Organ
Instrument
Recordings featuring the pipe organ, from Baroque liturgical repertoire to large concert works. The instrument and the building it stands in shape the sound together.
942 products
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Verbum caro factum est: A Christmas Greeting / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS · Nov 2018SACD$21.99 -
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Pasquini: Sonatas For Two Organs / Luca Scandali, Hadrien Jourdan
Brilliant Classics · Jun 2013CD$13.99 -
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Erich, Saxer & Druckenmuller: Complete Organ Music / Tomadin
Brilliant Classics · Jun 2016CD$13.99 -
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With More Than A Hundred Pipes - Music For Pan Flute And Organ / Hanspeter Oggier, Sarah Brunner
Brilliant Classics · Sep 2020CD$13.99 -
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Van Veen: Piano Music, Vol. 2 / Audience, Flute Octet Blow Up
Brilliant Classics · Jul 2018CD$56.99
Verbum caro factum est: A Christmas Greeting / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki have sung of the wonders of Christmas a number of times, in Bach’s cantatas and Christmas Oratorio as well as in Handel’s Messiah. Here, instead, we hear the choir a cappella in a selection of classic Christmas carols. Masato Suzuki, son of the ensemble’s founder and director, has selected some of the best-loved songs of Christmas, such as Adeste fideles and Silent Night, as well as less familiar hymns, arranging them especially for these singers. A consummate organist, he also performs a number of Louis-Claude Daquin’s noëls variés – keyboard variations on Christmas songs which became a highly popular genre in 18th-century France.
REVIEWS:
The performances are typically classy, and punctuated by a selection of Daquin’s ‘Noels’ for solo organ, played with peppery registrations by Suzuki.
– BBC Music Magazine
The performances themselves are superb, as one would expect from this outstanding chorus. Masato Suzuki dazzles us with his virtuosity...
-- American Record Guide
Bach: Organ Works, Vol. 4 / Masaaki Suzuki
This album was released in the summer of 2023; it may not have been intended as a Christmas album, but it would make a wonderful purchase at that time.
The fourth volume of Masaaki Suzuki’s Bach works for organ series features one of the most important surviving instruments of Bach’s time, made by the German organ builder Christoph Treutmann the Elder. Widely known for its extraordinary tonal quality, the instrument was built between 1734 and 1737. A recent general restoration preserved all essential structural elements or renewed them, remaining faithful to the originals, making it an ideal instrument for Bach interpreters who wish to come close to the sound ideas of the Leipzig Thomaskantor.
Suzuki now takes up the Orgel-Büchlein (literally, ‘little organ book’), a collection of 45 short chorale preludes on melodies from the Lutheran hymn book, a project that came into being in connection with Bach’s appointment as organist and chamber musician at the Duke’s court in Weimar in 1708. Presenting chorales for different periods of the church year, this collection serves as a general guide to text-based composition focusing on specific word-sound relationships and content-specific musical expression. Two Preludes and Fugues complete the first volume dedicated to the Orgel-Büchlein, illustrating the principle of variety and structure historically practised by concert organists in order to demonstrate the tone colours and expressive possibilities of their instrument.
REVIEW:
The great Masaaki Suzuki’s traversal of Bach’s keyboard music is well underway, and several attractions have become clear. In general, he is a bit less concerned with a pearly surface and a bit more with direct expression. In works for organ, he has shown a willingness to delve into period instruments, and the one here is a real find. Suzuki is willing to take a bit of time to bring out its colors; there is nothing too radical, but there are subtle adjustments to the tempo throughout that define the profile of each little ornamented chorale, and all the performances are vivid. This album was released in the summer of 2023; it may not have been intended as a Christmas album, but it would make a wonderful purchase at that time.
