XAVER VARNUS - BACH

Xaver Varnus

Xaver Varnus plays Toccata and Fugue in D minor (edited by Mendelssohn and Straube) on the great Sauer Organ of the Berliner Dom. Recorded live on the Opening Night of the "Berliner Internationaler Orgelsommer 2013".

Xaver Varnus' first piano teacher was Emma Németh, one of the last pupils of Debussy. He has played virtually every important organ in the world, including those in Bach's Thomaskirche in Leipzig (2014), Berliner Dom (2013), Notre-Dame (1981), Saint-Sulpice (2006) and Saint-Eustache (1996) in Paris, National Shrine in Washington, D.C. (1985), and Canterbury Cathedral (2004), as well as the largest existing instrument in the world, the Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia (1985). His Quadruple Platinum Disc winning album "From Ravel to Vangelis" (SONY, 2007), is the best-selling organ CD ever. As a Canadian citizen, Xaver Varnus resides in Berlin, and in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia Peninsula, where he opened Varnus Hall in a 19th century church. "Put simply, Varnus is a monster talent, every bit as stimulating and individual as the late Glenn Gould" (The Globe & Mail, Canada's National Newspaper). "He is one of the most influential figure in organ music in the early twenty-first century." (Mark Wigmore, The New Classical FM, Canada).  

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