Romantic Organ Music

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His technique is as good – and in some cases superior – to the continental virtuosi; in addition he brings to his playing an individuality and warmth that reflects his own engaging personality.... — Gramophone Magazine, June 1967 More…

Release Date: 1st Dec 2017
Catalogue No: ELQ4824941
Label: Eloquence
Length: 2 hours 19 minutes

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Excerpt, Brahms: Chorale Preludes (11), Op. 122

Work length12:12

Simon Preston (organ)
Recorded: 1968-01

1. Mein Jesu

Track length3:57

8. Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen

Track length2:49

4. Herzlich tut mich erfreunen

Track length1:45

10. Herzlich tut mich verlangen

Track length3:41

Franck, C: Prélude, Fugue et Variation Op. 18

Work length10:43

Simon Preston (organ)
Recorded: 1962-08
Recording Venue: King's College, Cambridge

1. Andantino

Track length3:41

2. Lent - Allegretto man non troppo

Track length3:20

3. Andantino

Track length3:42

Franck, C: Chorale No. 2 in B Minor

Work length13:55

Simon Preston (organ)
Recorded: 1962-08
Recording Venue: King's College, Cambridge

Franck, C: Pièce héroïque, M37

Work length9:17

Simon Preston (organ)
Recorded: 1962-08
Recording Venue: King's College, Cambridge

Reger: Toccata

Work length4:21

Simon Preston (organ)
Recorded: 1964-02
Recording Venue: Westminster Abbey, London

Reger: Fugue

Work length3:54

Simon Preston (organ)
Recorded: 1964-02
Recording Venue: Westminster Abbey, London

Reger: Fantasia on the chorale "Straf' mich nicht in deinem Zorn", Op. 40 No. 2

Work length14:05

Simon Preston (organ)
Recorded: 1964-02
Recording Venue: Westminster Abbey, London

Reubke: Organ Sonata on the 94th Psalm

Work length26:19

Simon Preston (organ)
Recorded: 1964-02
Recording Venue: Westminster Abbey, London

1. Grave - Larghetto - Allegro con fuoco - Grave

Track length12:43

2. Adagio - Lento

Track length7:02

3. (Fugue) Allegro

Track length6:34

Liszt: Fantasia and Fugue on ‘Ad nos, ad salutarem undam', S259

Work length31:18

Simon Preston (organ)
Recorded: 1966-07
Recording Venue: City Hall, Hull

1. Moderato

Track length9:47

2. Adagio

Track length10:10

3. Fuga

Track length11:21

Liszt: Fantasia & Fugue on B-A-C-H, S529

Work length13:21

Simon Preston (organ)
Recorded: 1966-07
Recording Venue: City Hall, Hull

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Music from five original Argo albums, newly remastered and compiled together for the first time in a 2CD set, with new booklet notes on the music and a tribute to Simon Preston.

During the 1960s, it often seemed as if a new Simon Preston organ LP appeared every few months: so much in demand was his playing, so well suited was he to the recording medium’s time-management pressures, and so nonchalantly did he seem to don the mantle of the United Kingdom’s ablest young organist. Besides the Franck EP featured here and a selection of the Brahms chorale preludes, Preston released an astonishing ten solo-organ recordings on Argo alone between 1963 and 1968; astonishing not least because of the large amount of preparation (on top of the day job) necessarily involved in works such as Liszt’s ‘Ad nos’ Fantasia.

The Franck pieces were recorded first, at the organ of the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, in company with Messiaen’s L’Ascension, in August 1962 while Preston celebrating his 23rd birthday. Upon leaving Cambridge, he became sub-organist of Westminster Abbey, where he recorded Reubke’s huge Sonata on the 94th Psalm in February 1964, coupled with a toccata, a fugue and a fantasia by Reger. At last, in Preston, audiences in London and across the UK had an organist who assumed the technique of a concert pianist. Meticulous in all matters, he took extraordinary care over registration, especially between phrases and in transitions: not least in the Liszt, which was recorded on the huge 1911 Forster & Andrews organ of Hull City Hall (rebuild by Compton, 1950). Having left the Abbey in 1967, Preston took over the music at St. Albans Abbey for a year in 1968, and during this brief period he recorded the six chorale preludes by Brahms which open this collection. A special note on the recordings has been contributed by Roy Goodman.

This anthology is one of five newly remastered sets canvasing Simon Preston’s complete solo organ recordings for Argo. They also include Preston’s recordings of Messiaen (ELQ4824917), ‘Simon Preston at Westminster Abbey’ (ELQ4824933), and 20th-century organ music (ELQ4824925) by Elgar, Hindemith and Maxwell Davies, and an organ spectacular featuring the Variations on America (ELQ4828101) of Charles Ives.

Reviews

June 1967

His technique is as good – and in some cases superior – to the continental virtuosi; in addition he brings to his playing an individuality and warmth that reflects his own engaging personality. He has become in a very short time a true ambassador for the organ.

October 1964

Simon Preston, the brilliant young player … has already made several records, but this is perhaps his best so far … he gives performances which are specially notable for their sense of continuity and rhythmic control.

Musical Times December 1963

Simon Preston plays Franck in a way that pleases the English ear, gauges tempi and climaxes skilfully, and wrests from King's organ colours that do no disservice to this music

Romantic Organ Music

2 CDs

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