Organ Club Journal

Marian Sawa lived his entire life in Poland (1937-2005) , a graduate of the Salesian School and from 1973 a member of the faculty of the Chopin Music Academy. During his lifetime he wrote about 800 pieces with the organ forming the core of his output.

His compositions were a mainstay of all Polish competitions, but his influence does seem to have remained within Poland. Some of his music is based on Gregorian Chant. On this disc, Carson Cooman plays nine of his organ works written between 1971 and 2005. Included are a Dance Suite, Aria, a five-part Suite of Organ Music and Passacaglia II.

The organ used is St Ludgerus, Billerbeck (4/71 by Orgelbau Fleiter in 2014) but via Jiri Zurek’s Hauptwerk system, so favoured by this recording company*. As always, with Cooman, very musical. An interesting CD.

*footnote: the Hauptwerk system is not ‘favoured’ by Divine Art though its benefits are many – it is used by us only for recordings by Carson Cooman (and not all of those)

—Mark Jameson