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Recording

Worgan: Complete Organ Music

Timothy Roberts (St Botolph’s without Aldgate)
65:26
Toccata Classics TOCC 0332

[dropcap]M[/dropcap]y first introduction to this interesting composer was (rather indirectly) from an organ improvisation in his style on a recent disc of music from Vauxhall Gardens by David Moult and London Early Opera. Now here he is himself, played on the beautifully restored contemporary Renatus Harris organ of St Botolph without Aldgate, an instrumant well known to him and his family.

John Worgan was probably first taught by his elder brother James, but later also had lessons from Thomas Roseingrave and Francisco Geminiani, and the influence of both of the latter, as well as that of Handel (whose organ concerti he is known to have played at Vauxhall Gardens) is to be heard in his music.

The pieces recorded here are (according to Timothy Roberts’ fine sleevenote) a ‘mixed bag’ and he has done an excellent job in linking them into satisfying musical groups. The three opening Pieces, for example, begin in French Ouverture-like dotted rhythm, and move, via a charming fugato with almost Mozartean episodes (echoes of the last movement of one of the Piano Concerto finales!) to a stately triple time with bassoon-like drones. The final three tracks also link well – another grand triple time melody is followed by an allegro with much harmonic and rhythmic quirkiness, and the set (and disc) concludes with a virtuoso allegro with more rustic drones in the middle section.

Timothy Roberts plays with style and taste; he is fortunate in having chosen such a fine and appropriate instrument, which helps bring these works to colourful life.

Alastair Harper

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Recording

Masterworks and Miniatures

Organ and harpsichord music from Renaissance Venice
Richard Lester
77:53
Nimbus NI 5931
Music by Buus, A & G Gabrieli, Guami, Merulo, Padovano & Willaert

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]ichard Lester plays music by a range of composers who worked in Venice: Buus, the two Gabrielis, Guami, Merulo, Padovano and Willaert. Most are played on an Italian-style organ built in 1977 by Giovanni Tamburini for St. James Catholic Church, Reading with the rest on an unnamed harpsichord. This organ is very well suited to the music and has a bright outgoing organo pieno with good flutes for contrast; Lester’s registration works well throughout. The harpsichord sounds a bit flabby and lacking in brightness in comparison. The playing is confident and rhythm is steady, a bit too much so in the ricercars and toccatas which could do with some more flexibility, but effective in the canzonas. The real meat of the recording is made up of four big toccatas by Merulo interspersed with Intonazioni by Giovanni Gabrieli (though the modes of both are not matched). These toccatas are very substantial pieces and Lester keeps the listener involved throughout. The sleeve notes are a mixed bag: simplistic and out of date on the historical background, especially in comments on the Council of Trent and music, they are informative on the music and organ registration. There are some typos, the more serious of which is that Valvasone, the church in Friuli with an important surviving 1533 organ by Vincenzo Columbi, has here become ‘Valvestone’ (presumably one of those annoying auto-corrections!). This has clearly been a labour of love on Lester’s part and is certainly worth listening to. There is an associated edition of the music and a DVD demonstrating fingering and ornamentation.

Noel O’Regan

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Recording

Bruhns & Scheidemann: Organ works

Bine Bryndorf (Roskilde cathedral organ)
79:18
Da Capo 6.220636

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he organ in Denmark’s Roskilde Cathedral is celebrated in this recording of music by two composers from the Danish/German region of Schleswig-Holstein. Built by the Dutch builder Hermann Raphaelis in 1554 and rebuilt a hundred years later to the design of Gregor Mülisch, the organ was much altered over the succeeding centuries before being restored to its baroque state in the 1980s. The sleevenotes refer to Scheidemann and Bruhns as, essentially, the alpha and omega of the great 17th-century North German organ tradition which grew out of the music of Sweelinck and, of course, flowered particularly in Buxtehude who is not represented here. The contrast between the two composers is very clearly brought out by Danish organist Bine Byrndorf who exploits the registrational possibilities of this historic organ extremely well. There are lots of contrapuntal climaxes in the Scheidemann, and exciting echo effects and pedal solos in the Bruhns. The recording producer has been particularly successful in capturing the range of stops, especially the pedal, with great clarity and definition. This will be a must-have disc for lovers of early organ music but will appeal to anyone wanting a lively introduction to one of the instrument’s great creative periods.

