Jan Busch - Clavier Ubung III

Gems on a Jewel Jan Von Busch presents Sonatinas and Sonatas by Johann Ludwig KrebsIn 1802, in his famous Bach biography, Nikolaus Forkel stated that "only one crayfish [Krebs] was caught in one stream [Bach]." Johann Ludwig Krebs was in fact one of Johann Sebastian Bach's favorite pupils; he was on particularly close terms with the famous Thomas kantor and is to be credited with the transmission of Bach's organ music. In his own organ works Krebs quite audibly followed his great model. His sonatas and sonatinas, now recorded for the first time by Jan Von Busch on the historic Warlitz organ, are clearly much more progressive. The Stein organ in Warlitz represents a particularly attractive performance option. Although this one manual instrument is located in Mecklenburg, it is certainly the best-preserved example of Thuringian organ building artistry and is a perfect match for the presentation of "clavier" music possibly intended more for the harpsichord at the time of it's composition. Krebs and the organ builder Johann Georg Stein were of the same age, and both grew up in Thuringia - only a few kilometers apart from each other! The fact that the organ has remained practically unchanged over the centuries verges on a miracle. Only the front pipes melted during World War I had to be reconstructed during the restoration in 2004.In these pieces Krebs produced manifold and richly varied expression. The individuality of the movements is underscored even more by Jan Von Busch's registration. The division of the manual into bass and treble does pits part here and permits multicolored sound combinations otherwise known to us only from larger instruments - the best prerequisites for listening pleasure of special authenticity.