Alina Rotaru, Organ

Dulcis Memoria. Organ Music from the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth
Alina Rotaru, Renaissance Organ in Uttum (East Frisia)

Works by Hans Leo Hassler, Giovanni Picchi, Orazio Vecchi, Jakob Meiland, Petrus de Drusina, Johannes Caioni, Diomedes Cato, Adam von Wągrowiec, Ivo de Vento, as well as by various anonymous composers.

Alina Rotaru showcases the beautiful sound of the magnificent Renaissance organ in the Evangelical Reformed Church in Uttum (East Frisia, northwestern Germany) with Italian, Franco-Flemish, German, and Eastern European works.
Although the repertoire has been handed down in sources from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it appears tailor-made for this organ, which provides an ideal tonal foundation for the music of the 16th and 17th centuries. The informative booklet text highlights that the instrument is of European significance and that its tonal character is part of a historical and musical continuum within organ-building that stretches from the Netherlands to the Baltic region.
At the Krummhörner Orgelfrühling 2024 organ festival, Alina Rotaru’s performance of this repertoire on the organ in Uttum was perceived as an impressive fusion of historical sound culture and spirited interpretation. This new recording, made using high-quality ULSI recording technology, permanently captures this special encounter and makes it available to a wider audience.
This recording is the first CD dedicated entirely to this organ since its restoration was completed in 2021.

Alina Rotaru
A distinguished musician, Alina Rotaru is internationally renowned as an outstanding interpreter of early music. Her artistic focus is on historical keyboard instruments, particularly the harpsichord and organ, and she has already made a name for herself with various highly acclaimed recordings (Froberger, Sweelinck, English virginal music). For this recording in Uttum, she combines her extensive experience of Renaissance and Baroque repertoire with the distinctive sound of a unique historical instrument.

The Organ in the Evangelical Reformed Church in Uttum
Among the historic organs of the northwestern German region of East Frisia, the organ in Uttum is a special gem. It took on its current form around 1660 but contains older pipes dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. Following two landmark restorations —in 1956–1957 and another in 2020–2021—it was named “Organ of the Year” by the Orgelklang Foundation. Its powerful yet elegant, colorful, and immediate sound, combined with meantone temperament (with pure major thirds), make it an ideal instrument for music from around 1600.

Repertoire and Organ
From the booklet text by Krzysztof Urbaniak (Bremen/Kraków):
"The exceptionally well-preserved organ in Uttum is an instrument that belongs to the North European organ-building tradition of the late Renaissance and early Baroque. As a technical and sonic phenomenon, however, it is not limited solely to the northern regions of present-day Germany and the Netherlands. The intensive contacts between the Hanseatic cities also led to Northern European organ-building concepts being transmitted over considerable distances. ...
... the flue pipes of the Uttum organ, made from a lead-rich alloy, as well as its reed stop [Trompete 8’] featuring open shallots and a bright, transparent tone, find close parallels in 17th-century instruments from the territories of Poland and Lithuania [...].
From this perspective, Alina Rotaru presents the Uttum organ through a repertoire that may appear unusual but is unified by the broader cultural context of one of the significant political, administrative, and cultural entities of early modern Europe: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795).
... the repertoire of this recording [is] part of a coherent yet multi-layered cultural space. It is neither purely local nor simply imported, but rather the result of continuous circulation and adaptation across regions, institutions, and confessional boundaries.
In this context, the organ in Uttum serves not as a neutral medium, but as an instrument capable of reconstructing this practice through an appropriate palette of timbres. Its qualities – clarity of texture, definition of individual voices, and the character of its reed stop – correspond closely to the demands of intabulated polyphony, while also allowing the idiom of functional and dance-derived forms to emerge with great clarity."

ULSI- Recording Technique
ULSI, Ultra Linear Stereo Image, is the proprietary stereo technique by Erik Sikkema (Surte, Sweden). Advantages of ULSI: Natural sound balance in the lower octaves; precise stereo image; reduced low frequency disturbance from keyboard and pedal actions; natural dynamic behavior; greatly improved stereo depth.

Call for Support (external info)
To produce this recording of one of the world’s most beautiful-sounding organs using state-of-the-art recording technology, we – Alina Rotaru and Ibo Ortgies (executive producer) spared no expense! If you'd like to support this project with your donation, you can contribute here:
Contributions to Account holder: Ev.-reformierte Kirchengemeinde Jennelt (Reformed Protestant Parish Jennelt, East Frisia), IBAN: DE 06 2835 0000 0145 4218 71, BIC: BR LADE 21 ANO.
Important: Please be sure to include the payment reference "CD Alina Rotaru"!

CD programme / Tracklist: