After her successful CD "Joy of Bach" (arc17008), the Japanese organist Keiko Nakata presents now a recording of music by Cesar Franck. The symphonic organ music of the romantic era is closely connected to the developments of organ building during the 19th century. Keiko Nakata chooses for her recording the Merklin-Organ of the Cathedral of St. Louis of Blois, on which Franck's markings in the score can be ideally realised. Besides pieces like the Piece Heroique, there are the Three Chorals in the programme. They freely exploit the multiple possibilities of invented choral melodies. This romantic conception leading to the idea of a spiritual concert would later give birth to a new spiritual dimension in music beyond the boundaries of religious offices and rituals. As a result, the liturgical organ embedded with it's Gregorian heritage would step back to allow some space for a new style of organ playing and building to emerge, emulating the great works for piano and orchestra as manifested by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin and Liszt.
