any Organ music buffs here?

i'd like to dabble my feet in some nice Organ music. This may seem a trifle shallow or something but i'd really like some stuff to test out the low end extension on some kit. I'm aware that the organ at Sydney Opera House has some really long pipes on it, so maybe something played there. I'm sure you know what I mean, so maybe some ideas of some discs that I can go and peruse at amazon please?

Thank you

Rory

 

Here, sir. Titian and Pe-Zulu are also big on organ. Sadly, our resident expert RdS (he plays) is not often seen in these parts these days, but seek out his threads. Here's a reference to his thread on Bach organ music, which is the cornerstone of any organ collection:

https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?t=20

I have the Bach organ works three times, a set that came with the complete works of Bach on Hänssler (player forgotten), the old Walcha DG set and the most recent Erato set of Marie-Claire Alain. I listen to different ones at different times, without having a particular favourite; it's just marvellous music.

 

Isn't GrahamN an organ buff also. He seems to sadly have fallen off the radar also

 

Although I have no claim to expertise, I'm an old fan. I too have the Hänssler Bach organ works plus the complete works by André Issoir, the Orgelburchlein by Jean-Claude Albitzer and the Schemelli Song Book with Hans-Joachim Erhard and Hilling, plus a few bits and pieces by Buxtehude and a couple others. I find this music both profound and relaxing.

I find it is also the surest way to have the living room all to myself.

 

Don't think so, Richard, he was always our big romantic orchestral man (Wagner, Mahler and so on). Also big on Scandinavian music. He can still be found writing on some sites to do with the Proms (remember that he spends a substantial chunk of his life (more than anyone else I've ever met) in concert halls). I suspect that that's why we hear so little from him - his object was, like Titian, to reproduce as accurately as possible in his home what he heard in the concert hall, period. Having achieved that, "upgrading" has no more meaning.

 

meh well i've just ordered Cantate Domino on Prirous (sp?) recordings, SACD from amazon. It'll be here in a month so we'll see

 

Shame, it cheered me up reading his reviews of concerts and CD's.
I've never been big on the organ myself, I could never get to grips with playing the pedals either. Much preferred playing the piano

 

yes i've had a bash at playing the organ too- my size 13 feet were a bit cumbersome when tackling the pedals too I can play a mean piano tune

 

There's a lot of interesting Organ music out there, not just Bach and others of the North German Baroque period. This is a great disc:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl/202-7050132-7860637

Also, the Organ symphonies of Widor are worth hearing, especially the famous Toccata which is probably heard at a lot of weddings when the happy couple leave together.... but is really superb when well played.

 

May I humbly offer my unsurpassed expertise. "The art of Peter Hurford" is a double CD worth a try

 

There was a performance of Bachs Passacaglia (I think ) on BBC2 a week or so ago.

WOW!

I've various odds and ends including a 60cd clasical boxset, but haven't really heard anything which grabbed my attention like that.

Perhaps not quite as good as DJ Shadows "Organ Donor" though

Also, when trying to jolt my meMOry of what it was that I'd heard on BBC2, (I'm 99% sure that it was Passacaglia), I came across this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/misc/organ.shtml

Worlds biggest organ! Huuuuuuuuuuuuuge!

 

If it was indeed the Passacaglia in C (with its relentlessly repeating 16-note pattern, mostly on the pedals but drifting up on to the manuals now and then), this is my favourite piece of Bach organ music and your reaction is the same as mine. A good version gives me goosebumps on my goosebumps.

 

The Spanish composers produced some interesting music (some Spanish organs featured horizontally-protruding trumpets, which give them a unique sound). In addition, there was some good French stuff, written prior to the advent of the big Cavaillé-Coll organs for which Widor composed his organ symphonies. It may lack the profundity of the Bach stuff, but it's still an enjoyable listen. For example (and topically), the Noëls by Daquin are good.

P.S. Came across this by accident:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005RFTD/ref=pd_cpt_gw_2/202-3972753-1062201

 

I think the organ works of Cesar Frank got forgotten in this thread.
I like very much also Max Reger's music for organ but it would be better to start with Bach, Buxtehude, Widor, Frank....

Have you heard again the M-C. Alain's interpretation?

 

Yes, I did, Titian, and I agree that it's not as lacking in that essential tension as I had previously thought. Must drag out my old Walcha one and compare. (In the meantime, the 170 CDs of the Brilliant Classics Complete Works of Mozart arrived last night from amazon.de. 76 Euro! How do they do it?)

 

I paid 87 for mine and thought it was a bargain

 

You did, Sir G., but we in non-EU Swizzieland don't have to pay German VAT (TVA to you). In addition, I had a 5 Euro gift token from Amazon.de, so it all came to a princely sum of EUR76.70 precisely.

 

Yep that sounds right!

I can't remember ever having got "into" classical, as much as I did listening into that.

 

"Arp Schnitger-Orgel der St. Jacobi-Kirche in Hamburg" by the Finnish organist Wikman is absolutely brilliant, available at the german amazon

 

I don't know if I can be of help: you mention the Sydney organ and that points to the big 'symphonic' repertoire about which I know next to nothing. Even so, if you'd care to be a little more explicit on what you really want, I'm quite willing to help within the limits of my knowledge.

P.S.: I wouldn't seek any 64' pedal tone in records. First of all, it is quite impossible for one to hear it; second, no sane system will deliver that kind of noise (even with a subwoofer you'd have to tune it really low (about 20 Hz) and boost the power to maximum levels. In which case you would not be able to withstand the sound - windows vibrating, a very upsetting feeling in the guts and, curiously enough, a sense of anguish.

As a matter of fact, very low sound is almost inaudible and the pitch is impossible to establish - I mean, we cannot understand what pitch it is: it just seems low. Some organ builders used to provide only one very deep not for all the three or four lower pedal notes: we perceive them as 'low', and the upper pipework gives us the tone definition.