I wonder how many have even a clue that Wilhelm Kempff, the great iconic pianist lauded for his remarkable interpretations of the great classics (particularly Beethoven and Schubert), actually even played the organ... Yet, by the age of ten he was ‘depping’ for his father, the Könglicher Musikdirektor of the Nikolauskirche in Potsdam.
Later, upon completing studies at the Berlin’s Könglischen Akademie der Künste in 1904 - and where his teachers included a pupil of Brahms - he went to Scandinavia to accompany the Berlin Domchor, demonstrating his virtuosity on both organ and piano. During this tour, the Archbishop of Uppsala, Nathan Sœderblom became one of his influential patrons.
The organ as a political medium...
It was to Sœderblom that Kempff dedicated this rather magnificent and completely ignored work: in 1917 Kempff was in the military hospital in Sedan – and it was during this stay that he composed it. Appalled by the horros and suffering of the Great War, this work was a plea for peace (hence its subtitle). It is an impassioned work of searing power that recalls the great works of Kempff’s compatriot, the great Max Reger, whose dynamic influence can be seen in so much of its sweeping virtuosity and dramatic timing.
Although Kempff’s outstanding career as a pianist didn’t allowed him much time away from that instrument, his love for the organ remained a lifelong passion (which, I am sure, will surprise many a pianist...).
This performance comes from the recital I gave closing the 2003 London Organ Day. It made a powerful opening piece, the splendid Rieger organ in St Marylebone a perfect voice for the work – the dry acoustic perhaps less so.
Listening to the recording after all these years, I really must play the work again and more...
PS. The inserted photo of me was taken at Berlin Dom in 2004: Kempff would, of course, have known and played that magnificent Sauer instrument and perhaps he even played this piece there............
