1998
Gwen Adams, with trumpeter James Duncan, Organ Music of Johann Ludwig Krebs.
It was on the strength of this recording that I made my first visit to All Saints' Episcopal Church of Palo Alto, CA; I've been there many times since then, when visiting the Bay Area. The organ is a delightful 1969 2m/p Flentrop, with a spicy, crunchy sound that is sort of the acoustic equivalent of Scandinavian ginger snaps, or my mom's oatmeal cookies.This was not a new release; indeed, it was already discontinued by the publisher, and had the Organ Historical Society not heard my call for it, bought all remaining inventory, and offered me all I needed, I would not have been able to begin my tradition.
1999
This was the only year I didn't give out some sort of recording,
and one of only two years in which I didn't give out a CD.Instead, following the construction of a successful prototype, I finally realized my dream of Christmas tree ornaments that were realistic model organs, and quickly made four more. Along the way, I realized that clergy, at least those who were truly worthy of being called clergy, were also overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated, and deserving of my attentions, and so I raided several Michael's craft supply shops for tiny Nativity figures, designed a plausible 1st-Century Middle-Eastern stable (essentially a thatched roof supported on posts against a stone wall), and put together some ornament-sized Nativity scenes.
2000 and 2001
J. Melvin Butler, Out of This World, and
various artists of Harvard University, Christmas in the Busch
I'm not entirely sure which CD was which year, as I hadn't yet imposed the "new release" requirement. One year, I gave Out of This World, featuring J. Melvin Butler playing the St. Mark's Cathedral Flentrop, along with the Boston Brass; the other year, I gave the only actual Christmas recording I've ever given, Christmas in the Busch, featuring the Harvard University Choir, the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, the Harvard Brass, and the Adolphus Busch Hall Flentrop. This was when I began actually auditioning redordings; it was also when my Christmas list began to grow long enough to get me a modest price break.
2002
Mary Preston, In Concert
This year, the audition process was mercifully short: by the time I'd finished listening to Mary Preston, in Concert for the first time, I'd already ordered at least a dozen. This was also when I decided, in the interest of avoiding duplicating anything anybody already had, that I needed to limit my tradition to recordings that were either new releases, or hard to obtain.2003
Midnight Pipes: The Adolphus Busch Hall Flentrop
This was the only year, other than 1999, when I didn't give the same thing to clergy and music ministry. For the music ministry, I bought ten VHS copies of the then-new Adolphus Busch Hall edition of "Midnight Pipes"; for the clergy, I found some small hand-lampworked glass Nativity scene Christmas tree ornaments, and bought the shop's entire inventory of seven.2004
Barbara Dennerlein, Spiritual Movement No. 1 (her "real pipes debut")
Some years earlier, I'd stumbled onto news that jazz Hammond virtuosa Barbara Dennerlein had branched out from tonewheels to real pipes, and would be releasing a "real pipes debut" CD. In 2002, that CD was released, and since her U.S. distributor at the time had refused to carry it, I obtained a copy at considerable expense, through a "gray market" importer, and didn't regret it in the slightest, as it was, and still is, an incredibly fun CD to listen to. (She has since released another "real pipes" CD, Spiritual Movement No. 2, that shows considerable development in her technique and confidence with real pipes.)I began lobbying the OHS to import it at a reasonable price, and encouraged others to do so, and in 2004, searching the OHS Catalog web site for Christmas CDs, I found that they had finally begun doing so. As I recall, I bought their entire inventory at the time, and had to replace some damaged jewel cases.
