We congratulate Titus Engel and his collaborators on winning the German Record Critics' Award! Under his direction, the WDR Symphony Orchestra recorded Betsy Jolas' Musique d'hiver, which was released on CD in July 2025 on the NEOS label together with other organ works by the composer.
The recording was even selected twice for the best-of list by expert juries, namely in the categories ‘Keyboard Instruments’ and ‘Crossing Boundaries’. The jury stated: ‘This world premiere recording of organ works by the French composer, born in 1926, confronts the ear with a consistently idiosyncratic and fascinating world of lively sonority that defies all expectations.’
The French-American composer, a pupil of Olivier Messiaen, combines tonal delicacy with conceptual rigour in a unique way, as this first comprehensive recording of her organ works impressively demonstrates.
The large-scale organ concerto Musique d'hiver is at the centre of the album with the multi-award-winning organist Angela Metzger. Premiered in 1971, it remains a reference work for experimental musical thinking to this day - without bar lines, without a common pulse, but full of inner tension and precisely controlled freedom. The work is presented here as premiere recording with the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Titus Engel.
Betsy Jolas: Works for Organ
NEOS 12531
EAN: 4260063125317
