# J.S. Bach "en España"



## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

Today's _Once Upon the Internet_ presents tracks uploaded from the site _johann-sebastian-bach.org _which a few years ago discontinued the distribution of "complete" works, only offering samples or streaming content). We owe the site to Michael Reckling, a trained German organist and visual artist who moved to Spain over 40 years ago.

Reckling, who frequented the Church of Our Lady of the Incarnation of Marbella was impressed with the location's acoustics, and he took upon himself to engage Monsignor Rodrigo Bocanegra (at that time pastor of the Church) in 1970 to support this initiative. The ambitious project would yield the first large tracker organ and one of the most important instruments built in Spain in the 20th Century: the _Organo Del Sol Mayor._ The fine construction was carried out between 1971 and 1975 by the master organ builders Gabriel Blancafort and Joan Capella from Collbató, at their workshop near Barcelona.








The organ is composed of almost 5,000 pipes, made of pewter, copper and wood, 4 manual keyboards with 56 notes in each, a complete pedal of 32 notes and a 16 feet principal at the façade. The largest pipe of the organ is six meters tall and weighs almost 100 kilos.

Since 1972, Michael Reckling has been the titular organist and the curator of the instrument as well as the organizer and sponsor of nearly all the concerts, leaving the position in 2004 to undertake a similar project at the Valladolid Cathedral (an Allen electronic-digital organ).

Since its inauguration in 1975, national and international artists alike have participated in the more than 100 concerts given on the instrument. One of the local artists who has been featured on the Marbella organ is Pilar Cabrera, who is the titular organist of the new concert organ at Valladolid's Metropolitan Cathedral in Northern Spain.

(I hope you won't mind programming BWV 540 for a second week in a row...)

*Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)*

Cantata Nº29 - Symphony	
Ian Tracey

Triosonata Nr. 4 in E minor BWV 528 
Triosonata Nr. 6 in G major, BWV 530
Prelude and Fugue in D major BWV 532
Pilar Cabrera

Toccata and Fugue in F major BWV 540 
Jonathan Rees-Williams

Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor BVW 582
Nun kommt der Heiden Heiland - BWV 699
Herzlich tut mich verlangen - BWV 727
IanTracey

INSTRUMENT: Organo del Sol Mayor
Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación, Marbella, Spain
Live performances 1982-86
Downloaded from johann-sebastian-bach.org, 2006

_Internet Archive _URL - https://archive.org/details/108ToccataAndFugueInFMajorBWV540

*March 20 2014, "I Think You Will Love This Music Too" will feature a new podcast "Concertos Without Soloist" at its Pod-O-Matic Channel . Read more on our blogs in English  and in French.*


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