VIERNE Organ Symphonies (complete): No. 1 in d, op. 14; No. 2 in e, op. 20; No. 3 in f?, op. 28; No. 4 in g, op. 32; No. 5 in a, op. 47; No. 6 in b, op. 59 • Martin Jean (org) • LOFT LRCD 1071/74 (4 CDs: 218:20)


Say “symphony,” and one thinks orchestra. Say “organ symphony,” and one thinks Saint-Saëns. The two words in combination don’t usually bring to mind a work for organ alone; yet for Louis Vierne (1870–1937) and quite a few others, a symphony for solo organ made perfect sense. Born 26 years earlier than Vierne but dying in the same year, the long-lived Charles-Marie Widor wrote 10 organ symphonies between 1872 and 1900, completing all but the last of them well before Vierne composed his first in 1899.


The idea of a symphony for solo organ may have been planted as early as 1863 by César Franck with his Grande pièce symphonique , but another man played a determinant role in this quintessentially French phenomenon, and his name was Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the most famous French organ builder of his time. He and the company he founded revolutionized the art and science of organ design and construction. They also established a new aesthetic for organ sound, which, for want of a better term, could be called the modern, grand theater organ.


Of crucial significance to the explosion of French organ works during this period was Cavaillé-Coll’s creation of whole new families of stops and of voicing and coupling mechanisms that allowed an organ to imitate virtually every instrument of the orchestra. This enabled composers to write for the organ as if it were a symphony orchestra. From Widor to Vierne, Charles Tournemire, Marcel Dupré, Jean Langlais, and a host of others barely known to us today—Augustin Barié, Émile Bourdon, Alexandre Cellier, André Fleury, and Léonce de Saint-Martin—organ symphonies poured forth.


While it can’t be said that Vierne’s organ symphonies have been neglected on record, they haven’t received as much attention as Widor’s. The blockbuster Toccata movement alone from Widor’s Fifth Organ Symphony has amassed nearly 100 recordings. Comparisons of the two composers’ works may not be fair, but they’ll be made anyway. Mark Swed, music critic for the Los Angeles Times , reviewing Christopher Houlihan’s live performance at Our Lady of Angels Cathedral in June 2012, described Vierne’s symphonies as “gloomily gothic,” but went on to say that Debussy thought highly of them and that Vierne influenced Messiaen.


It’s true that the music isn’t as outgoing or demonstrative as Widor’s—note that all six symphonies are in minor keys—and much of it is in a later, more modernistic style, but having come to terms with Vierne’s vernacular, the music has an increasingly cumulative power that is both moving and disturbing; Swed calls it “spooky.”


One thing that may be an issue if you’re considering purchase of this new set is that the long-in-the-catalog Jeremy Filsell set takes three CDs to Loft’s four. On its original Signum label—still available and selling for $55.49 at ArkivMusic—it was reviewed as part of an eight-disc set by Haig Mardirosian in 18:3. In its three-disc reduction, it’s still more expensive than this new Loft release, which is selling for $48.99. But here’s the catch: the Filsell set on Signum has been reissued by Brilliant Classics and is selling for $21.99. I can’t speak of Filsell’s performances, because I don’t have his set, but I do question why Loft had to take four discs, averaging just over 54 minutes each, to accomplish what Signum (and now Brilliant Classics) did in three. The set I do have is with organist Ben van Oosten on MDG, and it too is spread over two two-disc sets, so I can’t make too much of a fuss over this. What it finally comes down to for me are the organs.


Oosten performs the symphonies on three authentic Cavaillé-Coll instruments in Rouen, Lyon, and Toulouse. For the current set, Martin Jean has chosen the Newberry Memorial Organ in Woolsey Hall at Yale University, an instrument originally built in 1902 by the Hutchings-Votey Company, and subsequently updated in 1915 by Massachusetts builder J. W. Steere & Son, and again in 1928 by Boston builder Skinner. The term “mighty organ” never applied more fittingly than it does to this colossus of an instrument. Pictured in the booklet is the console with four keyboard manuals plus pedal and a surrounding array of buttons and knobs that would make a jumbo jet pilot jealous. The detailed specifications list 142 stops in eight divisions, totaling 12,617 pipes. Bach would wet himself.


The Cavaillé-Coll organs heard in Oosten’s recordings are no harmoniums, but they’d have the wind knocked out of them by Yale’s Newberry. The largest of them, the Rouen, also has four manuals plus pedal, but a mere 64 stops, fewer than half the Newberry’s. Next largest is the Toulouse Cavaillé-Coll with only three manuals plus pedal and 57 stops, followed by the Lyon organ with three manuals plus pedal and a measly 45 stops. The Lyon organ was apparently sufficient for the needs of Widor who inaugurated it in 1880. The Toulouse organ was inaugurated by Alexandre Guilmant in 1889; and in 1890, Widor was once again called upon to inaugurate the Rouen organ, one of the very last and considered by some the greatest of Cavaillé-Coll’s grand masterpieces.


