Having previously recorded the Baroque greats such as Handel and Vivaldi, Pamela completes her anthology of eighteenth century favorites with Telemann's Recorder Sonatas and Fantasias. Telemann's legacy as a composer of recorder music is among the richest of the age. The warmth and conviviality of Telemann's writing, the easy beauty of his melodies, as well as the knowing playfulness and ingenuity across many national styles are fully explored in this engaging program. Pamela utilizes a range of recorders in many sizes, known to players in the eighteenth century but only recently again perfected by makers for modern use. Accompanying Pamela are Ensemble Marsyas' Peter Whelan (bassoon), Alison McGillivray (cello), Elizabeth Kenny (archlute/guitar) and Marcin Swiatkiewicz (harpsichord/organ). Telemann's virtuosic 'concerto style' writing provides many opportunities for Pamela to further cement her deserved reputation as 'queen of the recorder'. Pamela Thorby has an international reputation as the UK's most stylish and creative recorder virtuoso. Pamela is most regularly heard on Karl Jenkins' fabulous Adiemus recordings making her possibly one of the most listened to recorder players in the world. Pamela's ability to assimilate many genres of music and her love of improvisation has led to collaborations with leading jazz, folk and pop musicians in an influential career in which she has travelled the world as concerto soloist, chamber musician and orchestral principal. Pamela's numerous and diverse recordings include acclaimed chamber music albums with the much admired Palladian Ensemble and a continuing series of highly praised solo recordings for Linn.

This is rather terrific. It is an example of the transcriber's art as high as Bach's and a whole CD of it, full of Italian concertos we never hear, as well as ones we do. What we have here is a kind of super-abundant version of Bach's arrangements of Vivaldi and others. These are 'concertos after' and reflect the transcriber's skill who has turned them into organ sonatas with some degree of freedom. There was a Vol. 1 of transcribed (Albinoni, Gregori, Telemann, Gentili) and original works which I've not yet heard. Walther was a year older than his distant relative, J. S. Bach. The two became friends when Bach spent time in Weimar. Walther was acknowledged as one of the great organists of his day, playing not only his own compositions but, as Vol. 2 shows, collecting those of other composers.

Born in Erfurt he received tuition from Johann Bernhard Bach. Organist at his home city's St Thomas he formed a friendship, based on much travelling, with Werckmeister, studied with Pachelbel's son, Wilhelm Hieronymus, then studied philosophy back at Erfurt university. As often happens to musical philosophy students in Germany around this time, he finally devoted his energy to music from thenceforth, and was organist at St. Paul's Weimar from 1707, joining the court orchestra by invitation of Duke Wilhelm Ernst, around the time Bach was leaving after the death of his wife.

Walther's own chorale preludes are represented, and 'Mache, dich' with its tinkling effects rather like some of Krebs's later efforts, recall one of the occasional stops no longer used in the organ vocabulary. They're very fine pieces and deserve to be better known. Walther's own modesty and low profile as a composer is the key to their comparative neglect. The transcriptions are suitable for the Italian or Italianate originals, the Vivaldi similar to Bach's and the Manzia unexpected in its use of flute stops. The Blamr is gentle, not quite bland, an attractive composition by someone hardly known to us. The Taglietti is full of panache and the three Torelli concerti that close the volume full of a graciousness one doesn't expect. The single movement d minor is full of questing for the home key, reflective and quasi-churchy. The B flat blows this away in brilliant ceremonials. The a minor is full of bright gothic gloom.

A really enjoyable disc, a true addition, beautifully recorded and played.

-- Simon Jenner, MusicWeb International

For centuries, hymns have transported people through grief, joy, faith and doubt, in everyday life and in times of celebration. The rich treasury of words and music in our hymnbook seeks to preserve and renew tradition. It is a tradition that is far from static, evolving through new interpretations by composers, poets and performers of today. On this recording the three composers Marcus Paus, Marianne Reidarsdatter Eriksen and Morten Christophersen contribute new works based on old hymns. It is here that the hymn tradition reveals it's strength, and old words are discovered anew through new arrangements and compositions. These tracks have been recorded in Immersive Audio. Immersive Audio is a sonic sculpture that you can literally move around and relate to spatially; surrounded by music you can move about in the aural space and choose angles, vantage points and positions.

This set is in MP3 format at 320 kbps.
These eight discs are equivalent to the 17 volume CD series. You will be able to transfer the files directly to your iPod or MP3 player or play the discs on your computer, most DVD players and the latest generation of in car players. The notes to accompany the original CD release of this series are written by Wilfrid Mellers, Jonathan Baxendale and Kevin Bowyer. These texts are reproduced in their entirety and form an extended essay of 42,000 words which is included on Disc 8. It is formatted as a pdf file ready for printing on standard A4 paper. Also on Disc 8 is an excel spreadsheet listing the pieces in 3 ways: by track number, by title and by BWV number.

