Karl Hoyer Organ Miniatures vol.4

Karl Hoyer Organ Works vol.3

Karl Hoyer Organ Sonatas

The incentive to record the album with organ music of Karl Hoyer was becoming familiar with the profile and works of the composer, who is not closely known to the Polish music community. Contributions regarding the person of Karl Hoyer have been published so far only in the form of a few articles in such magazines as: Musik und Kirche (Oliver Hilmes, Karl Hoyer (1891-1936) in Musik und Kirche 66, 1996, p. 291-297) and Weißenfelser Heimatbote (Heinz Bretschneider, Prof. Karl Hoyer: bed. Orgelvirtuose u. Komponist aus Weißenfels in Weißenfelser Heimatbote; Vol. 3, No. 1 (1994), p. 12-13). Hoyer’s name does not appear in the biggest encyclopedias and is only mentioned in few musical lexicons (Grove Music Online, Handbuch Orgelmusik, Lexikon der Orgel, Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Riemann Musiklexikon,).

The pieces were recorded from 14 to 17 October 2019 in Michaeliskirche in Leipzig on a 46-stop Wilhelm Sauer organ from 1904, which was restored between 1996 and 1999 by the company of Christian Scheffler.

 

Karl Hoyer Organ Works

This album is a second in a planned series of the organ work recordings of Karl Hoyer – German composer at the turn of the 19 th and 20 th centuries. Karl Christian Hoyer was born on 9 January 1891 in Weißenfels an der Saale. From 1907 to 1911, he studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Leipzig. During the period of his studies, Hoyer was deputy to Karl Straube in Thomaskirche in Leipzig and consecutively a cathedral organist in Tallinn, in Jakobikirche in Chemnitz and Nikolaikirche in Leipzig. He was a lecturer in organ playing and liturgical accompaniment at the Church Music Institute in Leipzig. He performed, inter alia, in Leipzig, Berlin, Wrocław, Munich, Bremen, Hamburg, Dresden, Rostock and Augsburg. He died prematurely on June 12, 1936, due to complications being result of a motorbike accident which took place on May 27.  

The pieces were recorded from the 2nd to 4th September 2021 at the Lutherkirche in Chemnitz on the 50-stop 1908 Wilhelm Sauer organ Opus 1011 which was restored between 2006-2007 by Christian Scheffler’s company.

 

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