If it’s beginning to sound like I favor Oosten’s versions of Vierne’s symphonies over Martin Jean’s, I’d have to say that’s only half true. Oosten’s MDG recordings suffer from the not uncommon “church” acoustic problem of long decay time and reverberation that tend to muddy the textures. In Vierne, this is not necessarily a bad thing, if you subscribe to Swed’s “spooky” description of the music, which in Oosten’s performances can suggest the soundtrack to a gothic horror. I say this is not necessarily a bad thing because it could be argued that the Impressionist blurring and pre-Messiaen klangfarbenmelodie are precisely what Vierne’s symphonies call for.


On the other hand, it you prefer to hear the music in a drier concert hall acoustic, Martin Jean’s superb performances, aided by Yale’s Woolsey Hall setting, cast these works in an entirely different light. Suddenly, voicing and contrapuntal lines are clarified, lifting from the music its eerie fog that must surely shroud something evil in its mists. Listening to Vierne in these two recordings is like listening to two different composers. Oosten’s version may be closer to what Vierne would have heard, since the Cavaillé-Coll organs were of his time and place, but I like both Oosten’s and Jean’s performances almost equally. I would have to give the edge, though, to the new Jean, both for the clarity of his playing and for the sharpness of Loft’s recording.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

An hour and a quarter of musical bliss.

An hour and a quarter of musical bliss. Jacob Clemens non Papa (literally 'Jacob Clemens not the Pope') has not been that popular with recording companies: a pity, since the Dutchman's music is extremely well made and enormously beautiful. Peter Phillips has written that Clemens was more concerned with general atmosphere than specific word-painting and that his extended imitative counterpoint rendered his music more old-fashioned, less personal-sounding. Which is perhaps true but, like the great English composers of the Tudor period, Clemens's music has an ecstatic beauty that carries all before it in a way that the utter professionalism of Palestrina has never accomplished for me.

Although something of a protégé of Peter Phillips, Doug Fullington cultivates a harder-edged sound than that familiar from The Tallis Scholars. Rhythms and counterpoint are clearer and the mystic glow of the music is to a large extent allowed to take care of itself — something it does admirably. These are concert readings with only the bare minimum of chant necessary for the music to make sense, as in the alternating verses of the Magnificat.

In the Requiem, which is entirely based on chant, it would have been especially revealing to hear the polyphony emerge from the chanted rite but it would be a terrible shame to lose the very beautiful motets and the Magnificat setting. Let us hope this is the first of many recordings of this repertoire by this superb group.

-- John Story, Gramophone [11/2005]

Pas de Dieu: Music Sublime & Spirited

WECKMAN Complete Organ Works • Hans Davidsson (org); Ulrike Heider, cond; Sweden Schola Gothia • LOFT 1065–67 (3 CDs: 196:29)

Matthew Weckman was born in Niederdorla, Germany, around 1616, and died in 1674. While familiar to many musicians, he hardly is a household name, even among serious record collectors. Hans Davidsson and Loft Recordings have left no stone unturned in an effort to expose Weckman to a wider public. This really is a labor of love. The packaging and background information are the finest I have seen in a long time. The layout is beautiful. The text is well written. There are two different inserts, either of which would have been satisfying. Davidsson wrote his dissertation on Weckman and the first insert provides highlights of his exhaustive research, and a lifetime of study and performance. This also includes descriptions of each selection on the three CDs. The second booklet gives details on organ registration employed in the 17th century by Weckman and others, and the registration used in this recording. This may sound dry but it is not.

Davidsson places Weckman in historical context: when he learned to play; the experiences that helped him learn to compose; his experiences in Denmark and other stops on his journey through life. While growing up in Dresden, he was exposed to crosscurrents that were reshaping music in Europe, including influences from Italy and England, the Netherlands, and Northern Germany. Davidsson explains how these forces and trends came together for Weckman. And in the recording, we hear the elements unfold, illuminated by Davidsson’s insights. In the process, he demonstrates why Weckman is “without doubt one of the most important musical personalities of Germany in the seventeenth century.”

