The Organ, Master of them all - general organ thread

[Marc]

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

What did she play by Reinken?

This one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JD7eXqW_S4

Bryndorf picked flute stops, though. Sounded awesome.

[Mandryka]

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

Yes, I agree, I hope you have heard this by the way - no shortage of eccentricity in this one.



There are other thing by her available - Bux and Bach - I'd be interested to know what you think. There's also lots of stuff on YouTube, piano.

[bioluminescentsquid]

We've talked about lena Jacobsen before! I think this is her least eccentric recording
I'm still interested in seeing her essay on Baroque Rhetoric that she bases her playing style on.
I still find her style hard to listen to. ("Trigger finger?")

Lots of material on her youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/lenajacobson/videos?disable_polymer=1

[bioluminescentsquid]

Still my favorite recording on the Compenius organ. You know I'm a sucker for these things.

[Marc]

Due to a lack of spare time, I don't visit as much organ concertos as I used to... but this evening was splendid with Cor Ardesch on the Schnitger/Timpe organ in the Der Aa Kerk, Groningen, NL. Colourful, to the point and very refined, with Buxtehude, Muffat and Bach, and a modern improvisation of the Lutheran "Vater unser". One of those concerts that can never last too long...

Compared to other organists, he made quite a lot of use of the Timpe stops (Bovenwerk) and it sounded just all right to me. After all, Timpe was still part of the Schnitger/Hinsz/Freytag school, and Ardesch made the three 'Werke' blend perfectly well together.

[bioluminescentsquid]

Sietze de Vries' Tunder Christ lag in Todesbanden on his Roskilde CD is stunning! It's warm and articulate, rather unlike the more austere and forbidding Syre recording that we previously obsessed over. One recording of his that I'll recommend.

Just re-listened to it. Now I think it's way too happy to be Tunder - it's beautiful, but his style misses out a bit on the deep mysticism that makes Tunder (particularly this chorale fantasy) attractive to me!

[André]

A top recommendation. I posted comments in the WAYL thread.

[Mandryka]

In my experience Serge Schoonbroodt is a  hit and miss organist. I've been  enjoying his flamboyant Boyvin and Grigny, but the Titlouse is somehow much less inspiring for me. I haven't heard him play the très petits maîtres like Corette.

Anyone heard any of these CDs, or indeed the organs?

https://www.dkunert.de/Die-Stumm/Weimbs-Orgel-in-Zell-an-der-Mosel



Bach - Praeludium in a moll
Bach - O Mensch bewein dein Sünde gross
Erbach - Canon Noni Toni
Buxtehude - Vater unser im Himmelreich
Buxtehude - Passacaglia d-moll
Buxtehude - Nun komm der Heiden Heiland
Paumann - Mit ganzem Willen wünsch ich dir
Aus dem Klavierbuch der Regina Clara im Hoff - Bassa Imperiale
Scheidt - Es wolle Gott uns gnädig sein
Bruhns - Praeludium in e-moll
Speth - Toccata Quarta
Tunder - Canzona in d-dur
Bach - Nun komm der Heiden Heiland
Buxtehude - Ciacona in e-moll
Bach - Jesu meine Freude
Bach - O Welt ich muss dich lassen
Glocken

https://www.dkunert.de/St-Pantaleon-Frankena



Murschhauser, Franz Xaver Anton - Primi toni
Murschhauser, Franz Xaver Anton - Praeambulum - 5 Fugen - Finale
Anonymus - Cortege Final
Anonymus - Flos vernalis
Cesare Borgo - Canzon Ottava "La Colombana"
Pieter Cornet - Tantum ergo
Johann Anton Kobrich - Sieben Pastorellen
Girolamo Frescobaldi - Passacagli
Johann Kaspar Kerll - Ricercata - Canzona
Simon Lohet - Fuga Quarta - Fuga Quinta
Thomas Babou - Pièce de Monsieur Babou
Johann Gottfried Walther - Jesu, meine Freude
Henry Dumont - Allemande
Paul Siefert - Frantasia Primi Toni g-moll à 3
Mulliner Book - Pavane (Newman)
Joseph Lederer - Praeambulum g-moll
Johann Ernst Eberlin - Toccata Sexta
Anonymus - My Lady Carey´s dompe
Glocken St. Pantaleon




https://www.dkunert.de/J-S-Bach


Pièce d'orgue in G BWV 572
"Wer nun den lieben Gott lässt walten" BWV 691
Fuga in a BWV 958
Partita "O Gott, du frommer Gott" BWV 767
"Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier" BWV 731
Fantasia und Fuge in a BWV 904
Toccata und Fuge in d BWV 538

[Mandryka]

Just re-listened to it. Now I think it's way too happy to be Tunder - it's beautiful, but his style misses out a bit on the deep mysticism that makes Tunder (particularly this chorale fantasy) attractive to me!

