Martin SETCHELL: Bon-Bons for
Organ
Albert
RENAUD (1855-1924): Toccata in
d minor
G F HANDEL (1685-1759): Solomon:
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
W A MOZART (1756-1791): Piano Concerto
21 in A K467 (Elvira Madigan)
Felix ARNDT: Nola
Théodore DUBOIS (1837-1924):
Fait Lux
Martin SETCHELL: Three-Piece
Suite
Ronald WATSON (1936-) Happy Birthday
Herr Bach
Billy NALIE (1921-) Alles was du
bis
John Philip SOUSA (1854-1932):
Washington Post March
Gabriel FAURÉ (1845-1924):
Berceuse; Sicilienne
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901): Aida:
Grand March
Claude DAQUIN (1694-1772): The
Cuckoo
Camille
SAINT-SAENS (1835-1921):
The Swan
Jean-Joseph MOURET (1682-1738):
Suite No. 1: Rondeau
André CAMPRA (1660-1744):
Rigaudon
Charles GOUNOD (1818-1893): Funeral
March for a Marionette
Guy BOVET (1942-) Hamburger
Totentanz
rec. Rieger Pipe Organ, Christchurch Town Hall, Kilmore Street, New Zealand
18-19. 11. 2000
Martin Setchell (organ)
ATOLL CD ACD 600 [68:23]
Perhaps this CD is a second spin-off from Setchell's NZ concert FM broadcasts.
This disc is more funkily produced than the first with a grinning Setchell
thrusting his head between the pipes, and drooling as he plays elsewhere,
various animals protruding from the august orifices of the pipes. Three years
on from the first disc (reviewed elsewhere on
this site), he plays a popular programme beautifully, and the Rieger organ,
recorded close, makes an impressive, clean, but warm sound.
Setchell has really discovered some excellent French pieces, as he says of
the first item, Albert Renaud's (1855-1924): Toccata in d minor, it really
deserves to be known alongside the most famous of French organ works. A driving,
darker work than Widor's F major fun, and like much else of Widor, neglected.
Setchell then moves to popular arrangements of Sheba and Elvira Madigan.
The playing, like the reeds, for Sheba is truly sparky and gently cantabile
by turn. It displays the same talent on show in the Dvorak 9 of the previous
disc. However isn't this a little out-dated, a touch patronising, and rather
unfair to drag Mozart 21 on such a pretext? Hmm. Arndt's delectable Nola
with her 60s syncopations and doubtless beehive hair, minces coquettishly
along, and is good to hear. Dubois lived even longer than Saint-Saens, whom
he replaced at the Madeleine. His crescendo of light is superbly done, another
French gem.
Setchell's own suite on Bachian models is sprightly, good enough to make
one wonder what other compositions, on a more serious ground, he might be
prepared to let his gentle (even genteel) audience hear? He shouldn't be
frightened of frightening the horses. The Bach parodies are good,
fellow-conspirators with Setchell, they come off well. Sousa would have loved
the registrations on Washington Post, the kind of arrangement and
original orchestrating he did himself. The Fauré pieces sound attractively
churchy, 'Listen With God' in the Dolly Suite Berceuse (if one admits
to recalling BBC Radio's 'Listen With Mother'); the Sicilienne unfolds in
a sublime ripple. The Aida March was almost born for the organ's trumpet
stops, if one hadn't heard it elsewhere; such ceremonial marches often are,
rather like the Meyerbeer on the earlier disc.
The 18th century is particularly welcome here, coming towards the end. It
appears in an animal suite first in the beautifully flute-wrought menagerie
of Daquin's Cuckoo, after the inevitable Saint-Saens and Bovet. Bovet
turns up as a fugue-writer on the Pink Panther theme (Henry Mancini).
So the Mouret and Campra beg another question. Has Setchell recorded much
of this? Probably not, as New Zealand mightn't boast suitable organs for
a whole recital disc. But things are changing there too. Hitchcock is
lugubriously guyed in Gounod's Funeral March of a Marionette. Finally
Bovet is back in a Hamburger Totentanz arising from an improvisation
with Hans Gebbard. It quotes Offenbach, Beethoven, and Wagner. Pity it wasn't
Bach to Offenbach. Still, it's a tour de force of cheerful organ skills.
Setchell has extended his range here. But two Bon-Bon discs are plenty, and
I look forward to more substantial pieces from him.
Simon Jenner
ORDERING DETAILS
"Let the Pealing Organ Blow!" MANU 1539 was released in 1997, and
"Bonbons for Organ" ATOLL ACD 600 was released in December 2000.
How to buy:
In the UK:
Allegro music
http://www.allegro.co.uk for online credit card orders
or write
Allegro Music
82 Suffolk St
Queensway,
Birmingham,
B1 1TA,
UK
In the USA:
Brenda Durden Publishing
(www.franticorganist.net)for online credit card orders
Or write Brenda Durden Publishing brendadurden@franticorganist.com
The Frantic Organist Music Shop
6902 57th St. NE
Marysville, WA 98270
360-658-8317 (FAX and VOICE)
toll free for US, Canada and UK 888-258-5781 (FAX and VOICE)
In New Zealand:
http://www.opuscds.com for online
credit card orders (Wellington).
AND
Marbecks http://www.marbecks.co.nz/
for credit card orders (Auckland) or write
Marbecks Queen Street
164 Queen Street
Auckland, New Zealand
Phone: +64 9 358 0344
Fax: +64 9 358 4740
Further details from the website :-
http://www.nzorgan.com/shop/CD-shopfront.htm
or email setchell@paradise.net.nz
