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World music CD DVD shop and Classic distribution
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ID: SIGCD027
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Organ Collection
Colm Carey at the organ of the Dutch Church, Austin Friars, London |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: SIGCD508
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Organ Collection
Subcollection: Organ
The year 1937 was surely one of the richest years of the 20th century for the English organ repertoire. That peculiarly English genre the organ sonata gained two new major works with the publication of Percy Whitlock's sonata in C minor and Edward Bairstow's sonata in Eb.
Percy Whitlock studied composition at the Royal College of Music with Vaughan Williams. His C-minor organ sonata was conceived whilst laid low with illness and dependent upon the radio, where he was thrilled to hear a broadcast of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony in C minor. Then during a period of convalescence, Whitlock enjoyed a series of country walks which sowed the seeds of the second and third movements of his sonata. The sonata is a brooding work of symphonic scale and complexity. In it, the organ is treated very much as an orchestra, requiring the player to be more than usually adroit at manipulating the stops to achieve specific tone-colours. The sonata is recognised as the finest of the very good, light, British organ pieces that exist (with most of the others being by Whitlock anyway).
In the 1930s Sir Edward Bairstow was Professor of Music at the University of Durham and had not written for the organ since 1911, chiefly concentrating instead on the composition of choral works. A nationally recognised academic, he came to regard some of his earlier organ works as somewhat sentimental but he had never the less had a yearning to write an organ sonata. By giving the work slow and quiet outer movements which rise in the middle, and a bright, strong central one, Bairstow inverts the usual pattern. He establishes the overall mood as quiet and introverted, suiting his love of restraint.
The disc concludes on an upbeat note with the arresting Flourish for an Occasion from the pen of Sir William Harris, organist of St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. St George's is the home of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and the occasion for which this piece was composed was the annual Garter service of 1947. |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: LIR004
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Organ Collection
Subcollection: Organ
Popular organ repertoire on the new Letourneau organ in the chapel at the Tower of London. This is the first solo CD on the newly restored organ.
The present organ case in the Tower of London dates from 1699 when it was built under royal warrant by Bernhardt Schmidt for the Banqueting House, Whitehall. It was relocated several times, eventually coming to rest at the Tower’s chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. Over the following century it was rebuilt and enlarged on several occasions, and by 1999 this resulted in an organ some three times larger than that for which the original case had been designed. During the installation of this new organ by the Canadian organ builder Fernand Létourneau, the case was meticulously restored to its original dimensions and many decorative details were made to replace those lost over the centuries.
To show off this remarkable new instrument on its first commercial solo recording, Colm Carey has put together a wonderfully varied and attractive programme, first and foremost chosen to suit to the instrument’s character, but representing the best of British organ music as befits its location, and spanning 5 centuries.
A leading concert organist of the younger generation, Colm Carey offers a blend of fresh invention and technical finesse, establishing him as a remarkable and distinctive performer. Born in Ireland, Carey studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Nicholas Danby and David Titterington, where he read for a University of London BMus. He also gained the Dip.RAM, the Academy’s highest performance award, and later became Meaker Fellow. As winner of the prestigious Julius Isserlis Scholarship, he went on to study at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève with Lionel Rogg, where he won the ‘Premier Prix de Virtuosité avec Distinction’ on completion of his course. He subsequently came third and won the Audience Prize at the St. Albans International Competition.
Since then Colm has performed in France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Canada, the USA, Australia and throughout Britain and Ireland. His repertoire embraces all the major traditions, from the French Classical School and the German Baroque to the great symphonic tradition of the nineteenth century, and as a keen exponent of contemporary music he has given first performances of new works by Lionel Rogg, Roderick Williams, Ruth Byrchmore and Andrew Johnstone. |
| 15.00 eur Buy |
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