-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)
Seicento Stravagante - Violino over cornetto
The Festival Organ of the Klosterneuburg Abbey Basilica
French Organ Music / Petur Sakari
The French organ tradition is one of the strongest and proudest in all of 20th-century music, to the point of forming a genre of its own. Standing on the shoulders of predecessors such as Franck and Widor and composing for instruments built in the glorious tradition of Cavaillé-Coll, a group of organist-composers created a number of works central to the organ literature; works which in spite of their great variety combine to form a highly characteristic repertoire. The young organist Pétur Sakari has gathered five such composers on his first disc for BIS, performing their music on the famous organ of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris. The five composers are all interconnected - Charles Tournemire and Louis Vierne studied together (under Franck), Maurice Duruflé studied under Tournemire and was Vierne's assistant at Notre Dame, and Marcel Dupré counted Vierne (and Widor) among his teachers and himself taught Olivier Messiaen. And although Pétur Sakari hails from Finland, he is also to an extent part of this great tradition, as the student of Thierry Escaich and Vincent Warnier, successors of Duruflé and his wife Marie-Madeleine as organists of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont. Sakari's selection brings together key works such as the hugely taxing Prelude and Fugue in B major by Dupré, Vierne's fantasy on the Bells of Westminster and Messiaen's meditative and atmospheric Celestial Banquet. The opening work on the disc is Tournemire's powerful improvisation on the Easter plain-chant Victimae paschali laudes, recorded in 1930 and later transcribed by Duruflé, whose own monumental Suite closes the recital. Throughout, Pétur Sakari - at the age of only 21 - gives proof of a mastery of the organ and a musicianship which promise great things to come. *playing the great organ of the Saint-Étienne-du-Mont Church, Paris
Aho: Ludus Solemnis / Lehtola
A companion to Jan Lehtola’s recording of Kalevi Aho’s (b. 1949) monumental organ symphony ‘Alles Vergängliche’, this present disc includes five smaller Aho pieces for organ solo, as well as three compositions for organ and other instruments. + Mr. Lehtola has appeared with the leading Finnish orchestras, performed at international festivals and given recitals in leading European churches and concert halls. + He has had works written for him by several composers, including Kalevi Aho.
Neapolitan Organ Music / Emanuele Cardi
Out of the recently founded 'Neapolitan School' came a wealth of celebrated composers as well as the gradual romanticisation of the organ, which acquired new 'concert stops' in addition to a complete pedalboard; this release focuses on bringing to light the variety of music that started to be written for the newly improved instrument. As well as including the esteemed names of Pergolesi, Scarlatti and Durante, the recording takes in contemporaries whose music proves no less lively or elegant: from Porpora, particularly famed for his vocal music, to de Majo, from Alitieri to Zingarelli, the latter of whose sonatas reflect the prevalent style galante, the lively and brilliant style of the works draws attention to the then dominance of operatic culture across all musical genres.
The pieces are performed by keyboardist Emanuele Cardi, a Renaissance and Baroque specialist who also takes an active interest in the restoration of ancient organs. The recording was made in the Church of San Nicola di Bari in Italy, whose 1889 Giuseppe Picardi organ faithfully reflects the stylistic evolution detailed above.
Other information:
- Recorded 27--28 January 2013.
- A fascinating picture of musical life in Naples in the second half of the 18th century. Naples was then one of the musical capitals of Europe, housing a wealth of musicians, composers and an audience hungry for new music.
- The new style, as introduced by composers like Pergolesi, Scarlatti and Durante was a brilliant mixture of elegance, wit and the innate Italian flair for a good tune.
- Organist Emanuele Cardi finds the right sunny touch on the historic Giuseppe Picardi Organ (1889) in Bari, Italy.
Booklet contains information on the works, the organ and the artist.
Muffat: Complete Apparatus Music-Organisticus / Falcioni
The Apparatus originally consisted of 12 toccatas, but in a later edition three pieces were added to the set: Ciacona, Passacaglia and Nova Cyclopeias Harmonica. The organist is certainly put to the test, what with the scales, the leaps, double trills and a wide variety of figures that express 'contrasting affections' in the works -- the last of which alludes to the story of Pythagoras, who discovered the foundations of musical tuning by listening to the hammering of a blacksmith on various anvils. Brilliant Classics regular, Adriano Falcioni -- whose previous recordings for the label include Duruflé's Complete Music for Choir and Organ (9264) -- performs this magnum opus with aplomb, revealing the skill of a composer who is credited with being the first musician to introduce the Italian concerto grosso and the French suite to the German-speaking countries.
Other information:
- Recorded 15--17 May 2013.
