Josef Rheinberger - German organist and composer

Let’s face the truth: we know awful lot of great pianists and piano composers, but are mostly unaware of gifted and prolific organists. At least so was I until recently – of course, I listened to organ music, but with rare exceptions (like Olivier Messiaen) it wasn’t written by dedicated organists. When I first heard a piece by Josef Rheinberger – it was Organ Sonata No.13 – I felt that a man who wrote it should have spent a considerable part of his life playing organ: without that, I thought, it would be impossible to create a sound that rich. As it turned out, I wasn’t mistaken – Rheinberger played organ since the age of seven and was admitted master of counterpoint. You may find his opus 161 here: Organ Sonata No.13, Op.161.