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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

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