2005
Aart Bergwerff, Bach in the New World
This year, the audition process was long enough, and slow enough, to more than make up for the lack of auditions the previous year. It also set a pattern that has been followed for three years: at first, I had trouble finding anything that looked promising, and what I could find, didn't sound as good as it looked. Then, when time began to run out, I found myself with too many good choices. I had to ask colleagues to listen to the two finalists, and compare them quantitatively myself, before I finally settled on Bach in the New World, which narrowly beat out Caludia Dumschat's In the Old World and the New2006
Samuel Kummer, Frauenkirche Dresden: Organ music by Bach & Duruflé
Another long, difficult audition process, complete with scoresheets and colleague opinions, before I settled on the hybrid-SACD debut album of the rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche. As I recall, I ended up buying the OHS's entire inventory, and having to scrounge up another copy from another vendor.2007
David Pickering, Like a Fire: Music of Daniel Gawthrop
The first batch of audition CDs wasn't very encouraging. They arrived just before my Fall vacation, and I brought them along, not realizing that most nights, I'd either be busy with a concert, a show, or one of Colonial Williamsburg's evening walking tours, or too exhausted to want to audition anything but my pillow. I finally got started on the auditions, my last night in Williamsburg, and three out of the four in the first batch turned out to be either so dissonant as to be almost physically painful to listen to, or so academic and mechanical that you could have used them to dry out martinis (not to mention that they made me wonder why they had even bothered with the recordings, much less bothered with tracker organs). But by the time I'd heard all four, and four more, four out of the eight had made the first cut, and those four were easily narrowed down to two. The winner for 2007 turned out to be one that had been brought to my attention by the artist himself.2008
Carole Terry plays the Watjen Concert Organ
This was the first solo recording of the Watjen Fisk, in Benaroya Hall, and it features an eclectic program, beginning with Mendelssohn's Allegro, Chorale, & Fugue (one of the few performances of Mendelssohn organ music that didn't strike me as droning). This was followed by works of Sweelinck, Albright, Bach, Stanley, Schumann, Vierne, and Widor, the latter composer represented by not just the Toccata, but also the first and fourth movements of Organ Symphony No. 5. There was not a single track on the whole CD that I found unpleasant, and much that I found to be a lot of fun.2009
Gabriel Dessauer, Just For Fun
This is a mostly a compilation of tracks from Dessauer's "Orgel-Feuerwerk" series of CDs, with a few new ones added. It begins with a rousing renditition of Abe Holzmann's "Blaze Away," that does exactly that, and leaves absolutely no doubt about the appropriateness of the CD title.Overall, this CD goes far beyond simply demonstrating that tracker organs are NOT just for dry academic performances; it is indeed the best answer I've ever heard to the musical question, "what would a tracker theatre organ sound like?" Indeed, not only do I recommend it for everybody; I also recommend that concert and recording artists study it as an excellent example of how to show an audience a good time. In fact, during the audition process, I tried to stack the deck against it as strongly as I could, and it still kept coming out on top. It was my final pick before the end of November (and I'm glad I made my decision as early as I did, as my order exceeded what the OHS had in stock, and they appear to be the only U.S. source.)
Of course, this wasn't the only strong contender: "Dulcet Tones," featuring Jack Mitchener on the Salem Tannenberg (on Raven), was the only other finalist in this year's auditions (I'm firmly convinced that this instrument, given a program with the necessary mass appeal, will make it at some point). And if it had been released a month earlier (or if I'd been able to access a pre-release copy), before I'd made my final decision, Kimberly Marshall's new "A Fantasie through Time" CD/DVD set (featuring the Pinnacle Presbyterian Richards-Fowkes, on Loft) would have also been at least a finalist, as strong a contender as the Dessauer CD was.
2010
Martin Setchell, Great Australasian Organ Series - Christchurch Town Hall
This year, things didn't look too promising at the beginning of the audition: none of the four CDs I took along on my fall vacation seemed to fit the "mass appeal" constraint. I then found that Isabelle Demers had released a recording of roughly the same program as her recent Palos Verdes recital, and that I could special order Martin Setchell's new CD through the OHS (it didn't get added to their catalog until my Christmas shipment was in transit!). Those two CDs were so much more appealing than the ones I took to Hawaii, that they promptly became my two finalists.The Demers CD includes a quirky, but appealing, performance of the "Great" D-Major P&F, Demers' own suite from Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet," and Reger's Variations and Fugue on an Original Theme. Unquestionably, the Prokofiev is the star work on this CD, and I'd say it's worth the price of the CD just to get that one remarkable work, regardless of your opinion of her Bach and Reger performances.
But the nod for 2010 (and a total purchase of 25, including my audition copy) went to Martin Setchell's CD of the Christchurch Town Hall Rieger. I would consider the works on the program to be exceptionally well-chosen, and presented in as close to a perfect sequence as anything I've ever encountered: there isn't a single work or performance on the CD that I'd consider boring, or inaccessible, or potentially offensive to anybody, and the opening works (David German's "Festive Trumpet Tune," and Handel's Overture to the Occasional Oratorio) are festive, uplifting, and command the listener's immediate attention.
