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JANSMUSIC RECOMMENDED RECORDING

Popular Organ Music:  David Briggs at the Organ of Gloucester Cathedral
Priory PRCD568
J.S.Bach: Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541; Haydn: Three Clock Pieces; Franck: Piece Heroique; Cochereau: Bolero sur un theme de Charles Racquet; Dukas: Scherzo "The Sorcerer's Apprentice; Tchaikovsky: Two movements
from "The Nutcracker Suite" (Miniature Overture & Waltz of the Flowers); Alain: Le Jardin Suspendu; J.S.Bach: Prelude
& Fugue in E flat, BWV 552

Like Murray Khouri in his Clarinet Bonbons CD, David Briggs has chosen a programme of works to show of his mastery of the instrument with which he is totally familiar, and has come up with a nicely mixed programme, without having to include some of the more "popular" organ pieces such as the Bach and Widor Toccatas.  Organs also are quite difficult to record, but Priory's are masters at this game, and I do get the feeling from this CD that I am sitting in the middle of the cathedral with the sound just surrounding me. If I had surround sound speakers I would feel even closer to the action!

David Briggs has chosen to frame his programme with two Bach Prelude and Fugue pairs, both well-known: the one at the beginning is the G major - full of life, just a completely wonderful outpouring of sound, and as with many of Bach's fugues, once it has started you feel like you've climbed onto a fairground ride that isn't going to stop.  I like David Briggs' measured pace in the fugue, and in the prelude of the E flat which ends the CD.  I've always thought of myself as more a French organ fan, but these Bach masterpieces rate up there with my desert island discs, I would say.  

The Haydn set of Three Clock Pieces is a very clever inclusion since it gives a chance to show off the pipes that are only normally used for effect as part of a bigger work - the 4' flute stops. They are very dainty and ethereal, and trip off the fingers.   The Tchaikovsky arrangements, arranged by the artist, work really well on the organ, and they also give a really good opportunity to show off some of the more interesting organ sounds.

The rest of the programme is French: French organ music, in my experience, is always a huge, monumental sound world not to be approached frivolously - here David Briggs has very carefully chosen 4 completely contrasting works which show off a range of styles, from the Franck, written at the end of the 19th century, immediately followed by the Cochereau, very different in mood, style and harmonic language, and then later the Alain which is an ethereal haze, translating the language of impressionism into the composer's own personal language, and then of course the Sorcerer's Apprentice, which is in a class of its own, and will be forever be remembered for its role in Disney's Fantasia!