Passacaglia
Perfect ingredients ensure another recipe for success for Regent
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Hendrik Andriessen, Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, Joseph (Gabriel) Rheinberger, Flor Peeters
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: Regent
Magazine Review Date: 1/2010
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 66
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: REGCD306
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Theme and Variations |
Hendrik Andriessen, Composer
Derek Longman, Organ Hendrik Andriessen, Composer |
Organ Sonata No. 8 |
Joseph (Gabriel) Rheinberger, Composer
Derek Longman, Organ Joseph (Gabriel) Rheinberger, Composer |
Toccata, Fugue and Hymn on 'Ave maris stella' |
Flor Peeters, Composer
Derek Longman, Organ Flor Peeters, Composer |
Sonatas for Organ, Movement: D major:minor |
Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Derek Longman, Organ Felix Mendelssohn, Composer |
Passacaglia and Fugue |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Derek Longman, Organ Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
Author: Malcolm Riley
This CD marks Derek Longman’s retirement from Haileybury after 30 years. He opens with Andriessen’s arresting Thema met Variaties, which allows the listener to experience the richness of the Hauptwerk and Schwellwerk choruses and the glowing warmth of the pedal basses.
It’s good to hear a fresh, convincing rendition of Rheinberger’s sturdy Eighth Sonata, the most substantial piece on the disc; its Passacaglia should be held up as a model of variation technique. Peeters’s Ave maris stella confection is equally impressive, especially the Toccata, in which every semiquaver can be clearly discerned.
Mendelssohn’s final Sonata is overtly Bachian, its form being that of a Baroque chorale partita (on “Vater unser im Himmelreich”). This is a fluent and colourful performance with some lovely use of the tremulant in the Variations movement, though I still find the final Andante an anticlimax.
Bach’s monumental Passacaglia fares well. The architecture is nicely paced and projected into Blomfield’s Byzantine domed chapel with aplomb. A fine, handsome disc.
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