Bradley Welch Plays at Broadway Baptist
Casavant organ, Broadway Baptist, Fort Worth, Texas
The World's Largest French-Style Organ

Two premieres! The first recording of young virtuoso Bradley Welch, and the first recording of the largest French-style organ in the world. Welch is winner of the coveted Dallas International Organ Competition, and brings fiery enthusiasm to this audiophile recording.

John Cook: Fanfare
Max Drishner: Variations on "O laufet, ihr Hirten"
Raymond Haan: Pastorale (from Three Lyric Pieces)
Marcel Dupré: Crucifixion from Symphonie Passion
J. S. Bach, arr. Virgil Fox: Come, Sweetest Death
arr. Frederick Swann: Amazing Grace
Alexandre Guilmant: Sonata I in d minor, op. 42
Claude Debussy: Clair de Lune (from Suite Bergamasque)

 
  

Mr. Welch, winner of the 2003 Dallas International Organ Competition, is artist-in-residence at Highland Park United Methodist Church and an increasingly popular figure on the organ-recital circuit. He has a brilliant technique, a gripping sense of rhythm and an imaginative ear for color. His playing is exciting and communicative.

His audience-pleasing program ranges from John Cook's splashy Fanfare (with horizontal trumpet stops blasting back and forth down the reverberant Texas-Gothic nave) to Virgil Fox's deep-plush, quasi-orchestral version of Bach's harmonization of the chorale "Come, Sweetest Death." Alexandre Guilmant's Sonata No. 1 is a hale and hearty representative of late romanticism. The "Crucifixion" movement of Marcel Dupré's Symphonie-passion brings stern drama, Max Drishner's Variations on "O laufet, ihr Hirten" a perky neoclassicism. "Sweetmeats" include Frederick Swann's arrangement of "Amazing Grace" and Alexandre Cellier's adaptation of Debussy's Clair de lune.

The playing is superb throughout, and engineer Roger Sherman vividly captures the vast frequency, color and volume range of this huge instrument and its spacious acoustic. Hold onto your subwoofer!

 

--Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News
Complete review: Fort Worth organ links Texas keyboardists