- Georg Muffat was a cosmopolitan artist. In a time when no work permits were needed he travelled Europe and worked in Strassbourg, Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Rome and ultimately in Salzburg, at the court of the Archbishop.
- Like a musical sponge he absorbed every current style of his time in his music, which contains Italian melodiousness, French ornamentations and Germany's severe structures and counterpoint. He published a volume of organ works which became immensely popular among musicians, containing a series of Toccatas, Ciaconas and Passacaglias, works of the highest technical order: the Apparatus Musico-organisticus, a survey of all instrumental and compositional tricks and accomplishments of the time.
- Adriano Falcioni, one of the foremost organists of Italy, offers impressive performances of this complete collection, showing great insight into the styles and performance practice.
- Booklet contains information on the music, artist and the organ.
Bach at Amorbach / Kynaston
Pasquini: Sonatas For Two Organs / Luca Scandali, Hadrien Jourdan
Keyboard music in Italy in the 1600s was to undergo a radical change, with an introduction to Rationalism and simplicity; Pasquini himself is known to have been particularly enamoured with the works of Palestrina and Frescobaldi. Aside from his skills as a performer and composer, Pasquini was also an immensely gifted teacher. Each of the sonatas for two basso continuo instruments bears the hallmarks of the partimento teaching technique, which involves a kind of dialogue between teacher and student. The sonatas include the fashionable styles of keyboard music of the time, such as the Allegro da concerto, Adagio, Fugue, Corrente and Gavotte.
The recording boasts two multi-award-winning organists. The first, Luca Scandali, was educated at the Conservatory 'G. Rossini' of Pesaro in his native Italy and has performed in festivals all over Europe. He is currently Professor of Organ and Composition for Organ at the Conservatory 'F. Morlacchi' of Perugia. The second, Swiss organist, Hadrien Jourdan, studied at the Conservatory of Geneva and regularly participates in festivals and recordings throughout Europe.
Other information:
- Recorded in 2012.
- Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710) was an Italian composer of opera and church music. A renowned virtuoso keyboard player in his day, he was one of the most important Italian composers for harpsichord and organ between Frescobaldi and Scarlatti.
- Pasquini's sonatas for two organs offer delightful dialogues between the two instruments (sometimes acting as teacher and pupil) in fashionable forms such as Allegro da Concerto and various dance forms.
- Two excellent organists enjoy their interplay on two historical organs from the 18th century.
- Organs: Pietro Nacchini, 1757; Gaetano Callido, 1785.
- Harpsichord: copy after Ignazio Mucciardi, 1789, by Giulio Fratini & Pierpaolo Pallotti, 2012.
- Contains liner notes on the works and biographies of the artists.
Erich, Saxer & Druckenmuller: Complete Organ Music / Tomadin
Built by Arp Schnitger and his sons in 1721, the organ featured in this recording resides in the St. Michael Church in Sqolle, the Netherlands. Over the last few decades the organ has been restored to its full glory. The pieces chosen for this release come from the Husumer Orgelbuch (Husum Organ Book). This book is a collection of works for organ by North German masters. A notable Italian organist, scholar, and teacher, Manuel Tomadin won the Grand Prix of the Schnitger Organ Competition in 2011. He wrote all of the liner notes included in this release’s booklet, which includes extensive information on the organ.
Homilius: Complete Organ Chorales
Derrière La Porte
Bach: Mass In B Minor / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
REVIEW:
From within the midriff of the BIS cantata project, Masaaki Suzuki presents the last of his recordings of Bach’s four extant large-scale choral masterpieces. This is, as you would expect, a B minor performance of extraordinary devotional weight, as its resonant surround sound irradiates the score in a patiently constructed explication.
[The] Gloria fairly crackles and Suzuki’s careful voicing between singers and instrumentalists generates extraordinary revelations (such as the consoling beauty of the “Qui tollis” and, later, a remarkable reading of the Sanctus). The choral movements are admirably unhurried but purposeful, the light and lithe sopranos glowing like Jupiter on a clear night...“Et in unum Dominum” (with the admirable Carolyn Sampson and Robin Blaze) reveals its expectant delights, as does Blaze’s heart-stopping Agnus Dei.
