Having made a distinguished series of recordings of the organ music of Messiaen, Jennifer Bate is now turning her attention to Cesar Franck. However, the Beauvais Cathedral organ, beautiful instrument that it is, and the acoustic of the cathedral itself, may be thought less suitable to Franck's music. In discussing the original LP, Gordon Reynolds commented that although it ''enhances glitter and majesty to a thrilling degree, it seems to resent being overloaded with fast-moving semiquavers''. The CD is wonderfully realistic and gives a remarkable impression of 'being there'. Definition is improved, but the blurring still remains, notably to affect the focus of the closing cadence of the Choral, and the animated pulsing of the gentle middle section of the Priere. The opening of the Final too brings serious muddying of the articulation, but both here and in the introduction of the Choral, which GR thought ''too fast for the building'', Jennifer Bate's exhilarating despatch of the bravura is very exciting indeed and in the flashing brilliance of the coda of the Final the playing carries all before it.
Indeed, the romantic fervour of Jennifer Bate's approach is difficult to resist throughout and anyone who has thought Cesar Franck's organ music turgid or dull should be readily won over. Peter Hurford is currently recording this repertoire on the Cavaille-Coll organ at St Sernin, and when this appears on CD a re-assessment of the—very impressive—Unicorn-Kanchana issue will become due.'