VA - 100 Best Organ Classics (2013)

This 6CD set contains 100 tracks of popular organ music from the catalogues of EMI Classics and Virgin Classics performed by some of the world’s finest organists on a wide variety of instruments from all over the UK and Continental Europe.

Further details of the programmes are as follows:

Each of the six CDs is devised as a concert programme to make an enjoyable listening experience individually, or together to constitute a major collection of well-known organ works in a readily accessible form.

The first CD begins with a group of pieces by one of the greatest composers of all time and one who made a major contribution to the organ repertoire: Johann Sebastian Bach. The opening work is instantly recognisable as a piece of music heard in many films and television shows. Some experts believe that it may not have been written by Bach, but it is formally attributed to him. The other Bach pieces are followed by some attractive works by other composers of the Baroque era such as Buxtehude, Clérembault and Couperin, and the CD ends with one of the signature pieces by Bach’s great contemporary, George Frideric Handel: the delightful organ concerto known as ‘The Cuckoo and the Nightingale’.

The second CD begins with another Handel organ concerto and includes some arrangements for organ of lively tunes originally written for other instruments such as Clarke’s famous ‘Trumpet Voluntary’ and Mendelssohn’s Wedding March from his incidental music for ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, a piece traditionally played at countless weddings at the end of the ceremony. After further works by composers such as Brahms, Schumann and Saint-Saëns, we are back at another wedding ceremony with Widor’s striking Toccata that is also a favourite for a celebratory departure by the happy newly-weds.

CD 3 brings together a further selection of mainly French works, beginning with two pieces by the outstanding young composer Jehan Alain who was tragically killed in action in the Second World War. After compositions by Duruflé, Böellmann, Mulet and Franck, the programnme ends with the conclusion to the spectacular ‘Organ’ Symphony by Saint-Saëns with all the orchestral power of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse accompanying Matthias Eisenberg at the organ of Notre-Dame la Daurade Basilica, Toulouse.

The next CD brings us back to further representative solo works by Bach, preceded by a splendid organ concerto by Haydn recorded in Prague. After solos by Boëly, Mendelssohn, Reger and Murrill we return to Prague for a lively concerto by an Austrian contemporary of Mozart’s, Johann Albrechtsberger.

As well as compositions by Handel, Buxtehude, Boyce and Sweelinck, CD 5 features a selection of organ works by Bach from the collection known as the Arnstadt Chorale Preludes, taken from the world premier recording of the Authentic Yale Edition played by Werner Jacob on the Silbermann organ in Arlesheim Cathedral, Switzerland.

The last CD covers works by more recent composers such as Poulenc, Messiaen and Walton, and, to demonstrate the versatility of the organ, concludes with some spirited arrangements of several perhaps unlikely works such as ‘Danse macabre’ by Saint-Saëns, Sousa’s march: ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever’ and finally Wagner’s spectacular ‘Ride of the Valkyries’.