Schooled by both Franck and Widor, Louis Vierne brought the great French Romantic organ symphony to its zenith. Martin Jean brings these masterworks to life, using the full spectrum of sound available on Woolsey Hall's great organ.

All components make this the ultimate organ CD, with two booklets comprising 56-pages of detailed information on registrations, the organ, Weckman, and his music. Organist of the Jacobi Church in Hamburg, Matthias Weckman (sometimes spelled Weckmann) was a student of Heinrich Schütz and Jacob Praetorius II. He combined elements from a wide variety of musical languages to create a clear and complex style all his own. Hans Davidsson is the world's leading Weckman scholar and this recording is the first to use Weckman's original registrations.

This unusual CD documents a tri-part program of 20th-century music, organized and composed by Robert Bates.  It includes many world premier recordings. With interspersed spoken texts and imaginative programming, Bates explores the nature of the world and ourselves, through verbal themes and non-verbal sound paintings. Music by Bates, Ligetti, Pärt, Guillo, Alain, Hampton, Tower, Demessieux and Messaien. This is the most unusual organ recording in our collection, and it is a masterpiece of invention, symbolism and imagination.

 

Includes 24-page book on the music and organs used, plus a 16-page graphical audience score.

CD 1 - The Universe Within: A Journey of the Mind
CD 2  - A Journey of the Body

CD 3 - Life after Life: A Journey of the Soul