The Organ, Master of them all - general organ thread

[bioluminescentsquid]

@bioluminescentsquid
I'm going to get out some other recordings of Polish organs soon - Jaroslav Tuma.

Now listening to Martin Rost on the Stralsund Stellwagen - for  reasons which will become obvious when you check the recording.

Have you heard the Neunhaber on Westerbrink's recording at Norden for his Tunder series?
Jaroslav Tůma - love him, although he's Czech rather than Polish
Really I can't think of many recordings on organs that are similar to Olkusz - Olkusz is one of the best preserved examples and has only recently seen a comprehensive restoration, most other ones are in much less good shape.
This recording does come to mind - not sure if you are familiar with it or not.

Dulcis Memoria by Marcin Szelest - an assortment of earlier 16th century music.

[bioluminescentsquid]

There's this other recording at Olkusz, the organ being used as a continuo instrument. Also very beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_liC9uIDp7rWQbXVFYEcOzIlGWPWP0BP2c

[prémont]

In the Bartolleti, I enjoyed the sound and the selection I think. I'm not normally a great Buxtehudeian so was in a way quite surprised by how positively I responded.

Having explored Bartoletti's Buxtehude CD I find much to enjoy. In particular I think he has a fine grasp of the improvisatory character of the choral-free works (one is reminded that an important part of Buxtehude's inspiration was Italian toccatas) but also the chorals are beautifully realized. And sonically the organ is well reproduced. My only problem is the used Italian baroque organ, which doesn't sound North German at all. However the organ is for other reasons organicologically interesting. Thanks @Mandryka for drawing my attention this recording.

https://it.wikibooks.org/wiki/Disposizioni_foniche_di_organi_a_canne/Italia/Liguria/Provincia_della_Spezia/Porto_Venere/Fezzano_-_Chiesa_di_San_Giovanni_Battista

[bioluminescentsquid]

Oh, squid- any other interesting organ discs released in 2023?

Good new releases - how could I forget this one?

https://editionsgrandier.bandcamp.com/album/john-bull-organ-works-of-the-early-period-2
Phantasmagorical Bull at Oosthuizen

Also you've surely seen this but Leon Berben's van Noordt at Leiden - curious about thoughts on this.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ns1_7eUHRdeyh-D-ABSYd8D0zr4V4rHYU

[Mandryka]

Good new releases - how could I forget this one?

https://editionsgrandier.bandcamp.com/album/john-bull-organ-works-of-the-early-period-2
Phantasmagorical Bull at Oosthuizen

Also you've surely seen this but Leon Berben's van Noordt at Leiden - curious about thoughts on this.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ns1_7eUHRdeyh-D-ABSYd8D0zr4V4rHYU

Is that the longest Walsingham Vars ever?

[bioluminescentsquid]

New release of a recording at the organ of Loppersum, played by Vincent van Laar. Exceptional organ in generous acoustics; van Laar generally shies away from bigger registrations to show off the colors of individual stops. Classic "dutch style" playing on the conservative side, the music is a mixed bag of renaissance dances, some interesting fantasias by Bull, Tallis, Gibbons etc, Strungk and Buxtehude, and some terrible galant style stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nN5dqTvJ5cqIJIu7iFAuOptHDz3-Xmf5k

[Mandryka]

Sydney Sussex College Organ, Cantab. Great sound! Really noble and stylish performances.

 If the organ had been a bit more characterful like Levy-Noisette's organ. then this would have been a major release, not that the Cambridge organ is bad in any way, and it's baroque inspired. I don't want to be a grump. It's good to have this one.

[Mandryka]

Good new releases - how could I forget this one?

https://editionsgrandier.bandcamp.com/album/john-bull-organ-works-of-the-early-period-2
Phantasmagorical Bull at Oosthuizen

Bull's music is by nature phantasmagorical - actually my choice of word would be trippy. He's an English late Renaissance Professor Bad Trip.

Interesting to see it's oriented around "early Bull" - I've never thought about his musical development.  Did Michael Bennett write anything about it for the release?

I'm not sure what to make of this recording, I find it slightly discombobulating, and he certainly doesn't take any prisoners. Tough music. All that's not necessarily to the bad of course - you could say that there's no  need for sweetness, I'm just not yet hearing what it is that Bennett brings to the table.

Bottom line: it's  not easy to listen to.

(He must be committed - how much does it cost to make a recording at Oosthuizen? Who paid?)

[bioluminescentsquid]

Bull's music is by nature phantasmagorical - actually my choice of word would be trippy. He's an English late Renaissance Professor Bad Trip.

Interesting to see it's oriented around "early Bull" - I've never thought about his musical development.  Did Michael Bennett write anything about it for the release?

I'm not sure what to make of this recording, I find it slightly discombobulating, and he certainly doesn't take any prisoners. Tough music. All that's not necessarily to the bad of course - you could say that there's no  need for sweetness, I'm just not yet hearing what it is that Bennett brings to the table.

Bottom line: it's  not easy to listen to.

(He must be committed - how much does it cost to make a recording at Oosthuizen? Who paid?)

No booklet notes, as far as I can see.

He just released a recording of Scheidemann at Tangermünde, curious about your thoughts.
https://editionsgrandier.bandcamp.com/album/heinrich-scheidemann-mascarada-2

[Mandryka]

No booklet notes, as far as I can see.