2011
Maxine Thevenot: Helmuth Wolff Op. 47
2011 was not one of those years in which an obvious winner jumped out at me early, either cutting the auditions short, or obviating them entirely. Nor was it one of those years where all of the finalists were so good that it broke my heart to only be able to afford to give one of them. Nor was it even one of those years in which a clear winner appeared as a late entry, and blew everything else out of the water. Instead, it was a year in which there was a field of ten CDs that fit the basic profile (i.e., featuring an organ of at least predominantly tracker key action), most of which were very quickly eliminated, leaving three finalists.Maxine Thevenot: Helmuth Wolff Op. 47 (Raven OAR-929)
Murray Forbes Sommerville: Vision at Covenant (Raven OAR-931)
Florence Mustric: Just for Fun: Riff-Raff and Rhumba (MSR 1272)
Out of the four CDs I was able to obtain in time to audition on my Fall Vacation, Maxine Thevenot's was the only one to make the finals. The more I heard it, the better it sounded. The first time I listened to it with a headset, I heard things I'd never consciously noticed, listening to it on a hotel stereo, or my home stereo: the variations in Dr. Thevenot's touch were marvelously audible, bringing the music to vibrant life.
Then (even as I was ranting on PIPORG-L about CD and concert programs violating The First Rule of Presentation), it occurred to me just how completely Dr. Thevenot had followed that rule: starting with Buxtehude, then lightening things up with Kerill's "Capriccio sopra il cucu." Only after the listener is thoroughly ready does she enter the realm of New Music, and when she does, with Ruth Watson Henderson's "Chromatic Partita," it's in a piece that, though indeed chromatic, is entirely accessible. Then she changes the mood with some Sweelinck (the familiar Balleto del Granduca, parts of which appeared on at least one, and probably both, of EPB's "talking dog" albums), the Bach Pastorale in F, and the Bruhns Praeludium in e minor, before another contemporary piece, Andrew Ager's "Premiere Suite" (the movements of which sound like they would make good cues in a film score), and finishing with one last piece by Buxtehude.
So in the final analysis, for Christmas 2011, Maxine Thevenot's new CD, Raven OAR-929, got the nod.
2012
Joby Bell, Music City Mixture
The 2012 auditions deadlocked for well over a week between two CDs that made the final cut, and the tie was not broken until I listened to the one piece common to both (the Vierne Clair de Lune), from both CDs in quick succession, and changed my mind about which one I preferred.Barbara Raedke's Confluence is excellent, and would have been 2012's CD of the year, except for being narrowly edged out by the winner. That I had to go through two rounds of objective mark-up, then finally made my decision on the basis of which performance I preferred of the one work the two have in common, underscores how close it was. I enjoyed almost everything on it; the only other things that worked against it were (1) the Bruhns Praeludium in e minor didn't seem as effective a "grabber" opening track as that of the CD that won, (2) some tracks sounded a bit odd, and (3) Dr. Raedeke chose to end the recording with a first movement (from Widor's 6th), which gave me an impression of incompleteness.
That brings us to the CD that was good enough to beat Dr. Raedeke's:
Music City Mixture, by Joby Bell. I don't remember for sure whether I'd noticed it on CDBaby before or after Dr. Bell brought it to my attention, but it is truly a winning CD, and one that I strongly recommend to all. It has a great variety of material, recorded on six noteworthy tracker organs in and around Nashville, TN, starting with the William Henry Harris "Flourish for an Occasion, followed by some Buxtehude and some Bach, then an unabashed comic relief piece, Gawthrop's "Three Floral Preludes," then some Sweelinck (who doesn't love Sweelinck?), some Rheinberger, more Bach, and finally, the last two movements of Vierne's Deuxieme Suite (thus bringing the recording to a more satisfying finish by finishing with a finale, rather than an opening movement).
By sampling six different organs, by six different contemporary builders, Dr. Bell was able to give us "Tracker Action On Parade," matching the pieces to the organs in such a way that presented everything at its best. The wide range and sensitive playing argues convincingly for the proposition that tracker key action is not just for dull academic exercises, and both the tender tunefulness of the Sweelinck, and the humor of the Gawthrop (starting out very subtle with "Leucanthemum Vulgare," and practically clobbering you with the gag in "La Rose Jaune") gives the album a sense of lightness and fun. Really, the only weak area in the whole album is that the program notes included in the package are a bit skimpy (but Dr. Bell's web site provides notes not only on the CD, but on much of his concert repertoire).
Clearly, Dr. Bell is a talent to be reckoned with. As well as an organist who can project his own enthusiasm for the music.
