Karg-Elert: Music for Piano and Organ

As the popularity of domestic music-making grew through the nineteenth century, it brought first the piano and, then, often the harmonium into well-off living-rooms across the western world. Composers naturally responded, with original works and arrangements: Sibelius’ Andante cantabile was written after a visit to relatives who had both instruments in their salon; Karg-Elert, by contrast, was one of the world’s outstanding virtuosi on both harmonium and organ and composed with his concert public in mind. This recording thus revives long-forgotten sonorities that once would have been very familiar.