Czech Organ Works

A Slavic collection admirably delivered

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Vítezslav (Augustín Rudolf) Novák, Bohuslav (Jan) Martinu, Jirí Ropek, Leoš Janáček, Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák

Genre:

Instrumental

Label: Chandos

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: CHAN10463

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
St Wenceslas Triptych Vítezslav (Augustín Rudolf) Novák, Composer
Iain Quinn, Organ
Vítezslav (Augustín Rudolf) Novák, Composer
Glagolitic Mass, Movement: Postlude (Intrada) Leoš Janáček, Composer
Iain Quinn, Organ
Leoš Janáček, Composer
Variations on 'Victimae Paschali Laudes' Jirí Ropek, Composer
Iain Quinn, Organ
Jirí Ropek, Composer
Vigilie Bohuslav (Jan) Martinu, Composer
Bohuslav (Jan) Martinu, Composer
Iain Quinn, Organ
(6) Preludes Bedřich Smetana, Composer
Bedřich Smetana, Composer
Iain Quinn, Organ
(8) Preludes and Fugues, Movement: Fugue, G minor Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Iain Quinn, Organ
There is a rich legacy of Czech organ music which has never really impinged itself on the outside world. Several works on this disc, for example, have only previously been generally available on Czech labels, while only one – Janácek’s exuberant Postlude – is widely known, but it suffers from being wrenched from its context within the Glagolitic Mass; a point made all the more plainly here since Iain Quinn’s performance lacks panache and the Norwich organ lacks that fiery, aggressive edge which this frantically obsessive music so clearly demands.

Elsewhere the Norwich organ, masterfully handled by Quinn, reveals a rich diversity of sounds entirely suited to music which, for the most part, is solid and purposeful rather than dazzlingly colourful. Quinn handles these scores well, not exactly turning them into show-stopping hidden wonders of the repertoire but offering solid and dependable performances which perfectly mirror the musical idiom. Jan Hora (on a Vixen import) is more compelling in the Martinu Vigilia while, by giving us all eight of the various Preludes and Fugues which Dvorák wrote as student exercises at the Prague Organ School, offering something rather more historically worthwhile than Quinn’s careful but pedestrian account of the G minor Fugue.

This may not be a disc to set the world on fire but Iain Quinn has performed an important service in bringing these interesting works into the spotlight in performances which are reliable and worthy and, in the case of the Ropek Variations, surprisingly absorbing.

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