[A] rounded and impressive reading whose “Dona nobis pacem” encapsulates the best of Suzuki: committed, life-affirming and generous.
-- Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Gramophone [2/2008]
Messiaen: Complete Organ Works / Hans-Ola Ericsson
I have long been a fan of Hans-Ola Ericsson's playing, and am still under the spell of his Four Beast's Amen which remains a must for all interested in contemporary work for organ. Another must for all of those interested in 20 th century organ music is the oeuvre of Olivier Messiaen, created on the great Cavaillé-Coll organ in the Church of La Trinité in Paris, where the composer was organist for most of his life. Anyone even vaguely interested in Messiaen's work may have noticed the original single discs of this set when they came out between 1989 and 1992, with their distinctive 18 th century bird illustrations by Olof Rudbeck. It is unfortunate that we lose these in this re-release, but with a significant number of Messiaen CDs appearing with birds on the cover it is understandable that the designers went for a different look. Fortunately, even in this now budget '7 CDs for the price of 3' box, we get Anders Eckenberg's excellent booklet notes pretty much as they appeared on the original releases. The musical content is preserved and enhanced with the addition of the three works which were discovered after Messiaen's death, and disc 7 even includes the birdsong recordings which were on the original volume 6, and Dr. Gustaf Aulén's descriptions of each bird are included at the end of the booklet. No-one will be disappointed by the chunky booklet which makes up much of the weight of this box, and the texts are worth its price on their own.
I have to admit to being something of a Messiaen organ junkie, having started my addiction with Gillian Weir's broadcast recordings on BBC Radio 3 way back in the early 1980s. Though recorded in association with Radio 3, her recordings on the set from Collins Classics 70312 are not those which I used to have scattered around on well worn cassette tapes, and this box is anyway alas no longer available. These recordings can now be sought out on individual discs from the Priory label, and by all accounts are still in the front rank. While we are dealing with blanket comparisons, there is one set which I've had pass through my collection which is no longer resident, that played by Willem Tanke originally on the Lindenberg label, and now available on Brilliant Classics. This is a very good set played on the incredible organ and acoustic of the St. Bavo Basilica in Haarlem, and is every bit worth its current modest asking price. I'm afraid I found it a bit on the dull side however, and not quite able to get the sap rising in quite the same way as some of the other recordings I have as references. If I were to pin my colours to the mast, then my reasons for not warming to this set would have to be its rather down to earth character which, in works of a conception and content which almost always have a strong spiritual element, loses too much of the essence of Messiaen's message.
Neither of the aforementioned sets included the Monodie, Offrande au Saint Sacrement or Prélude, which are later discoveries and are also missing from the almost legendary set played by Jennifer Bate, now available in a box on the Regis label RRC 6001, formerly on Unicorn-Kanchna, and also available separately as individual or double discs. For completists, these pieces do form part of the Deutsche Grammophon 471 480-2 set played by Olivier Latry on the organ of Notre-Dame in Paris, which is my other main reference. Both of these have been reviewed elsewhere on this site. A footnote to this list but by no means least in significance is the collection of Messiaen's own recordings. Made in 1956, these are in often less than glorious mono and on a La Trinité organ which was badly in need of restoration or re-tuning at the very least. The relics which appear on a 4 CD collection CZS 7 67400 2 called par lui-même are however priceless records of the composer's own playing, although the improvisatory quality he brings to some of the music means that organists should probably beware of taking these versions as being the gospel truth when it comes to interpretation.
Hans-Ola Ericsson's recordings on the BIS label have long been acclaimed as being among the best of the more recent recordings, and returning to his set in this context is for me like greeting an old friend. Returning to the shelves at a very attractive price and with full booklet notes, I would like to recommend this set unreservedly, and then spend the time saved by not writing a hugely long review standing on a street corner persuading people to try it and buy it. There is more to be said however, and it feels more like a privilege than a duty to be getting my teeth into a set of pieces which I feel are some of the best works of the last century in any medium. As well as this, I've recently been discovering more about the organ works of Charles Tournemire, so I've also grown up a bit and now have a better understanding of the way in which Messiaen represents a quantum leap in the French organ tradition.