The music? When I asked an organist friend about Weckman, he laughed, and gave me a one word response: “Boring.” Yes, this is not the most electric music in the world and some of it could be described as boring. But, perhaps prejudiced by the outstanding packaging and recording, I found every section transformed into an insightful window into a faraway world. Many of his organ words are based on chorales and this recording includes these chorales, expertly sung by Schola Gothia. The organ is the North German Baroque Organ, captured in beautiful sound.

I enjoyed this album immensely. It was a fascinating and surprisingly enriching experience. Perhaps more than anything else, this provided new respect for Weckman, and greater appreciation for his role in music history. The recording, like the packaging, is spectacular. Highly recommend, particularly to organists and students of music history.

FANFARE: John E. Roos

Powerful and moving … thoughtful and rousing.

This seems to be the sixth CD of Locklair's music to have been published, although individual works of his have appeared on numerous other releases on a number of labels. Two discs of his orchestral music have been reviewed on MusicWeb International in recent years.

The CD opens as it ends, with superb music and musicianship. The title of Rubrics: a Liturgical Suite comes from the Common Book of Prayer, the service instructions (rubrics) of which inspired Locklair when he was commissioned to write the work in 1988. This is reported to be "one of the most frequently played organ works by an American composer" - movements were performed both at Ronald Reagan's funeral and Barack Obama's inauguration. It is certainly an imaginative, striking work, with a particularly breathtaking finale. Locklair's website gives the timing as 11'00, so at 14'00, Keiser is presumably taking this rather more slowly than Locklair envisaged. Unfortunately, there is a noticeable technical 'blip' in the third movement.

The Salem Sonata was a private commission to celebrate the restoration - reassembling, in fact - of a Moravian Church organ originally built in Salem in 1800. The four short movements all bear a Biblical subtitle, and all possess an appropriate degree of dignity and pomp. Another wonderfully tuneful, memorable work. Celebrations - Variations for Organ was inspired by a phrase in the Book of Isaiah: "... thanksgiving, and the voice of melody". The original theme itself does not appear until near the end, when it bursts joyfully onto the scene. A thoughtful and stirring piece, with a glorious ending worthy of Widor, very beautifully played by Keiser.

Along with the Salem Sonata and Celebrations, In Mystery and Wonder ( The Casavant Diptych) was composed in 2003. It was a commission by the Canadian organ builders, Casavant Frères, and according to Locklair's liner-notes, numerous first performances of one or both movements of this work were given around the world on the same November weekend in 2004. To allow a wide range of organists to participate in the premiere, which marked the 125th anniversary of Casavant, the first part of the Diptych, an Aria, is relatively easy to play, with the following Toccata being much more technically demanding. Consequently, both sections may be performed separately. For all its relative simplicity and serenity, the Aria, subtitled 'God Moves in a Mysterious Way ...', is a powerful, moving piece. The Toccata, on the other hand, is a noisy, virtuosic scherzo, aptly subtitled '...His Wonders to Perform'!

PHOENIX Processional dates back to 1996 as a stand-alone organ piece, but it has another existence as part of a work entitled PHOENIX Fanfare and Processional, which began life in 1980 as a bare three-minute Fanfare for brass sextet, and which in 1985 melded with the new Processional for the amended forces of organ, brass quartet and percussion. Locklair describes it as a popular recital and ceremonial piece, and it is easy to hear why - though very simple, the Processional is a rousing work.

The three-movement Aeolian Sonata is dedicated to the spirit of Americans in the wake of '9/11'. It is uplifting and magnificent, appropriately making use of the old Aeolian mode and the notes A and E. The first movement, 'Aus tiefer Not', is pretty much a relentless sequence of huge chords with some melodic flourishes in between, ending with some window-rattling ultra-deep sounds. The second movement, 'Shalom', is a fittingly tranquil affair to follow. The final movement is a boisterous toccata, entitled 'Laudate Dominum'. Locklair's website gives the timing as 12'00, so at 14'34 Keiser is once again taking this rather more slowly than Locklair intended. Nevertheless, as elsewhere on this disc, Keiser's technique and insight are beyond doubt. Unfortunately, the recording of the Sonata is almost spoiled by a very obvious editing join half-way through the second movement.

The CD case is made of card, with a standard plastic tray for the disc. The booklet slides in between two layers of card, the front cover itself, featuring Locklair in a typical pipe-in-mouth pose, and the inside cover, showing a close-up of the organ pipes against a stained-glass window. The booklet itself is a paragon - full notes by Locklair on all the pieces, biographies of composer and organist, a full-page colour photo of the organ and the inside of the church, a description and full specification of the organ, and technical data regarding equipment used for the recording. Much thought has obviously gone into the recording process, and the result is a first-class, very natural sound.

