Iain Quinn - Novák, Martinů, Dvořák, Smetana, Ropek, Janáček: Czech Music for Organ (2008)

There is a rich legacy of Czech organ music which has never really impinged itself on the outside world. Several works on this disc, for example, have only previously been generally available on Czech labels, while only one – Janácek’s exuberant Postlude – is widely known, but it suffers from being wrenched from its context within the Glagolitic Mass; a point made all the more plainly here since Iain Quinn’s performance lacks panache and the Norwich organ lacks that fiery, aggressive edge which this frantically obsessive music so clearly demands.

Elsewhere the Norwich organ, masterfully handled by Quinn, reveals a rich diversity of sounds entirely suited to music which, for the most part, is solid and purposeful rather than dazzlingly colourful. Quinn handles these scores well, not exactly turning them into show-stopping hidden wonders of the repertoire but offering solid and dependable performances which perfectly mirror the musical idiom. Jan Hora (on a Vixen import) is more compelling in the Martinu Vigilia while, by giving us all eight of the various Preludes and Fugues which Dvorák wrote as student exercises at the Prague Organ School, offering something rather more historically worthwhile than Quinn’s careful but pedestrian account of the G minor Fugue.

This may not be a disc to set the world on fire but Iain Quinn has performed an important service in bringing these interesting works into the spotlight in performances which are reliable and worthy and, in the case of the Ropek Variations, surprisingly absorbing.