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Following the success of Nimbus' re-release of their set of Haydn symphonies, conducted by Adam Fischer on MP3 CDs, Nimbus now comes up with another bargain in this format. This 8-CD set of Kevin Bowyer's recordings of Bach's organ works covers nearly 31 hours of music, and is presented in 320 kbps MP3 files. (For those who are interested, the files are encoded with LAME 3.97, using - preset insane). In our review of the Haydn symphonies, reviewer Dominy Clements compared some of the original CDs and the MP3 files, and concluded, "To be entirely honest, I couldn’t really spot any advantages or disadvantages in either in terms of absolute quality." I will echo his comments, having compared the MP3 files of this set to a few of the original Nimbus CDs. Not only do these MP3 files sound excellent, but very few people could reliably spot which files were which in a blind test.

It’s worth noting that Bowyer’s set, at nearly 31 hours, is close to twice as long as most of the other “complete” sets of Bach’s organ works. This is because he plays a number of spurious and mis-attributed works, as well as some works that are generally not played on organ, such as the Toccatas BWV 910-916. So what about the performances? They are generally considered to be one of the finer series of Bach's organ works. I have a number of sets of Bach's organ works, and this one stands out by virtue of the fact that all the music was recorded on a single organ (Sct. Hans Kirke, Odense, Denmark). Many, if not most, other sets are recorded at a variety of locations. Here, the organ itself is beautiful, and the recording is spacious but without too much reverberation. Bowyer's choice of registrations, tempi and phrasing are attractive throughout. You seriously couldn't go wrong with this set, at a price below that of two audio CDs.

-- Kirk McElhearn, MusicWeb International

With this release continues the publication of Marco Enrico Bossi's opera omnia for organ. Here we have more transcriptions of various authors such as Handel, Wagner, Debussy and Saint Saens that deeply fascinated Marco Enrico Bossi in his personal discovery of symphonic and chamber music. For this work Andrea Macinanti uses an important historical instrument: the Cavaillé-Coll organ of the Saint-Antoine des Quinze-Vingts Church in Paris, an instrument specifically built in 1894 for the very wealthy Albert de l'Epée baron for performing Wagner transcriptions that, same as Marco Enrico Bossi, the baron passionately loved. Andrea Macinanti was born in Bologna in 1958. He attained diplomas in organ, harpsichord and voice from the Bologna and Parma Conservatories, and completed his studies with Klemens Schnorr in Munich. He obtained a first class degree in the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at the University of Bologna. He has recorded numerous albums; the most successful include recordings for two organs (with Francesco Tasini) and others released on the TACTUS label of the complete organ works by Ottorino Respighi and Goffredo Giarda, as well as previous recordings of Marco Enrico Bossi.

Giovanni Battista Fasolo most probably composed its Annuale simultaneously to the famous "Fiori Musicali" by Girolamo Frescobaldi; the Annual, however, was delivered to printing only ten years later, in 1645, possibly for editorial reasons because it was the same Venetian printer - Alessandro Vincenti - specialized in keyboard music, to publish both collections. The goal pursued by Fasolo with his Annuale was to provide "tutto quello, che deve far un Organista, per risponder al Choro tutto l'Anno" (everything that an organist has to do, responding to the Choir throughout the year). More than an artistic stand-alone product, the collection was an example of the repertoire suitable to the liturgical service of the time: a compilation of models and forms, styles and modes of composition tha thad to be learned for finally being reused in the daily practice. Unlike Frescobaldi, Fasolo does not provide any toccata intro: a genre completely absent in teh Annuale. On this album organist Luca Scandali is performing three complete masses at the historic Luca di Bernardino da Cortona organ accompanied in alternatim by the ensemble Bella Gerit.

Padre Davide da Bergamo (Felice Moretti) has been the most representative figure of the Italian nineteenth century organ music. Having become a minor friar after studying organ music with Davide Bianchi and Antonio Gonzales, and composition with Simone Mayr, he began a flamboyant career throughout northern Italy as excellent performer and improviser. Soon he became the major reference of his time for consulting, tests and inaugurations of new organs. Lauded by the crowds and by the musicians (in Milan for an inauguration he played almost uninterruptedly for eight days!), he was the greatest and most famous organist of the Italian Risorgimento, the absolute champion of that sound that took the theatrical style to permeate the the organ music and the instrument itself. Marco Ruggeri presents here an interesting selection of works for the liturgy and for the concert, performing them on the Serassi organ of the Basilica of Santa Maria di Campagna in Piacenza: the organ designed by Father Davide himself, where he served until his death.

Canadian-born Michael Unger is a multi-award winner, including First Prize in the 2008 Sixth International Organ Competition Musashino-Tokyo, Japan, and First and Audience Prize in the 2008 American Guild of Organists' National Young Artists Competition.