The Organ, Master of them all - general organ thread

Started by Harry, January 08, 2008, 01:08:57 AM

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Mandryka

#780
Yes I'm listening on youtube to Brice de Nice play some Scheidemann at Roskilde and warm and articulate - or rather, articulated - are probably the right words, ah well, that's another CD to import from Holland some time.

Talking of articulated, have you heard Chorzempa's Leipzig Chorales? They're on Spotify etc, and I've enjoyed exploring his challenging vision.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

The renaissance organ at St Julien du sault was restored 10 years ago, tuned in some sort of mean tone, nicely represented on this recording by Luc Paganon, you'll find it on Qobuz and similar places.



It sounds velvety and colourful.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

bioluminescentsquid

Quote from: Mandryka on June 10, 2019, 09:15:19 PM
The renaissance organ at St Julien du sault was restored 10 years ago, tuned in some sort of mean tone, nicely represented on this recording by Luc Paganon, you'll find it on Qobuz and similar places.



It sounds velvety and colourful.

Robert bates did a recording on it! Somehow, I'm having a hard time enjoying it, though, just not exciting or eccentric enough.


I'll check this one out - along with the Chorzempa.

bioluminescentsquid

#783
I just checked out the Chorzempa - listened to my favorites, BWV 651 (Fantasia super Komm heiliger Geist), An Wasserflussen Babylon, O Lamm Gottes, and Vor deinen Tron. It is wonderful!

He takes his time and doesn't really try to build tension or push the music along. You are simply in heaven, no rush, even for the whole 10 minutes of O lamm Gottes. Although his articulation is consistently quite detached, there is still a wonderful sense on singing, and the overall effect is gently moving.

Doesn't hurt that it is played on the charming organ of Lebuinuskerk Deventer, mostly built in the 19th century (but in sort of an evolved Dutch Baroque style) but with pipework dating back to the time when Sweelinck was baptized at the very church in the 16th century.

I wonder what you find "challenging" about it? Usually something too austere or too eccentric would be "challenging" (in a good way), but I don't this was for me.

I will cross-post this in the Bach organ thread, so we can move the discussion there.

Mandryka

Quote from: bioluminescentsquid on June 05, 2019, 11:54:47 PM
Another source of temptation! This is a very unique and eccentric organ, in Elshout's words it "Opened a whole new unknown world".

https://www.organroxx.com/en_US/shop/product/the-renaisance-organ-of-olkusz-1942
(Beware of that first Sweelinck sample; we have those chirpy polish cimbels in full blast)

I think this is fabulous, thanks for making me aware of it!
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bioluminescentsquid

#785


Specifically this one:


Listening to Leon Berben play on the early 17th-century Scherer organ in Tangermünde. It is a marvelous organ that makes almost anything played on it sound good.

Berben likes to drive the music forward, so to say - high tempi and lots of ornaments, sort of like Koopman but more soft-spoken and supple, less caffeine. He walks a fine line, sometime it works wonders, such as in the Ricercar, and really brings out the abundant ecstasy that I love so much in Sweelinck's music. But in other times it just sounds.. rushed and dead. (E.g. in the famous Fantasia Cromatica).

Olkusz feels like a more eccentric cousin to the Tangermünde organ.

bioluminescentsquid

Quote from: Mandryka on June 10, 2019, 09:15:19 PM
The renaissance organ at St Julien du sault was restored 10 years ago, tuned in some sort of mean tone, nicely represented on this recording by Luc Paganon, you'll find it on Qobuz and similar places.



It sounds velvety and colourful.

After listening to the Paganon, I think I realized why the Robert Bates was hard for me to listen to. There's something off about this organ, it makes very beautiful sounds but seems a bit "faceless", don't you think, when compared to other similar small organs (e.g. Uttum, Krewerd, Ostönnen.. I could name a lot). Just that it doesn't really have a definite personality that shines through in the music.

I might change my opinion on this, I can't really judge an organ by 2 recordings, can I?

The "Fantaisie du 8e ton sur le Regina Caeli" by Racquet is great! What a surprise.

Apparently the pipes in the trumpet stop in this organ is a copy of the ones at Uttum!

bioluminescentsquid

#787


Mattheson, in his comparison between Scheidemann and Jacob Praetorius (both students of Sweelinck) mentioned how Scheidemann had a fairly easy-going personality, and this was reflected in his cheerful and spirited music.

Well, I don't hear that in this disc, volume 2 of Naxos' Scheidemann series. Instead what Nelson gives us is intimate and introspective Scheidemann, quite austere in playing and registrations. I like it.

Johann Kortkamp described that Praetorius played in a way that not only made people admire his playing, but also the organ itself. That I always take to be a benchmark in good organ playing. And I think this disc does it well - while it is a far cry from the big Hamburg organs Praetorius and Scheidemann played on (It's probably more like something that we would find in the church of a Northern German dorf in the middle of nowhere), the Brombaugh organ sounds beautiful under Nelson's hands and certainly isn't another faceless beast.

