 "Historic recording" | 2009-07-10 |
| - Reviewed By materribile |
This is one of the early Telarc recordings, and one of the very early consumer digital recordings. It was meant to be a showcase for the technology. I've owned it on both vinyl and CD, and have since heard the Methuen organ in person many times. More than a few friends have jumped when the big notes of the Fantasia came out of silence on the recording.
As to the performance: My impression is that Michael Murray chose to let Bach be Bach, with a minimum of interpretation (but plenty of drive). He uses the full capabilities of the Methuen organ, including its bass. The Methuen organ is known to be quirky, although many organists love it. Among its quirks are the power of its mixtures, which are placed low in the case. The organist and the people sitting in the very front of the hall do not hear them at their full power; for people at the balcony, they can dominate a soft registration. Nor does the instrument provide a very clear left-to-right soundstage; that is said to be part of its design. But along with the quirks comes great flexibility in registration, which Murray uses to good effect, suitably grand, plaintive, dulcet, or cerebral.
The Passacaglia in C minor may be the primary attraction of this recording. While this is not the best recorded performance I've heard--I give that honor to the recording that Biggs did in the Thomaskirke--it is very good indeed, and has the benefit of being in print.
The recording also makes full use of concert hall dynamic range. The quiet passages are very quiet (notably the opening of the Passacaglia) and the loud passages suitably loud. While part of the glory of the recording, it does limit the places where you can enjoy it. This is not a recording for the car, unless you have a very, very quiet car, nor for earbuds in a noisy place. It demands a good listening room, and pays back in pleasure.
The cover art is dramatic, even breathtaking. Having seen the Music Hall in person, I can say it does not do justice to the hall and organ. The back cover of [[ASIN: B000009LNN Forever Methuen]] comes as close as anything I've seen. If you have the chance to visit the Hall and hear the organ in person, I urge you to do so. The instrument has had a few stops added since this recording was made, and its combination action has been thoroughly rebuilt. The valvework has been rebuilt, too, quieting the action. |
| |
| "An oldie, but a goodie." | 2008-07-29 |
| - Reviewed By wtheus |
I've owned this CD since it was first issued. I'll be frank. While I'm a serious student of "classical" music, at that point I was looking for recordings to show off my new speakers and my CD player. I didn't know this music.
Well, I fell in love with the music. The G minor material is great. But the F major Toccata and the C minor T & F are other-worldly. I know that I'm reviewing Bach here as opposed to Murray; but I might not have reacted the same way to this music had it not been for Murray's performances. And the recording is truly fine.
Have I heard better performances? Well, I really admire Christopher Herricks' performances of these works. They may not be quite as driven, but they are wonderfully played.
Regarding the sonics, I think people have their priorities out of line. You could set up a church and an organ for perfect acoustics, but if the soloist couldn't play worth a darn, it wouldn't matter. I will listen to an adequately recorded great performance over a brilliantly recorded sub-par performance any day. In other words, pay no attention to reviewers who think their subwoofers are adequate judges of musical value. |
| |
 "Overall, not a bad effort" | 2007-10-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: AZUTU0R4CBJ26 |
First, I agree with David Kemp that the organ at Methuen Hall is a very fine specimen with a rich heritage and sound.
Second, Mr. Murray is superb technician at the keyboard, kudos for his technical prowess! But I differ from previous posters in my analysis.
Mr. Murray's tempii in the first two pieces are just a hair over the line of too fast. That said, he doesn't come close to Virgil Fox's craziness when he attempted to win over hard rock audiences by playing everything as loud and fast as possible, destroying all musicianship in the process.
I found Mr. Murray to be slightly too 'wooden' with his interpretation. I have heard other Bach recordings where artists go to the other extreme, placing rubato in measures where it makes no musical sense. However, if Mr. Kemp is correct in that Murray was a student of Dupre - Marcel Dupre that is, then this shouldn't be surprising as Dupre had a reputation for being a mechanical player, tremendous as he was.
A lot of Bach's music creates its own drive because of the way it is written, eliminating the need for too much expressiveness. However, there are certain places such as in the high point of a phrase or the end of a major section that a ritard or slight rubato is appropriate for emphasizing affekt (emotional mood). To that end, Mr. Murray came up a little short. His registration was at times also 'topheavy' or thin - particularly in the fugue section of track 1 (F & F in G minor) and in the Toccata in F Major. Topheavy meaning there was too much upperwork with mixtures and mutations that it started to sound a bit screachy, thin meaning he employed too many flute stops (much like E Power Biggs) instead of sticking with a principal plenum, building to mixture plenum and finally organo plenum. The ending of the Fugue in G Minor on track 1 is rather anti climactic. It would have been much more satisfying had it ended simlarly to the Passacaglia in C Minor, building to a bigger climax.
Last, some of Mr. Murray's staccato notes were too choppy. There are longer or shorter varieties of staccato which simply means detached. In the chorale Alle Menschen ... the repeated notes have too large of a break between them which makes it hard for one to distinguish the beginning of a phrase. If the repeated notes had smaller breaks, but larger breaks were employed only at the end/start of a phrase, this would come off much better. In track 1, some of his staccatos hurt the affekt of the piece where a longer staccato would have created much more drive and power.
To end on a positive note, the endings of both the Passacaglia and Fugue (P & F in C minor) really sparkled!
So not bad all in all, but definitely room for improvement. I would like to find Bach organ recordings as good as Ben Van Oosten has done with French Romantic greats such as Widor, Vierne and Dupre. If anyone has any recommendations, I would love to hear! |
| |
| "Great All Around" | 2007-02-03 |
| - Reviewed By caddeville |
I was a little careful with this CD, as the previous reviews are a little scetchy and I have other works from Michael Murray which are not anything exciting. However, I was enthralled by both the sound quality and the performance. Michael Murray really plays out the pieces! The organ sounded not too far off what I heard in person at a concert I attended at Methuen last year.
The only curiosity of the recording is the fact that it is so short and that the pieces are arranged with the three large pieces, then the two Chorales. Usually, recording engineers will stick the softer pieces in the middle to give contrast to the recording and to not make the listeners ears tired. They also did not include the beautiful Fugue to the Toccata, which was a little disappointing.
All in all, considering the price of a used copy ($2-3), it is well worth it. The music and sound are great, and they even included decent liner notes, which is more than I can say for many organ CD's. |
| |
| "hall sound, what hall sound?" | 2005-07-31 |
| - Reviewed By kilboj |
Just a note for audiophiles - this early recording is one of those where the organ is in stereo, but the reverb/overhang is in mono. There might have been coincident mikes to explain this - there is left and right organ sound, but virtually no space. You either like this technique or you don't, but if you don't it is really annoying, especially compared to live organ.
Still, your mightiest subwoofer, a true one, not the so-called subs that are really just woofers, will have a lot of fun with it. A true sub has, for a change, a lot to work with.
JK |
| |
 "short and has been reissued with 2 Franck pieces" | 2005-01-04 |
| - Reviewed By donaldekelly |
| Telarc CD 80637 adds Cesar Franck pieces "Fantasie in A" and "Pastorale, Op 19" making the total time of the reissue 61:39. 2004 |
| |
Expedited Available
