Records & Recording (Issue No. 13 Winter/Spring/Midyear 1989)

This column has nothing against rock, pop, country, gospel, or any other demotic form of music. The trouble is that your Editor's attention tends to wander after more than ten minutes of exposure to the very best of these genres (with the exception of jazz). This is not necessarily a manifestation of exquisite taste, just a simple, empirical fact. Since many of the readers of The Audio Critic are undoubtedly of another persuasion, guest reviewers in these areas need to be, and will be, found.

The Ultimate Organ-Music Experience on CD: Jean Guillou Playing the Organs He Designed, Recorded by Craig Dory

By Peter Aczel, Editor and Publisher

The unspeakable truth about organ music is that most performances of it are quite boring, even though the organ literature comprises some of the world's most thrilling compositions.

The reason lies in the very nature of the instrument, which is somewhat like an electric buzzer when it comes to attack, release, and dynamics; there is no "touch," in the pianist's sense, that can alter the quality of either the beginning or the end of a tone, and pressing harder will not make the tone louder. As a result, the phrasing of most organists tends to be flabby and uninflected (the famous E. Power Biggs of early LP days used to be referred to by his detractors as E. Plodding Biggs), a steady legato without crescendo or diminuendo being the sonic nature of the beast.

Only the greatest organ virtuosi, and especially those who understand their instrument from the organ builders as well as the musicians point of view, are able to create the impression of having a pianist's keyboard mastery, not only by manipulating the stops for timbre and volume but also by the subtle use of rhythm and pauses to make the buzzer-like mechanism speak with a semblance of ictus and inflection. When that kind of knowledge and musicianship is applied to the unsurpassable tonal resources of the organ, it becomes indeed the king of instruments.

The most impressive organist in terms of the above considerations that I have ever encountered, live or on records, is Jean Guillou, of the Eglise Saint-Eustache, the glorious parish church of Les Halles in Paris. His virtuosity can only be described as outrageous; his temperament is fiery; his keyboard artistry also extends to the piano; he de signs organs according to his own visionary ideas (the one now being completed at Saint-Eustache will be his biggest and best, I hear); his knowledge of music is profound enough to give plausibility to an iconoclastic interpretation in one instance and a deep reverence for tradition in another.

He is simply one hell of a fellow on the organ, possibly without an equal anywhere.

Combine that with Craig Dory's compulsive perfec tionism in microphoning, taping, and digital processing, which I discussed in Issue No. 12 in connection with the debut of Dorian Recordings, and you have organ music in your listening room such as you are unlikely to have heard before. The bass is of phenomenal power and clarity on all these CD's; the midrange and highs are transparent and pure to the nth degree; the acoustical character of each church is captured with great credibility. I am inclined to rate these discs even a notch above John Eargle's outstand ing organ recordings on the Delos label, mainly because of Jean Guillou's playing and the unique quality of his organs, but possibly also because Dory's channels may be even a tiny bit lower in distortion than Eargle's as a result of all that tweaking, although I could be wrong about that.

"Organ Encores" (23 selections by J. S. Bach, Handel, Purcell, Haydn, Schumann, Liszt, Guillou, and others). Jean Guillou, at the Kleuker organ of the Eglise Notre-Dame des Neiges, Alpe d'Huez, France. Dorian DOR-90112 (made in 1988).

J. S. Bach: The Goldberg Variations (BWV 988). Transcribed and performed by Jean Guillou, at the Kleuker organ of the Eglise Notre-Dame des Neiges, Alpe d'Huez, France. Dorian DOR 90110 (made in 1988).

The organ played by Jean Guillou on these two CD's is located in a church built in 1969 for the parishioners of a French ski resort, more than 6000 feet above sea level, with peaks twice that high looming above. The disposition of the tracker-action instrument was designed by Guillou, and the actual construction was the work of the West German organ builder, Detlef Kleuker. It is not a large organ, but it sounds amazingly rich and majestic in the tutti passages, and the individual stops are incredibly varied and beautiful in timbre. "My favorite organ!" was my spontaneous reaction after ten minutes of listening.

