Joseph Payne - Early English Organ Music, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 (1993)

The first volume of Joseph Payne's survey of early English organ music is divided between late Renaissance pieces (both sacred and secular), most of which were compiled in the Mulliner Book by 1560, and Baroque works with a continental flavor written after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. To illuminate these dramatically different styles and periods, Payne plays two modern organs located in Massachusetts that were built to specifications that give a fair approximation of the older English organ sound and character. The organ at St. Paul's Church, Brookline, has bright reed and flute stops that lend an intimate quality to the short Mulliner pieces. Yet the instrument's registration is broad enough for Payne to render Giles Farnaby's Fantasy with splendid colors. The Baroque works are served well by the organ at the Annisquam Village Church, Cape Ann, which has the wide assortment of stops necessary for Payne's varied tonal palette. This rich registration is most apparent in the Voluntaries by Purcell, Boyce, and Croft, and the character pieces taken from the anonymous collection The Dancing Master. Also outstanding is Payne's jubilant performance of John Blow's Suite in C. The recorded sound is fine, with only occasional clicking of the Annisquam organ's mechanisms.