Great Organs of Japan, volume 2 C.B. Fisk organ Minato Mirai Hall, Yokohama Hatsumi Muira, organ The second in the Loft Recordings series "Great Organs of Japan" features the C. B. Fisk organ of Yokoyama Minato Mirai Hall, showcasing the artistry of organist Hatsumi Miura. The largest American tracker organ in Japan, this instrument is ideal for the two most famous toccatas ever written for the organ, which "bookend" this program. Includes the rarely performed Adagio assai for organ by Beethoven, Yamada's "Red dragonfly" in an arrangement by Guy Bovet, and Bovet's own satirical French Baroque Noël.

Hatsumi Miura is a well-known international concert artist and has been a featured soloist for several American Guild of Organist national conventions. Extensive booklet, with full specification of the organ.

Shaker music is one of the richest bodies of folksong in American history and Kevin Siegfried's arrangements follow Shaker aesthetics of beauty, simplicity and utility. Sung by The Tudor Choir, this recording incorporates a variety of original choral arrangements, including unison singing and antiphonal performances. 

 

This is one of the staff's favorite CDs...

This edition of the Organ Loft radio program with host Roger Sherman was first aired in January, 1995. It includes excerpts from The Compline Choir's CD, "Feathers of Green Gold" (CD 7003) with an annotated version of the Compline service, and an interview with Peter Hallock about the history of the Compline service at St. Mark's.

Since its founding in 1954, the all-male Compline Choir has sung the medieval Office of Compline in a dark Cathedral on Sunday nights. The success of this service and its appeal to young people has sparked a worldwide revival of interest in Compline.

First-prize winner at the 1994 Bruges Early Music Festival, David Yearsley performs music of the Strungk family, an astonishing collection of previously unrecorded 17th-century masterpieces.

 

"This recording honors the Jewish liturgical tradition of cantor with organ-- and a rising star of American cantors. The historic 1901 Murray Harris organ at Stanford University is the perfect instrument for this music, which is concentrated in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries."

Two extraordinary organists playing two extraordinary organs in dialogue might seem an over-abundance of riches. Yet it is possible that the great organists of earlier times enjoyed responding to each other across vast spaces. This new recording, which includes compositions by six masters of the North German School, recreates this sound and ambience using two mean-tone organs in Stanford's Memorial Church.

A contemporary of Max Reger, Hans Fährmann wrote monumental - and monumentally difficult - works for vast organs in which the display of contrapuntal mastery was a central feature. This first recording of his eighth sonata is accompanied by another first: a triptych arranged from Wagner's Meistersinger. David Fuller plays the large symphonic Fisk organ of SUNY-Buffalo.

Noted organist and scholar, Kimberly Marshall, explores the relationship between French classical composers and Johann Sebastian Bach.  The Stanford Fisk incorporates two different tuning temperaments (well-tempered and meantone), both of which are heard on this recording.

What if the greatest keyboard players of the first half of the eighteenth century, Bach, Scarlatti, and Handel--all born the same year--had met in a contest pitting their devastating technical brilliance and quickness of invention each against the other? This recording imagines these three remarkable musicians competing on that most celestial of instruments, the organ; the organ being the large Fisk-Nanney at Stanford Memorial Church.

Pamela Decker has won prizes in national and international competitions as both performer and composer. Her critically acclaimed compositions have been performed by various artists in at least eighteen countries, at national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists, and for many other festivals and conferences. This recording features the composer at the organ, playing works that incorporate influences as varied as Gregorian chant, chorale tunes, and American jazz and blues.