The main body of these recordings were made on the 1987 Grönlund organ at Luleå Cathedral, Sweden. A very fine new instrument, this has plenty of the 'orchestral' punch which Messiaen's work often requires, as well as being able to conjure those soft, timeless meditations which take us into different realms. A comparison with either Latry or Bate on their authentically French instruments does however show a marked difference in character. Messiaen's writing, much as I love and admire it, does embrace the sometimes blowsy and colourfully exhibitionist side of the Catholic faith, and the Swedish instrument does seem to have something of a civilising effect on the music at times. Listen to the Transports de joie from L'ascension from Latry in Paris and revel in unctuous, almost unnaturally spectral splendour. Take the same track with Bate in the massive acoustic of St. Pierre de Beauvais and you feel as if your entire being is being lifted from the ground on some kind of spiritual hovercraft. The impact is there with Ericsson, but there is a sense of restraint, of an elegance and roundness of sound, of power unleashed but not hitting the listener in quite such a physical fashion.
There is one such piece which, almost seeming to have been designed for the psychological slow cut in a high class movie, to me has to have that sense of physical connection - you need to feel your chest wanting to rise above your head. The eternally rising progressions in Apparition de l'Église Éternelle deliberately form a kind of musical drug, each repetition reinforcing the last. Ericsson's sense of mounting drama is wonderful in this piece, and the instrument supports him in giving the impression of an almost endless reserve of crescendo. Jennifer Bate has a more insinuating, nasal and reedy sound from the organ in the opening, and this means that the contrast with the change of stops about 3:00 in is more pronounced. This again is a recording which hits the spot - corny as hell, but one to scream from the rooftops. Latry opens his set for DG with this piece, and what a curtain raiser. He does however come in shortest - 9.45 to Ericsson's 11:11, and I do feel some of the rising tension is lost in the pacing of the piece, spectacular though the organ sound is. In a sense it's too spectacular - all grimly earnest show and rather less content. I prefer the more subtle colourings of the other two recordings.
La Nativité du Seigneur neatly fits onto one CD and has become something of a staple of the organ catalogue. Once again, Ericsson's performance is one of the utmost clarity, and one has the feeling that there is nothing imposing itself between the music and its message. All of the hushed reverence is present, as well as the more turbulent stresses in Le Verbe and Les Anges. Again however, the voice of doom in the bass lines when Jésus accepte la Souffrance is more of a mildly gruff uncle, where Bate's is the voice of your most feared schoolteacher. Latry's pedal here is more that of a throaty pharmacist offering soothing lozenges than anything really threatening. Where he wins is in the final Dieu parmi nous, whose descending bass lines can really rattle your tonsillectomy scars. Bate is also good here, with plenty of atmosphere, but almost engulfed in resonance. Ericsson takes a swifter, more dramatic tempo in the opening chords, but sustains more later on. I feel the organ and the engineer's treatment of the acoustic might possibly have conjured a final nth more of atmospheric potential in the gentler sections, but what you do get is a true sense of what Messiaen actually wrote, rather than anything that the environment may or may not have dictated.
