Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck (1770-1846) was a German composer of the Romantic period. A large number of his small organ compositions were lying around in the parish church of St. Rochus in Freidorf (RO) as an old, tattered, loose collection of sheet music; nobody could tell me anything about Rinck at that time. I had my first organ lessons here on the small Wegenstein organ (IP/5) and was allowed to play in church services from an early age. However, it was not a tradition there to enrich the services with solo organ music - my organ teacher and the parish priest agreed on this. Shortly before I left for Germany, I was lucky that neither of them were present for the feast of Christ the King in 1981. On this feast day, I played Rinck “uncontrollably” extensively: the Prelude in E flat major as an intro to the German Mass by Franz Schubert, the Adagio in A flat major instead of a sacramental hymn for communion and the short chorale prelude “Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König” at the end. It was a time to say goodbye forever to communist Romania, but unfortunately also a farewell to continuous organ playing for more than 40 years.
Since this Wegenstein organ does not have a digital sample, I used Augustine's V.O. sample of the Wegenstein organ at the Brasov Reformed Church to play this music with comparable stops for Principal 8', Bourdon 8', Salicional 8', Zergekürt 4', Subbass 16' with Pedal and Octav Copula (Tremolo unused).
The Freidorf organ, which is over 100 years old, is still playable today. It's amazing what you can do with 5 stops!
In grateful memory!
0:00 Preludio
1:30 Communion
3:30 Lobe den Herren
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfQQUgVlh4E
https://www.youtube.com/@rwsonic/videos
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