The Organ
May - July 2002
Now, here's a hypothesis: One famous Hansiatic City
organist of the 16th or 17th century visits another. Each sits down
at one of the host's two instruments at opposite ends of the church and
each responds to the other's improvisations with answering material.
The result, a musical dialogue - as David Yearsley suggests in his note:
"co-operative...but with more than a hint of competition in it as
well".
This imaginary scenario fueled the creation of this
marvellously original and musically inspired recording. The organs
featured are two of the three instruments at the Memorial Church of
Stanford University in California. The justifiably renowned C B Fisk
dual temperament organ of 1984 was joined in 1995 by an instrument from a
builder of no less repute, Paul Fritts, inspired by that most famous 1610
creation of Esaias Compenius, at Frederiksborg Castle. The resultant
contrast in sounds, as well as the spacial factor, is ingeniously utilised
by the players in repertoire from luminaries including Buxtehude,
Sweelinck, Tunder and Reincken.
What of the players themselves? Robert Bates is
professor of organ at the University of Texas, and a former student of
Marie-Claire Alain. David Yearsley has to be one of the very finest
American born proponents of pre-Bach organ literature alive today as
evidenced by his phenomenal disc of music by Delphin and Nicolas Adam
Strunck from Norden on the same label. He is currently a professor
at Cornell University in New York.
As well as the most obvious format for the dialogue
treatment, the stylus phantasticus (here in examples by Buxtehude, BuxWV
155 and Reincken), the concept is also successfully applied to the Choral
Fantasia form (Christ lag in Todesbaden of Tunder) and to smaller
scale sets of variations, including examples by Scheidt and Scheidemann
and two from the Voigtländer Tablature by Melchior Schildt.
Schildt's Paduana Lachrymae utilising Dowland's famous theme is
played alone by Bates on the Fritts organ's fabulous 8' Gedact, while
Yearsley completes the programme with a solo performance of Scheidt's Toccata
super 'In te, Domine, Speravi'. The playing of both is exemplary in
every way, the booklet is superb and huge credit, not for the first time,
must go to Loft for an unusual and utterly brilliant release.