Dan Locklair has written a fair amount of organ music yet to be recorded. On the evidence of this disc, a follow-up CD by Loft Recordings would be doing lovers of sublime organ music a good deed.

-- Byzantion, MusicWeb International

All tracks have been digitally mastered using 24-bit technology.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Soloist: Jonathan Dimmock.

This was a nice idea: take a selection of songs–28 in all–from the rich and vast repertoire of Shaker music, and, while preserving as much of their original character as possible, arrange them for choral ensemble. Preserving their original character meant keeping the tunes and texts intact while honoring the music’s traditional, defining performance format: voices singing in unison. Siegfried accomplishes this with either complete settings in unison (the first and fourth tracks, “I will bow & be simple”, “O Lord make me pure”), or interspersing sections of harmony with unison passages (the second, third, and fifth tracks, “In yonder valley”, “All is summer”, “Love is little”), all sung with great sensitivity and care by the 13 voices of the Seattle-based The Tudor Choir.

And so goes the rest of the program, dotted with several completely harmonized songs, such as the gorgeous “Lay me low”, “Prayer for the captive”, “Gentle words”, and “Almighty Savior”; Siegfried has a real affinity for the stylistic and contextual uniqueness–the rhythms and language–of these songs, and he captures their essence with an artful touch guided by an obvious sincere respect for the quality of the music and its unique and important cultural significance. The sound is accordingly fine.

I have only one question for Mr. Siegfried: For someone who has spent so much time getting to know this music and exploring its origin and who appreciates the efforts of those who have devoted considerable time, effort, and resources to bringing this largely unknown repertoire to light and making it available to modern listeners, why did you not mention, in your acknowledgments, the pioneering work of Joel Cohen, whose extensive work in the mid-1990s at the library at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, resulted in the transcription and recording of many previously unheard Shaker songs?

His determined and meticulous dedication to this project preceded any of the individuals you cite, and his recording with The Boston Camerata and The Schola Cantorum of Boston, Simple Gifts–Shaker Chants and Spirituals (Erato), which even included among the singers real members of the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community, is a reference. Indeed, it contains several of the songs you arranged for this disc–and interestingly, even the cover of that CD has an uncanny resemblance to yours. That aside, choral directors everywhere will be looking for some of these arrangements, of which many are available in published editions. Not to mention that interested listeners will be moved, charmed, and satisfied. Strongly recommended.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

The spectacular sound of trumpet and organ playing in a generous acoustic is captured in this concert. The “infamous” is represented by the wickedly difficult Jericho: Battle Music, by William Albright, written as a virtuoso piece for both players. More famous tunes include the timeless Prince of Denmark’s March by Jeremiah Clarke and Trumpet Tune by Henry Purcell, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, and Cesar Franck’s Chorale in E Major. The concert ends with the encore Rondeau by Mouret, more famously known as the theme of Masterpiece Theatre. A soloist with an international career including Principal Trumpet positions with several major orchestras, Fred Sautter’s performance on this recording is both authentic and engaging. Roger Sherman is Associate Organist Emeritus of Saint Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle, and host of the popular radio program, The Organ Loft. He is also the president of The Gothic Catalog.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Soloist: Kimberly Marshall.

Includes work(s) for organ by Dietrich Buxtehude. Soloist: Hans Davidsson.

Spoken prayers, readings and blessings alternate with the musical selections on this recording.

Celestial light has been an inspiration to organists for centuries. Anne Laver explores this genre with examples from a wide variety of styles, including the rarely heard Phantasie und Fuge by Heinrich Reimann. Anne Laver, winner of the prestigious American Guild of Organists’ National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance and currently Assistant Professor of Organ and University Organist at Syracuse University, performs as a featured recitalist and presenter. The premiere recording of Eunyoung Kim, Prelude on “Veni Creator Spiritus” is included in this program. The Fritts organ ranks as one of the largest mechanical-action organs in the United States. Taking more than two years to construct, it consists of about 5,000 pipes.

This recording is the fourth of a series celebrating 50 years of the Flentrop organ at Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle. Mel Butler is Canon Musician Emeritus of Saint Mark’s and has taught organ improvisation and church music at the University of Washington. Prior to arriving in Seattle in 1991, he was for many years Organist/Choirmaster of the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York. During that time he was also Associate Professor of Church Music at the Eastman School of Music, a violist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and Music Director and Conductor of the Rochester Bach Festival Chorus. “Mel Butler is a most unusually gifted natural musician who improvises well and plays much of the organ literature out of his head.” (Charles Fisk, Organ Builder)

Contains Nativity-themed music of William Billings, alongside songs from Joseph Stephenson and others.