Kevin Bowyer

“Mostly for fans of fairground music, but there is no denying Bowyer has flair.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 **

“In Bowyer we have a performer who not only guides us through the music with the assurance of one who sees nothing out of the ordinary in Alkan's musical language but who cuts through the immense technical difficulties like a hot knife through butter. ” Gramophone Magazine, June 2008

“Pro Organo, two minutes' worth of harmless and innocent tranquillity, opens this second volume of Kevin Bowyer's Alkan cycle, but it is a false dawn. You have to wait until the final track for anything so soothing to crop up again. Everything else is as challenging to the listener as it must be to the performer, but luckily in Bowyer we have a performer who not only guides us through the music with the assurance of one who sees nothing out of the ordinary in Alkan's musical language but who cuts through the immense technical difficulties like a hot knife through butter.
Bowyer's breathtaking footwork in the final six of the Etudes pour les pieds seulement doesn't diminish the slightly circus-like melodrama of these astonishing pieces which range from the tempestuous No 7 to the dark No 11 by way of the jaunty (but, as Malcolm MacDonald's excellent booklet-notes point out, fiendishly difficult) Ninth.
The remainder of the disc is given over to all 12 pieces in Alkan's Op 72, an opus with a typically unambiguously wordy title. Handel informs the first of these, majestically striding along, at once pompous and celebratory, both characteristics (as well as the vivid final echo effects) magnificently highlighted by the regal splendour of Blackburn Cathedral's matchless Walker/Wood, the cathedral's heady acoustic and a superlative recording from Toccata Classics.
There then follows a series of increasingly complex and demanding pieces which, were it not for the amazing intensity of Bowyer's interpretative vision and his wonderful use of organ colour, would prove insurmountably daunting to most listeners. As it is we are treated to some of the most vividly focused and technically fluent organ-playing imaginable.
It seems curious that Alkan rounded his Op 72 off with a simple transcription of the 'Pastoral Symphony' from Messiah. But it turns out to be a stroke of genius, restoring calm after so much, as MacDonald puts it, 'tortured and sardonic' writing.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“This disc scores top marks in every department.
Kevin Bowyer displays his customary polish, felicity and technical mastery, playing with an assurance made all the more astounding since this programme – none of it previously recorded – is hardly standard repertoire, certainly outside France.
By all accounts Alkan's organ technique equalled his command of the piano. In 1834 he gained the premier prix d'orgue at the Paris Conservatoire and he maintained close friendships with César Franck and Lefébure-Wély, dedicatees respectively of the Grands préludes and the Douze études. The first half-dozen of the Etudes – played on the pedals alone – are strikingly original and much more than mere technical exercises. Dupré considered them to be 'the complete and indispensable foundation of pedal technique'. The Grands préludes are equally engrossing and entertaining, especially the fiendish 10th, which Ronald Smith termed a 'Cossack Dance'. As the final notes of the transcription of Handel's 'Behold, and See' hover, teasingly, on a half close, succeeding volumes are eagerly awaited.
Blackburn Cathedral's magnificent Walker/ Wood organ (superbly captured by sound engineer Lance Andrews) combined with Bowyer's effortless artistry and Malcolm MacDonald's masterful notes make this a musthave recommendation.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010