MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Animal Parade
Christopher STEEL (b.1938)
Changing Moods Op. 59 [12:47]
John GARDNER (b.1917)
Five Dances for Organ Op. 179 [17:15]
William MATHIAS (1934-1992)
Recessional Op. 96 No 4 [5:01]
Dobrinka TABAKOVA (b.1980)
Diptych [9:33]
John RUTTER (b.1945)
Toccata in Seven [2:11]
Ian FARRINGTON
Animal Parade [25:24]
William Saunders (organ)
rec. Brentwood Cathedral, 13-14 April 2010
REGENT REGCD346 [72:04]

Experience Classicsonline



Organ recital discs often feature works and composers unfamiliar to those who are not aficionados of the organ loft, but this one still stands out for its enterprise. Six works by British - or British/Bulgarian in the case of Dobrinka Tabakova - composers, all still living apart from William Mathias. Only two of the individual movements exceed five minutes - and even then only just - so that there is no opportunity for boredom to set in; indeed the variety of musical character is one of the best features of the disc.

By some way the work which impressed me most was John Gardner’s Five Dances. Their titles, including Lavolta, Pavin and Jig, might suggest that these would be some form of pastiche. In fact although they certainly do have the general mood that their titles might suggest they do have real character of their own and the work as a whole is succinct, imaginative and full of musical interest. It is hard to understand why it has not claimed its deserved place in organ recitals – the disc would be worth having for it alone.

The Diptych by Dobrinka Tabakova, written for William Saunders, although clearly related to the composer’s Bulgarian roots, transforms them into something very individual but idiomatic for the organ. It is well worth hearing, but the other real discovery for me on the disc was the Animal Parade by Ian Farrington, himself a noted organist as well as pianist. It is a kind of organ equivalent of “The Carnival of the Animals”, each of the twelve short movements being inspired by verses by Esther Eidinow. The composer suggests that these can be read before each item but here they are printed in the booklet. This is sensible as whilst it is interesting and moderately amusing to read them once I cannot imagine wanting to hear them read every time I listen to the music. And I am sure that I will want to do the latter again. This Suite has energy and imagination and shows off the varied capabilities of the organ very well although surprisingly the composer’s website indicates the availability of a piano version. The movements include the hippopotamus, the barrel organ monkey and piranhas. All are succinctly but vividly characterised. Animal Parade is surely likely to be a regular part of many organists’ Bank Holiday recitals.

The Mathias Recessional is well known and well played here. The Suite by Christopher Steel is in five movements with descriptive titles (Genial March, Pensive Ground and so on) after the manner of Britten’s Simple Symphony. However whereas the Britten goes well beyond the scope of the titles this does not. It is a series of pleasant but to me uncompelling pieces of light music.

All in all this is a very welcome and enjoyable recital of music off the beaten track but worth exploring. The booklet includes full notes on the music and a history and specification of the organ.

John Sheppard

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.