pieces from the Orgelbüchlein explore the various possibilities for plenum sounds on the organ at Störmthal, each one slightly different from the other. The variety of successful plenum colors here is astounding for an organ of its size, and it reflects the genius of Hildebrandt in providing an organ ideally suited for its primary purpose, that of leading congregational singing. The challenge of providing a rich palette of strong ensemble sounds to support singing in an organ this small has been admirably realized here, with the added benefit of a kaleidoscopic array of colors for the repertoire as well.