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LRCD1030-31
   
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The Organ Magazine www.theorganmag.com
February 2001
This
interesting double CD release highlights three almost unique works in the
organ literature, written in a style which has no name, but could be aptly
described as “symphonic tone painting”.
Liszt’s Phantasie und Fuge
über “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam” was the first, and just seven
years later Reubke completed his Sonata
on the 94th Psalm. Both
works received their first performances at Merseburg Cathedral, Liszt’s
performed by Alexander Winterberger during the organ’s inaugural
recital, whilst Reubke himself played his Sonata
two years later. Johann
Gustav Eduard Stehle, a relative stranger these days in comparison to the
fame of Liszt and Reubke, wrote his Saul
in 1877 using Reubke’s work as a model, its main theme and other ideas
more than recognisable from their inspiration.
Liszt’s
and Reubke’s works need little explanation, and receive pleasing
performances from Fuller, who until 1998 taught the history of music at
the State University of New York (SUNY).
If anything his playing of these two superb organ works is less
sensationalised than often heard, but this is certainly not a criticism.
The 1990 Fisk organ at SUNY is relatively small (III/48) but
contains a number of Fisk originalities, including both German and French
trumpets on the Great, a servo-pneumatic lever to assist the touch of the
Great when other divisions are coupled, and a seven rank Mixture with
variable composition. The
Hall itself can seat up to 700, and has a flattering acoustic with a
reverberation of just over two seconds.
The sound of the organ is bold and warm, rarely producing sounds
which will make your spine tingle – save perhaps for the lower register
of the Contra Posaune 32 – but remaining beautifully musical throughout.
In short, an ideal vehicle for these German ‘symphonies’.
Stehle’s
Saul is more programmatic than
even Reubke’s Sonata is, and
there are numerous motto themes which identify with characters from the
story, told in the Bible’s first book of Samuel.
This progammatic nature of the work has caused the producers of
this disc to include the work twice, the second performance including
unobtrusive narration over the music.
Whilst this is perhaps useful for the first few listenings it soon
becomes unnecessary, and the first version, without narrative, will be
preferred. Inclusion of both
versions is perhaps rather wasteful, and with good music notes narration
should not be necessary. In
addition, the narration rather reduces Saul from music into banal story telling, to its great detriment.
As music it is perhaps not quite as appealing as Reubke’s
masterpiece, but it certainly deserves repeated listening, and nowhere
more so than with the excellent combination of organist and organ
presented on this disc.
Fanfare Magazine
2001
“…a recording that, by any standard, is
superb.” “David Fuller’s account of the Liszt Fantasy and Fugue has
an awesome power…” “The wide spectrum of tone colors available from
the Fisk instrument is immediately evident in the quiet sections of the
Prelude, and they are put to very good use in the massive sonata of Julius
Reubke.” “The performance from Fuller [of the Stehle] is an ideal
mixture of subtlety and red-blooded impact, and you feel throughout that
he is a faithful champion of the score. I was also greatly impressed by
the beauty of tone this organ can produce in the many pianissimo
passages.” “Those who want to venture into the Stehle will find that
Loft’s two-disc package offers considerable enjoyment, in sound quality
that is really outstanding. …[The Reubke] is a towering achievement.”
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