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In Reply to: Besides the French composers, who else does pipe organ music well? posted by vacuous on May 17, 2007 at 15:00:25:
Like the others who posted on the topic I love organ music. Sadly however not all are well recorded and some really sound like a dirge. Not surprising with 2 second echoes - where on earth would ever be the best position for mics?I have one gimmicky MC SACD with different organs coming from different speakers - YUK!!!!
John
Do not criticise the idiots in this world - we need them as they make the rest of us look so much better :-)
Follow Ups:
So far I've got just one recording of Bach by organist Biggs, and it does not impress me. Please don't tell me the good stuff is on vinyl and unobtainable, I might just give up this hobby.
Preston on DG and Herrick on Hyperion. One or the other should be on your shelf. Both are very well recorded and contain highly polished performances. Herrick imparts a little more "color and texture" than Preston, IMO and, as a result, is my favorite of the two. To sample some "old school" Bach on interesting instruments or in more idiosyncratic interpretations, you may wish to supplement with some CDs of Karl Richter or Helmut Walcha.Finally, if you REALLY want to go bachlistic and lock yourself up in a temple of attention and sound, I'd like to recommend the book "The Organ Music of J.S. Bach" by Peter Williams (ISBN 0521891159, Cambridge University Press). More than you'll ever need unless you are a professional musician performing these works.
At one point I went through them all, from Rogg, Hurford, and Herrick on to Alain, Chapuis, Ruebsam, Richter, and Preston, and in the end I simply found myself happy with Walcha (the stereo cycle). In Bach what I value most is a certain kind of disciplined, straight-forward, steady, and lucid, almost spartan approach, with clear lines and unexaggerated effects. That's Walcha, but since it's the organ, I also wanted something like a demonstration sound, and found it in a BIS SACD budget set by Hans Fagius (the whole set fits in 5 discs with only SACD stereo layer included). Very good playing, too, if less distinctive and colorful than, say, Rogg, Hurford, and Herrick.
Overall, I liked Preston a lot, most of the things seemed right on his set (except a few irritating tempo decisions and rhythmic articulations, and I hated his "Ich ruf' zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ"; but his Trio Sonatas were magnificent). He could be wonderfully light and also transmit the gravity behind the conception of these works. The sound was often just gorgeous and the perspective great.
At the end of the day I thought Hurford and Herrick were a bit too much (Hurford somehow rushing at times, with some weird accents, Herrick tending to be a bit too flashy for my tastes). Rogg was fascinating rhythmically - there was something really addictive about that propelling force in his playing - but I didn't like his chorales. Alain was disappointingly nondescript; I had had high expectations after much enjoying her Messiaen. And of Chapuis I remember almost nothing. One that was very good and I almost regret having given up is Wolfgang Ruebsam - but only his earlier set on Philips; the playing is wonderfully articulate and transparent, consistently alive and reflecting enthusiasm for the compositions themselves. And in nice sound. Very satisfying. (The few I heard of Ruebsam's later Naxos recordings I remember as awful, totally nonchalant and workaday in comparison.) Karl Richter is always admirable but a bit weighty and grayish to my ears, more old-school in the impression than Walcha whose power of vision and execution keeps you in the grip of these works from beginning to the end.
But it's unfair to summarize any of them with a word, two. All of them offer many riches.
TL
Lionel Rogg, Harmonia Mundi
Marie Claire Alain, Erato
Michael Chapius, Valois/Das Alte Werk
Peter Hurford, Argo
Simon Preston, Argo
nt
his two CDs of Romantic Organ Music recorded on the phenomenal Rieger organ in Ratzeburg, Germany, are quite possibly the finest recordings of organ music of that genre of organ music--ever. Sound-wise, they sure are.Disclaimer--I used to sing in the Ratzeburg Cathedral Choir, although the organ was still in the planning stages when I left there. To this day, I've never heard the organ "live".
Peter Hurford's 2 disc set of "J.S.Bach Great Organ Works", recorded by Decca in the 1970's, and released by London/Decca Records in 1994, is a wonderful introduction to the major organ compositions of J.S. Bach.
I have this on LP but it has been reissued on CD a couple of times, and there is an SACD *only* issue, too. It is pretty spectacular and I might consider getting a reissue but right now only my DVD player will play SACDs. Some Biggs is good . . .
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"Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony."
------Heraclitus of Ephesis (fl. 504-500 BC), trans. Wheelwright.
- http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_m/103-7395229-6325440?url=search-alias=popular&field-keywords=e+power+biggs+four+toccatas&Go.x=12&Go.y=11&Go=Go (Open in New Window)
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