What do you think of Pamela Ruiter Feenstra? She's got mysticism in spades.

[prémont]

In my experience Serge Schoonbroodt is a  hit and miss organist. I've been  enjoying his flamboyant Boyvin and Grigny, but the Titlouse is somehow much less inspiring for me. I haven't heard him play the très petits maîtres like Corette.

Anyone heard any of these CDs, or indeed the organs?

As you write, he is a hit or miss. And I can't say, that I have been an avid collector of his recordings. Yet I own six of them: Sweelinck, Titelouze, Grigny, Fischer, Chaumont and Bach vol.2. I haven't heard them since long. Of these I recall the Sweelinck and the Grigny as being somewhat special, the former because of the mean tone organ used, the latter partly because of his beautiful singing. The Bach didn't do it for me.

[Mandryka]

Why on earth should the Poitiers Cliquot be an organ of predilection for Grigny? Olivier Houette is the fourth to have recorded lots and lots of his music there, and doing so he risks comparison with some serious organists - Alain and Schoonbroodt and Isoir.  And I just saw that that even Ewald Kooiman seems to have played Grigny there for a recording which has now disappeared without trace.

I refuse to do comparisons.

What I can say is that, the organ is well captured here IF you want a recording which communicates a sense of the cathedral walls and ceiling. His playing is often reflective, always noble and sometimes astonishingly imposing  - I nearly jumped out of my seat because of how he plays  the grand jeu in Veni Creator Spiritus. This is NOT a recording for people who live in houses with thin walls or for people with titchy ickle speakers.

I'm glad to have it, you can never have too much Grigny in your life.

(The sounds of the Poitiers Cliquot  here makes me think of the wonderful Anttegnati that Cera uses for Andrea Gabrieli)

[Mandryka]

The organ at Sens is clean sounding but far from faceless, 18th century and restored to some sort of authentic condition towards the end of the 20th century, maybe this recording was in celebration of that restoration, I don't know. Kirnberger III, so it could be worse.  Anne Chapelin Dubar choses colourful registers and plays in a refined and fluid way. She also has the knack of making the melodies sound eloquent and expressive. The sound world is often small scale, chamber music almost.  The result is sensual, you catch yourself thinking "oh how beautiful, tender, delicate!" often, but rarely if ever "oh how magisterial, imposing, flamboyant." though a bit of flamboyance is unavoidable in the dialogues.  No singing in alternatim, but played like this the organ music all on its own is totally satisfying.

Without wishing to be sexist, I want to say that this is a feminine performance, I know that's nonsense, but there you are. I'd also like to suggest that it shows a Grigny who is partly indebted to Renaissance musical values, which is original maybe.

Anne Chapelin Dubar was a harpsichord specialist, a student of Huguette Dreyfus and worked with Blandine Verlet, though she did also work with Michel Chappuis, and just maybe you can hear the fact that she was imbued in French harpsichord music - Chambonnières and Marchand - in these organ performances.

It is very well recorded on disc, the Spotify transfer less appealing.

[Mandryka]

And to give you an idea of the type of animal we're dealing with, here's the organ

.   

A 2017 release from Jaroslav Tuma. Here's the tracklist

1. Cabanilles (1644-1712): Tiento XVII De "Pange lingua" in D
2 Johann Krieger (1651-1735): Ciacona in g
3 Gregorio Strozzi (1615–1687): Toccata quarta per L'elevatione
4 Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706): Chorální variace "Herzlich tut mich verlangen"
5 Michelangelo Rossi (1602-1656): Toccata Settima
6 Johann Caspar Kerll (1627-1693): Ciacona in d
7 Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643): Toccata tertia
8 Georg Muffat (1653-1704): Passacaglia in g

In his notes he said that he tried music contemporary with the organ's construction (second half of the c18) but found that earlier music sounded better. He notes that it is just a fact about organs that their construction often harks back to music of the past, and this is just obvious on this organ. To me it has some of the colour of one of those Thuringian instruments I like so much!  He also says that although the pieces he chose often don't sound full enough on rustic organs like this, this one somehow brought out the counterpoint in a really interesting way.

Anyway, so be it: it is well worth hearing, at least for the organ, and it will be a special treat for people who aren't repelled by Tuma's characteristically weighty style (eg the Muffat). It made me feel in the mood for a mini private Jaroslav Tuma organ recordings festival, he's someone with ideas, things to say.

