The demand of collectors for organ music and for the infinitely varied sounds of this protean instrument has had a pleasing response from the record companies in the shape of numerous re citals, for the most part well played and recorded and this one is as enjoyable as one could wish. I missed Peter Hurford's much praised recital of ''Romantic Organ Music'' (Argo ZRDL1011, 5/83, 410 165-2ZH, 2/84) which is the predecessor of this second anthology and which also contained music by Widor, Vierne, Brahms and Reger.
The present issue also features the organ of Ratzeburg Cathedral, of which a specification is given, and it is very well recorded; the choice of music, too, does justice to the fine qualities both of the player and of the instrument with its piquant and beautiful sounds in its reverberant acoustic. The opening item here is Liszt's mighty Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H, and an inevitable slight blurring of textures does not worry me, since if anything it adds impact to the music's fusion of baroque energy and romantic mystery. Not all the music is as compelling—for example, Reger's Benedictus is rather anonymous—but overall the programme is effective and such pieces as the Allegro from Widor's Sixth Organ Symphony and the finale of Vierne's Symphony No. 1 are all the more thrilling for being relatively unfamiliar. Peeters's Suite modale and the Boellmann Suite gothique are better known and great fun. In all this music, Peter Hurford never overstates or sensationalizes, and the result is the stronger for it.'