Australian-Lithuanian organ trio

Yesterday our Australian friend James Flores suggested Aušra and I record manual parts of Eb major trio sonata by Bach and he would record the pedal part and edit the video so that all of us would be visible on the screen. We thought it was an interesting idea and after breakfast practiced and recorded our parts.

Aušra started first with the right hand. It would have been easier to start with the left because the right starts after a couple of measures of rests and she had to count them. When I sat down to record, I had a hard time starting on time. Nevertheless, after a few practice runs I succeeded. After this I uploaded both of our videos to the laptop from the camera, synced with the native Hauptwerk sound file and sent them to James. As I’m writing this, he is uploading the final version with all three of us playing to YouTube. I think I will share the video with you here:

I then practiced and recorded the opening movement of Sonatina Quinta by Krebs. It’s a curious piece in E major in 3/4 meter. Even though it’s short and not really fast, it took me quite a few tries to make it until the end without mistakes.

I hope to finish recording Clavierubung III by Krebs this week and start recording Harmonische Seelenlust by Kauffmann, a fabulous collection of chorale preludes which have original registration indications from Bach’s time.

Then Aušra and I practiced BWV 572 and BWV 566a that we were supposed to perform this Saturday at St Johns’ church. No recitals until the quarantine is over. It was the first time I tried to play some piece with pedals not in a duet. I like Viscount MIDI pedalboard a lot. It’s quite elegant and practical. We made a recording and listened to our practice runs later. I have to admit that listening to Hauptwerk is more fun than playing it on our keyboards.

After lunch we went for a walk. The weather was quite chilly and windy but we saw a pair of swans near the shore in the river which was nice.