Bach: The Schnitger Organ of St. Ludgeri in Norden

Kåre Nordstoga

Kåre Nordstoga (b. 1954) studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music under Søren Gangfløt, Bjørn Boysen and Kaare Ørnung, among others. Following his debut concert in 1978, he continued his studies under David Sanger in London, and was for a time organist at Ullern Church before coming to Oslo Cathedral in 1984. He has also been associated with the Norwegian Academy of Music, where he was appointed professor in 1994.

As cathedral organist at Oslo Cathedral, Nordstoga frequently performs a large repertoire, which has included two popular concert series with Bach's complete organ works. His recordings include the organ music of Bach, Brahms, Franck, Widor and Liszt, all of Bach's violin sonatas recorded on the cathedral's chancel organ in collaboration with violinist Geir Inge Lotsberg, as well as several recordings of Norwegian organ music. Nordstoga is an active concert organist.

In recent years he has been soloist with the symphony orchestras of Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim, and he has been invited to organ festivals abroad, including Aarhus, Notre Dame in Paris, and the Musashino Cultural Center in Tokyo. In 2006 he was awarded the Lindeman Prize for his active contribution to musical life.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on 21 March 1685 in Eisenach into an extensive family of musicians. Orphaned by the age of ten, he was raised by his elder brother Johann Christoph in Ohrdruf before receiving a scholarship to the Michaelisschule in Lüneburg in 1700. His first appointment, in 1703, was as a court violinist to Duke Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar, but within months he became organist at the Neue Kirche in Arnstadt, composing his first significant organ works and, in 1705, travelling to Lübeck to study with Dietrich Buxtehude. In 1707 he became organist of St Blasius's Church in Mühlhausen and married his cousin Maria Barbara; the following year he entered the service of Duke Wilhelm Ernst in Weimar as court organist, rising to concertmaster in 1714 and building a reputation as an organ virtuoso. 

In 1717 Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen appointed him Hofkapellmeister, a productive period that yielded much of his instrumental output, including violin concertos and orchestral suites, though it was also marked by the death of his wife in 1720; he remarried the following year to Anna Magdalena Wilcke. In 1723 Bach was elected Thomaskantor in Leipzig, a post he held for the rest of his life, composing there his great vocal works, including the St John and St Matthew Passions and over two hundred cantatas, until his death on 28 July 1750.