The pacing of another of Messiaen's better known organ cycles Les corps glorieux is also of importance, and there is an argument against Ericsson's swifter rendition of a movement such as Les Eaux de la grâce. His sense of proportion over the entirety of the work is however pretty much without fault, and Latry's more languid traversal of the same movement can equally be seen as being rather self indulgent. For that matter Bate kicks in at 2:34 to Ericsson's 3:06, so who's counting. What one should always remember with the BIS set is that Hans-Ola Ericsson was able to work closely with the composer throughout, you can be sure Messiaen was more than clear as to his intentions and desires in this music. Disc four provides very clean performances of two of Messiaen's strongest pieces from the 1950s, the Messe de la Pentecôte and Livre d'Orgue, the mellow rounded tones of the Grönlund organ creating delicious colours and textures. While the extremes of contrast are not so great as with the Notre Dame organ in, say, the remarkable opening Reprises par interversion of the Livre d'Orgue then this does at least have the advantage of rendering the musical argument that much less disparate and more coherent in a number of ways. I also prefer Ericsson's relaxed way with the gestures in the second movement Pièce en trio, which Latry's rather random sounding rubato makes into more of a rocky and uneven road than it need be. The same coupling of works appears on disc one of Jennifer Bate's set, and I'm still very much enamoured of the Beauvais Cathedral's multitude of almost human vocalisations and the sense of discourse in several of the movements in the Messe de la Pentecôte. It is however only Gillian Weir who, bucking the trend set by Messiaen's own recording, plays the song of the lark in the central section of the final Sortie swiftly enough to make it sound like actual birdsong, rather than a lark stuck in congealing aspic. If I haven't mentioned Weir until now, it is only because of the unavailability of the Collins set which occupies a sizeable chunk of my box set 'shelf'. Price comparisons also make this and the Latry set less competitive than the BIS box, but if you have individual favourites among these works then Gillian Weir on the Priory label has to be a front runner. I love the boxy low pipe which belts out the low notes in the first movement of Bate's Livre d'Orgue, and this is one instance in which the acoustic significantly helps the music, showing how Messiaen explores the space and tonal relationships as they hang in the air between the notes. Bate is also infinitely preferable to Latry in the aforementioned Pièce en trio, which is a miniature masterpiece - but in which a few important inflections are again rather covered by that washy resonance. It is also interesting to hear how each player 'hears' the various birds in the magical Chants d'oiseaux fourth movement - vive la difference, ici.
By now you may be gaining an impression of the comparative status each of these three sets has acquired in my opinion. While I admit to a sentimental attachment to Jenifer Bate's remarkable cycle and love its sheer sense of drama and atmosphere, there is a problem with the vastness of the acoustic out of which the organ looms, and much of the detail in Messiaen's writing can be as good as lost. Olivier Latry looked like being a panacea to all of these problems in a set which presents a remarkable if rather idealistic recording of the Notre Dame instrument. I always have a niggling feeling with this set however, and that is that the engineers and performer are adding just a little too much of themselves to the music. I have listened to it often, trying hard to love it as much as I'd expected to, but I have never really warmed to Latry's playing or the up-front representation of the Paris organ. This is where Hans-Ola Ericsson and BIS win over both, for while his modern instrument might offer less of the drama and extremes of palette as the French instruments, the recording provides us with all of the amazing content of Messiaen's scores, and Ericsson is an ideal guide through each piece, imposing little in the way of 'interpretation' and allowing us closer to Messiaen's vision as a result.
The magnificent Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité is another one of those cycles which fits perfectly on a single CD, and I have nothing but superlatives for Ericsson's playing here. He does take a fair bit longer than Latry over the whole cycle, but is almost identical to the second in comparison with Bate. Where Jennifer Bate beats all comers is in the huge . Here she moves to Messiaen's own instrument, that in the Church of Saint-Trinité in Paris, and with the composer on hand to provide his own uniquely poetic guidance to the player. This was also the case with Ericsson, but the atmosphere of the Saint-Trinité organ, that fact that this was at the time of the work's premiere, and the sheer synergy between composer, instrument and location makes this one of the all time great organ recordings. Hans-Ola Ericsson is very good of course, and I don't want to take anything away from his achievement - it's just that the milder, less overtly contrasting colours of the Grönlund organ don't draw me in and carry me through in quite the same all-embracing and involving way that happens with Bate. I used to have the Saint-Trinité recording on the double cassette release, and wore the things out in the end. People would phone me up and hear the same music in the background, days or weeks apart. 'It's a very long piece' I would reply.
The final disc on Ericsson's set adds the three posthumous works: Monodie, Offrande au Saint Sacrement and Prélude Recorded on another even newer instrument, the tone of these and the earlier recordings is not shockingly different, although the more effulgent Katharinenkirche acoustic does kick in with an abundant contribution in the louder passages. In fact, these pieces slip into the set with remarkable ease. None of the works are a make or break when it comes to choosing your ultimate Messiaen cycle, but each has its worth, and the early Prélude which finishes the set has clear technical and musical links to Messiaen's teacher Marcel Dupré. The addition of the recorded birdsong was always a nice touch in this set, and I'm very glad to see its return here.