I'm wondering, though, where I should go for flashier, more extrovert Scheidemann.

Mandryka

Doeselaar of course a priori, but much more to my taste Klaus Eichhorn.

.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

premont

Quote from: Mandryka on June 22, 2019, 02:11:05 PM
Doeselaar of course a priori, but much more to my taste Klaus Eichhorn.

.

Yes, Doeselaar.

And what about Regis Allard?

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Mandryka

#790
Quote from: (: premont :) on June 22, 2019, 02:21:20 PM
Yes, Doeselaar.

And what about Regis Allard?

I haven't heard Allard, I'll try to make some time later today. Have you are anyone else heard this one from Berben which has five pieces by Scheidemann?

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premont

Quote from: Mandryka on June 22, 2019, 08:54:14 PM
I haven't heard Allard, I'll try to make some time later today. Have you are anyone else heard this one from Berben which has five pieces by Scheidemann?



I own it. Havem't listened to it since long. Have a distant memory of some much too strict and tense playing.
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Mandryka

Yes well that wouldn't be surprising. He seems to me to have got better, less tense, recently.

(Some piano people say the same about Marc André Hamelin, and that he only started to relax when he found a partner, I don't know of the same happened to Berben! )
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

bioluminescentsquid

#793
Quote from: Mandryka on June 22, 2019, 02:11:05 PM
Doeselaar of course a priori, but much more to my taste Klaus Eichhorn.

.

Doeselaar, to me, is more hot-blooded :)

I dug out the Berben (which I have, but also forgot about). I don't hear anything too tense in here. Instead it is 70 minutes of pleasant music - I might like it more than his Sweelinck set! I'll write more about it later.

Scheidemann is represented on this disc mostly by his weighty Praeludiums, something that I can imagine him launching into with great gusto as a prelude to a service, but not the supposedly sunny and witty chorale fantasias and variations.

I have to dig out Eichhorn and Allard.

Also, this one:

Seems interesting, but MDG strikes again - not on spotify, itunes etc. yet.

Mandryka

Quote from: bioluminescentsquid on June 23, 2019, 08:23:31 PM
Doeselaar, to me, is more hot-blooded :)

I dug out the Berben (which I have, but also forgot about). I don't hear anything too tense in here. Instead it is 70 minutes of pleasant music - I might like it more than his Sweelinck set! I'll write more about it later.

Scheidemann is represented on this disc mostly by his weighty Praeludiums, something that I can imagine him launching into with great gusto as a prelude to a service, but not the supposedly sunny and witty chorale fantasias and variations.

I have to dig out Eichhorn and Allard.

Also, this one:

Seems interesting, but MDG strikes again - not on spotify, itunes etc. yet.

Ah, it's out. I have the Weckmann.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#795
Quote from: bioluminescentsquid on June 23, 2019, 08:23:31 PM

but not the supposedly sunny and witty chorale fantasias and variations.


What about Coudurier? That's sunny, don't know about witty. Folksy maybe.

https://www.youtube.com/v/T33Z3FYedjA
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

bioluminescentsquid

#796
Quote from: Mandryka on June 23, 2019, 11:46:05 PM
Ah, it's out. I have the Weckmann.

How's the Weckmann?

Judging from the samples, it seems like a nice recording. Playing that is solid and takes the safe side of the road but is bolstered by a wonderful organ (The Sesquialtera stop in verse 2 of Komm Heiliger Geist really sings!)

Mandryka

#797
I've only heard the fantasies and magnificat. This is a recording to have for the sound engineering and the organ. The interpretations work at a sensual level, very often like a large chamber ensemble, he's inspired about the registrations. At the level of interpretation he's  a controller and you know it when you're listening, academic, buttoned up if you want me to be bitchy, not a passionate free spirit on fire possessed by duende. No, not that.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Marc

Mmm, very refined concert by Bine Bryndorf on the Martini/Groningen,NL organ this evening... she took the listeners through the church year (from Advent to Pentecost) with Bach and a few predecessors, like Tunder, Praetorius, Reincken and Buxtehude.
The lady was obviously very happy, too, all smiles and bowing to the instrument many times afterwards.

premont

Quote from: Marc on June 26, 2019, 12:06:34 PM
Mmm, very refined concert by Bine Bryndorf on the Martini/Groningen,NL organ this evening... she took the listeners through the church year (from Advent to Pentecost) with Bach and a few predecessors, like Tunder, Praetorius, Reincken and Buxtehude.
The lady was obviously very happy, too, all smiles and bowing to the instrument many times afterwards.

Lucky you.  :) Yes, she has matured with time, as exemplified by her Bruhns CD from Roskilde.

What did she play by Reinken?
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