He just released a recording of Scheidemann at Tangermünde, curious about your thoughts.
https://editionsgrandier.bandcamp.com/album/heinrich-scheidemann-mascarada-2

https://editionsgrandier.bandcamp.com/album/heinrich-scheidemann-mascarada-2

Thanks - also this 

https://editionsgrandier.bandcamp.com/album/grandiers-drone

Presumably his own label. I'm just struck by a conversation I had with Rübsam where he talked about the prohibitive cost of recording on great European baroque organs!

[bioluminescentsquid]

Sydney Sussex College Organ, Cantab. Great sound! Really noble and stylish performances.

 If the organ had been a bit more characterful like Levy-Noisette's organ. then this would have been a major release, not that the Cambridge organ is bad in any way, and it's baroque inspired. I don't want to be a grump. It's good to have this one.

I actually like the performer-organ pairing here. The organ is nice sounding but also feels very "neutral," like a blank slate that brings out the cleanness and liveliness of the playing. Same with "The Virtuoso Organist" which is recorded on the same organ. For more interesting organs, there's obviously Berben at Oosthuizen and Patrick Aryton at Krewerd which I especially like a lot - although maybe we can agree that more organists should be recording Byrd.

Levy-Noisette is maybe a little too colorful! Somehow for me it distracts from the nobility of the music.

[Mandryka]

What do you make of the tuning of the Breteuil organ in My Lady Nevell's Ground? I think it's pure meantone - but it's slightly more than I can handle in that piece.

Bennett reminds me of Jane Chapman. Simple, sober and a constant forward motion. Never restful, relaxing.

I'm enjoying some of the registrations in Jonathan Bennett's Scheidemann - in the 7th magnificat opening for example. And it's a really good thing that he's unearthed the Lüneberg tablature preludes (especially the first)

[bioluminescentsquid]

Breteuil does seem to be in meantone or at least a strong Ordinaire. The pretty strong tremulant is used in the ground which might be part of what's giving the seasickness.
The recording actually reminds me of Leon Berben's John Bull - that very distinctive nasal 17th century French organ sound. Both the playing and organ are more charming there (I also like the selection of music - in nomines - more, not as much of all the dances and ditties Levy-Noisette has) but even then I have to be in the mood for it. Yes, on good days it is truly psychedelic.

Not sure I would call Bennett simple and sober, exactly the opposite to me!

[Mandryka]

Not sure I would call Bennett simple and sober, exactly the opposite to me!

I know, I know, and I hesitated while writing that. It's the rhythm I was really thinking of - no obvious rubato. I just get the feeling of someone moving forward strongly, with momentum. Have a listen to Jane Chapman if you can get hold of it and you're in the mood for French harpsichord music - she's a bit  challenging, iconoclastic even.

[prémont]

Bull's music is by nature phantasmagorical - actually my choice of word would be trippy. He's an English late Renaissance Professor Bad Trip.

Do you mean psychedelic?

I'm not sure what to make of this recording, I find it slightly discombobulating, and he certainly doesn't take any prisoners. Tough music. All that's not necessarily to the bad of course - you could say that there's no  need for sweetness, I'm just not yet hearing what it is that Bennett brings to the table.

I haven't heard the recording in question, but I know that feeling from other recordings of Bull's organ music by Kevin Komisaruk, Leon Berben's In Nomine recordings and most of all Étienne Baillot. I find Bull's music disorienting to a certain extent, as if some points of reference are missing. Therefore, there are limits to how much this music can engage me.

[prémont]

Sydney Sussex College Organ, Cantab. Great sound! Really noble and stylish performances.

 If the organ had been a bit more characterful like Levy-Noisette's organ. then this would have been a major release, not that the Cambridge organ is bad in any way, and it's baroque inspired. I don't want to be a grump. It's good to have this one.

I do not hold back from calling this recording a gem, expertly played on a fittingly small organ with stops, which I obviously find more characterful than you do. Naturally, the organ lacks a certain patina, but Byrd must also be presumed to have sometimes played on newly built organs.

https://www.taylorandboody.com/opus_pages/opus_66/organ_photo_gallery.html

[Mandryka]

Do you mean psychedelic?

I haven't heard the recording in question, but I know that feeling from other recordings of Bull's organ music by Kevin Komisaruk, Leon Berben's In Nomine recordings and most of all Étienne Baillot. I find Bull's music disorienting to a certain extent, as if some points of reference are missing. Therefore, there are limits to how much this music can engage me.

Yes, trippy is psychedelic - but maybe the word isn't right. Bennett's not kaleidoscopic  like the paradigm acid trip, but he is disturbingly intense like an acid trip.

On the whole I've got on much better with Bull on harpsichord. Here's Lydia Maria Blanc playing an In Nomine - slowly (like with the Byrd Pavans)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmRBIXFraMw&t=2s

[Mandryka]

Eureka! Here's how to play Bull on an organ. Colin Tilney plays the In Nomine IX - as slowly as Lydia Maria Blanc -  the last track here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljwcJ0tsrAs

[prémont]

On the whole I've got on much better with Bull on harpsichord.

The same with me. Maybe the actual harpsichordists have a better feeling for Bull.

Here's Lydia Maria Blanc playing an In Nomine - slowly (like with the Byrd Pavans)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmRBIXFraMw&t=2s

Thanks for finding this.

[Mandryka]

Stephen Farr's Magnificat compilation CD is excellent. The Christ Church Oxford organ is very impressive (I have heard it in the college many times.) It is a good organ for counterpoint, Farr can drive it, and the Meridian engineers have done an excellent job.

Much to my surprise, he makes a sequence of 8 Pachelbel fugues sound like varied, expressive and rather beautiful music, he musters fire when needed in the  Buxtehude, sensual in the Guilain .  . .