Built between 1922 and 1932, the Grand Organ of Westminster Cathedral is considered by many to be the greatest achievement and crowning glory of Henry Willis III, one of England’s finest organ builders. Organist Robert Quinney plays 10 preludes and overtures works by Brahms, Wagner, and Dupre. “It’s quite an achievement to pull off orchestral transcriptions for the organ that don’t have you missing the original, but Robert Quinney manages this on the magnificent Westminster Cathedral instrument

MENDELSSOHN Organ Sonatas, op. 65 • Jonathan Dimmock (org) • LOFT 1112 (77:44)


Felix Mendelssohn, in addition to being one of the most respected composers, conductors, and one of the greatest pianists of his day, was also one of the finest organists and improvisers of his age. At least on two occasions he produced large-scale collections for the instrument: the Three Preludes and Fugues, op. 37, and the Six Organ Sonatas, op. 65. The sonatas come from the last decade of his life, but rather than being a grand forward-looking statement, they are a synthesis of his lifelong interest in Baroque forms and textures (Bach in particular here) and his own personal style, a fusion that can be seen as early as the youthful Characteristic Pieces, op. 7.


As with many organ recitals, the overall success of a performance is dependent on a variety of factors. The mechanical ability of the organist and his or her personal taste in registration are both important keys. (Mendelssohn himself states that “much depends in these sonatas on the right choice of the stops. … I have given only a general indication of the kind of effect intended to be produced, without giving a precise list of the particular stops to be used.”) Another of the important factors is the instrument that is chosen for the recording and the acoustic of the recording space itself. These last two facets do not always come together fruitfully. Oftentimes, even when an attractive-sounding organ is chosen, the space is less than ideal. Other times, the reverse can be said. Happily, when both of these aspects, along with a talented organist, come together, there is the possibility of a great recording, as is the case here.


Jonathan Dimmock, who has held posts everywhere from Westminster Abbey in London to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, chooses the beautiful-sounding 1787 Holzhey organ in the Kloster Weißenau in Ravensburg, Germany, an organ which, according to him, is virtually unknown. And, if that is true, it is a pity. The organ, while being on the smaller side, has some very attractive features; Dimmock so properly describes its sound as “strong, without being strident, warm, without being muddy, clear, without being self-consciously bright.” These all take place in a stunning acoustical setting. Dimmock, throughout, chooses excellently balanced and nuanced registrations that characterize these sonatas well, from the aggressive opening of the First Sonata to the calm chorale of the Sixth Sonata’s theme. His ease of the difficult pedal passages, along with his free, almost improvisatory way, does much to bring life to these compositions, which in some hands sounds simply mundane.


Though, like many composers, Mendelssohn is remembered for only a handful of works, these lesser-known sonatas provide a well-balanced view of his freedom in formal structures (sonatas that, rather than using sonata-allegro structures, are built more like multimovement suites), elaborate counterpoint, melodic invention, and improvisational skills that were such a part of their composer. Dimmock’s performances are sensitive to many of the details that make this music special: he is lively at times, dramatic when necessary, and equally meditative when called for. Heartily recommended.


FANFARE: Scott Noriega

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.

Prized for its amazing variety of sounds and for its technical complexity, the organ has been used to celebrate powerful rulers and religious institutions since its invention in the third century BC. This CD presents some of the earliest music written for organ, both sacred and secular, played by a leader in the field of early performance practice.

Complete Track List:
From the Faenza Codex: Kyrie cunctipotens genitor Deus; Bel fiore dança; Or sus, vous dormés trop.
From the Robertsbridge Codex: Estampie: Retrové; Motet: Firmissime/Adesto/Alleluya.
From the Groningen MS: Asperance; Empris domoyrs.
From the Ileborgh tablature: Praeambulum 4/Mensura 1; Praeambulum 5/Mensura 3; Praeambulum 3/Mensura 2.
Untitled, from the treatise De musica arte.
From the Buxheimer Orgelbuch: Redeuntes in la; Praeambulum super f; Praeambulum super mi; Praeambulum super C; Redeuntes in Idem.
Chanson settings: Praeambulum super d; Adieu mes tres belle; Praeambulum 1 from the Ileborgh tablature; J’ay pris amours; Praeambulum super G; Portugaler; Praeambulum super C; Se la face ay pale.
Kyrie de Sancta Maria Virgine.
Gloria de Sancta Maria Virgine.

The Book of Psalms is an ancient corpus of 150 texts exploring thanksgiving, lamentation, penitence, and spirituality, which have significantly influenced mythical and secular poetry. Including several premiere recordings, this album features well-loved settings of these treasured words, together with fresh compositions by emerging composers.

