The organ of the Catholic Parish Church of the Holy Trinity in Kolbermoor was built in 1873 by the local organ builder Jakob Müller from Rosenheim. It is fully mechanical and has 16 registers divided between 2 manuals and the pedals. In his inspection certificate, the Munich cathedral organist at the time, Karl Ziegler, praised the German romantic-oriented instrument with its “powerful round sound in the lower and middle octaves and the full freshness of the flue pipes, which fills the space of the church and inspires the congregation to prayer and joy...” With its characteristically soft, romantic sound, together with the good acoustics of the church, it proved to be the ideal instrument for our CD recording. The repertoire focuses on romantic and late romantic works from Germany and France, complemented by rarities such as Heinz Holliger’s early work Choral, Michel Wiblé’s Meditation, Armando Oliva’s Notturno and George Templeton Strong’s Adagio for English horn and organ. Alongside original works for oboe, oboe d’amore and English horn, a distinctive feature of our CD is the inclusion of a number of compositions originally conceived for solo organ, in which the oboe register is either specified or could be considered a sensible choice.

As early as 1510 an organ stop called Hautbois (loud wood) appears in France, a reed pipe with a short resonator. In England and Germany too, the oboe register, with its soft and gentle sound contrasting with the trumpet, was soon to be part of the standard disposition of any larger organ, sometimes going by the name of Schalmei (shawm). So the organist can use it in two ways: either as a fine, expressive solo stop or in combination with the Principals (Fonds), as can be heard on this recording in the middle section of the the composition by C. Franck, the Fugue, in which exactly this mixture is called for.