So, to conclude: yes, buy this set. We're extremely fortunate to have it released in such an economically viable package, and with all its bounteous extras intact. My personal view is that there is no such thing as a perfect cycle of recordings of the organ works of Olivier Messiaen, and so if you are anything like me, you will end up with far too many boxes parked far too close to more multiple boxes of Mahler symphonies for comfort when it comes to domestic arguments in support of frugal living against the essential need for culture and fine music. I'm far too attached to my set with Jennifer Bate to consider relinquishing it, but would suggest that, with both sets together coming in at about the price of the Olivier Latry box on its own you could do worse than have both. Bate wins in terms of sheer atmosphere and authentic French organ colour - the kind which belches garlic roughness and incense-aromatic arrogance, as well as terrifying and infinite realms of beauty and mystery. Indeed, no-one should be without her Livre du Saint Sacrement. The Unicorn-Kanchana/Regis recordings do however suffer from an overdose of resonance almost entirely throughout, and if you want the clarity of Messiaen's music less encumbered by this problem then the BIS box is a must. I have always admired this set and, comparing it to Olivier Latry's recordings, now know a bit more about why this should be the case. The Deutsche Grammophon cycle does represent something of a technical milestone in this repertoire and Olivier Latry's performances are a remarkable achievement, but the results can be somewhat unremitting and somehow impersonal; even synthetic, if one is prepared to express an extreme view. These are recordings with which you can demonstrate your Hi-Fi and impress your friends, but this is not what Messiaen's organ music is really about.
Hans-Ola Ericsson understands both the complexity as well as the simplicity of Messiaen, without over-blowing his grander gestures or filling his thinner textures with all kinds of unnecessary extra inflection and interpretative licence. Messiaen's organ scores are clear, but often present fields of notes without a bar line in sight. This can be seen as an invitation to mould and shape, pull and stretch, but in the end it's like the original version of Debussy's simple ditty for flute Syrinx - all the information is there in the notes. Duration, intensity, rhythm, phrasing: you don't need much more than common sense, and an absolute control of your instrument and a deep knowledge, sympathy and understanding of the idiom which the composer inhabits. All of these Hans-Ola Ericsson has, and this makes his set one of the most consistently rewarding ever made.
-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International
Masaaki Suzuki Plays Buxtehude
As the composer that Johann Sebastian Bach at the age of twenty walked more than 400 kilometres in order to meet, Dietrich Buxtehude holds a place of honour in the history of music. Luckily, an important portion of his music, mainly vocal works and organ pieces, has also survived. Having spent his childhood and early years in Helsingborg and Elsinore, on either side of the strait that divides Denmark and Sweden, Buxtehude was recruited as organist by the congregation of the great Marienkirche in the wealthy Hanseatic city of Lübeck. On the basis of this, as well as the challenges posed by his organ compositions, it is safe to assume that he was a virtuoso on his instrument. He would also have been a connoisseur of fine organs - the finest of which at the time were to be found in Northern Germany. Two such magnificent instruments still exist in the small towns of Altenbruch and Lüdingworth, some 130 kilometres west of Lübeck, and on them Masaaki Suzuki here performs a varied selection of Buxtehude's organ works. This ranges from brief chorale preludes to the magnificent Te Deum laudamus and the celebrated Ciaccona in E minor. Although he is most widely known for his on-going, highly praised series of Bach's cantatas on BIS, Masaaki Suzuki in fact began his professional career as a church organist at the age of twelve, later studying the instrument both in Tokyo and in Amsterdam. For BIS he has previously recorded Bach's Organ Mass ('an organist of distinguished musicianship and superior technique' wrote the American Record Guide) and organ works by Sweelinck, a disc which upon its release was recommended by Gramophone and described in International Record Review as containing 'performances which are compelling in their stylistic integrity and uncompromising musicianship.'
Masaaki Suzuki plays Bach Organ Works, Vol. 2
Before releasing his first disc of Bach’s organ works, Masaaki Suzuki had recorded the composer’s complete sacred cantatas, as well as the large-scale choral works and much of the music for harpsichord. His achievements in these fields obscured the fact that Suzuki originally trained as an organist, and began working as such already at the age of twelve. So when Volume 1 of this series reached reviewers around the world, it was something of a revelation to many: the disc went on to be named Choice of the Month in BBC Music Magazine, Diapason d’Or in Diapason and Recording of the Month in Gramophone, which then went on to include it on its list of the ‘50 Greatest Bach Recordings’.
