Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) Concerto a-Moll BWV 593 nach Antonio Vivaldi: Allegro

Freiberg, the old mining city at the foot of the Erz Mountains, was the center of Gottfried Silbermann’s work. Created in his workshop on Schlossplatz (Castle Square) were not only forty-five organs, but also over 200 stringed keyboard instruments. Born in 1683 in Frauenstein in the Erz Mountains, Gottfried Silbermann went in 1702 to his brother Andreas in Strasbourg in order to learn organ building. In 1710 he returned to Saxony and, after meeting Thomaskantor Johann Kuhnau, Bach’s predecessor, found in him a great advocate and supporter. That same year, the only twenty-seven-year-old Silbermann received the commission to build a new organ for the Freiberg Cathedral. From 1711 to 1714 Silbermann and his journeymen built, on an especially erected new organ loft, an organ with forty-four stops on three manuals and a pedal. Johann Kuhnau and Altenburg court organist Gottfried Ernst Bestel inspected and approved the new organ on 14 August 1714 without any objections. As organist and conductor, Albrecht Koch, numbers among the most distinguished personalities in the area of Saxon church music. Since 2008 he has been cathedral cantor and cathedral organist in Freiberg, Saxony. Here, with the Silbermann organ from 1714, one of the most important organs of the Baroque era is entrusted to him. Alongside his activities in Freiberg, Albrecht Koch is an internationally respected artist. Thus, he has made guest appearances at the Bachfest Leipzig, the Dresden Musikfestspiele, the Organ Festival Holland, the Festival Toulouse les Orgues, and the Organ Festival Madeira. Concert tours have taken him throughout Germany as well as to numerous European countries, and repeatedly to Australia. Radio, CD, and film productions, including some nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award, paint a picture of his work.