COMPOSERS: Liszt
LABELS: Arte Nova
WORKS: Organ Works (complete)
PERFORMER: Stefan Johannes Bleicher (organ)
CATALOGUE NO: 74321 59199 2 Reissue (1998)
Charlatan or visionary? Liszt was probably both. Certainly no organist himself, for he never mastered the pedals. And his 24-year-old pupil Reubke’s Sonata on the 94th Psalm is a much finer work than Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue on ‘Ad nos’ or the BACH Prelude and Fugue – both gimcrack rhetoric by comparison. Still, their ostentation is minimised in these very sober performances on an instrument of limited tonal range but noble quality, restored to almost its original 1897 state. But four generously filled discs presuppose specialist interest, unless you have a taste for timeless contemplation and sombre moods. A shame that reverberation has been insensitively edited. Adrian Jack
Liszt: Organ Works (complete)
Charlatan or visionary? Liszt was probably both. Certainly no organist himself, for he never mastered the pedals. And his 24-year-old pupil Reubke’s Sonata on the 94th Psalm is a much finer work than Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue on ‘Ad nos’ or the BACH Prelude and Fugue – both gimcrack rhetoric by comparison. Still, their ostentation is minimised in these very sober performances on an instrument of limited tonal range but noble quality, restored to almost its original 1897 state.
Our rating
3
Published: January 20, 2012 at 1:20 pm