Volume 1 featured the celebrated Schnitger/Hinz organ of Groningen’s Martinikerk in the Netherlands. For this present instalment, Suzuki returned to more familiar ground – the chapel of the Kobe Shoin Women's University where the great majority of his recordings with Bach Collegium Japan have taken place. The chapel houses a French classical organ built in 1983 by Marc Garnier, and on it Suzuki performs a highly symmetrical programme with the large-scale chorale partita BWV 768 at its centre. The work is known as ‘Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig’, although the chorale text that it is structured upon most probably is that of ‘O Jesu, du edle Gabe’. On either side the partita is flanked by an arrangement by Bach of concertos by Vivaldi, and a chorale prelude on ‘Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier’. The disc opens and closes with a Prelude and Fugue, in G major and C major respectively.
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REVIEWS:
Suzuki makes extremely savvy use of his resources; the instrument's almost chamber-music-like clarity and intimacy of the results is most enjoyable. The recorded sound is unusually crisp and clear. Strongly and enthusiastically recommended.
– Fanfare
The life, vitality, affection and fun Suzuki brings to them will ensure they have a lasting place in the annals of Bach organ recordings.
– MusicWeb International
The remarkable harpsichordist/organist/conductor Masaaki Suzuki continues his recordings for BIS with this SACD of organ music of Bach played on the Marc Garnier organ of Shoin Chapel in Kobe, Japan. This is not a large cathedral organ. You won’t hear massive pedal notes, but these are excellent performances, beautifully and naturally recorded.
– Classical CD Review
Concerto alla maniera Italiana
Rameau, Mozart & Bach: Agli organi di Giuseppe Serassi
With More Than A Hundred Pipes - Music For Pan Flute And Organ / Hanspeter Oggier, Sarah Brunner
Pescetti: Complete Keyboard Music / Bottini
Giovanni Batista Pescetti was born in Venice into a musical family, both his father and grandfather were musicians. He studied with Antonio Lotti and Adolph Hasse, the Saxon who was composer in Venice. In 1734 he settled in London (like many of his compatriots), where he was director of both Covent Garden and the King’s Theatre. Although Pescetti wrote many operas he is mainly remembered for his works for the keyboard, notably the harpsichord, for which he wrote several volumes of sonatas. They are charming, with a strong emphasis on the melody, expertly written for the keyboard, and popular with both professionals and amateurs. This new recording presents the complete keyboard works by Pescetti, for both harpsichord and organ, played with infective zest and lyrical poise by Paolo Bottini.
D. Scarlatti: Sonatas
Tchaikovsky: Saint-Saens: Arrangements For Organ 4-Hands
Van Veen: Piano Music, Vol. 2 / Audience, Flute Octet Blow Up
Jeroen van Veen has won international success with albums of Satie, Part, Glass and Riley. These are only some of the most significant composers whose work he has recorded for Brilliant Classics in building a library on record of minimalist piano music. Simplicity, repetition and appealing melody are the qualities shared by all the composers who subscribe to this aesthetic, and they underlie van Veen’s own compositions. Although subtitled Volume 2, this is the third album to focus exclusively on the pianist as composer. Books 1 and 2 of his Minimal Piano Preludes were reissued in 2016, and won high praise from MusicWeb International. Further preludes feature in a release of his piano music, and this sequel takes us up to Minimal Prelude No.60, a ‘tango for organ’. “All my music is about time and space,” says van Veen. “The duration of music is an essential part of the concept in my music. The concept of music, specifically my minimal oriented music, only can exist in time. The slow progression, building of the material, the motifs and the search for new sounds is audible in this [album].” All the works featured here were composed between 2010 and 2018. Continuum is a concertante work for piano and flute octet. Incanto is another album-length piece, entirely composed in an unusual 11/8 time signature. Ripalmania is written for six pianos, a scoring which creates an entrancing effect. In Velvet Piano van Veen explores the timbral possibilities of pianos prepared with objects after the style of John Cage, though without the American composer’s aim of disconcerting the listener. The final portion of the release is a celebration of minimalist jazz, in which the border between composition and improvisation almost vanishes.