When Friedrich Wilhelm Markull died at the age of seventy-one in 1887, posthumous tributes honored him as a “most highly knowledgeable musician and a most highly outstanding organist and composer for the church, school, and salon and of classical orchestral works.” For more than fifty years Markull had played a significant role in Danzig’s music culture. It was in a very dismal state when he began his activity there, but he built it up ex nihilo and brought it to a great flourishing. Andrzej Szadejko has chosen a first attractive selection from Markull’s countless organ compositions and recorded these works on the historic Bucholz organ at the Church of St. Nicholas in Stralsung- a welcome continuation of the very promisingly inaugurated Musica Baltica series. Markull made his musical debut as a child prodigy and was appointed to the post of principal organist at St. Mary’s Church in Danzig. Its organ with three manuals and over fifty stops offered everything that the Northern German romantic musical heart desired. In 1945 St. Mary’s Church was destroyed along with Danzig’s entire city center. Fortunately, however, the sound typical of early romanticism has been preserved for today’s listeners in the lavishly restored Stralsund organ. The many small-format compositions accounting for a large part of Markull’s oeuvre in particular profit from these circumstances. Many of them must have found use during religious services, and among them we find chorale preludes and settings, postludes, and trios. The interpretive markings ranging from “Slow without dragging” through “Lively with a very flowing recital” to “Fiery and animated” are typically romantic and make for a delightfully varied listening experience.

In September 2025 Fretwork return with an album of works for Viol by John Jenkins. Jenkins was a highly active and productive composer who lived through a period of significant transformation in English music, with his lifetime spanning from the era of William Byrd to that of Henry Purcell. He is particularly known for his contributions to the viol consort fantasia, drawing inspiration in the 1630s from a previous generation of English composers such as Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger, Thomas Lupo, and Orlando Gibbons. His work is distinguished by it's rich lyricism, exceptional craftsmanship, and a unique approach to tonality and counter- point. In 2025 Fretwork commemorate the sudden and untimely death of Orlando Gibbons (My Days, SIGCD897), and celebrate the 90th year of Arvo Part with concerts and recordings. In these last decades, they have explored the core repertory of great English consort music from Taverner to Purcell, made classic recordings against which others are judged, and commissioned an entirely new repertory of music for viols. They will celebrate their 40th anniversary in 2026.

BACH Fantasia and Fugue in g, BWV 542. Sheep May Safely Graze. Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue in C, BWV 564. St. Matthew Passion: Finale. Prelude and Fugue in a, BWV 543. Air on a G String. Prelude and Fugue in D, BWV 532. I Call to Thee, Lord Jesus Christ • Virgil Fox (org) • REFERENCE 107 (66:19) Live: San Francisco 9/1976


From Professor Keith Johnson, the man committed to producing state-of-the-art vinyl recordings, who once claimed his company would never succumb to the siren call of CDs, comes this 24-bit HDCD transfer of a live recital given by Virgil Fox on the Ruffatti pipe organ and the Rodgers “Royal V” touring organ in San Francisco’s St. Mary’s Cathedral.


Virgil Fox remains a controversial figure in serious organ circles. Often looked upon as the Liberace of organists, Fox was noted for his flamboyant style and an approach to his craft that often put theatrics above respect for the composers whose music he played. The story, quite possibly apocryphal, is told of a visit Fox paid to the Wurlitzer electric organ factory. VIP that he was, he was conducted on a tour of the facility by the president of the company himself. At tour’s end, Fox was escorted into a sealed, temperature-controlled room that contained a pipe from an actual pipe organ. The president proudly announced that the pipe was used as a standard against which Wurlitzer’s organs were measured. To which Fox replied, “Fancy that, a real organ pipe in an electric organ factory! That’s like finding bird poop in a cuckoo clock!”


Not that Fox ever showed much discernment for the instruments he played on. His was a phenomenal technique often wedded in equal proportion to excess and lack of taste. His last years in particular, devoted to his “Heavy Organ” concerts and psychedelic light shows, were especially sad; though in his defense it could be said that he exposed many young people of that generation (the late 1960s and early 1970s)—even if it was through a haze of pot smoke—to the world of classical music.


