organ – Journal für die Orgel 1/2026

Review by Burkhard Schäfer for organ – Journal für die Orgel 1/2026

AI translation with ChatGPT from German

The theme of light in an organ album may at first seem trivial, but here it is anything but—especially since we are dealing with a very particular kind of light: a backlit perspective, something that poses considerable challenges even for visual artists. Angela Metzger’s Choral Visions of Light and Darkness neither relies on the device of chiaroscuro (a term borrowed from painting), nor does it follow the well-trodden path of “per aspera ad astra” or “ex tenebris in lucem.”

Metzger quite literally places Herbert Howells’ Psalm Prelude No. 3, “Though I Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death” (Set 1, Op. 32), at the center of the album, arranging the remaining six works symmetrically around it: Max Reger (opening and closing), Philipp Maintz (b. 1977, whose two compositions appear in positions two and six), and Louis Vierne (tracks three and five).

All of these works approach the theme of light in a subtle manner. Neither Maintz’s chorale prelude XIX, “Wie schön leuchtet uns der Morgenstern”, nor Reger’s Fantasy Op. 40 No. 1 on the same chorale dazzles with virtuosity. The same holds true for Reger’s Dankpsalm Op. 145 No. 2 and Maintz’s chorale prelude III, “Die Nacht ist vorgedrungen.” The only work on the disc that radiates with full brightness is Vierne’s Hymne au soleil Op. 53 No. 3; his Feux follets Op. 53 No. 4 flits far more elusively across manuals and pedals than the hymn.

The sequence and dramaturgy of the program are intelligently conceived and entirely coherent, lending particular weight to Howells’ psalm. Metzger shapes this work, as she does all the others, with calm assurance, richly varied registration, and precisely judged tempi. Particularly striking is the way she harnesses the acoustics and long reverberation of the vast Konstantin Basilica to her advantage.

She allows all the pieces—even Vierne’s toccata-like hymn, but above all Reger’s dense textures—to unfold organically and breathe like living organisms. Nothing feels rushed, driven, or careless. Metzger is a true architect of sound, and she has already demonstrated her technical mastery on her previous album of organ works by Betsy Jolas (NEOS, reviewed in organ 4/2025).

Further welcome discoveries are the two chorale preludes by the Aachen-born Philipp Maintz, presented here in their world premiere recordings. The booklet notes that since 2017 Maintz has been working—modelled on Bach’s Orgelbüchlein—on a cycle of chorale preludes, initially for liturgical use and later also for the concert hall. These are meditative, highly restrained yet finely coloured preludes in which the chorale melodies, though often fragmented, always remain perceptible, and which would deserve a place of honour in The Orgelbüchlein Project (www.orgelbuechlein.co.uk).
In “collaboration” with the symphonically conceived Eule organ of the Trier Konstantin Basilica (87 stops) and the immense acoustics of the original Roman palace hall, Angela Metzger has produced an album that is entirely convincing, both interpretively and conceptually.

Burkhard Schäfer