Noel O’Regan

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Categories
Recording

Baroque Organ Concertos

Kei Koito (1702 Arp Schnitger organ, Der Aa-kerk, Groningen)
72:54
deutsche harmonia mundi 888751636224
Music by Albinoni, Handel, Telemann, Torelli & Vivaldi

This programme consists of concertos by Vivaldi, Albinoni, Torelli, Telemann and Handel arranged for organ by Walther, Bach and John Walsh, complemented by more modern arrangements of Handel and Vivaldi designed to show off the organ sounds that are not otherwise used. You do have to study the booklet (Ger/Eng/Fre) quite closely to all find this out but the information’s there somewhere. And the organ (Schnitger or older at its core) is the star. A rich plenum, wonderful reeds and colourful solo combinations all get a thorough airing. As a player I’ve always found it quite hard to relate to even Bach’s transcriptions – they never feel really idiomatic – and after listening to this I’m still not convinced, but Kei Koto certainly sets about her task with every conviction. Some of the articulation sounds a bit forced and the registration in the Handel/Walsh F major concerto (the one that’s also a recorder sonata) doesn’t quite work for me; but if you want to hear a fine instrument being put through its paces this is for you.

David Hansell

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Categories
Sheet music

Bach: Organ Works Vol. 4, Third Part of the Clavier-Übung

Edited by Manfred Tessmer, updated edition by Christoph Wolff.
Urtext of the New Bach Edition. Bärenreiter (BA 5264), 2015. xvii + 99pp. £18.50.

This is based on Neue Bach-Ausgabe of 1969, Series 4 (organ works), no. 4. The changes are not particularly significant, but there are various improvements or changes. The comparison is with Breitkopf, vol. 6 (EB 8806), which contains Clavierübung, the Schübler Chorales and the Canonische Veränderungen; the edition was published in 2010, so the differences between the two editions are likely to be few. EB has 156 pages including 16 pages of editorial comments priced below £20.00, which is a good value with the other two items.

Bä takes 99 pages of music, with no subsequent editorial commentaries. EB’s introduction is more readable and interesting than Bä. Bä includes eight chorales on two pages with unreduced notes and text. The musical layout is sometimes confusing. The opening Praeludium per Organo pleno  is mostly on two staves; if there is third one, it is sometimes in alto clef. Both editors, however, tend to expand to three lines. The titles are less pedantic here than in the 1969 edition. There is some advantage in the two-stave range, in that there is more flexibility when the division of the middle part may well make readers assume that the modern notation is genuine. The main source was produced by two musical engravers. Sadly, Bach’s manuscript has vanished and editors have no clear choice of correcting between the sources. Luckily the variants are fairly trivial.

Will Bärenreiter follow Breitkopf’s lead and start including additional material in a CD? EB offers far more information but with lower prices.

Clifford Bartlett

Categories
Recording

Bach: Organ works

Masaaki Suzuki (Schnitger/Hinz organ in the Martinikerk, Groningen)
79:26
BIS-2111 SACD
BWV535, 548, 565, 572, 590, 767 & 769

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a brilliant Bach recital by Masaaki Suzuki on a seemingly perfect Ahren restoration of the complex organ in the Martinikerk, Groningen.

To take the instrument first: a gothic organ of 1450 was altered in 1482, and then altered in Renaissance style in 1542, added to in 1564 and 1627-8, altered in 1685-90, then rebuilt and enlarged with enormous 32’ Principal pedal towers by Arp Schnitger in 1691-2 after various disasters, given a new Rugpositief by Schnitger’s son and Hinz in 1728-30, again repaired and enlarged by Hinz in 1740 after subsidence. Then between 1808 and 1939, when the action was electrified, it was altered and substantially re-voiced, so that the historic origins of the organ became scarcely discernable. A major work of restoration was then executed over more than an eight-year period between 1976 and 1984 by Jürgen Ahrend to bring it back to its supposed 1740 shape and sound. The result is very fine, but it has none of those slight variations between notes that make many organs surviving in more or less their original form so melodically fluent, and is a characteristic of for example a careful reproduction of a 1720s Denner oboe.

I have not examined the organ in detail, but the photographs on the website make it clear that the frame and action are entirely new and much of the pipework has been re-voiced (again). Of the 53 stops, 20 are in origin Schnitger or earlier, 14 are from the 18th or early 19th centuries, and 19 are entirely new. It is indeed now a Rolls Royce of an organ – though once again I am sorry not to have a detailed registration scheme. The sound is splendid, but so well regulated that it seems like a classy reproduction rather than an original instrument.

I make no apology for this fairly detailed comment on the organ, because the new action and even regulation helps explain why Suzuki can play it so fluently. So now to the playing. From his choice of music here – his earlier recordings of Bach’s organ music include the Clavier-übung iii – I suspect that Suzuki may prefer playing the harpsichord. Certainly the playing of the manualiter  Pastorale (BWV 590) and the Partita on O Gott, du frommer Gott  (BWV 767) is lovely, and I particularly like the phrasing and registration of the latter. The bigger pieces – THE Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565), the Fantasia in G (BWV 572) and the ‘Wedge’ Prelude and Fugue in E minor (BWV 548) are played finely, but somehow rather unyieldingly; and the remaining piece on the CD, the Canonic Variations on Von Himmel hoch  (BWV 769) gets – to my mind – a more mechanical and less revealing performance than Robert Quinney’s elegant performance on his Coro Vol III 16132, reviewed here.