In "Organ Encores" Guillou wrings out the instrument in every possible way, unabashedly showing off his virtuosity and musicianship while using only unquestionably good music in the process. If you have never bought an organ recording before, try this one and you will be hooked. And if you own hundreds of them, you will still be blown away by the irresistible sweep of Guillou's performance of Purcell's "Trumpet Tune in D Major" and by the beauty of his phrasing in pieces like the Bach "Sarabande." His playing of the "Hornpipe" from Handel's Water Music in his own transcription is more exciting than any "authentic" performance of it that I have ever heard. I could go on; this CD is an experience.

As for The Goldberg Variations, I was not prepared for the unproblematic convincingness of Guillou's organ transcription, having been raised on Wanda Landowska's harpsichord-and only halfway converted to Glenn Gould's piano-in this music. I was unable to deny, how ever, that the counterpoint is clearer on the organ in some of the variations, or that Guillou plays the sublime Variation 25 in the minor as movingly as anyone could ever hope to hear it. Even so this a nouvelle cuisine version of classic fare and, no matter how tasteful, not for every taste. The Guillou magic applied to The Art of the Fugue, for example, would have been a greater event in my musical life and one that I hope Dorian will eventually make happen.

Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition. Igor Stravinsky: Three Dances from Petrouchka. Transcribed and performed by Jean Gillou, at the Kleuker-Steinmeyer organ of the Tonhalle, Zurich, Switzerland. Dorian DOR-90117 (made in 1988).

Immodest Mussorgsky would be a better label for this. Extroverted virtuosity of the most untrammeled sort and the wildest imagination in the choice of tone colors characterize this organ treatment of Pictures, originally composed for the piano (have you ever heard it that way?) and "improved" on ever since by Ravel, Cailliet, Stokowski, Ormandy, half a dozen others I have forgotten-and now Guillou. I could never really understand this obsession with one piano work, wonderfully imaginative to be sure but easily surpassed by any number of compositions never touched by the orchestrators and arrangers. Why is it so important to be one up on Ravel? This particular version is marvelous fun, however, if you just sit back, forget about comparisons, and enjoy it. That goes for the Petrouchka transcriptions as well. Guillou's keyboard technique and his ear for organ sonorities, the instrument itself, and Craig Dory's recording are all endless sources of delight.

The organ is altogether new, inaugurated in 1988; this is the first commercial recording of it. Designed by Guillou for the Ziirich Tonhalle, famed for its acoustics, its construction is credited to Kleuker-Steinmeyer (the same Detlef Kleuker, now deceased, as above). This is a much bigger and more complex instrument than the one in the Alps, with a tremendous range of tone colors and incredible bass delineation. It is said to be equally suitable for Bach and contemporary music; all I can say is that it rivals the impact and colors of Ravel's and Stravinsky's orchestras in these pieces. When I tried to impress a recent visitor to my new sound room, this was the first CD I played for him.

The bass is possibly the most fabulous I have ever heard on any recording, absolutely true, undistorted, unexaggerated, and melodious to the lowest frequencies. The midrange and highs are merely great.

Definitely take this disc along when you go speaker shopping.

And on Other Labels...

I disavow any inclination to avoid the major labels, but the small audiophile-oriented labels keep sending me good stuff, and as Editor of a small audiophile-oriented journal I naturally gravitate toward members of my club.

Delos Igor Stravinsky: Petrouchka (original 1911 version); Scherzo Fantastique, Op. 3; Fireworks (Fantasy for Orchestra), Op. 4.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Overture. Seattle Sym phony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, conductor. Delos D/CD 3054 (made in 1988).

The Seattle Symphony is improving. Gerard Schwarz is improving. John Eargle is improving, if such a thing is possible, at least in the sense that he has added the Colossus digital processor to his recording lash-up. The result is perhaps the best Delos orchestral recording yet, and that is saying a lot. (Read this column in the last two issues for an introduction to the Delos/Eargle orchestral sound.) The original 1911 scoring of Petrouchka has a much richer texture than the composer's elegantly pared-down 1947 version, the reasons for which were largely political and economic. I think Schwarz is at his best in music that does not demand a great deal of "expressivity," a quality Stravinsky's aesthetic was opposed to; Petrouchka happens to work perfectly if you get the all the notes, the rhythm, and the orchestral balances right. Schwarz does, and that makes this an excellent performance. Highly recommended for both the music and the sound.

Harmonia Mundi Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Horn Concertos, K. 412, 417, 447, and 495; Rondeau, K. 371; Rondo, K. 514. Lowell Greer, natural horn; Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan, con ductor. Harmonia Mundi HMU 907012 (made in 1988).

