Straube Plays Bach Dean Billmeyer

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): Prelude & Fugue in C Major, BWV 545:
• 1 Prelude & Fugue in C Major, BWV 545: I. Prelude 02:30
• 2 Prelude & Fugue in C Major, BWV 545: II. Fugue 04:36
• Prelude & Fugue in A Major, BWV 536:
• 3 Prelude & Fugue in A Major, BWV 536: I. Prelude 02:32
• 4 Prelude & Fugue in A Major, BWV 536: II. Fugue 05:46
• Fantasie & Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542:
• 5 Fantasie & Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542: I. Fantasie 08:39
• 6 Fantasie & Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542: II. Fugue 06:56
• Prelude & Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543:
• 7 Prelude & Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543: I. Prelude 05:46
• 8 Prelude & Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543: II. Fugue 09:30
• Prelude & Fugue in B Minor, BWV 544:
• 9 Prelude & Fugue in B Minor, BWV 544: I. Prelude 09:07
• 10 Prelude & Fugue in B Minor, BWV 544: II. Fugue 07:47
• Prelude & Fugue in C Major, BWV 547:
• 11 Prelude & Fugue in C Major, BWV 547: I. Prelude 05:31
• 12 Prelude & Fugue in C Major, BWV 547: II. Fugue 07:41
• Prelude & Fugue in F Minor, BWV 534:
• 13 Prelude & Fugue in F Minor, BWV 534: I. Prelude 05:44
• 14 Prelude & Fugue in F Minor, BWV 534: II. Fugue 06:50
• Prelude & Fugue in G Major, BWV 541:
• 15 Prelude & Fugue in G Major, BWV 541: I. Prelude 02:48
• 16 Prelude & Fugue in G Major, BWV 541: II. Fugue 05:49
• Prelude & Fugue in C Minor, BWV 546:
• 17 Prelude & Fugue in C Minor, BWV 546: I. Prelude 08:24
• 18 Prelude & Fugue in C Minor, BWV 546: II. Fugue 08:44
• Prelude & Fugue in E Minor, BWV 548:
• 19 Prelude & Fugue in E Minor, BWV 548: I. Prelude 07:51
• 20 Prelude & Fugue in E Minor, BWV 548: II. Fugue 08:04
• Total Runtime 02:10:35

Info for Straube Plays Bach

In 1913, Karl Straube published his edition of ten Preludes and Fugues by Johann Sebastian Bach, who had been his illustrious predecessor as cantor as St Thomas’s Church in Leipzig. The late Romantic edition’s detailed performance instructions — including fingering, dynamics, phrasing, articulation, and registration — make it a seminal milestone in the performance history of Bach’s organ works. Dean Billmeyer breathes new life into this significant edition, performing the pieces at historic organs built by Wilhelm Sauer. The two instruments heard on this album were completed shortly after the turn of the century: they have retained their original condition and boast an impressively beautiful sound. With great technical skill and sensibility, Dean Billmeyer masterfully transports his audience into the early years of the twentieth century and gives insight into the period’s understanding of Bach’s music. The organist gives listeners an impression of what Bach sounded like when the Romantic era was still the present and had only just begun to become history. Billmeyer is appointed professor at the University of Minnesota. At this university he is the successor of Heinrich Fleischer, a disciple of Karl Staube.

Dean Billmeyer, organ
Michaeliskirche in Leipzig

Dean Billmeyer
Award-winning organist Dean Billmeyer is in his thirty-sixth year at University Organist and Professor of Music at the University of Minnesota. In this capacity, he teaches classes in Counterpoint, Thoroughbass, and Keyboard Skills, as well as Organ Literature and Pedagogy. Billmeyer has appeared as a recitalist and clinician throughout the United States and Western Europe – his performances have consistently been acclaimed by juries and critics in the U.S. and abroad for their technical prowess and interpretive insight. His numerous awards include prizes in the Dublin International Organ Festival Competitions in 1980 and 1988, and the American Guild of Organists has twice awarded him for the highest scores nationally on the Guild Certification Examinations.

Billmeyer’s recent concerts included a three-city, five-recital tour of Germany in 2016, with performances in Freiberg (Saxony), Leipzig, and Delbrück (Paderborn). These concerts included recitals on noteworthy organs in Freiberg (Silbermann Organs of 1714 at the Cathedral and 1735 at the Petrikirche, and in Leipzig (1904 Sauer organ at the Michaeliskirche). A feature interview in the Freiberg Freie Presse appeared during the tour with the headline “Organist and Gentleman”. His double-CD recording of Bach works as edited by Karl Straube is forthcoming on the Rondeau label in the summer of 2018.

Billmeyer’s teachers include the late David Craighead (Eastman School of Music), the late Robert Anderson (Southern Methodist University), and Michael Radulescu (Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Vienna). He has appeared regularly as an organist, harpsichordist, and pianist over the last eighteen seasons with both the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Booklet for Straube Plays Bach