I am a great enthusiast for Suzuki’s Bach with his Collegium Musicum, Japan, and think that he is a fine musician with a sure touch for balance, tempi and colour; but although the performances are faultless, something is missing here – the clattering tremulant in Partita viii on O Gott, du frommer Gott  (track 14) is an almost welcome relief! – and I suspect that technical brilliance is winning over letting the music sing: the organ and its player ought to be breathing.

David Stancliffe

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5533

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Recording

J. S. Bach: Organ Works Vol. III

Robert Quinney
61:31
Coro COR16132
BWV541, 542, 547, 590, 659-661 & 769a

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or this third CD in the CORO series, Robert Quinney again chooses the 1976 Metzler organ in the chapel of Trinity College Cambridge to play a programme that fits the Advent to Christmas period: the G minor Fantasia and Fugue BWV 542, three preludes on Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland  BWV 659-661, the Pastorella in F BWV 590, the Prelude and Fugue in C BWV 547, the Canonic variations on Vom Himmel hoch  BWV 769 and the Prelude and Fugue in G BWV 541.

Quinney’s elegant and supple phrasing and his neat finger-work are everywhere apparent, but perhaps best displayed in the C major 9/8 prelude, where the registration is clear and clean, and would show up the slightest infelicity. The fugue begins with a similar though more forceful registration, but builds continually till the pedal entry. This is as good as it gets, and the playing has that effortless feel about it which is combined with highly suitable instrument and very skilled recording technique to produce a most satisfying CD. The clarity and fluency of the Canonic variations on Vom Himmel hoch – not at all an easy piece to think through and present, let alone play – are registered wonderfully; but while we are given the specification of Trinity’s Metzler, I still wish that even a modest booklet of 15 pages could find room for the details of the registration that Quinney uses. This is the best performance of BWV 769 on CD that I know.

A bonus is that Quinney writes engagingly and perceptively about the music he presents, and is able to conjure up verbally the complexity and delight he finds in these masterpieces: the recording was only made this September, and its quick production and release show what can be done when a Christmas market beckons! I think his developing series for Coro is unbeatable – buy them, if you buy no other Bach organ performances. The combination of the player, the instruments he uses and the recording technique is unbeatable.

David Stancliffe

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Recording

J. S. Bach: Complete Organ Music – Volume 4

Stefano Molardi Thielemann organ, Gräfenheim
310:07 (4CDs)
Brilliant Classics 95005

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or Volume 4 of Bach’s organ music (four CDs recorded in just four days) for Brilliant Classics’ complete Bach, Stefano Molardi uses the Johann Christoph Thielemann organ in the Dreifaltigkeitskirche in Gräfenheim in Thuringia, which was built between 1728 and 1731. A Hauptwerk of 10 speaking stops has a 16’ Quintatön (heard in the C minor fugue BWV549 CD1.1), two x 8’, two x 4’, a Quinta, a 2’, a Tertia, a six-rank Mixtur and an 8’ Trombetta, used to remarkable effect to suggest zamponi in the Pastorella BWV590. The Brustwerk also has a 16’ Quintatön, Gedackts at 8’ and 4’, Principals at 4’, 2’, 1’, a Quinta at 1.1/3’ and four-rank Mixtur. The Pedal has Subbaß and Violonbaß at 16’, and Octavenbaß at 8’ and a Posaunenbaß, together with a coupler to the Hauptwerk. The tone of the manual choruses is remarkably similar (as you can hear in the Concerto in C BWV595 – CD 1.23) and, although the pedal is not independent, the three flues are capable of clarity and variety in some of the choral preludes (e. g. BWVAnh.55 – CD 3.3). There is both Cymbelstern and Glockenspiel (heard in BWV701 & 703 – CD 2.21 & 23). BWV574 reveals the pretty stringy tone of the 8’ Principal on the HW. This instrument makes a good contrast with the organ by Franciscus Volckland in Erfurt’s Cruciskirche, used by Kei Koito on Bach: Organ Masterworks Vol. V – Claves 50-1503, which was built between 1732 and 1737, and has a far greater variety of tone colour.

Although the informative liner notes, mostly by Molardi, include the specification of the organ and say that it is in a modified meantone temperament, playing at G#= 447 Hz, (hence he records the C major version of the Prelude and Fugue in E BWV566a transposed perhaps by Krebs himself, and you can hear the fine resolution to the C minor Fantazia BWV562 – CD 1.24) you have to go to www.brilliantclassics.com for the registration of each piece, and negotiating their website is far from simple.