Peter McGrath considers this to be an example of his best recent work as a free-lance recording engineer. That constitutes my principal motivation for writing about it, since Lowell Greer's highly competent tootling on a natural (valveless) horn cannot erase, or even compete with, mem ories of the great Dennis Brain, and Nicholas McGegan's overly vigorous attacks and inflections, "authentic" as they may be, are not in the idiom a Beecham/Walter disciple like me associates with the divine Amadeus. Do not misunderstand me; despite the little roughnesses, this is thorough ly enjoyable music making, with oodles of love and gusto.

As for the recording, it is very fine indeed, rather closely miked, with a bright and "rosiny" but never nasty string sound, probably a totally accurate portrayal of the actual string quality of the orchestra. The exact location of the horn soloist is occasionally a little vague, but that is also true in actual concert-hall listening. There is only a limited amount of hall sound; I know that Peter is a Quad man and probably anticipated some dipole-reflective contri butions by the listening room. His master was analog, by the way (AAD coding), and with Mozart's limited dynamic range, why not? He will need Wagner to de-digitize me.

Reference Recordings Jean-Philippe Rameau: Piéces de Clavecin, Suite in A. Albert Fuller, harpsichord. Reference Recordings RR-27CD (made in 1988).

Considering what a great composer Rameau was and how profoundly moving his best music is, he has not been played nearly enough. This wonderful collection of some of his most impressive harpsichord works immediately took its place among the very small handful of my favorite harpsichord recordings. Albert Fuller is the leader of the Helicon Foundation group I enthused over in the last issue, and his playing here is absolutely beautiful, with the kind of inflection and phrasing that shows a total grasp of the long line of each composition, not just the next four bars. He rivets your attention right to the end of each of these pieces, which range from less than two minutes in length to over seven minutes. His William Hyman harpsichord is a magnificent instrument.

There is even the possibility, if the harpsichord music of Bach or Scarlatti is not exactly your cup of tea, that this will convert you. Rameau is not as severely architectonic as Bach and not quite as brut, in the champagne sense, as Scarlatti; he is a kind of Chopin of the 18th century, almost Romantic at moments and occasionally impressionistic.

Very seductive Louis XV art.

The recording is special. "Professor" Keith O. John son put the microphones quite close, obtaining a sound of great richness, far from the usual tinkly, lightweight, guitar like quality of so many harpsichord recordings; yet the hall sound (that of a San Francisco high-school auditorium) is all there, in good balance. Best of all, there is not a trace of hardness, glassiness, or steeliness throughout the entire 64 minutes of the CD. Lovely; in fact, I am unaware of a better example of the genre. The Prof's microphone preamps are still slightly hissy, however; how about some JE-990's, KOJ-or is there some kind of circuit mysticism involved here? Telarc Richard Wagner: Der "Ring" ohne Worte (The "Ring" Without Words): Orchestral Highlights from the Ring Cycle. Berliner Phil harmoniker, Lorin Maazel, conductor. Telarc CD-80154 (made in 1988).

This CD has gained some notoriety, and I just wanted to get in my two cents worth before the subject became altogether stale.

The best thing about this recording is the playing of the Berlin Philharmonic. Awesome. When it comes to preferences in symphony orchestras, ich bin ein Berliner. The worst thing about the production is Lorin Maazel's concept of playing just about every bar of purely orchestral music in the Ring, but not a bar with an independent vocal line in it.

The music refuses to hang together that way. Every major conductor who cultivated these orchestral excerpts, from Wagner himself to Stokowski and Toscanini, knew that an occasional vocal line (such as Wotan's "Leb' wohl, du kiihnes, herrliches Kind!" at the end of Die Walkure) had to be woven instrumentally into the orchestral fabric to give the music its intended thrust.

Maazel's conducting is very respectable but he is no Stokowski and no Toscanini. No Jimmy Levine, either.

Competently played Wagner always sounds good, though, so I am not complaining. The recording is also good in the ordinary sense but lacks the spaciousness, free-breathing dynamism, and edgeless finesse of John Eargle's Wagner as recorded for Delos. All in all, this is no super disc, as some would have you believe. But that Berlin orchestra ...

-------

[adapted from TAC 13]

---------

Also see:

Box 978: Letters to the Editor

Various audio and high-fidelity magazines