MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... 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
Plain text for smartphones & printers


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

 

Support us financially by purchasing this disc from
Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Organ Works
Three Preludes and Fugues op.37 (1837) [27:08]
Andante in D (1844) [6:01]
Andante in g (1833) [1:42]
Andante in F (1844) [3:24]
Sonata op.65/2 (1844) [9:47]
Sonata op.65/4 (1844) [16:10]
Yuval RABIN (*1973)
Hommage à Mendelssohn (2012) [10:25]
Yuval Rabin (organ)
Braun/Mathis organ of St. Marzellus
rec. 5-6 September 2012, St. Marzellus, Gersau. Hybrid SACD 2+2+2
MUSIKPRODUKTION DABRINGHAUS UND GRIMM MDG 9061786 [74:58]

To the dismay of his father Mendelssohn often signed his name with just the abbreviated “B.” in place of their ‘conversion name’ “Bartholdy”. This was, not least to honor the memory of his admired, famous grandfather Moses Mendelssohn, Felix was fond of organs and organ music and wrote idiomatically for the instrument. You just can’t hear it in his other compositions; think Bruckner, for contrast. Since you just about never hear Mendelssohn’s organ music in recital or concert, either, that part of his output-limited as it is-remains ignored. A pity, I suppose, since his organ writing, like so much of Mendelssohn in any genre, can be uncommonly attractive. In the best of his organ works, he melds his gift for tunes with the structure of Bach. This can be heard most of all in the wholly winning Three Preludes and Fugues (written and revised between 1833 and 1837) that open this collection. 

Before delving into two of Mendelssohn’s six sonatas, Israeli organist and Mendelssohn-expert Yuval Rabin throws in the sweetly angelic Andante in D major (1844) and the brief adventurous double-Fugue of the Andante in G minor (1833). He commands the light and brightly colorful instrument of picturesque St. Marzellus in Gersau, idyllically situated on the shore of Lake Lucerne. It has been painstakingly restored to its original early 19th century state just last year, mechanical action, wedge-bellows, and all. It is an organ very much of Mendelssohn’s time.
 
Comparing this recital to a recent release of Mendelssohn’s Organ Sonatas (William Whitehead, Chandos CHAN 10532), simply because it happens to be the latest one I’ve heard and was on hand, suggests first and foremost a repertoire-advantage. Switching it up, rather than focusing just on the six 1844 sonatas, makes for a much more varied and interesting program. The sound breathes naturally in the fairly short but open reverb and natural resonance of St. Marzellus. This compares nicely to the small, slightly dull sound (pace John Sheppard-MusicWeb review here) of the Buckingham Palace organ with its domestic ring and nasal registrations.
 
The second of the six op. 65 Sonatas opens with a distinctive, stark motif of separate two-note cells. It then moves on to the much more melodic, simple, and lyrical character in the Adagio cumulating in the complex, busy fugue of the Allegro. The simple F major Andante loosens things up one more time before Rabin gets to work on the fourth Sonata in B-flat major: First a stern toccata (with hints of “St.Anne” / BWV 552), then an Andante religioso (with premonitions of “England’s Lane”). Penultimately, there’s a particularly delightful and minimally, charmingly voiced*, elegant Allegretto.
 
The recital closes with Ersatz-Mendelssohn of sorts: Rabin’s Hommage à Mendelssohn is a highly enjoyable set of four Variation-improvisations on the song “Yedid Nefesh” in the style of Mendelssohn. This is the sort of thing he often does in concerts-especially, he writes in the liner notes: those on Friday, before the Sabbath.
 
The liner booklet is superb: every bit of information an organ aficionado could look for. This includes the voicing of each individual track (*Hauptwerk: sub-octave coupled Waldflaute 4’, Positif: Gamba 8’, Pedal: Sub Bass 16’, Violoncello 8’ in the above mentioned Allegretto from Sonata No.4, for example). The notes are informative, and the translation faultless. If you happen to be set up for SACD and MDG’s three dimensional sound (“2+2+2”, four front speakers; two low, two high, and two in the rear) you can enjoy this disc’s already excellent sonics in even greater plasticity.
 
Jens F. Laurson