Lukas Hasler - Gold [COMPACT DISCS]

Organist Lukas Hasler presents Gold, a radiant debut album featuring his own transcriptions and arrangements for organ. What began five years ago with a fascination for Mozart's G major Sonata in Edvard Grieg's two-piano version grew into an artistic journey into the transformative world of transcription. Hasler discovered in the organ an instrument capable not only of recreating orchestral and pianistic textures, but of reshaping them into something entirely new. To capture this vision, he turned to the iconic Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, whose expressive possibilities and glowing acoustics inspired both the selection of repertoire and the album's title. Gold offers a rich spectrum of colours and styles, from the jubilant brilliance of Bach's Sinfonia (in Dupré's vibrant transcription) to the tender intimacy of Schumann's Romance, recorded here for the first time on organ. Hasler brings theatrical flair to Lemare's arrangement of Carmen Fantasy, profound stillness to Beethoven's "Moonlight" Adagio, and symphonic vitality to Bruckner's Nullte Scherzo, while Mozart's G major Sonata - filtered through Grieg's imagination and Hasler's own artistry - bridges Classical clarity and Romantic warmth. Rachmaninoff's stormy Prelude, Lefébure-Wély's sparkling Boléro, and the playful, genre-bending Vienna Calling complete a programme that celebrates invention, personality, and the golden richness of the Viennese organ sound.