This will not be a CD for those who take a serious view of the organ in general or of Bach’s masterpieces for the instrument in particular. But no one can take away from Fox his virtuosity or his showmanship. Nor can anyone take away from this recording its astonishing presence and stunning sound. For an organ spectacular to impress friends and alienate neighbors, recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Thirty-one-year-old organist Kevin Bowyer has already made a reputation for setting himself the kind of challenges that would make most organists blanch. He has championed the monumental organ symphonies of Sorabji and recorded organ music by Brahms and Alkan. But in embarking on a complete cycle of Bach's organ works he has surely set himself the ultimate challenge for a recording artist. To open the series, he has opted for the 'recital programme' format, rather than focusing attention on one particular generic form, and Volume I provides an attractive shop window of Bach's diverse styles for the inquisitive, if not yet commited purchaser. Bowyer chooses to play a three-manual mechanical-action Marcusson organ, and it is indeed an excellent choice. The sound is clear and bright, and the acoustics perfect for good articulation in fast passage-work. Kevin Bowyer's playing is stylish throughout, but most especially in the show-piece items which frame the programme. The opening rhetorical flourishes of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor WWV 565 which (typically) introduces the programme really cut through the air, and the Fugue is taken at a cracking pace. The Fantasia and Fugue in G minor BWV 542 is played with similar flair and imagination.

-- Stephen Haylett, BBC Music Magazine

Messiaen: The Mystical Colors of Christ - Explore the musical sound-world of French composer Olivier Messiaen in this collection of his organ works based on events from the life of Christ. The program booklet includes beautiful original artwork created especially for the recording, and insightful notes on the featured works. Recorded by the organists of Gloriae Dei Artes Foundation, on the E.M. Skinner organ of the Church of the Transfiguration. "At approximately 100 ranks, it has a wonderful clarity and color, and the performers do it ample justice. All three performers are up to the formidable task of recreating Messiaen's music very much, one feels as he envisioned it. " - The Diapason

In Johann Sebastian Bach's six organ sonatas, three independent voices sound interchangeably. The right hand plays the highest voice, the left hand the middle voice and the feet the bass. A true musician wants to play each voice as if for the first time, responding spontaneously to what the others bring up. To bring such a sung conversation to life with hands and feet, he listens with equal attention and love to all the voices simultaneously. It is a miracle that it can be done. When it succeeds, it all seems simple and natural. A world opens up to the listener, in which it is hardly imaginable that there is anything more beautiful than a trio sonata by Bach.

Composers search for inspiration in the past- they study and learn from their predecessors, often borrowing ideas and taking them in new directions. The two praeludia by Dietrich Buxtehude, both composed in the stylus phantasticus (fantasy style) serve as a basis for us to follow some such musical borrowings. Buxtehude's compositional style had a direct influence in J.S. Bach and his successors. New ideas grew out of the stylus phantasticus, influencing later composers such as Franz Liszt and Petr Eben, who heralded the past and proclaimed the future by writing new forms of the praeludium inspired by Buxtehude's style. Gayle Martin is Associate Professor of Music at Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, where she is University Organist and teaches organ performance, musicianship, choral conducting, introduction to conducting, and music history. She also directs the Elliott Chorale, and coaches the early music group, Opella Nova.

The legendary late American organist, composer, and pedagogue McNeil Robinson was especially prized for his skill at improvisation: a rare discipline largely restricted to European masters of the organ. Many distinguished composers of his day—including Marcel Dupré, Ned Rorem, Lukas Fossand Vincent Persichetti—were his regular collaborators, providing thematic materials for his peerless improvisatory events. Robinson himself regarded this revelatory March 21, 2006 performance of improvisations on the fourteen Stations of the Cross—a treasured ritual of sacred Christian liturgy—as the finest of his improvisatory efforts. His dying wish was to have it released to the musical public as the pinnacle of his storied legacy, hence this marvelous live recording of the event.

Continuing their Magnificat series, and the last album of Andrew Nethsingha's tenure as director, The Choir of St John's College Cambridge present Magnificat 4 with works from composers including Judith Weir, Jonathan Dove, Joanna Forbes L'Estrange and Charles Villiers Stanford. The album also features 'Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis' by Piers Connor Kennedy, commissioned for the choir.

The third volume in our series of Charles-Marie Widor’s Organ Symphonies, performed by Joseph Nolan on the magnificent Cavaillé-Coll organ of L’église de la Madeleine, Paris. Bridging the generations from Mendelssohn to Messiaen, Empire to Republic, Widor was born to the organ. His Lyonnaise kinsfolk were organ-builders, he showed early talent for the instrument, and for decades was the embodiment of its might and splendour across the Gallic domain - his ‘Organ Symphonies’ were genre-defining in their influence.

Joseph Nolan is an internationally renowned organist, acclaimed as ‘brilliant and such an astute musician’ (Gramophone UK). He was appointed to Her Majesty’s Chapels Royal, St James’s Palace in 2004, and has since been invited to perform and record in some of the world’s premiere venues – including the refurbished Organ of Buckingham Palace Ballroom and the Organ of Saint- Sulpice in Paris.

