I first encountered Jan Welmers’ organ music on a disc by Audite, featuring just four relatively long pieces. The disc grouped them as minimalist, and they certainly do feature the characteristic repeated patterns of sound, but they are something much more than this. Welmers combines those simple elements of minimalism… Read moreJan Welmers – Organ Works
The combination of Priory Records, Lincoln Cathedral and Colin Walsh is a definite winner, as evidenced through numerous recordings, most of it of the French romantics (Walsh’s great love) but with forays into “popular” fare, and a couple of Bach releases too. This album of romantic English music is a… Read moreEnglish Organ Music
Sometimes there are recordings which come along and simply delight beyond all expectation. This release by Organum Classics is one of these. The premise already looked good on paper, with a talented young organist playing on a modern, historically informed organ a programme juxtaposing established baroque works with relatively challenging… Read moreCirculi
How tastes change! In 1965 EMI’s legendary “Great Cathedral Organs” series visited Gloucester Cathedral to record Herbert Sumsion on the “Willis” organ – not a thoroughbred by any means. This was Father Henry Willis’s first cathedral organ in 1847, based on an existing instrument with mixed roots – but he… Read moreEnglish Organ Music of the 19th and 20th Centuries
This is a most intriguing disc of organ meets computer meets dub techno! The composer-performer is Brussels-based Frenchman Maxime Denuc who explores the organ creativity through technological advances. My attention was drawn to his work through the 2020 album Solarium, a collaboration between Denuc and organist Cindy Castillo – the… Read moreNachthorn, for midi-controlled organ
I have several recordings of the Willis organ in Hereford Cathedral, and all capture it in a slightly different way, but it reliably sounds absolutely wonderful. On this disc, with Robert Gower playing through his album of Walton and Finzi arrangements published by Oxford University Press, the balance is near… Read moreA Walton and Finzi Organ Album
This recording was released by Priory in my very early days of collecting CDs. I remember the glowing review in The Gramophone (“I cannot remember when I last enjoyed organ playing, either recorded or live as much”) and the exciting anticipation of my first listen. The first seconds are certainly… Read moreGreat European Organs No.7 (Westminster Abbey)
I only recently discovered Friedrich Cerha (1926-2023) through a compilation of various contemporary organ works (HORIZON) featuring his 2010 Toccata. Now, here is the complete organ works, 25 works in total, ranging from less than a minute duration through to the eight-minute Toccata. Cerha, born in Austria where he spent… Read moreFriedrich Cerha – Complete Works for Organ
There are some recordings which, when graced with a rare play, surprise me in some way…a blast from the past perhaps or the realisation or recollection of a hidden gem. This interesting Pro Organo recording of music by the American organist and composer Calvin Hampton did just that – it… Read moreIn Praise of Humanity
John Scott possessed a rare humble musicianship which coupled phenomenal technique with exquisite sensitivity. This 2004 Hyperion recording of music by Whitlock on the mighty organ of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, was his last before his move, just a few months later, to St Thomas’s Church, Fifth Avenue, New York,… Read moreJohn Scott plays Whitlock