2013
Peter Schnur, The Metzler Organ in St. Jakob Friedberg
This year's Christmas auditions were particularly lengthy and difficult, and then, when I finally made a decision, it proved to be far more difficult than usual to find 30 copies at a reasonable price.At least two of the rejects had technical issues. Some were rejected because they didn't have enough excitement, while others had too much of the wrong kind of excitement. It was particularly heartbreaking when people comp'd me CDs (something I never ask for), which then didn't even make the first cut. And one CD was rejected because of my low opinion of Heiller's Tanz-Toccata (an opinion that Heiller himself evidently shared, at least according to an anecdote related by Christa Rakich.)
At any rate, my CD of the Year for 2013 is Peter Schnur's recording on the Metzler Organ in St. Jakob Friedberg, Germany, TYXart TXA12008
While technically it was a 2012 release, it didn't actually make it to the U.S., at least through any sort of official channel, until 2013.
Program:
Giovanni Morandi: Rondo con imitazione de' campanelli, op. 17This is an almost textbook example of a "fun Italian piece," and a nearly ideal way to open a program, whether a recording or a live performance, since it GETS THE LISTENERS ON THE PERFORMER'S SIDE in a hurry.
Georg Muffat: Toccata octava aus dem "Apparatus musico-organisticus"
I'm usually rather wary of Muffat; to my ear, his works usually seem filled with really weird dissonances. But in this case, it strikes me as "serene," and a good way to "cool off" after the first work's excitement.
Louis-Claude Daquin: Le coucou
A cute little bird imitation piece I've heard on other recordings.
Charles John Stanley: Voluntary, op. 7, Nr. 7
One of the runners-up had a different work by Stanley, one that I like better than this one; even so, a very nice performance.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Toccata in d-Moll, BWV 913
This is Schnur's own organ arrangement of the complete keyboard toccata.
Johann Ludwig Krebs: Wir glauben all an einen Gott; Fantasia sopra "Herr Jesus Christ dich zu uns wend"
I find that I don't hear much Krebs in the Christmas auditions. Which is a shame.
Cesar Franck: PrŽlude, Fugue et Variation op. 18
This was one of at least two performances in this year's audition CDs. I don't favor one over the other musically, but I will say that I like the fact that unlike the other recent recording of the work (and like every other multi-movement work on this recording), each movement, no matter how short, is presented as a separate track number.
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Sonate Nr. 4, B-Dur, op. 65, Nr. 4
In my experience, I find that Mendelssohn's organ works have an annoying tendency to "drone," in a way that his other works (even when arranged for organ) usually don't. When I find an exception to that rule, I cherish it. This is such an exception.
All in all, I find that this recording to be 2013's best fit to my usual profile of a "new-release tracker organ CD that appeals to a a wide range of musical tastes, and demonstrates the musical superiority of tracker key action," as well as fitting my ideas of how to best construct a musical program that "gets the listeners on the performer's side, and keeps them there."
2014
Jan Kraybill, Organ Polychrome
This was rather a lean year for tracker organ CDs, and it was not one of those rare years when a CD caught my attention and got the nod immediately. Out of (I believe) fewer than a dozen auditions, I ended up with three finalists.Organ Polychrome (Jan Kraybill on the Julia Irene Kauffman Organ, Casavant Freres Opus 3875, on Reference) narrowly edged out the other two finalists (Annette Richards' Music for a Princess and Jack Mitchener's Romantic to Modern). Dr. Kraybill opened the recording with the Allegro movement from the Widor 6th Symphony, a strong, appealing, attention-grabbing opening indeed. She then gave the listener a chance to calm down with the world premiere of the Schmitt Priere (Prelude in G minor), Op.11, before venturing out of the comfort zone with two movements from a suite by Alain (one of which left me with a rather unpleasant earworm one afternoon, one that almost cost Kraybill the nod) My favorite single track from the whole album) is the Guilmant Caprice in B-flat, in which Dr. Kraybill goes out of her way (and says so in the liner notes) to show off the tracker key action, and she also somehow manages an uncanny imitation of bells. The tracker nuances are also very clear in the three movements from the Vierne Opus 51. Overall, the program is appealing and (with the exception of some decidedly lugubrious moments in the Alain) downright fun, the nuances of touch are very audible, and if I found the Franck Piece Heroique a bit less heroic than I'm used to, it's only because Diane Belcher spoiled me on that piece (perhaps for ANY other performances of it) with her recording on the Claremont UCC Rosales/Glatter-Goetz.