Most of the shorter pieces recorded on this organ are from the Neumeister Collection, of which some 36 are attributed to JSB and thought to have been composed between 1703 and 1707, when Bach was in Arnstadt. In addition to chorale preludes of various kinds, there are two Chorale Partitas, a number of Preludes and Fugues, and some Fantasias and other short pieces. The set includes the BWV565 Toccata and Fugue in D minor, played without histrionics and with the considerable clarity that this powerful organ in a modest acoustic offers, the F minor Prelude and Fugue BWV534, where Molardi doesn’t shy away from using the manual reed in the fugue à la française, and the great Passacaglia in C minor (BWV582) at the end of CD 4. The performances are good workaday versions without extremes of registration or tempi – just what you need for the purposes of study or reference. If you want to get a feel for his style of playing and articulation and how this modest-sized but surprisingly full organ sounds under Molardi’s playing try the Fugue on the Magnificat BWV733 – CD 3.29.

David Stancliffe

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[wp-review]

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Recording

Bach in Montecassino

Luca Guglielmi (1749 Ramasco organ, San Nicolao, Alice Castello)
69:12
VIVAT 106
BWV537/1, 668a, 672-675, 681, 683, 687, 713, 733, 753, 802-805, 846/2, 870b, 903a & 904

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here is an interesting back-story to this CD of Bach organ music played on a one-manual North Italian organ. The pieces come from Bach pieces collected by two 18th century scholars, Friedrich Wilhelm Rust and Padre Martini. Rust visited the Abbey of Montecassino (south-east of Rome) and played the organ there (in 1766), and presented the Abbey with several Bach organ manuscripts. The Abbey continued to build a strong musical reputation over the years, until it was destroyed in 1944. Martini was an avid collector of music and a renowned teacher. Burney reckoned that his vast library amounted to around 17,000 volumes.

This CD is recorded on the 1749 organ in Alice Castello, just north of Turin. It was built by Michele Ramasco, with addition in the early 19th century. It has 26 stops on one manual (with one pedal stop), several of which are divided into bass and treble sections. Although it is typical Italian style, it manages to sound remarkably German on this recording.

Luca Guglielmi’s programme explores the works collected by Rust and Martini, including some lesser-known Bach pieces. He opens with the rarely performed Rust version of the Fantasia Chromatica (BWV 903a) paired with the Fuga sopra il Magnificat. The pairing making a nice contrast between the flamboyant and austere Bach. The rest of the programme includes the four Duets and seven chorale preludes from the Clavierübung III, and early versions of pieces from the Well-tempered Clavier. The CD finishes with the A minor Fantasia and Fugue (BWV 904) usually placed amongst the harpsichord works, but working very well on the organ.

Guglielmi is an accomplished player, with a nice sense of rhythm, pulse and articulation.

Andrew Benson-Wilson

[wp-review]

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Recording

Bach: The Trio Sonatas BWV525-530

David Newsholme (the organ of Trinity College, Cambridge)
93:34 – 2 CDs
Opus Arte OA CD9037D

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here is some elegant, but a trifle mannered, playing on these CDs – plural because there are two of them, totalling 93 minutes. Most players fit the six trios onto one CD – Christopher Herrick in 70 minutes, John Butt in 75, Robert Quinney in 79 and an intriguing instrumental version by Tempesta di Mare in 73. This tells you that David Newsholme’s new recording is substantially slower than others, and sometimes feels not just mannered – especially BWV 526 – but ponderous.

For in spite of being recorded on the fine Metzler in Trinity College, Cambridge, the recorded sound doesn’t have the clarity and bite of either Christopher Herrick’s on a Swiss Metzler, still less Robert Quinney’s fluent and winsome performance on the much smaller Frobenius in Queen’s College, Oxford. Newsholme doesn’t feel as much a part of his instrument as the others, and it is simply not nearly as well recorded. There is insufficient clarity, with the right hand often overbalancing the left and the pedal sometimes indistinct, and this is where Quinney’s search for the right sized, beautifully-voiced, instrument pays such dividends. The liner notes for both Newsholme and Quinney give the specifications of the organs, but neither give the actual registration of the movements, which Herrick does. I’m sure Newsholme could have done better if the recording engineers had been able to give him the clarity and directness you need for these works to sing.

Some movements of these trios – wonderful exercises in compact contrapuntal writing – have instrumental origins. So some make very convincing instrumental versions, as the relatively recent version from Tempesta di Mare on CHANdos 0803, with well-argued transpositions and a variety of instrumentation, shows on a bright, well-recorded CD with well-judged tempi.

David Stancliffe

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