Michael Murray At The Cathedral Of St. John The Divine: Works By Franck, Widor, Dupr?, Bach and Others
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Music CD Cover
Composer: AnonymousComposer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Composer: John Dunstable
Composer: Marcel Dupre
Composer: Cesar Franck
Composer: Benedetto Marcello
Composer: Henry Purcell
Composer: Antonio Soler
Composer: Louis Vierne
Composer: Charles-Marie Widor
Performer: Michael Murray
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: Telarc
Soundtracks:
- Agincourt Hymn
- The Emperor's Fanfare
- Psalm 19
- Trumpet Tune
- Finale
- Prelude And Fugue In E Minor, BWV 533, 'Cathedral'
- Meditation
- Prelude
- Chorale No. 2 In B Minor
- Cortege And Litany, Op. 19, No. 2
- Final
Free Music Notes for Michael Murray At The Cathedral Of St. John The Divine: Works By Franck, Widor, Dupr?, Bach and Others
Free Music Review: Excellent playing, recording and organ, some repertoire isn't so good in itself...
Hit: 4 Stars
By that headline, I'm asserting that this is a beautiful CD, excellently recorded, beautifully played with true sensitivity and artistry, with excellent registrations and good tempi for the extra-large space and reverberation this building offers! My sole objection here is that he could have opened up (much) more for the Franck Chorale #2 - it's NOT supposed to be restrained, especially just because it was meant to fit right after the Vierne and before the Dupr? selections; otherwise, everything here is excellent! [One does NOT want to rush matters in such a building because things will just blur into one huge blob.] On those grounds alone I'd gladly give it a full 5 stars!
What I DON'T like about the CD is the repertoire selection! If this particular organ can handle any and all repertoire one can hurl at it (which indeed it can - by the way, kudos to TELARC for including the stop-list!), I'd have wished for more variety of repertoire. This CD is biased far too much towards 2nd-rate (and worse) French music!!!
[This is not to say that all French music is 2nd-rate or worse (far from it!); it's the specific items and composers (Widor, Dupr? as well as - not on this disk - Guilmant, Bo?llmann {excepting his "Pri?re ? Notre-Dame"} and Gigout) that, sad to say and in spite of their best efforts, don't manage any better; even the best possible playing can't save them.]
I know this will hurt some people, but not to say it would be dishonest of me! The fact remains that Widor and Dupr? were POOR composers!!!! Their music only survives in organists' circles because true 1st-rate stuff by 1st-rate composers like Brahms, Franck, Elgar et al is insufficient in quantity; simultaneously, transcriptions have for quite some time been looked down upon. Also, some people want to focus on Renaissance and Baroque repertoire which, while quaint and even beautiful, still does NOT have the emotional and wider appeal of post-1700 stuff!
Thus, I wish that the Widor excerpt was totally left out (boring as sin!!!! - only the Toccata from the 5th "Symphony" is half-decent...), and one of the Dupr? works (in my opinion the "Cort?ge et Litanie"!) could also - and ought to - have been chucked. In their place, things like works of Messiaen, Reger and Howells (not to mention Elgar, Schumann or Brahms!) - all of better quality and worth both for the organ 'per se' and also as music - would have been much better and also more apt to demonstrate the organ's capabilities! [I'd also encourage organists to look at some more transcriptions of Debussy and Ravel, perhaps Poulenc - and not always the most popular of their works (enough times organists' programmes aren't meaty enough)!!] That Mr. Michael Murray specialises in French Romantic music is obvious; it however is in my honest opinion wasted effort much of the time!! The Franck Chorale #2 - and most or all of C?sar Franck's organ music deserves to be in the repertoire (the inspiration and thematic material's quality ensure that even if some of the development thereof sometimes leaves something to be desired...)! The Vierne pieces chosen also make a good case, although clearly they're not quite in the same league as the 1st-rate composers. The Widor and Dupr?, however, are simply GARBAGE!!!! Their inclusion brings the repertoire selection to rate only 3 stars, degrading the CD's overall grade to 4.
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