Sonata by a 19-year-old

His great oratorio Le Laudi di San Francesco d'Assisi appears here and there on concert programs, but other works are rarely heard. It is therefore all the more commendable that the early organ sonata in D major by the Swiss late Romantic composer Hermann Suter (1870-1926) is appearing in print for the first time on the 150th anniversary of his birth. Born in Kaiserstuhl and raised in Laufenburg, Suter initially worked in Zurich, including as organist of the Enge church and as a teacher at the conservatory. In 1902, his path led him to Basel, where he directed choirs and orchestras and served as director of the conservatory and music school. In his younger years, Suter still appeared relatively regularly as an organist; he was instrumental in the design of the first organ in Basel's Stadtcasino, where he also made his last appearance as a concert organist in 1906. The 19-year-old wrote his organ sonata in D major in an astonishingly short time during his studies in Stuttgart; an excellent foreword by the editor Matthias Wamser outlines the genesis of the three-movement work.

Even if the sonata still follows the classical model and shows little originality, one is nevertheless amazed at the young composer's technical skill, who in the first movement draws the material for the two contrasting themes from a short introductory gesture and also employs narrowing, inversion and augmentation of the theme in the concluding fugue. Particularly beautiful: the second movement, which Suter and some of his colleagues are known to have performed individually and of which the new edition also reproduces a second copy with different performance markings.

The work does not present any particular technical difficulties and can also be adapted for instruments that do not necessarily have the stoplist of a large late-romantic organ. As the autograph can be consulted online at the University Library of Basel, the registration notes that have survived in it have not been reproduced; however, the editor comments on them briefly and refers to the relevant sources. Conclusion: an enriching addition to the relatively small Swiss organ repertoire from that period.

Hermann Suter: Sonata in D major for organ solo, edited by Matthias Wamser, 36 p., Fr. 28.00, published by SKMV, Freiburg