Simon Preston: The Argo Recordings - 20th-Century Organ Music | Australian Eloquence ELQ4824925

Simon Preston: The Argo Recordings - 20th-Century Organ Music

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Label: Australian Eloquence

Cat No: ELQ4824925

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 2

Genre: Instrumental

Release Date: 1st December 2017

Contents

About

Three original Argo albums demonstrating the vitality and variety of 20th-century organ music, newly remastered and compiled together for the first time in a 2-CD set, with new booklet notes on the music and a tribute to Simon Preston. The recording includes the first release for some works on CD.

This anthology is one of five newly remastered sets canvasing Simon Preston’s complete solo organ recordings for Argo. They also include Preston’s recordings of Messiaen (ELQ4824917), ‘Simon Preston at Westminster Abbey’ (ELQ4824933), Romantic organ music (ELQ4824941) by Brahms, Liszt and Reger, and an organ spectacular featuring the Variations on America (ELQ4828101) of Charles Ives.

Also issued here for the first time on international release are the three sonatas by Paul Hindemith, which Preston recorded at the Church of St John the Evangelist in Islington. Written between 1937 and 1940, these have remained staples of the organ’s modern repertoire - not surprisingly, given their mastery of Bachian counterpoint.

The second CD is filled with a recital of English organ music recorded by Preston at the organ of Colston Hall, Bristol, in January 1967. This conspectus sets the spacious, German-influenced Sonata of Sir Edward Elgar alongside the sharper harmonic bite of works by Kenneth Leighton, Michael Tippett and Benjamin Britten: all three in their different ways, like Maxwell Davies, looking back to much older music for the catalyst of inspiration.

“Mr. Preston treats the [Elgar Sonata] with a cool detachment that reflects the taste of another century. His recording, however, contains some beautiful playing and most imaginative registration ... the Colston Hall reeds are heard to brilliant effect in a Paean by Kenneth Leighton. Altogether, an organ record for connoisseurs.” - Gramophone, September 1967

“Another disc which gave me much pleasure was Simon Preston’s beautifully balanced treatment of the three Hindemith organ sonatas... a performance notable for its perfection of detail.” - Gramophone, December 1971

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