North German Organ music, Friedrich Flamme's approach....

[Harry]

Last weekend a friend of mine from Germany who is a organ player and knowledgeable musician in the technical sense, came to visit and brought CD'S with him.
Friedrich Flamme's travail through the North German organ literature, Praetorius, Weckmann, Scheidemann, Strungk,  Bohm, Schildt, Bruhns, etc etc. He likes the way Flamme makes his way through all these composers, and he also knows I dislike his playing. Well this weekend was meant to find why I do. I could put my fingers on many details, but was unable to put this in a comprehensible thought or work out a opinion. The recordings and organs are most of the time superb, but the moment Flamme puts his fingers on the keyboard, I immediately react with, no, no, that all wrong, but it's more of an emotional reaction, as that I could not fault him of technical shortcomings. The music he records is of great interest for me, this I readily admit, but this weekend did strengthen my resolve of dislike.  Are there any thoughts about this on GMG?

[prémont]

The technical part of Flamme's playing can't be faulted.

As to the musical part: Where I think he excels is when he plays chorale based works. He most often plays these in a grandiose way and very eloquent singing. He displays a strong sense of how the Lutheran chorale permeates this music. His interpretation of Weckmann's and some of Böhm's great chorale variations are among my favorites. But where he fails is IMO in the stylus phantasticus based works, I often find his interpretations of these incoherent and lacking as to "logical" building up of tension. His Böhm and Lübeck preludes are examples of this.

[Harry]

The technical part of Flamme's playing can't be faulted.

As to the musical part: Where I think he excels is when he plays chorale based works. He most often plays these in a grandiose way and very eloquent singing. He displays a strong sense of how the Lutheran chorale permeates this music. His interpretation of Weckmann's and some of Böhm's great chorale variations are among my favorites. But where he fails is IMO in the stylus phantasticus based works, I often find his interpretations of these incoherent and lacking as to "logical" building up of tension. His Böhm and Lübeck preludes are examples of this.

Yes you are right it was an omission of a word on my side, he technical skills are beyond doubt up to scratch and cannot be faulted.
I reacted somewhat better to Strungk by the way, and although I find much to admire, I cannot for the life of me find a base to rest on when hearing how he plays Weckmann or even Bohm, must be his idiosyncrasies which he displays ever so often. But you are also right that in the stylus phantasticus he even has less grip on the proceedings.
On another note I am quite taken by Pierre Alain Clerc playing Buxtehude, it really blows some fuses in my head, as wow, amazing playing.

[prémont]

On another note I am quite taken by Pierre Alain Clerc playing Buxtehude, it really blows some fuses in my head, as wow, amazing playing.

Do you think of the recording with Dongois?

BTW there are only a few Clerc CDs available, but here is a recording from you tube made on an interesting old Spanish organ:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl3jpBXh0cQ

[Harry]

Do you think of the recording with Dongois?

BTW there are only a few Clerc CDs available, but here is a recording from you tube made on an interesting old Spanish organ:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl3jpBXh0cQ

Yes exactly the recording with Dongois.
I will check out that link! Thank you.
Yes this is amazing indeed! Though the youtube sound is pretty ugly, I will listen to the end.

[71 dB]

My thoughts? I have invested my hard earned money on many of these Flamme SACD on CPO and I have enjoyed them quite a lot. I think the recording sound quality is very good and I don't have "that's all wrong" feelings. I am not a millionaire who can purchase this repertoire 10 times over for different performances and cherry pick the best. Flamme's discs are almost the only ones with multichannel sound + the cover art of these releases is great. Downsampled to stereo for crossfed headphones using Lt/Rt method gives me awesome sound. Sorry, but I won't hate my SACD discs. That's what I think and if someone disagrees I don't care at all.

[Mandryka]

My thoughts? I have invested my hard earned money on many of these Flamme SACD on CPO and I have enjoyed them quite a lot. I think the recording sound quality is very good and I don't have "that's all wrong" feelings. I am not a millionaire who can purchase this repertoire 10 times over for different performances and cherry pick the best. Flamme's discs are almost the only ones with multichannel sound + the cover art of these releases is great. Downsampled to stereo for crossfed headphones using Lt/Rt method gives me awesome sound. Sorry, but I won't hate my SACD discs. That's what I think and if someone disagrees I don't care at all.

I can absolutely see where you're coming from because so much of what he's about is to do with making a colourful sound on interesting old instruments, the music (sometimes rare music)  played fast and in a direct way, and the recording standard on CPO often very impressive to boot.