"Gothic music meets Gothic organ here in performances that encompass a broad expressive spectrum from quiet meditation to dramatic thunder and lightning.” The Times

Vanderbilt University-based organist Carl Smith takes us on a pleasant little tour of some Tudor-era church music, visiting works by important contributors to the period's organ repertoire, most importantly John Redford, Thomas Tallis, and Thomas Tomkins. The pieces are typically short (most less than two minutes) and highly refined in their use of imitation and other developmental, structural devices. Most organs in England during the 16th and 17th centuries contained two manual divisions; pedal keyboards were virtually non-existent. Resources were relatively limited regarding registral compass and stops, especially compared to, say, instruments available in northern Germany at the time, and thus most English organ music of this period is for manuals only, the forms basic and unelaborate. Which is not to say the music by these very accomplished composers is uninteresting or inelegant.


On the contrary, the pieces on this program show the same high level of invention and craft that we hear in these same composers' more lauded choral compositions. Beyond that, it's up to the organist to bring the music to life, to carefully measure and sensitively balance its melodic and harmonic elements relative to period style and the constraints of a given instrument. And for these reasons--and for this repertoire--the choice of instrument is very important. Which brings us to Carl Smith, who is a serious student of English keyboard music and who has selected two different yet entirely appropriate American organs (one of which is featured on the CD cover) for his performances. The first, which he uses for 21 of the disc's 30 tracks, is an organ of modest specifications, dominated by fundamental flue stops; the second is more varied in voices and colors, featuring a nice selection of mutations, mixtures, and reeds, in addition to the basic flue stops. Smith is quite adept at utilizing his resources, keeping things interesting by often subtle variations in color and texture. In other words, this recital is very easy to listen to--and it's expertly played and recorded. Highlights include Redford's Te lucis ante terminum, a distant cousin of Bach's chorale preludes, and the wonderfully weird, anonymous La Mi Re.


I often wonder who is the intended audience for recordings such as this. The liner-note information regarding the organs and registrations employed is totally insufficient to satisfy organ aficionados--and the rather specialized content leaves it pretty much outside the realm of "non-organic" listeners. Fortunately, I like this kind of music and I was lucky enough to get to hear this CD; if you're of like mind, hopefully you'll make a point to hear it too. [11/3/2006]
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Christmas with Bach: Gerhard Löffler, the organist at the Church of St. James in Hamburg, has selected this title for his MDG debut. And to it we may add: "And with Arp Schnitger." After all, Schnitger's masterpiece of organ design in St. James is not only the largest instrument by this Northern German organ builder, whose death three hundred years ago is being commemorated in 2019, but also has what qualifies as the most important extant original pipework from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With these resources it very much makes it's presence felt in the music and interpretation. And when captured in magnificent three-dimensional sound on this Super Audio album, it is guaranteed to spread the Christmas spirit throughout the year.

A total of four organs group themselves around the listener in three dimensions in St. Michael's Church in Hamburg, and all four instruments are spectacularly employed on this Super Audio album. Church music director Christoph Schoener has designed a very special program for the organs in his workplace: music by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy that has never been heard before in just this way. Schoener pulls all the stops on the central console and covers a spectrum ranging from the complete late-romantic forces of the entire organ system to the filigree murmuring of individual tone colors. A special treat: a solo for the echo organ installed high above in the ceiling sphere! The Six Preludes and Fugues op. 35 forming the focus here, though originally intended for the piano, create a phenomenal impression on the massive St. Michael's organ in this arrangement by Christoph Bossert. After all, it was Mendelssohn, who after the organ's Viennese classical "dry spell," supported the rehabilitation of this instrument. Accordingly, numerous piano pieces by him are ideally suited for transfers into the organ's much mightier sound dimension. Things get underway with the so very famous "Wedding March" from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Even if many a bride and groom have entered many a church to this music, on this recording it is as if the listener could reach out and embrace the bride. Whether a "Song Without Words," a lovingly supplied fragment, or a "Theme with Variations," this Mendelssohn recording is a perfect complement to the Bach, Brahms, and Reger editions with which Christoph Schoener has brought delight to the organ world and beyond.

Johann Sebastian Bach trained his many sons to be the finest organists of their time, yet hardly any organ music survives from them. Through transcription, improvisation, and other acts of imaginative re-creation this recording reunites Bach and his boys for a program that recaptures the virtuosic panache, commanding counterpoint, impressive poise, and exuberant excess of this first family on the organ. Played by award-winning Bach scholar and organist David Yearsley on Cornell University's reconstruction of a Berlin organ from 1706, known to at least one of the Bach sons, this program explores new dimensions not only of Johann Sebastian's towering achievement but also of the kinds of now-lost contributions the next Bach generation might have made to their family instrument's long and glorious history.