Chanson de Matin

Elgar's one major organ work, the Organ Sonata No. 1, Trotter [one of today’s greatest living organists] reveals as greater than the sum of its exploratory parts. …the new recording sets the... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2007, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 14th May 2007
Catalogue No: REGCD256
Label: Regent

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Elgar: Organ Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 28

Thomas Trotter (organ - Father Willis Organ of Salisbury Cathedral)

Elgar: Cantique in C major, Op. 3 No. 1

Thomas Trotter (organ - Father Willis Organ of Salisbury Cathedral)

Elgar: Vesper Voluntaries, Op. 14

Thomas Trotter (organ - Father Willis Organ of Salisbury Cathedral)

Elgar: Organ Sonata No. 2, Op. 87a

Thomas Trotter (organ - Father Willis Organ of Salisbury Cathedral)

Elgar: Chanson de Matin, Op. 15 No. 2

(trans by A Herbert Brewer)
Thomas Trotter (organ - Father Willis Organ of Salisbury Cathedral)

Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op. 36: Variation IX 'Nimrod'

(trans by W H Harris)
Thomas Trotter (organ - Father Willis Organ of Salisbury Cathedral)

Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4 in G major, Op. 39 No. 4

(trans by G R Sinclair)
Thomas Trotter (organ - Father Willis Organ of Salisbury Cathedral)

Reviews
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Reviews

July 2007

Elgar's one major organ work, the Organ Sonata No. 1, Trotter [one of today’s greatest living organists] reveals as greater than the sum of its exploratory parts. …the new recording sets the gold standard with its grandeur, supple expressivity, ideally judged rubato, and imaginative 'orchestration'.

2010

It is extraordinary that no major label has got Thomas Trotter, the greatest British organist of his generation, cuffed hands and feet for life. It has been left to the small Wolverhampton-based Regent label to do the honours – and it does him proud.
There are few organs better suited to Elgar than Salisbury Cathedral's Willis. It speaks with a mellifluous, unforced authority in a clear acoustic that avoids the generalised rumblings of many English cathedrals. The G major Sonata unfolds with impressive breadth and command of structure, a dramatic contrast to the intimate Cantique, a short work derived from an early (1879) piece for wind quintet, and the attractive eight Vesper Voluntaries of 1889.
Three of the final four works are transcriptions by a Three Choirs triumvirate of Elgar's organist friends: the Organ Sonata No 2 arranged from the Severn Suite by Ivor Atkins (Worcester), Chanson de matin (Herbert Brewer of Gloucester) and Pomp and Circumstance No 4 by the work's dedicatee George Sinclair of Hereford – GRS and his bulldog Dan from the Enigma Variations. From the latter, 'Nimrod' is heard in the transcription by WH Harris (St George's, Windsor) and it is only here that one might have wished Trotter had opted for a more measured pace and emotional response. But throughout this superbly engineered recording his mastery of tonal gradation, innate stylistic sense and imaginative colouring make for a recording as rewarding as it is timely.

August 2007

There are few organs better suited to Elgar than Salisbury Cathedral's Willis. It speaks with a mellifluous, unforced authority (preferable, in this repertoire, to Trotter's own Symphony Hall Klais with its brazen reeds) in a clear acoustic that avoids the generalised rumblings of many English cathedrals. ...throughout this superbly engineered recording his mastery of tonal gradations, innate stylistic sense and imaginative colouring make for a recording as rewarding as it is timely.

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