Organ Sonata No. 3 in A, Op. 65/3

The Six Organ Sonatas by Felix Mendelssohn are considered to be amongst the greatest works written for the organ. A skilled organist, Mendelssohn often visited the UK and it was here that he was commissioned to compose a "set of voluntaries", which were published in 1845. The third of the set, in A major, was completed shortly before his Violin Concerto in Bad Soden (near Frankfurt am Main) in August 1844. At the heart of the piece is a four-part fugue in A minor, the four note theme of which is concludes with a striking tritone. This is offset against the pedal line: Martin Luther's 1524 chorale 'Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu Dir', a paraphrase of Psalm 130, 'Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord'. The two outer sections are in A major, and more majestic in character. The second movement of the sonata is a contrast: a triple-time, quiet epilogue to follow the majesty of the previous movement.

I thought long and hard about which Hauptwerk sample set to record this piece on, but was adamant that I wanted to use an English organ. So, what could be better than an English organ with a German accent? Making its debut on my channel, the famous Schulze organ in the Church of St Bartholmew in Armley, Leeds, sampled for Hauptwerk by Lavender Audio, seems, to me, to be the ideal choice. There are a few slips in this performance for which I apologise – it was late and I was harbouring the worst cold I've had in a very long time; at least that's my excuse!