Great passacaglias...

Petra, for the great Passacaglia of Bach, these are some of my options of available (I believe) recordings:

From the older performers, Gilian Weir is superb (reissued on Eloquence), but the sound is not the best. Ton Koopman is also an interesting choice (on Archiv), but the recording cannot do full justice to the work either.

From the more recent ones, C. Herrick is always a safe recommendation, in good sound from Hyperion. The best sound comes from H. Albrecht, on Oehms, in SACD format. He is a great organist too and he performs on a superb instrument.

Finally, there is Daniel Chorzempa, a very reliable organist from the Netherlands, in a recording from the 70s, but reworked in very impressive SACD sound by Pentatone.

Good hunting,

Parla

Parla, thanks for the suggestions for the Buxtehude.  I'd completely forgotten about Koopman's ongoing series.  His performances of Bach are the very opposite of 'dry' and might well be better for Buxtehude.  Degree of ornamentation is rather a personal thing but in the big Bach Preludes and Fugues I am sometimes irritated (especially after repeated hearing) by his habit of ornamenting fugue entries even at their first appearance.  But Buxtehude is not Bach and too dry an approach there may be less successful. Anyway I see that Amazon offers MP3 downloads of single pieces from many of these CDs so with very little expenditure it is possible to sample different recordings.  I'm certainly going to try Koopman, and Gillian Weir too, an organist I admire greatly.

Petra, another possibility for the Bach Passacaglia is Karl Richter: one of the finest organ records he ever made: a very 'rhetorical' performance. Played on a fine Silbermann organ in Freiberg, Saxony. Not at all dry and very well recorded.

Having just spent part of today with Irgens-Jensen (pretty quick the boys at Naxos) it is a great piece yes.

It's symphonic in scope, to my mind, what with the 5 minute introduction and the fugal section towards the end.

Did anybody else listen to the Symphony in D minor on the same disc, and if so, what did people think? Good stuff again in my opinion. Great melodic invention and forward momentum in both works.

Thanks again Troyen, Andrew et al...that composer is a new discovery for me.

Mark

Apparently Irgens-Jensen was not such a prolific composer, but his rather few known works are of considerable significance for the otherwise not very rich Norwegian tradition. To me, he sounds mostly closer to tradition rather to the innovative ones.

His song cycle Japanischer Fruhling (Japanese Spring) sounds quite interesting and quite far-oriental (is sung in the original Japanese). It exists on Simax, but I have it in the more interesting and passionate version with the great female advocate of the Norwegian song, Solveig Kringelborn, on the obscure Norwegian label NMA (the CD is called "To a Friend"). 

Simax had also recorded his Oratorio Heimferd. I wouldn't recommend it though.

Parla

Not really. I do have the recordings I mentioned. The Japanese Spring is among the favourites of mine and my wife (you see as Chinese, she appreciates everything far-oriental).

Parla

Thanks Mark for all the information. It sounds like a nice mixture of pieces. I'd forgotten that I used to know that organ quite well.  A friend of mine had played it often whilst a student, and I heard him play it once.  But no Buxtehude.  

Herrick seems to like Metzler as an organ builder.  His Bach Preludes and Fugues on Hyperion are played on the Metzler in the Jesuitenkirche in Luzern (the firm's Op.521, it says in the notes: that's a lot of organs!). Sometimes I find Herrick's Bach Preludes and Fugues  a little over-registered, if you see what I mean.  Maybe I should try one volume rather than wait for the set.  I'd like to try the Koopman too, that Parla mentioned.  In the passacaglia Walcha takes 6'25". How does that compare with Herrick's faster tempo than you were expecting?

I'm still thinking of downloading the Walcha MP3 version of all the Buxtehude pieces he recorded.  Mostly Preludes and Fugues, no chorale preludes.

Hi Chris et al!

Thanks Chris for that information - sorry rushing last night!

Metzler are listed in Wikipedia as one of the major European organ builders:It mentions the organ in Lucerne that you wrote of. Apparently two in Great Britain (only?)- the one at Trinity Cambridge and one in the church of St. Mary the Virgin Oxford.

(Generally the organ on the Herrick has a lovely 'breathy' sound if you know what I mean.)

Another contemporary passacaglia I have found is again by Penderecki from his very interesting third symphony, movement 4. Once again there is the same technique of the repeated D's as he used in the Magnificat Passacaglia, but this time repeated in threes and fours rather than in 13's as in the earlier work. It has a really solemn and brooding mood (one of Penderecki's hallmarks) but does contain some beautiful moments as relief at the end of the movement. Overall, his third symphony is a very satisfying work to me and my favourite symphony of his so far.

Mark