2015
Andrew Unsworth, French and German Masterworks
Runner-Up: Roger Sherman, Bach Under the Influence
Bach Under the Influence (from a 2001 live recital by Roger Sherman) has of course the cachet of having been recorded on what, for tracker-backers, is arguably the number two pilgrimage organ in North America (behind only the Harvard Flentrop). The program begins with composers and works having influences on Bach, with the second half being works by Bach that influenced others. As a whole, this CD has a very strong finish, but it is a bit slow starting. It would have won, except . . . .
Andrew Unsworth's CD has a very strong start, grabbing the listener almost immediately with the Dupre Prelude and Fugue in B, Op. 7, No. 1. Some much needed calm (but not without a spicy registration) is then provided by Jehan Alain's Variations on a theme of Clement Jannequin, and the Franck Fantaisie in A. This is followed by the Bach BWV 541 Prelude and Fugue (I still can't decide whether I prefer Unsworth's BWV 541 or Sherman's); either way, it's fun and happy, and in this recording, it works very well after the Alain and the Franck. After the Böhm "Christ lag in Todesbanden," we have Duruflé's Prelude, Adagio, and Coral Variations on "Veni Creator," Op. 4, if this takes listeners a bit out of the comfort zone, the Vierne Berceuse brings them safely home. Unsworth then finishes with the W. T. Best arrangement of Mendelssohn's War March of the Priests, in a fun performance that left me humming the tune after nearly every audition. And in the end, it was the flashy beginning, the fun ending, the near-perfect balance between excitement and calm, and a superbly sequenced program that made Andrew Unsworth's French and German Masterworks, Raven OAR-967, the 2015 CD of the Year.
2016
Manuel Tomadin, Das Husumer Orgelbuch von 1758
I must have been exceptionally busy in January of 2017, because I never actually published a review of this one. It was a Brilliant Classics release, a 2 CD set, in what was probably the worst "jewel-case" CD packaging I've ever encountered. Not since my shipment of Dennerlein's Spiritual Movement No. 1 arrived with most of the cases shattered have I had to replace every single jewel case in an order. The recording, featuring works of Druckenmüller, Zeyhold, Zinck, and Bruhns, along with several anonymous works, was excellent.2017
Michael Kleinschmidt Recital at Saint Mark's Cathedral
Runners-Up: Bruce Stevens, Rheinberger Organ Sonatas, Vol. 5 and Thomas Baugh, Christ Church Voluntaries
There were three finalists for 2017. The third place finisher was Rheinberger Organ Sonatas, Vol. 5, with Bruce Stevens, on Raven. The only real negative I found with it was that (as one might expect from volume 5 of a series surveying a single composer, and not simply running through them in the order of composition or publication) by "volume 5," it seemed just a bit "picked-over," as if the composer's best works had already appeared in earlier volumes.But rather than any real problem with this CD, the main reason why it took third was simply because there were two other CDs I liked even better.
Second place went to Christ Church Voluntaries, with Thomas Baugh, which Bill Van Pelt (of the Raven label) produced and distributed under a "Christ Church" sub-label. In my opinion, he most certainly could just as well have released it under the Raven label, as it's an excellent CD, meeting all of my usual requirements, including the "Tracker Action On Parade." It was only narrowly edged-out by the winner, and I highly recommend it.
For 2017, the nod went to Michael Kleinschmidt's Recital at Saint Mark's Cathedral. This begins with Sweelinck's "Ballo del Granduca" (and I've always felt that "people who don't like Sweelinck have never heard Sweelinck"), and continues with works by Buxtehude, Bach, Soler, Arvo Pärt, Jehan Alain, and Maurice Durufle. Thanks to the superb engineering of the Paul Fritts action on the Seattle Flentrop, the nuances of Maestro Kleinschmidt's touch shine through, not just in the Baroque works where you would expect it to, but in the Romantic and Contemporary works as well. It ended up on top in part because of that, in part because of the wide variety of repertoire, and in part because when it stepped outside "the comfort zone," it never went very far, or for very long (the Pärt, a piece called "Annum per annum," begins and ends with loud, somewhat discordant passages meant to depict the chaos of the streets, as contrasted with the main body of the work, depicting the serenity inside a cathedral). And so, for 2017, while I highly recommend all three finalists, the "CD of the Year" was Michael Kleinschmidt's Recital at St. Mark's Cathedral.
Last updated Thursday, November 22, 2018.
Reviews originally appeared on the PIPORG-L List Server, in slightly different format.
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