Symphonic Organ Music - Vol.
2
Sir Edward ELGAR
(1857-1934)
Vesper Voluntaries
Cantique Op. 3 No. 1
Ottorino RESPIGHI (1879-1936)
Three Preludes in D minor, A minor and B flat
major
Charles GOUNOD
(1818-1893)
Offertoire
Vincenzo BELLINI (1801-1835)
Organ Sonata
Bedrich SMETANA (1824-1884)
Six Preludes for
Organ
Hans-Ola Ericsson at the Gerald
Woehl Organ of St. Petrus Canisius, Friedrichshafen/Bodensee, Germany
(recorded
10-12/10/1999)
BIS CD-1102
[69:15]
Crotchet
AmazonUK
AmazonUS
The main item in this intriguing programme is Elgar's Vesper
Voluntaries dating from 1890. They are brief character pieces - nine
in all - occasional works of a sacred nature, intended as antiphons. I regret
to report that this reading disappoints. Although it starts off well with
an imposing swell for the opening of the Introduction and a nicely shaped
Allegro third movement that accentuates its gentle child-like
supplications, Hans-Ola Ericsson seems to have little sense of Elgar's
nobilmente markings. What in the hands of a sympathetic organist like
Donald Hunt is an exhilarating experience (and I am referring especially
to those marvellous central Allegretto piacevole - Intermezzo and
Poco lento movements) is flabby and lifeless here with hardly any
accentuation to lift the spirits. The same criticism applies to the
Cantique.
Bearing all that in mind, I felt somewhat insecure about the quality of playing
of the other pieces, of which, to be honest, I am unfamiliar. The Respighi
Preludes sound impressive enough although I felt the D minor might
have had sounded better with more impetus. The theme of this busy little
prelude is pursued through the piece through many keys, in stretto, in
augmentation, in inversion, in sequences, in motivic fragmentation and in
chordal accumulations. The second prelude has as its basis in Bach's Ich
hab mein Sach Gott heimgestellt but its refined and very varied
accompanying triplet pattern persistently seduces the ear. The final prelude
in B flat major is majestic piece based on another Bach chorale, In Dich
hab'ich gehoffet, Herr.
Gounod's Offertoire is sweetly serene and in the mould of the
composer's Ave Maria. Bellini's Organ Sonata is an amusement
- with a very brief processional-like Larghetto that sounds rather
pompous followed by an Allegro that could have been an aria from one
of the composer's operas. Smetana's Six Preludes were composed when
he was just seventeen. They are all very simple but nonetheless effective
liturgical pieces and often affecting. They range from a slow moving yet
pious sounding Lento through a gentle Pastorale, and a lovely
lilting Andante in G minor with interesting rhythmic shifts to a final
grand Andante in F major - each prelude becoming slightly more complex
and ornamented.
Like the curate's egg, good in parts. But the Elgar disappoints. I
have to say that the cover illustration is one of the most tasteless pieces
of art I have come across for a long time - organ pipes caricatured as women's
legs - how ever did this get through the BIS art department?
Ian Lace