[Mandryka]

And to give you an idea of the type of animal we're dealing with, here's the organ

.   

A 2017 release from Jaroslav Tuma. Here's the tracklist

In his notes he said that he tried music contemporary with the organ's construction (second half of the c18) but found that earlier music sounded better. He notes that it is just a fact about organs that their construction often harks back to music of the past, and this is just obvious on this organ. To me it has some of the colour of one of those Thuringian instruments I like so much!  He also says that although the pieces he chose often don't sound full enough on rustic organs like this, this one somehow brought out the counterpoint in a really interesting way.

Anyway, so be it: it is well worth hearing, at least for the organ, and it will be a special treat for people who aren't repelled by Tuma's characteristically weighty style (eg the Muffat). It made me feel in the mood for a mini private Jaroslav Tuma organ recordings festival, he's someone with ideas, things to say.

This contains a particularly impressive piece by Pachelbel, a big set of variations, so much so that I've just ordered his Pachelbel recording.

[Mandryka]

Extremely impressive workout for the subwoofers here by Anne Chapelin playing Louis Marchand, the organ (Carentin, Normandy) was built in the first decade of the c19, restored at the end of the c20 "sur le modèle de la facture du 18ème siècle, pour réaliser un instrument de 37 jeux sur 4 claviers et pédalier, d'esthétique classique française" sounds fabulous in this music! I feel that Louis Marchand is a bit undervalued, contrapuntally the music is rich, and yes it is brash and it is flamboyant, but I don't think it's too formulaic or predictable. 

[Mandryka]

The organ is very distinctive, husky dusky. It's one of the best organs I've ever heard for whispering.

Imagine the moon rising over a lake shrouded in mist, that's the sort of light and shade that Cyril Pallaud's creates on his organ in Sierentz. He has a way of phrasing the music which makes it sound almost improvised; the registrations are chosen to create a dusky blend of sounds.

This quasi impressionist interpretation of Muffat's Apparatus is evocative, geared most towards colour than to counterpoint, it reminds me in fact of what I like most in Muffat's concertos.

Revisiting this today I find myself in complete agreement with my former self

In many ways this isn't successful. It's not well recorded, the action is sometimes noisy, the registrations chosen can sometimes blend a bit too much, the acoustics of the hall means that the music blurs sometimes, the organ is anachronistic. But . . .

. . . it is, I think, trying to do something interesting, really interesting. Cyril Pallaud is trying to introduce light and shade into the music - so that, rather than being a constantly brightly illuminated hit of bravura, the toccatas acquire a new additional dimension of relief, a dimension of mystery.

This is exactly what I hear in Muffat's concertos, which I rarely hear in his organ music.

So despite the very significant problems with the recording, I feel rather excited by it.

[Mandryka]

A colourful and relatively light bohemian organ at Doksy, played here by Tuma in what is for me an attractive programme of early baroque  pieces. As with the Dubrovnik organ mentioned above, and not the case, unfortunately with his Pachelbel CD, Tuma is at his best when the organ isn't too big and heavy. He plays with a panache which he doesn't always find. Very glad to have this one.

The booklet has a journalist's essay which is a joy to read, not scholarly but exuding a love for the organ and the music and indeed the organist - The essay has made me wonder whether there's a translation of Michael Praetorius's Syntagma Musicum online.

[Mandryka]

. . . not the case, unfortunately with his Pachelbel CD, Tuma is at his best when the organ isn't too big and heavy.

This was a totally unjust comment, both about the organ (which is colourful) and about the organist (who is in his element in Pachelbel I suspect) You need soft ears, ears which are flexible enough to be able to listen to the music. Last week my ears were too hard, today they've liquefied. Tuma, Pachelbel, Kladruby - recommendable to anyone curious about Pachelbel's challenging music

[bioluminescentsquid]

Intimiate and lively Buxtehude, fleet-footed in a suitable acoustic. Consistently great in "grand" prelude and fugues, but the more introspective chorale preludes can feel a little like they were irreverently tossed off.

But I think it's an attractive recording because the "humanness" of it, especially on such an "inhumane" instrument like the organ. 

Also, wonderful organ - certainly full of character and not faceless!

[Mandryka]

Intimiate and lively Buxtehude, fleet-footed in a suitable acoustic. Consistently great in "grand" prelude and fugues, but the more introspective chorale preludes can feel a little like they were irreverently tossed off.

But I think it's an attractive recording because the "humanness" of it, especially on such an "inhumane" instrument like the organ. 

Also, wonderful organ - certainly full of character and not faceless!

Have you heard this? I think it's your sort of organ